Elon Musk’s X is raising prices for its ad-free Premium+ subscription service to $22 a month, up from $16 previously ($168 to $229 annually), TechCrunch reported. That represents a 37.5 percent increase, the biggest since Elon Musk bought the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022.

One stated reason for the hike is that Premium+ is now “completely ad-free,” with X claiming it’s a “significant improvement” over the previous ad-free experience. It also promises a few other features. “Premium+ subscribers enjoy higher priority support from @Premium, access to new features like (X’s advanced search tool) Radar, and higher limits on our latest Grok AI models,” the company wrote in a article on the help page. X also promises that a lot of the subscription revenue will be shared with the creators.

Premium+ prices also rose by similar amounts in Europe, the UK, Canada and Australia. Existing users of monthly subscriptions will maintain their current rates until January 20, and the price for the other levels (Basic and Premium) will remain unchanged.

X first introduced the Premium+ subscription tier in October 2023, which promises an ad-free experience that’s yours “for you” and adheres to timelines, along with current Premium perks like the blue checkmark. However, users quickly noticed that ads appeared elsewhere on X (profiles, replies, Explore and elsewhere). A more updates in August 2024 promised to eliminate those too, but X said that users will still see “occasionally branded within less common areas.” Now, it looks like that will be defeated as well.

X has IS reported lost 2.7 million active users in the past two months, with rival Bluesky gaining nearly the same number over that period. That likely led to some loss of advertising revenue, which the platform might hope to recoup by raising subscription prices.