X (formerly Twitter) has updated the daily limits for “unverified accounts.” Users who do not pay the minimum subscription fee of Rs. 427 per month are now restricted to:

• 50 original posts per day.
• 200 replies per day.
• 500 direct messages per day.

Additional technical limits:

• Users can follow only up to 400 accounts per day.
• If users follow more than 5,000 accounts, additional follow requests will be ‘limited by account-specific ratios.’
• Users can change their email address up to four times per hour.

Limits can vary depending on the load. It also states that these limits “may be temporarily reduced during periods of heavy site usage.” As with token usage, if users reach their limits, they can try again after a while.

X’s help center states that these limits apply to actions across all devices, including API requests from third-party applications. “People who use multiple third-party applications with their account will therefore reach the API limit more quickly,” it said.

What is X Premium: In addition to all the basic features, premium subscribers will get a few additional features, like:

• a blue tick mark,
• ID verification,
• fewer ads,
• revenue sharing and
• creator subscriptions.

Users can verify themselves with a government-issued ID. X states that ID verification is optional, but it is mandatory to access the benefits of its revenue-sharing and creator subscription programmes. The tech giant uses Peter Thiel-backed Persona and US-based fintech Stripe for ID verification.

Why this matters: 

• Free speech impact: Since X is a very popular platform for online public discourse, widely used by journalists and activists, tiered access through limits can affect independent, non-premium-paying users. For instance, a non-paying journalist live-posting updates from a long-running parliamentary session, protest, or court verdict using X’s thread feature can now only post 50 tweets per day.
• Can be a nudge towards ID verification: While this may help X convert free users into paying subscribers through usage limits, the platform may also use tiered access to nudge users to submit a government-issued ID to access revenue-sharing benefits.
• Opaque limits may lead to arbitrary throttling: In cases of ‘heavy site usage,’ users may have little recourse if limits are suddenly imposed without notice or a fixed, transparent threshold.
• The API’s impact on power users: The API’s limits on third-party tools can affect power users who rely on service alternatives to X’s TweetDeck.

Also Read: 

• Impersonation Crackdown: Why X Wants Labels Up Front Now 
• X Rolls Out ‘Made with AI’ Labels as India Tightens Deepfake Rules
• CSOH Report: How X’s Community Notes Tool Fails Non-English Users in South Asia