Is Twitter/X Premium still worth it?

X just announced they’re raising prices for their premium plans. I’m paying S$22 now for Premium+, and in Jan 2025 it will go up to S$29.

That’s a 30% increase.

Thing is, am I getting at least 30% more value from it?

Sadly, NO.

X had been degrading rapidly recently. Especially since the US elections. The algo is all over the place. Engagement is low, tweets shown are off. Not to just blame the system, but the people had changed too. Lots of click bait, drama. All trying to game the system for attention. Many indie hackers left for bluesky.

Not quite the way I like my socials. I optimize for no drama, maximize for learning and inspiration. Sadly, it’s getting increasingly difficult to see the latter.

Actually I’ve unsubscribed from premium before, and signed up again just for the long form tweets. That, to me, was worth paying for… then. I enjoyed sharing longer, more nuanced thoughts, lots of it borrowed from my writings here on Lifelog.

But is that feature alone worth the price hike?

Increasingly finding it hard to say yes.

In fact, I get more value and even make money from paying for ChatGPT and Claude, and they are still cheaper than X.

My verdict:

I’ll pay for the price hike but will observe my usage and experience for the next 2-3 months to see if it’s still worth it, then re-evaluate.

Watching you now, X…