Threads crosses 400M monthly users as full ad inventory goes live

Threads has crossed 400 million monthly active users, according to an internal milestone Meta executives highlighted on an earnings call this week. The number places the two-year-old text-based social network within striking distance of X, which most third-party trackers have estimated at 450-to-500 million monthly actives as of Q1 2026.

More consequentially for creators: Threads is turning on full ad inventory this month. Meta has gradually expanded ad availability since late 2024, beginning with small tests in the US and Australia. As of April 2026, the platform is opening up to global advertisers on the same Meta Ads Manager infrastructure that powers Instagram and Facebook, with lookalike targeting and conversion tracking enabled by default.

The ad format on Threads is deliberately constrained. Initial inventory includes single-image ads, carousel ads, and short-form video ads — no unskippable pre-roll, no interstitials between posts, and no ads in the Following feed (only in the For You feed). Meta's product team has said publicly that it sees the format constraints as protective of the platform's reading experience, and that the constraints will remain in place at least through 2026.

The rollout also includes a revenue-share program for verified creators with over 5,000 followers, structured similarly to Reels bonuses but calibrated to text-based engagement signals rather than watch time. Specifically, payouts weight replies, reshares, and follower-conversion rates, according to eligibility documentation reviewed by HowSociable. The creator revenue-share pool for 2026 is estimated at $100-to-200 million globally — a modest number relative to Reels bonuses but meaningful for a text-first platform where expectations about monetization have been low.

What this doesn't mean: Threads is not suddenly a profit-center for creators the way YouTube or TikTok are. The economics of text-based content remain substantially lower than video, even with monetization turned on. A creator earning $10,000/month from Reels would plausibly earn $500-to-$1,500/month from Threads at comparable reach, per creator-economy analyst estimates. What it does mean is that creators who have been quietly building a Threads audience now have a direct financial reason to keep posting there.

The competitive context is unavoidable. Threads' growth has been fueled in part by X's ongoing ad-revenue decline and, separately, by Bluesky's federation issues and smaller user base. The market for a "text-first social network with mainstream distribution" has consolidated around Threads faster than most observers expected two years ago. Whether that consolidation is durable — or whether X's eventual ownership change (widely rumored, not yet materialized) resets the field — is the biggest open question.

For creators, the strategic calculation is: Threads is now worth taking seriously as a platform, not just as an Instagram adjunct. Cross-posting from Instagram still works as a starting point, but creators who are investing in Threads-native posting — longer text, thread replies, community engagement in replies — are seeing 3-to-5x the follower growth of creators who are only cross-posting. The 5,000-follower threshold for revenue share is achievable in a few months of serious native posting; the economics start to work at that point.

Next milestone to watch: whether Meta publishes daily-active-user figures for Threads. MAU at 400M is a meaningful number; DAU would reveal how "sticky" the platform actually is, and that's the number advertisers are going to care about as inventory expands.