Meta announced today that it is rolling out Instagram subscriptions to all eligible creators in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain and the United Kingdom over the next few weeks. The expansion comes as Meta first launched Instagram subscriptions in the United States in January 2022.
Instagram subscriptions allow creators to offer their followers paid access to exclusive posts, Live videos, Stories, reels, highlights and more. Subscribers also receive a special badge that helps them stand out in the comments section and creators’ inboxes.
To be eligible for Instagram subscriptions, creators must be at least 18 years old and have more than 10,000 followers. Creators can set a monthly price of their choice for exclusive content. There are eight price points to choose from, ranging from $0.99 per month to $99.99 per month, depending on how much a creator believes their content is worth.
The idea behind subscriptions is to give creators a chance to earn recurring monthly income based on the support from their fans. Meta plans to continue rolling out access to Instagram subscriptions worldwide in the coming months.
“With Instagram subscriptions, you can develop deeper connections with your highly engaged followers and increase your recurring monthly income by giving subscribers access to exclusive content and benefits, all within the same platform where you already interact with them,” wrote Meta in a blog post. “We will continue to invest in tools that help creators earn money and will have more updates to share in the coming months.”
Meta first launched subscriptions on Facebook in 2020 before bringing the offer to Instagram. Facebook subscriptions are available on Pages in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States.
Instagram isn’t the only social media platform that gives creators the option to charge fans for exclusive content. Last year, TikTok launched a new feature called “Series” that allows qualified creators to post content behind a paywall. Series allow qualified creators to post collections of premium content that viewers can purchase access to. A Series can include up to 80 videos, each up to 20 minutes long.
Similarly, Twitter offers a about the subscription which allows users to purchase access to exclusive tweets from creators. Like Instagram and Instagram offers, creators set the monthly price of their subscriptions.
