If you love paying for things, and you love posting on social media, Elon Musk’s X says it will soon have another exciting opportunity for you: a “marketplace” where users can buy notable @handles. But part of the program will be less of a market than a perk for X Premium+ and Premium Business members that seems like less of a perk the more you think about it, unless you’re positive you want to pay for X for all eternity.
The X Handle Marketplace is our industry-first solution to redistribute handles that are no longer in use.
Eligible Premium subscribers will be able to search and make requests, with both complimentary and paid options available.
— Handle Marketplace (@XHandles) October 19, 2025
In its description of the program, X says it will be “redistributing handles that are no longer in active use, but still attached to old accounts.” Some handles—one example the site provides is @Pizza—will be acquired either for free through “public drops” for accounts deemed to have sufficient merit, or by direct purchase. Pricing will apparently start at $2,500 and run to $1 million or more, “depending on demand and uniqueness.”
It’s a fairly complex program though, and it seems “priority handles” will not be simply purchased. They’ll be a new subscriber perk for Premium+ and Premium Business subscribers, available at no additional cost. The example the site provides of a priority handle is @PizzaEater.
Instead of buying your priority handle, or receiving it as a gift from the site, you’ll request it, and hear back within three business days. Then apparently you’ll have your request approved or declined, and if it’s approved, the handle will be reserved for you. Next, you should expect some kind of transition period in which a fair amount of rejiggering must occur behind the scenes, ensuring that during “the switch,” your follower list and posts will remain the same.
There’s a pretty huge catch though: “If you cancel or downgrade your subscription after receiving a Priority Handle, your old handle will be restored,” the program description says.
That’s a harsh switcheroo to pull on someone who changes their handle, forms relationships, and gets established with that name, but then, say, falls on hard times, and can no longer pay $40 per month for a Premium+ membership to a formerly free service.
X may also want to consider what it wants to do with the priority handles of users who die.