Can X’s New Original Content Rewards Program Actually Retain Top Creators?

X is replacing its 2023 creator revenue-share scheme with a new program built around "original, high-quality content" — a structural pivot that, per Digiday, arrives packaged by SpaceXAI executives as "the year of the creator." The Original Content Rewards Program goes live September 8 and resets the bar for who gets paid on the platform.

The new math vs. the old threshold

The existing revenue-share model, launched in July 2023, paid any X user with a premium subscription, 5 million organic impressions over three months, and at least 500 verified followers — regardless of whether the content was original, aggregated news, or engineered for ragebait. The replacement tightens the funnel. Allegra Jacchia, creator product lead at SpaceXAI, told Digiday: "The goal is to reward the creators that bring new ideas and new content, and focus on quality over quantity."

Specific payout figures, conversion benchmarks, and category-level splits were not disclosed. Top-performing verticals — sports, technology, business, finance, and gaming — were flagged by Monique Pintarelli, head of global advertising at SpaceXAI, without hard numbers attached.

Who's actually buying in

The platform's distribution rails got louder in 2024 and 2025. X renewed its NFL partnership that year and launched a dedicated NFL Portal; Creator Connect, an AI tool pairing brands with creators by campaign objective, shipped earlier in 2026. But the conversion metrics aren't trending in X's favor.

• Mat Micheli, CEO of influencer marketing platform Viral Nation: his roster hasn't talked about X in "multiple years."
• Karissa Tuccio, executive director of social and influence at Mediassociates, said she doesn't typically recommend X for clients in finance and tech.
• Matt Grandchamp, SVP and head of revenue at NowThis Media, was blunt: "The risk was not worth the reward."

NowThis Media does not currently link to an X account on its website.

The fandom arbitrage

One contrarian read comes from Doug Landers, co-founder of management agency Greenlight Group. Landers conceded X has historically been a poor payout platform — but argued it remains a top-tier fandom organizer, with fans translating, archiving, organizing, and campaigning at a scale no marketing budget can replicate. It's a structural argument about distribution, not revenue per post.

Pintarelli framed the next phase as building tools so experts can "make a better living" while brands can find them more easily. Whether the Original Content Rewards Program actually closes the payout gap — or just repackages the impressions funnel with a quality filter stapled on top — is the only number worth tracking after September 8.