Bluesky wants to introduce a paid subscription with exclusive features

Microblogging platform Bluesky has grown significantly over the past year, from 2 million users last November to more than 13 million users. But Bluesky appears to have more ambitious plans for the future, as its COO Rose Wang confirmed that the platform will soon have a paid subscription.

Bluesky is working on a new paid subscription

Following Wang's announcement on Thursday, the Bluesky team shared a press release announcing that a new paid tier is in the works. The idea is to offer a subscription that unlocks exclusive features for paid users, much like X Premium (formerly Twitter Blue).

At first, Bluesky will offer the ability to upload higher-quality videos, as well as profile customizations like avatar colors and frames. More exclusive features should be added for paid subscribers in the future, though Bluesky makes it clear that the platform “will always be free to use.”

“We believe that information and communication should be easily accessible, not locked away. We won’t boost accounts simply because they sign up for a paid tier,” Bluesky said in a blog post.

Bluesky emerged in 2021 as a “proof of concept” for the decentralized AT protocol. In 2019, then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that the company would fund an initiative that would lead to Bluesky. The platform no longer has a relationship with X, and the two eventually became competitors after Elon Musk bought Twitter.

Bluesky launched as a closed beta and remained so for over a year. It’s gaining popularity among users who don’t like Elon Musk’s X or Threads Meta. Interestingly, the recent episode in Brazil that led to X being temporarily banned has prompted hundreds of thousands of Brazilians to try Bluesky.

Would you consider paying for a subscription to Bluesky? Let us know in the comments section below.