X has been more open lately about how its algorithm works. In its own documentation, the platform notes that engagement is the strongest signal for visibility — replies, profile clicks, and dwell time top the list — but Premium subscribers also get an extra lift.
In a recent breakdown from Social Media Today on the X algorithm, verified accounts (which come with a Premium subscription) benefit from this boost, alongside other factors like video watch time and conversation depth. On the flip side, link posts, all-caps updates, and “offensive” content see sharp penalties.
In other words, X has made it clear: if you want reach, you need to be engaging and verified.
This insight raises an important question: just how much difference does Premium actually make?
To answer that, we teamed up with Buffer’s data scientist, Julian Winternheimer, and looked at more than 18.8 million posts from 71,000 accounts over the past year. The results show a growing divide — Premium isn’t just about editing tools or longer posts anymore. It’s also about distribution.
Does Premium really change content performance on X?
Our analysis suggests that Premium accounts do see significantly more visibility.
🚀 According to our findings, Premium accounts get around 10x more reach per post than regular accounts.
Interestingly, reach has trended downward over time on X, with median reach going from hovering near 1000 in August 2024 to less than 750 in August 2025.
⚡ Engagement rates show a similar pattern. Premium accounts moved from a median of about 0.3% in late 2024 to 0.4% by mid-2025.
In contrast, regular accounts declined from around 0.15% to a median of 0% by March 2025. A median of zero means that at least half of these accounts received no likes, replies, or reposts on their posts.
This aligns with what X has shared about its algorithm: Premium subscribers receive visibility boosts, while non-Premium accounts may find their content harder to surface. Our findings reflect that dynamic. Premium now appears to influence not just access to features, but also how content is distributed in the feed.
The study: how Premium affects reach and engagement on X
To understand just how much an X Premium subscription changes things, we analyzed 18.8 million posts from 71,000 X accounts between August 2024 and August 2025.
Roughly 27% of these accounts were subscribed to one of X’s three Premium tiers: Basic, Premium, or Premium+.
When we compared reach and engagement side by side, a pattern emerged: performance isn’t split only between free and paid accounts — there are also differences within Premium itself.
That means X effectively functions as a tiered system, where visibility varies by subscription level. To illustrate what that looks like, we broke the data down across reach, engagement, and content type.
In the next section, we’ll walk through those differences in detail.
1. What’s the difference in reach between regular and Premium accounts?
🚀 In our dataset, Premium users received around 10x the median reach of regular accounts.
That gap has been consistent over the past year but became especially pronounced in 2025, when Premium+ accounts — the highest tier — began to pull further ahead.
- Regular accounts: typically under 100 impressions per post.
- Basic accounts: a small lift above non-subscribers, but still limited reach.
- Premium accounts: closer to 600 impressions per post.
- Premium+ accounts: often more than double Premium accounts, and the clear leader at over 1,550 impressions per post.
While Premium users might have larger audiences, follower size alone doesn’t account for the difference.
The scale of the gap suggests that Premium tiers benefit from built-in distribution advantages, consistent with what X has outlined in its documentation.
💡 For creators and brands focused on reach, Premium appears to provide a stronger baseline for visibility.
2. What’s the difference in engagement between regular and Premium accounts?
When it comes to engagement (likes, replies, and reposts), the differences across tiers are less dramatic than for reach.
- Premium Basic leads slightly, with a median engagement rate of around 0.55% per post.
- Premium+ is close behind, landing right at 0.53%.
- Premium sits marginally lower, at around 0.49%.
- Regular accounts had a median engagement rate of 0%, meaning at least half of these accounts received no visible interaction on a typical post.
Interestingly, Premium Basic appears to “punch above its weight” on engagement, even without the broader visibility that comes with higher tiers.
Still, without the same reach, those engagement gains may be less impactful overall.
3. Which X Premium tier is the best?
Premium isn’t a single upgrade — it comes in three tiers, and the differences show up in both features and performance.
🚀 Premium+ subscribers consistently see the highest reach of all account types. Standard Premium users perform far better than regular accounts, while Premium Basic sits closer to an entry-level step-up.
Taking a month-to-month look from mid-2024 to mid-2025, some interesting patterns emerge from the data:
- Premium+: leads across both reach and engagement. In some months, their median reach doubled that of standard Premium.
- Premium: delivers the biggest jump compared to regular accounts — the line where the visibility gap truly opens.
- Basic: unlocked essential Premium features like longer posts and editing, but didn’t show the same reach gains as the higher tiers. Engagement rates were relatively strong, though limited visibility meant those interactions didn’t scale as widely.
- Regular accounts: remain at the bottom, with reach under 100 impressions and a median engagement rate of 0%.
X Premium comes in three tiers with different features and visibility benefits. Here’s a quick breakdown of what each tier offers.
👉 In short: Higher X Premium tiers correlate with stronger visibility.
4. Which content performs best on X?
Not all post types are created equal — and the data makes that crystal clear. When we broke engagement rates down by content type, the gap between Premium and regular accounts became even sharper.
Some takeaways from the dataset:
- Text posts: Consistently lead for Premium accounts, climbing close to 0.9% median engagement by mid-2025. For regular accounts, engagement collapsed to ~0.25% after March 2025.
- Video posts: A close second, holding steady above 0.7% for Premium users while dropping sharply for non-subscribers.
- Image posts: Reliable but middling — Premium users see around 0.4–0.5%, while regular accounts hover closer to 0.2%.
- Links: The weakest format across the board. Premium cushions the blow (around 0.25–0.3%), but for regular accounts, engagement flatlined to 0% in March 2025.
💡 If you’re paying for Premium, lean into text and video. They deliver the strongest, most reliable engagement lift. Images can diversify your feed, but links remain heavily penalized unless you’re on a Premium plan.
5. Do posts with links affect content performance?
Yes, but not all posts are affected equally, and Premium softens the outcome.
🚨 For regular accounts, link posts have been completely suppressed since March 2025 — their median engagement rate is 0%.
That means if you’re not on X Premium, sharing a blog post, product page, or newsletter link is essentially invisible.
For Premium users, links still underperform compared to text, video, or images — but they at least register meaningful engagement, typically around 0.25–0.3%.
X’s latest algorithm update makes this explicit: links trigger penalties. For non-Premium accounts, that means silence. For Premium accounts, links register, but lag far behind text and video.
💡 However, if you must share links, Premium+ is the safest bet for maintaining visibility.
What this means for creators and brands
Our data points to a clear pattern: Premium accounts receive more visibility, while non-Premium accounts often struggle to surface in the feed.
That said, more reach doesn’t always translate into better outcomes — the impact depends on your goals and how central X is to your overall strategy.
👉 Put simply: Premium can expand your distribution, but engagement remains the key factor in sustaining growth.
If visibility on X is important to you, Premium may provide a stronger baseline — but the real driver is whether your posts spark replies and hold attention.
