Free Lunch Is Over: Bluesky Premium Features Leak with $8 Monthly Fee

Bluesky has been seeing a surge in its user base over the past few months. They can thank the backlash X (formerly Twitter) faced for changing its policies, which pushed people to jump ships. Now with over 24 million users, Bluesky is planning to introduce a premium subscription. Early mockups showing a features list are already available, giving us a glimpse of what it might look like.

In a post shared by Bluesky user ‪@saeri.xyz‬, we finally get to see what would Bluesky+ bring to the table. The mockups highlight possible upcoming features like the Bluesky+ profile badge, custom app icons, profile customizations, higher video upload limits, and high video resolution with other features coming soon.

Bluesky Previews: subscriptions

[image or embed]— rea (@saeri.xyz) December 6, 2024 at 9:53 PM

We also get to see the pricing model, with $8 monthly and $72 yearly subscription fees. The user clarified that they found these mockups from Bluesky’s official GitHub page. However, as the GitHub itself says, these mockups are not set in stone. So, they could likely change in the future release. The same goes for pricing as well.

The company did talk about introducing a subscription model in a blog post back in October. They stated, “We will begin developing a subscription model for features like higher quality video uploads or profile customizations like colors and avatar frames”. It seems like things could finally be in motion, and probably next year, we will see a Bluesky+ subscription land on our devices.

It is worth noting that this is not the only method Bluesky is exploring to monetize their platform. The company CEO Jay Graber shared her interest in other revenue streams, “including social media subscriptions, a marketplace of algorithms, and selling domain names”, when talking with TechCrunch. When asked about opening up to advertisers, she said, “I think the ways we would explore advertising if we did, would be much more user intent-driven,”

Suffice it to say that when the news broke out, many users were critical. Others voiced their opinions and what would they like to see in the subscription model. As of now, we can’t say for sure where Bluesky is headed. However, given the mockups, a subscription model is definitely on the horizon. What are your thoughts about this story? Let us know in the comments below.