A report from The Information claims that Twitter hopes to monetize businesses on the platform by charging $1,000 a month to maintain the Gold certification sticker.
Brands that don't pay the monthly fee will lose their Gold certification tag, according to the report released Friday, though it's unclear when that will happen.
According to insiders at The Information, Twitter charges an additional $50 per month to add verification labels to each business account.
The news report matches screenshots posted by social media consultant Matt Navarra that revealed an email between Twitter product manager Evan Jones and an unidentified company.
“As an Early Access subscriber, you will receive a Gold Certification Tag for your organization and Affiliate Tag for your affiliate. Enterprise Verification (fee) is $1,000 per month if you choose to sign up, $50 per month per member account, member account free for one month.”
Twitter introduced the Gold Verified label—formerly Business Blue—before the "Verified for Business" program, which allows businesses to verify and identify themselves on Twitter. Also, companies can add tags that display a thumbnail of their Twitter profile picture to the accounts of employees, executives, and anyone else associated with the brand.
Navarra then posted a screenshot of a direct message between another company and a Twitter product manager, confirming the $1,000 monthly fee.
Twitter launched early access to the enterprise certification program last month, but has yet to release any official information about the monthly subscription fee for enterprises.
It should be noted that the higher subscription fee is just one of many changes that CEO Elon Musk is implementing to increase revenue and reduce Twitter's $12.5 billion debt.
In addition to the mass layoffs, Musk has begun charging users $8 per month for blue verification codes and will soon start charging developers for access to the Twitter API after their apps were excluded from the platform last month.
While Musk promised to share Twitter ad revenue with content creators, he said they would only be eligible if they signed up for Twitter Blue. The company also auctioned office furniture and other assets, including Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco, California, after failing to pay rent in several locations.