X does not pay on 'views' as a pile. Original Content Rewards, which opened on 8 August 2026 after Revenue Sharing closed to new enrolments, counts a narrower object: a unique impression from a Premium subscriber in the Home Timeline, with at least half the post on screen. Eligibility for that programme, as of the 7 August 2026 help page, is 500 verified followers plus 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users in 90 days, replies excluded. The 500,000 figure is not the payout definition. Eligibility is verified-user Home Timeline reach. Payout is Premium Home Timeline reach, unique per account per post.
What is dropped is most of what Analytics still shows. Profile visits, Search, hashtags, bookmarks, Explore, notifications, external shares, and reply impressions do not write the number that pays. A post that explodes in replies and dies in the feed can look large and earn nothing. A post that sits in Premium users' Home feeds without a viral reply thread can clear the gate with a quieter public counter.
Treat the public impression total as reach. Put Home Timeline impressions in the report when the question is X monetisation. Mixing them is how a quote-tweet storm looks like a creator-fund win. The walkthrough of the August 2026 floor is the post this term points at; this page is the name of the meter.
In practice
- When a sponsor asks for 'impressions on X,' name Home Timeline separately from the public total.
- Do not count replies toward the 500,000 eligibility bar. The help page excludes them.
- A Premium viewer seeing half the post in Home is the payout event. A non-Premium viewer in the same slot is not.
The mistake to avoid
Reading the 500,000 bar as 'half a million views.' It is verified Home Timeline impressions in 90 days, replies out — a different pile from the public counter.
Go deeper
X: 500 verified followers and 500k impressions
You need 500 verified followers and 500,000 verified Home Timeline impressions in the last 90 days. Replies do not count. Ignore the public follower total.
Related terms
Content Rewards
Content Rewards are platform payout programmes that pay on qualified views or Home Timeline impressions of original posts — not on every public play.
Originality score
Originality score is a platform's internal grade of how much of a post is yours. A low score can zero out Rewards even when public views look fine.
Repost limit
A repost limit is how often a platform will let the same file, or a near copy, circulate before it throttles reach or drops Rewards.
Completion rate
Completion rate is the share of people who watched a video all the way to its last frame — one number, unlike the full retention curve, and the one most short-form platforms weight heavily in distribution.
Hook rate
Hook rate meaning: the share of people shown a video who are still watching a few seconds in. It grades the opening, not the body.
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