Threads changed three things that matter to creators in the last month — and the loudest one pays you nothing. In October 2026, Meta’s Threads app started testing Gems, automated badges for posts and replies that spark real conversation; Threads chief Connor Hayes announced a feed change that shows people more posts from accounts they already follow; and, since September 21, businesses can run Threads ads without an Instagram account at all. None of these is a new way to get paid by Threads directly. But together, they rewrite the playbook for growing on the app — follower relationships matter more, original discussion matters more, and Threads is now a standalone advertising channel rather than an Instagram add-on.
If you’ve been treating Threads as a place to cross-post your X or Instagram content and hope for discovery, this is the month that strategy stopped working. Here’s what actually changed, what each change is worth, and what to do about it.
The three October 2026 Threads changes at a glance
| Change | When | What it does | Pays creators? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gems | Testing started ~Oct 8, 2026 (US only) | Automated badges on public posts/replies that drive standout conversation | No |
| Feed rebalance | Announced ~Oct 14, 2026 | Shows more posts from accounts users already follow | No — but reach shifts toward followers |
| Ads without Instagram | Sept 21, 2026 | Threads ads no longer require a matching Instagram username; businesses without Instagram can advertise from a native Threads profile | No — ad revenue goes to Meta |
The honest headline: Threads still pays creators $0 directly in 2026. What changed is how attention and advertising work on the app — and attention is what you convert into money elsewhere.
Gems: badges for conversation, not cash
Gems are Threads’ newest test, and the most misunderstood. Meta published an “About Gems on Threads” help document in early October, and coverage from Social Media Today, Android Headlines, and Analytics Insight all describe the same system: an automated process that awards a purple Gem badge to public posts and replies that start or continue standout conversations.
How Gems are awarded
Meta says Gems are selected automatically — no human panel reads through millions of posts — based on three factors:
- Perspective: the post brings a fresh take or unique value to the discussion.
- Discussion: the post sparks genuine back-and-forth dialogue that moves the conversation forward.
- Originality: the post is the creator’s own work, “not something recycled from elsewhere online.”
A few eligibility rules matter more than the criteria themselves:
- Only public posts qualify, and for replies, only direct replies to an original post — a reply to a reply doesn’t count.
- Cross-posted content is excluded. If a post was shared automatically from another app like Instagram, it can’t earn a Gem.
- You must be 18 or older, posting from a public account, in the United States. The test is US-only for now.
- If you earn a Gem, you get a notification and the option to share a post celebrating it. You can also decline the recognition, or hide the badge from the post’s three-dot menu.
Meta is explicit that Gems are awarded based on conversation quality, “not on how many followers a profile has.” And missing out on a Gem won’t hurt your reach or ranking — the badge is recognition layered on top of the normal algorithm, not a ranking factor.
The part everyone gets wrong: Gems pay nothing
Let’s be blunt, because plenty of content this month implies otherwise: there is no cash payout attached to Gems. No direct financial payout has been confirmed by Meta, and every careful report describes Gems as recognition, not monetization. If you see a post claiming Threads “pays” creators through Gems, it’s wrong — or it’s selling something.
That doesn’t make Gems worthless. A visible badge on your post is social proof, and social proof compounds: people who see a Gem-marked post are more likely to check your profile, and a profile that consistently starts good discussions is exactly the kind of account people follow. But treat Gems as a byproduct of good Threads behavior, not a goal. You can’t apply for one, you can’t buy one, and chasing one by posting engagement bait would violate the very originality standard the system rewards.
What Gems reward in practice
Read the criteria as a content strategy and they describe a very specific kind of post:
- Say something that hasn’t been said the same way. A fresh angle on a familiar topic beats a polished restatement of the consensus. Hot takes qualify — Meta literally lists a fresh or hot take as a possible catalyst — but only if the take is yours.
- Write posts that invite replies, not just likes. The “Discussion” factor rewards posts that generate real back-and-forth. A question with a genuinely open answer outperforms a statement everyone nods at. A post that gets ten thoughtful replies is worth more to this system than one that gets a hundred likes and zero replies.
- Post natively on Threads. This is the quiet rule that kills the cross-posting workflow. Content pushed automatically from Instagram or another app is ineligible. If you want Gems — or just good Threads performance generally — write the post inside Threads, in Threads’ voice, for a Threads audience.
- Reply to original posts, not to replies. If your strength is jumping into conversations, aim your best replies at the original post in a thread, where they can earn recognition, rather than burying them three levels deep.
One more practical note: because selection is automated, the system will sometimes badge posts that spark conversation for the wrong reasons — controversy drives discussion too. Meta hasn’t detailed a human vetting layer. That’s a reason to be thoughtful about which conversations you start, not a reason to avoid strong opinions.
The feed change: your followers finally matter more than strangers
The second change is the one with the biggest day-to-day impact. Around October 14, Connor Hayes, the head of Threads at Meta, announced that Threads had recently changed its feed to “show you what we think you’ll be interested in” — including updates that make the feed show more posts from accounts users actually follow.
His words, as reported by ARY News: “We recently made a change that could increase the posts you see from those you follow. For creators, this should mean you reach more of your followers on average. For everyone, this should hopefully mean you get a better feed filled with more of what you want.”
Why this is a real shift
Since launch, Threads’ For You feed has leaned heavily on recommended content from accounts you don’t follow — the same discovery-heavy model that made the app a growth shortcut for new creators. That model was great for reach and terrible for loyalty: you could go viral to strangers and still have almost no one who reliably saw your next post.
The October change tilts the balance back. More of what people see will come from accounts they chose to follow. For creators, that means:
- Your existing followers are worth more than they were last month. Every follower you earned is now more likely to actually see your posts. Retention and relationship-building — the boring work — just got a higher return.
- Discovery reach will be harder to count on. If a meaningful share of your views used to come from recommended placement to strangers, expect that slice to shrink. Hayes didn’t give a number or an exact effective date, so treat this as a directional shift, not a precise formula.
- The accounts that benefit most are the ones people follow for a reason. A follow earned because someone liked one viral post is weaker than a follow earned because someone wants your take every day. The feed change rewards the second kind.
What to do differently this month
First, stop optimizing purely for stranger discovery. The “post something that could go viral” mindset made sense when the feed was a discovery machine. Now the highest-leverage move is giving your current followers a reason to stay engaged: consistency, a recognizable point of view, and replies that make people feel heard.
Second, measure the right thing. Raw view counts will get noisier as the mix of follower vs. non-follower views shifts. Watch your follower-view share and your engagement rate — of the people who saw a post, how many actually engaged with it. If follower views hold steady while total views dip, that’s the feed change doing its job, not a content problem.
Third, treat follows as the conversion event. Every post should give a stranger a reason to follow, and every follow should be rewarded with content worth coming back for. End posts with an open question that makes someone want to see the answers. Reply to your own comment section — those replies are visible to your followers and keep the conversation in front of them.
Threads ads no longer need Instagram
The third change is the least flashy and the most consequential for businesses. As of September 21, 2026, Meta says matching usernames between Threads and Instagram profiles are no longer required to run Threads ads, and businesses operating without an Instagram profile can launch ads on Threads directly using their native Threads profile.
Until now, Threads advertising was effectively tethered to an Instagram identity. To run a Threads ad, your Threads profile had to use the same username as your Instagram account — which locked out brands running separate social identities, or with no Instagram presence at all. That requirement is gone. Threads also gets its own access management: you manage who can advertise with your Threads profile in that profile’s settings, and existing profiles inherit user access from the linked Instagram profile automatically.
What this means for creators and small businesses
- If you run a business without Instagram, Threads ads are now open to you. This matters most for B2B brands, local businesses, and creators whose audience lives on Threads but who never built an Instagram presence. You can test Threads inventory on its own terms.
- Early-mover ad costs are still relatively low. One ecommerce analysis put Threads CPMs at roughly 30–50% below Instagram feed placements, with estimated rates between $8 and $15, and early engagement rates of 3–6% vs. Instagram feed’s 1.5–3%. Treat those as one source’s estimates, not Meta’s numbers — but the direction is consistent with what you’d expect from a 500-million-user platform (per Social Media Today) that advertisers are still waking up to.
- The rollout is gradual. Meta says the change “may not be available to you yet.” If the Threads-only option isn’t visible in your Ads Manager account, check back weekly rather than assuming you’re doing something wrong.
- Do an access audit. Because Threads profiles inherited user access from linked Instagram profiles automatically, check who in your business portfolio now holds ad access to your Threads profile. It’s a small housekeeping step that prevents a former contractor or agency from still being able to advertise as you.
And the obvious caveat: ad revenue on Threads goes to Meta, not to creators. Advertisers paying for Threads placements doesn’t put a cent in your pocket unless you’re the one buying the ads to promote your own product, newsletter, or service. Which brings us to the real question.
What actually earns money on Threads in 2026
Here’s where I have to correct a lot of what’s circulating. If you search “how to get monetized on Threads” right now, you’ll find fresh-looking guides — some published this very week — claiming the Threads Bonus Program is still running and that you can apply for it. That is stale information, and it’s costing creators time.
The Threads Bonus Program is over
Meta’s Threads bonus program launched in April 2024 as an invite-only test that paid selected creators based on post performance and posting volume. According to Engadget’s reporting, payments to participating creators stopped around the end of April 2025 — roughly one year after launch — and Meta declined to comment on why. The Instagram Help Center page listing the program’s eligibility requirements was no longer published by the time creators said payments had stopped, and Meta has announced no open replacement.
So: as of October 2026, Threads has no creator fund, no ad-revenue sharing, no in-app tipping, and no paid subscriptions native to the app. Old screenshots of Threads bonus earnings are not evidence the program is running today. Any guide telling you to “apply for the Threads Bonus Program” is recycling 2024 information. Skip it.
So where does the money come from?
Everything creators actually earn on Threads in 2026 comes from off-platform sources — Threads is the top of the funnel, not the cash register. The four lanes that work:
1. Brand deals. Brands increasingly bundle Threads into sponsorship packages, especially for text-first creators whose audience is hard to reach on video platforms. A creator with 20,000 engaged Threads followers and a clear niche can pitch Threads posts, Threads reply campaigns, or a Threads-plus-newsletter bundle. Your rate card should price Threads placements on engagement quality and audience fit, not follower count alone — the feed change makes your actual follower reach more valuable, and that’s a selling point in a pitch.
2. Your own products and services. Digital products, templates, courses, consulting, coaching — Threads is a strong channel for all of them because the format rewards clear thinking in public. A thread that teaches something real is both the ad and the audition. Link in bio to a storefront or landing page, and let the conversation do the selling.
3. Newsletter and email list growth. This is the highest-leverage move for most creators, because email is the one audience the algorithm can’t rebalance. Use Threads to demonstrate your thinking, then convert followers to subscribers with a genuinely useful lead magnet. A newsletter with 5,000 engaged readers is a more durable business than 50,000 Threads followers.
4. Affiliate and referral revenue. Recommending tools you actually use, with a disclosed affiliate link, fits Threads’ conversational format well — as long as the recommendation is the point and the link is secondary. The moment a post reads like a coupon, the discussion factor that drives Gems and reach works against you.
Watch: how creators are actually making money on Threads
For a creator-eye view of the same landscape — including how to pitch brand deals that bundle Threads — this walkthrough covers the off-platform monetization routes that still work now that the bonus program is gone: Can You Make Money on Instagram Threads? Here’s How Creators Are Doing It!
A 30-day Threads playbook for the new feed
Here’s how I’d rebuild a Threads routine around the three changes, starting this week:
Week 1 — Audit and reset. Check your last 20 posts: how many were written natively in Threads vs. cross-posted? How many ended with a real question? How many got genuine replies? Delete nothing, but stop cross-posting automatically — write native posts for a week and watch what changes. Check your Ads Manager access if you run ads, and confirm whether the Threads-only option has rolled out to your account.
Week 2 — Post for discussion, daily. One original post a day, built around a fresh angle or an open question in your niche. Spend as much time replying — to your own commenters and to original posts in your niche — as you spend posting. Remember: only direct replies to original posts are Gem-eligible, and replies are where follower relationships actually form.
Week 3 — Convert attention. Add one clear off-platform path: a newsletter signup, a product link, or a booking page. Mention it naturally in threads where it’s relevant — once or twice a week, not every post. Track how many profile visits convert to follows, and how many follows convert to subscribers or sales. That’s your real Threads ROI.
Week 4 — Pitch or promote. If you have an engaged niche audience, pitch two brands on a Threads placement, or run a small Threads ad test promoting your best-performing organic post to a lookalike audience. Threads ads are now decoupled from Instagram, so you can test the channel on its own merits with a small budget.
What to stop doing
- Stop cross-posting on autopilot. It disqualifies you from Gems and it reads as low-effort to the audience that now sees more of your content in their feed.
- Stop chasing the bonus program. It’s over. Every hour spent hunting for a Threads bonus invitation is an hour not spent building the funnel that actually pays.
- Stop trusting stale “Threads pays” guides. If a guide was published before mid-2025 and claims Threads pays creators directly, its core premise is outdated. Check the date on everything you read about Threads monetization.
- Stop optimizing for strangers at the expense of followers. The feed change rewards accounts people chose to follow. Serve them first.
- Stop assuming a Gem is a paycheck. Celebrate it if you get one — it’s real recognition — but measure your Threads success in followers gained, subscribers converted, and deals closed, not badges collected.
The bottom line
October 2026 didn’t make Threads pay creators. It made Threads clearer about what it is: a conversation platform that rewards original thinking, a feed that increasingly favors the accounts people chose to follow, and an advertising channel that finally stands on its own without Instagram. Creators who build for that reality — native posts, real discussion, an off-platform funnel — will do better than creators waiting for Meta to start writing checks. The check was never coming from Threads itself. The money was always in what Threads attention converts into.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Threads Gems pay money?
No. Gems are a recognition badge — a purple marker on public posts and replies that spark standout conversation. Meta has confirmed no cash payout for Gems, and no source has reported one. Treat Gems as social proof, not income.
Who can earn a Threads Gem?
US users 18 or older with public accounts, posting natively on Threads. Only public posts and direct replies to original posts qualify. Cross-posted content, reposts, and replies to replies are excluded. You can decline the badge or hide it from the post’s three-dot menu.
What changed in the Threads feed in October 2026?
Threads chief Connor Hayes announced a change that increases the share of feed content coming from accounts users already follow. For creators, that should mean reaching more of their followers on average, with less reliance on recommended placement to strangers. Meta gave no exact date or percentage.
Can I run Threads ads without an Instagram account now?
Yes, as of September 2026. Matching Threads and Instagram usernames are no longer required, and businesses without an Instagram profile can advertise from their native Threads profile. The change is rolling out gradually, so it may not be in your account yet.
Is the Threads Bonus Program still running?
No. Creator-reported payments stopped around the end of April 2025, roughly a year after the April 2024 launch, and Meta has announced no replacement. Threads currently has no direct creator payout program — earnings come from brand deals, products, newsletters, and affiliate revenue off-platform.
How do I actually make money on Threads in 2026?
Through off-platform revenue: brand sponsorships that bundle Threads placements, selling your own digital products or services, growing an email list you own, and disclosed affiliate recommendations. Threads is the top of the funnel — the money lands on your storefront, your newsletter, or your invoice.
Sources: Social Media Today on Threads Gems and Threads ads without Instagram; ARY News on the October 2026 feed change. For a related Meta monetization comparison, see our breakdown of TikTok Creator Rewards vs. Facebook’s 70-country program and how Facebook Content Monetization evolved from in-stream ads.