How to create a Professional X account (step-by-step guide)

If you’re using X for business, you’ll need a Professional Account. It gives businesses, brands, and creators access to specialized tools that personal accounts don’t offer, including analytics and profile spotlights, as well as extra ad management features.

But with so many account types, verification badges, and Premium tiers, it can be tricky to know what’s required and what’s optional. 

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to set up and manage your Professional Account on X the right way. 👇

TL;DR: How X Professionals Accounts work

• Every X account starts as personal—you can then convert it for free into a Professional Account to unlock business tools.
  
• A Professional Account adds features like Profile Spotlights, Professional Home, Quick Promote, and X Shopping.
  
• You can also subscribe to X Premium (blue checkmark) or Premium Business (gold checkmark) if you want extra features like verification, ad-free browsing, and advanced publishing.
  
• Converting takes minutes—just visit twitter.com/i/flow/convert_to_professional and follow the prompts.
  
• You can switch back to personal anytime without losing posts, followers, or analytics.
  

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Understanding X account types and subscriptions

Before you create your professional X account, it’s important to understand the difference between account types and subscription plans. These two things are separate but often mixed up, so let’s clear that up:

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X account types: Personal vs. Professional

Every account on X starts out as a Personal Account. This is your standard profile where you can post, follow others, and interact casually.

If you’re using X to promote a brand, share products, or engage with customers, you’ll want to convert that account into a Professional Account. This conversion is free and can be reversed anytime, so there’s no risk in testing it out.

What is a Professional X Account?

Professional Accounts are built for brands and creators who use X as a business tool, giving them a sharper, more credible presence and access to growth features that personal accounts don’t offer.

Think of Professional Accounts as X’s version of a LinkedIn Page or an Instagram Business Account. They each have advanced features like analytics and contact buttons that can help you increase your visibility and connect with your target audience. 

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What are the benefits of a Professional X Account?

The main difference between Personal and Professional Accounts lies in the tools you can access and how your profile appears to others.

Here’s what you gain when you switch:

• Professional Home: A dedicated dashboard for tracking performance, exploring resources, and accessing growth tools.
  
• Quick Promote: Instantly turn your best posts into ads without opening X Ads Manager.
  
• Profile Spotlights: A dedicated section on your profile to highlight what matters most to your brand— for example, your shop, location, app, or website.
  
• Professional Category: Add a visible label (like “Retail Brand”) under your name to make your profile more discoverable.
  
• X Shopping: Showcase and sell products directly from your profile.
  

If you're an agency managing a client’s brand account, converting to Professional means you can highlight their store, track post performance, and quickly promote key campaigns without extra tools.

Who can create a Professional Account on X?

Before converting, make sure your account meets X’s professional standards. To qualify, your account must:

• Have a complete profile — including an account name, bio, and profile picture.
• Represent an authentic identity — not a parody, fan page, or fictional character (unless the character is part of your brand).
• Have no repeated violations of the X User Agreement.

Keep in mind that you can’t just create a brand-new Professional Account from scratch. You’ll need to convert your Personal Account into a professional one. 

Luckily, if you change your mind later, you can always switch back to a Personal Account.

✅ Pro tip: If you’re an agency, make sure your clients’ accounts are fully branded (logo, description, website link) before converting, since incomplete or placeholder profiles may not qualify.

X subscriptions (X Premium)

While converting to a Professional Account is completely free, X also offers optional paid subscriptions that unlock extra tools and features.

These subscriptions can be used with either a personal or professional account—they’re add-ons, not separate account types.

There are three main subscription tiers:

• Basic
  
  • Edit posts, publish longer tweets and videos, and use bookmark folders to organize content ideas.
  • Best for: Small teams or freelancers who want more posting flexibility.
    
• Premium
  
  • Blue checkmark for credibility, fewer ads, Media Studio for scheduling and managing visuals, and access to creator monetization tools.
  • Best for: Brands and agencies focused on building authority and engagement.
    
• Premium+
  
  • Ad-free experience, Radar Search for trend discovery, and Articles for publishing long-form content.
  • Best for: Publishers, thought leaders, or marketers who use X as a main content and research channel.

For brands, companies, and institutions, X offers two additional subscription options:

• Premium Business
  
  • Gold checkmark, affiliation badges, impersonation defense, VIP support.
  • Best for: Brands managing multiple accounts that need company-wide verification and protection against impersonation.
• Premium Organization
  
  • Grey checkmark, affiliation badges, impersonation defense, VIP support.
  • Best for: Government bodies, public institutions, and nonprofits.

While X Premium (blue checkmark) verifies individual accounts or single brands, Premium Business and Premium Organizations verify entire entities.

With these tiers, verified companies and institutions can affiliate other accounts, like team members, brand extensions, or partner profiles, which then display a small badge showing the parent organization’s logo.

This setup is especially useful for large brands that manage department accounts and want a consistent, trusted identity across all of them.

👉 If you want to explore how affiliation badges work in detail, you can learn more here.

How to switch to a Professional Account on X

Switching to a Professional Account takes just a few minutes. You can do it for free from any existing Personal Account, and it’s reversible at any time.

Step 1. Make sure you’re logged into the X account you want to convert, then click here to go straight to the setup screen.

If it doesn’t load, follow the manual route instead:

On mobile (X app)

1. Open your sidebar menu from your Home timeline.
2. Scroll down and tap “X for Professionals.”
3. Select “Switch to Professional.”
   
   

On desktop (web)

1. Click “More” in the left-hand menu.
2. Go to Settings and privacy > Your account > Account information.
3. Scroll until you see “Switch to Professional” and select it.

❗ Note: If you don’t see the option at all, make sure your profile is complete (name, bio, and profile photo)—X may restrict conversion for incomplete or impersonation-style accounts.

Step 2. Read and agree to the Professional Account policy.

Step 3. Choose the category that best describes what you or your business does. This will appear under your name on your profile (e.g., Retail Brand, Creator, Software Company).

If you don’t immediately see the right fit, use the search bar—there are hundreds of options.

Step 4. Choose from the following account types:

• Business: for organizations, brands, and shops.
• Creator: for public figures and influencers. 

Don’t worry, you can switch between Business and Creator later without affecting your profile, followers, or posts.

Step 5. Congratulations, you’re now officially a Professional on X! 🎉

You’ll see a final menu with a few options:

• Customize your profile – Add your professional category and configure available Spotlights.
• Pick Topics to follow – Improve your recommendations and discover relevant conversations.
• Promote a Tweet – Learn about Quick Promote and try running a small test campaign.

If you’re not ready to explore right away, tap “Skip for now.” You can always revisit everything under X for Professionals.

Switching back to a Personal or Creator Account

You can switch from a Professional Account to a Personal or Creator one at any time. There’s no penalty or loss of followers, posts, or analytics history.

To do this:

1. Go to your profile and select “Edit profile.”
2. Click “Edit professional profile,” then choose “Switch account type.”
3. Select “Switch to Personal account” or “Switch to a Creator account” from the menu and confirm your choice.

🔎 Note: Switching doesn’t delete your professional data or category. It only removes the professional label and tools (like Spotlights and Quick Promote). You can always switch to a Professional Account again later if your business needs change.

How to use your X Professional Account effectively

With your Professional Account ready, here’s how to take advantage of its key features and tools:

1. Know what you can (and can’t) do

A Professional Account gives you access to additional tools and analytics, but it doesn’t change the way X itself works.

✅ What you can do:

• Access Professional Home, a centralized dashboard for analytics and resources.
  
• Use Profile Spotlights (Link, Location, App, or Shop) to showcase key business info.
  
• Run ads or use Quick Promote directly from your posts.
  
• Apply for monetization (if eligible) and explore X Shopping.
  
• Strengthen brand legitimacy with a professional category and optimized bio.
  
  

🚫 What you can’t do:

• You can’t target Professional Accounts specifically in ad campaigns.
• You don’t get extra organic reach or algorithmic priority just for being “professional.”
• You can’t create a Professional Account from scratch — only convert an existing Personal Account.

2. Turn your top posts into ads

You don’t need a Professional Account to run X Ads—any account can create campaigns in Ads Manager—but having one gives you easier access to ad tools and campaign shortcuts.

There are two ways to advertise on X with a Professional Account:

1. Quick Promote

This feature is only available with a Professional Account, and it lets you instantly promote a post without opening Ads Manager. 

It’s ideal for:

• Testing new content ideas.
• Boosting a tweet that’s already performing well.
• Driving quick engagement on time-sensitive promotions.

You’ll find the Promote Post option directly below your tweets once your account is professional.

2. X Ads Manager 

For full campaign control, log in to ads.x.com while signed into your Professional Account.

 Here you can:

• Choose campaign objectives (awareness, engagement, conversions, etc.).
• Set targeting, budget, and scheduling.
• View detailed ad performance reports.
  

Ads Manager is available to everyone, even Personal Accounts, but running campaigns from a Professional Account helps your brand look more credible. That’s because users see “Promoted by [your brand]” tied to a verified or professional profile, which can improve trust and engagement rates.

💡 Pro tip: Use Quick Promote to test ideas, then move successful posts into Ads Manager for larger, data-driven campaigns.‍

🔗 Related article: How to Give & Request Access to X Ads Manager

3. Build a posting and engagement strategy

A Professional Account works best when it’s active. Use the analytics in your Professional Home dashboard to identify what content performs well and who your audience is.

Follow these best practices:

✅ Mix organic and paid content (don’t rely solely on ads.)

✅ Post consistently (3–5x/week) and vary your formats: text, visuals, polls, and videos.

✅ Pin a strong tweet that summarizes your brand or campaign.

✅ Respond quickly to comments and mentions to strengthen engagement signals.

✅ Use Topics and Lists to stay updated on industry trends and conversations.

💡 Pro tip: Engagement drives visibility. Replying from your Professional Account (even to other brands) keeps your profile active and helps your content reach more people organically.‍

🔗 Related article: How to Create an X Marketing Strategy

4. Get verified (optional)

Verification isn’t mandatory for a Professional Account, but it can help establish credibility. 

X offers three verification options:

• Blue checkmark (X Premium)
• Gold checkmark (Premium Business)
• Grey checkmark (Premium Organization)

While verification doesn’t influence the algorithm or ad performance directly, it could help build trust and make users more likely to engage with your content.

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5. Track and adjust through Professional Home

Your Professional Home dashboard is the control center for your business presence on X. Use it to:

• Track analytics and engagement growth.
• Discover new product offerings and monetization tools.
• Access Quick Promote performance data.

📈 Pro tip: Treat Professional Home like a mini marketing hub. Review analytics weekly, experiment with different Spotlight types, and track what drives clicks and engagement over time.

⚡ Agency hack: Save hours every week onboarding new clients

Whether you manage ad campaigns, social media, or analytics, getting clients’ accounts set up shouldn’t slow you down.

With Leadsie, you can request and receive access to your clients’ X accounts using just one secure link. 🔒

What is Leadsie?

Leadsie is a client onboarding software that simplifies requesting and giving access to marketing assets, social media, and ad accounts with one secure link. Get access to your clients’ or influencers’ Facebook, Instagram, Google, TikTok, Shopify, LinkedIn, and other accounts without sharing passwords.

Leadsie handles the most time-consuming aspect of onboarding clients: managing access and adding users. It keeps permission management secure and organized as your agency scales.
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Why agencies use Leadsie for client onboarding

✅ Minimize frustrating chaser emails and calls for access

✅ Reduces your agency's turnaround time by over 50%

✅ Scales with your agency as you grow beyond onboarding 5-10 new clients a week

✅ Makes it possible to get access to 23+ social, marketing, and analytics platforms at once

✅ Start billable work and billing cycles for your new clients without delays

🎁 Try a free 14-day trial on us—no credit card needed!‍

P.S. It's risk-free, and you get to keep your account connections after the trial ends. 🙌

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