How to Get Verified on Twitter in 2026 for Real (Post-Elon Musk Takeover)

It used to be that getting verified on Twitter was important for your credibility for your profile there. Verification meant that Twitter, and the general public, knew that you were who you say you were, rather than (potentially) an imposter.

However, the verification program hasn’t always been open. Twitter started verifying in 2009 but then stopped in 2017 to shift their priorities elsewhere. They began to offer the blue checkmark again in 2021, and then everything changed with Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter.

Three years on, the dust has settled. The legacy checkmarks are gone, the paid ones are the only ones left, and X has added separate badges for businesses and for governments. What confuses people now is not what is coming, but what is already here and which of the three Premium tiers actually gets you the badge.

This post covers where the system landed: who can get verified on X today, what it costs, what the gold and gray checkmarks mean, and whether the blue one is worth paying for.

Who is Now Eligible for Twitter Verification?

Now that the legacy verification process mentioned above stopped accepting applications after November 9, 2022, the only way to become officially verified on Twitter with the blue checkmark displayed on your profile is to be an active subscriber to Twitter’s paid subscription service, Twitter Blue, AND meet Twitter’s eligibility criteria.

Let’s break this down.

The Original Twitter Blue

Twitter Blue is an experimental subscription service that Twitter launched back in 2021. The idea was to start to generate additional revenue directly from its users by offering a few value-added services for a few dollars a month. At its initial launch, the features included:

• An undo send feature to retract your tweets before they went live
• A Bookmark Folder feature to literally bookmark and group your saved tweets
• A “Reader Mode” that helped display threads and tweets in an easier to read page
• Aesthetic options such as new color themes

Twitter Blue Post-Elon Musk

Elon Musk saw opportunity to further expand upon the Twitter Blue service, and when it re-launched on December 12, 2022, it became the first social network to accept money from anyone who wanted the blue checkmark.

X Premium is more than the badge. It is sold in three tiers now, and only two of them include a checkmark. Here is what each one buys in the United States at web pricing:

• Basic, $3 a month or $32 a year. Posts up to 25,000 characters, video uploads of roughly three hours, a one-hour window to edit a post, reply prioritization, text formatting, and bookmark folders. No checkmark.
• Premium, $8 a month or $84 a year. Everything in Basic plus the blue checkmark, about half the ads in your For You and Following timelines, ID verification, Media Studio, higher Grok limits, and eligibility to apply for Original Content Rewards and Creator Subscriptions.
• Premium+, $40 a month or $395 a year. Everything in Premium plus an ad-free experience across most of X, the largest reply prioritization, Radar Search, Articles, and X Pro.

The feature lists move constantly, so check the official X Premium page before you subscribe. The figures above are X’s published web prices; in-app pricing on iOS and Android is set separately.

X’s Current Eligibility Criteria for the Blue Checkmark

Whereas Twitter’s previous verification policy was focused on entities that were authentic, notable, and active, the Twitter Blue eligibility greatly simplifies things and does not take the legacy policy into consideration.

Specifically, X’s current requirements for the checkmark are:

• You have a display name and a profile photo on your account
• You have been active on X in the last 30 days
• You have a confirmed phone number in your account settings
• You have not recently changed your profile photo, display name, or handle in a way that could deceive people
• You show no signs of being deceptive or misleading
• You show no signs of engaging in spam or platform manipulation

Note what is missing. The 90-day account age requirement that circulated in the early days of paid verification is not on X’s current list, though X does reserve the right to impose waiting periods on new accounts without notice.

It should be noted that you do not receive the blue checkmark immediately after subscribing to Twitter Blue as Twitter will first verify all of the above. There is no estimated time given as to when you will become verified, so you will have to check back often to see if the checkmark has appeared or not, but I have not heard any complaints of it taking too long.

Twitter is also making it clear that the blue checkmark can be removed at anytime if you run in violation of Twitter policies, and you will have to go through a re-verification process should you decide to make changes to your profile image, name, or username. Policy trouble can cost you a lot more than the badge, and I wrote up the broader version of that problem in my post on why your Twitter account may be restricted.

How to Get the Blue Checkmark on X, Step by Step

With the above in mind, the only way to get newly verified on X is to subscribe to Premium or Premium+ and wait for approval against the criteria above.

On the web, select Premium from the sidebar menu on x.com, pick your tier, confirm your phone number if you have not already done so, and complete payment. On iOS and Android the same option sits under your profile menu.

And that’s it!

Legacy blue checkmarks did not survive the transition. X removed them in April 2023, mine among them. I pay for Premium now like everyone else, so every blue checkmark on the platform today sits on a paid subscription or on Premium that X granted to a large account. Alongside that change, X introduced two more badges: gold and gray.

Gold and Gray Checkmarks: X Premium Business and Premium Organizations

With legacy Twitter verification, there were 6 types of accounts that were considered notable, one of them being the category of companies, brands and non-profit organizations while another was governments. None of these are considered the types of private individuals that would sign up for Twitter Blue.

Corporate entities have an interest in preserving their image. For brands that are subsidiaries, both the brand voice itself and the corporation above them need to be protected. Likewise, non-profits need to ensure that unauthorized people don’t speak for them. For that reason, Twitter’s verifying corporate accounts is an important way to protect everyone’s interest.

Government actors can be national, regional, or local. This means that your mayor can get verified, and not just the governor or head of state. In addition, government accounts might be representatives of a particular agency, such as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) or Department of Defense (DOD).

With Twitter Blue, Twitter is trying to bring back an application process for these organizations to receive a verified checkmark in either gold (for business) or gray (for governments), as opposed to the Twitter Blue blue checkmark. This process seems similar to the legacy verification process that used to exist. Basically these two notable categories will be covered by these new colored checkmarks but they will need to re-apply to receive them.

Both checkmarks have since rolled out, under names that no longer say Verified Organizations. The gold checkmark comes with X Premium Business, which also gives the organization a square profile picture and the ability to affiliate its own executives, sub-brands, and support handles. The gray checkmark comes with X Premium Organizations, which X limits to governments and multilateral bodies. Affiliated accounts carry a small copy of the parent organization’s profile photo next to their own badge.

Who Lost Twitter Verification?

I mentioned before that there were 6 notable types of accounts, but there are only 2 new colored checkmarks for 2 types. What about the other 4 notable types of accounts?

The answer, in the end, they all met the same fate. Every previously notable category below lost its free checkmark and now pays for Premium like everyone else, unless it qualifies for a gold or gray badge as an organization. The descriptions that follow come from my earlier advice on getting verified in each of those categories, and they still explain why verification mattered to these accounts in the first place.

News organizations and journalists

Reporting the news can be like the Wild West sometimes. All kinds of people want to offer their perspective on world events, and there’s a real temptation to pretend that you’re someone else. Even worse, some people might impersonate journalists to discredit them. Public relations and reputation management are a real problem on social media, so verification is a powerful tool. If these people don’t know how to get verified on Twitter, they need to learn fast.

Entertainment Celebrities

These are your big-name personalities and minor celebrities. For instance, actor Harrison Ford would fit in this category, as would Paris Hilton. However, I also see this including C-list names, too. If they’re well enough known in entertainment to attract imposters, they likely can qualify under this category.

Athletes

It’s worth mentioning that Twitter is including the electronic sports here. Specifically, esports is an organized competition involving video games. Sometimes it’s played with a team, and other times competitions are individual. So, esports is a subculture, and I find it interesting that Twitter is including them in verification eligibility. The need for verification in traditional sports is, of course, obvious.

Activists, organizers, public figures, and other influential individuals

I’ll describe this category as “movers and shakers on the grassroots level.” Your activists and organizers are often quite controversial, so they attract a lot of trolls. I’ll be interested to see if “influential influencers” includes your macro and mega-influencers. If so, this can be very helpful to us marketers.

Frequently Asked Questions About Twitter Verification

Getting Verified on Twitter: The Trend That Spread to Every Platform

The days of applying, waiting for an email, and praying have come to a close. Anyone can get the blue checkmark for the monthly price of a McDonald’s meal, which makes the only real question whether it is worth it. Three years in, the market has answered: the badge reads as a subscription receipt rather than as a credential.

Meta went the same way. Meta Verified now sells a badge for Facebook and Instagram at $11.99 a month on the web and $14.99 inside the apps, bundled with impersonation protection, account support, and more visibility in recommendations and search.

So is roughly $84 a year on X, or double that if you pay Meta too, worth the extra features? I said earlier that I pay for Premium now, and the checkmark is not why. I pay the $8 for the longer video uploads and for the analytics, which are the two things I use every week.

That is the honest test. If you use X for business and already advertise there, the added reply visibility and reduced ads might return more than the fee. If you post twice a month and mostly read, it will not. Elon and Zuckerberg are counting on you deciding it is worth it.