X’s Handle Marketplace Is Now Open: Here’s How to Claim the Username You Want

Last month, Elon Musk's social media platform X announced "Handle Marketplace" and previewed its plans to launch the marketplace so that users can acquire their interested usernames that have been inactive (dormant) for years.

But it seems the promise the company made—that it would award certain desirable handles to free users based on merit—has been changed, because as the company launched the marketplace now, the feature is only available to all the Premium+ subscribers on the platform.

All Premium+ and Premium Business members now have full access to the Handle Marketplace.

Just open your Premium Hub on any device and tap the new link.

We hope you find the handle you've always wanted. pic.twitter.com/QiG5qjlTQQ

— Handle Marketplace (@XHandles) November 21, 2025

However, discussing about Musk's promised is not the primary reason of this post. The fact that the X's Handle Marketplace is now live, allowing premium subscribers to claim inactive usernames is what we are focusing on in this article.

X's Handles That Can Be Claimed

The X's Handle Marketplace has two different types of inactive usernames to offers. The first one is "priority handles," and the second one is "rare handles." Priority handles are those inactive usernames that are closely match with your real name. The good news is that you get these username for free if you're a premium+ subscriber on X.

And for the rare handles, these are the most valuable usernames on X. In fact, being a Premium+ subscriber alone isn’t enough to claim these, and the exact way to acquire these handles isn’t exactly clear either. When I subscribed to Premium+ on X so that I could claim @kbell, I only found out that the username is rare and thus not available to me.

But I was given the option to "register" my "interest." According to the information on the page, registering my "interest" will put the handle on my "waitlist" and I will be alerted when the handle becomes available to the public. X made it cleared that the handles you add to your watchlist might be made available during a public release.

When these handles are released, you and other users can request them through a merit-based application process at no cost. This is why you need to "register your interest" when your interested handle is considered "rare," and you should always look out for notifications in your email so that you will not miss out when the handle is released.

In addition to the rare handles, X also made it cleared that it'll basically make some special handles available for purchase on invitation-only model. The social media platform said it'll make these special handles available for prices ranging from around $2,500 to prices that can climb into seven-figure territory.

How to Claim Handles on X's Handle Marketplace

Claiming inactive usernames on X's Handle Marketplace is a very simple process but there are some certain things you need to understand before jumping into it. Let me break them for you so that you can understand:

• First of all, you must be a Premium+ subscriber on the social media platform. In other words, you must maintain a $40 per month or $395 per year Premium+ subscription. If you stop the subscription, X will reclaim the handle.
• You'll need to add handles—which are considered "rare"—to your wait-list and monitor it till it becomes released to the public before you can claim it. In addition to that, you must also act fast in claiming the handle because of other claims it before you do, there's no way to reclaim it.
• If you find your interested handle in priority category, cool. But you must understand that X only allows request of one priority handle during the entire lifetime of an account. Therefore, you may want to be careful not to fall for tempting handles that are also available in priority.
• If you claims a new handle successfully, your old handle will be frozen and cannot be claimed by others.
• Lastly, you must not violate X's policies set for claimed inactive handles, otherwise, your claimed handle will be revoked.

Claiming Inactive Handles on X

Go-to the X's Handle Marketplace at "handles.x.com" to search and claim your desire handle. If you're not a premium subscriber yet, the platform will instruct you to become a premium business to "browse and request inactive X handles."

If you're already a premium subscriber, just login using your X account username and password. Once you're in, use the "@ Search a handle" bar to browse a pool of inactive handles on the X's Handle Marketplace.

When I subscribed to the premium+, I find some interesting handles that are considered as "priority handles." Some of them include: @grokfacts, @six_seven, @kbchat, and @elonfarts.

Once you find your preferred inactive handle, tap "Request Handle" and choose "what you will use the handle for": "for business use or "for personal use". But if you end up having interest in rare handles, you'll also need to include a brief description of why you wanted the handles when adding it to you wait-list.

Final Notes

It's important to note that despite the fact that priority handles are available for Premium+ subscriber for free, X cannot be trusted with releasing your preferred handle to you. Even when you claim that handle you love so much, the platform will still need to review and approve it. In fact, the @elonfarts and @grokfacts are not certain if the platform will approve it.

I am saying this because this manner of bias is not new on the platform. X has a long history of reclaiming desirable usernames from users event if they're actively using them. One infamously reclaimed handle is @X. The platform reclaimed it from its owner to represent the platform's handle. Perhaps because of this, the platform made it cleared in its terms of use that "X owns and can reclaim any handle." To me, I think this is far from hypothetical.