• by Colin Kirkland , November 24, 2023

Snapchat is “slowly” rolling out a higher-priced Snapchat+ subscription tier in certain markets that will remove all ads from users' Story and Lens feeds, according to a post shared by social media enthusiast Jonah Manzano on Threads.

Snap’s ad-free offering falls in line with offerings from other leading social media platforms like Meta and X. Both companies have launched ad-free subscription tiers in response to the EU’s Digital Services Act, a recent data privacy bill that makes it mandatory for major tech companies to let users opt out of targeted advertising.

Despite its focus on the EU, the bill could affect how social media giants handle user data outside of the region.

Snap's ad-free offering costs $15.99 AUD per month. This equates to $10.50 USD, which is only $0.10 lower than the ad-free option Meta launched exclusively to EU users. In comparison, X's ad-free Premium subscription costs $16.99 per month.

TikTok has also been testing an ad-free subscription tier for users in the EU for $4.99 per month.

If Snap were to launch the ad-free offering in North America, where the company derives the majority of its total ad revenue, its plan could cost even more.

While social media companies can use ad-free subscription tiers to diversify their revenue streams, they will make more money by serving users ads, proving that these offerings are being rolled out in response to the EU's privacy regulations.

Like its competitors, Snap has already agreed to stop serving personalized ads to European users between the ages of 13 and 17. It has also promised to create an archive of targeted ads it shows in the EU and give European Snapchatters over the age of 18 more control over the ads they see.

Even by paying for Snap's ad-free tier, subscribers will continue to see sponsored places as well as paid promotions within My AI responses, the company says.