Bluesky Is a Free, Ad-less Alternative to X — How Does the Platform Make Money?

After Elon Musk purchased Twitter and turned it into the right-wing playground of X, with its paid verification system and a shocking lack of moderation against hate and disinformation, the platform certainly lost a fair number of users. However, it was the aftermath of the 2024 election that triggered a mass "X-odus" from the site, with more than 100,000 users deactivating their profiles, per NPR.

Now, folks are flocking to a booming alternative: Bluesky.

The platform boasts a more personalized and pleasant social media experience by giving users control over their own feeds in a new and unique way — and unlike its predecessor, it has no paid features and no advertisements. Of course, this has led many to wonder how the site actually makes any money.

One of the biggest differences between X and Bluesky is that the latter won't plaster your feed with advertisements, and the chief operating officer of the platform, Rose Wang, has assured folks that it will never sell their data. This is great for users, but how does it work for the company? After all, they must make money somehow, right?

After all, it does take a team — albeit a small one of only around 20 people — to run the decentralized platform and its systems. But as it turns out, they actually don't yet have a set plan for the longevity of their finances.

When the site first launched, it was originally backed by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and therefore received a large financial grant to get up and running. More recently, it has also reportedly received another round of venture capital funding amounting to $15 million. But after that, things are uncertain.

The company has recently reaffirmed its promise to avoid relying on advertisements for moneymaking, leaving it with very few options.

In a Bluesky post in late October, Rose shared that they're working on a "subscription model for premium features" like "like higher-quality video uploads and profile customizations" that will allow the company to make money while also keeping the platform free to join.

"Bluesky is powered by a 20-person core team, moderators, and support agents," she said. "Our biggest costs are team and infrastructure. Subscription revenue helps us improve the app, grow the developer ecosystem, and gives us time to explore business models beyond traditional ads."

But if you're worried about non-premium users having a negative app experience, Rose has assured the public that that won't be the case: "Paid subscribers won’t get special treatment elsewhere in the app, like upranking premium accounts or blue checks next to their names. We won’t sell your data. And we won’t hyper-financialize the social experience."