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What is Twitch Turbo and how does it differ from Twitch Prime?
Advertisements can be a huge pain when you’re watching videos. It’s even worse when you’re trying to watch someone’s stream and miss a key moment because an ad cuts in. If you’re having this problem, there’s only one option left to explore: Twitch Turbo.
READ MORE: How much money do Twitch streamers make?
THE SHORT ANSWER
Twitch Turbo is the platform's premium ad-free subscription service. Its primary calling card is the ability to watch streams ad-free, as most of the other perks are also attainable through Twitch Prime. It costs $8.99 per month and comes with perks like ad-free viewing, an exclusive chat badge, extended broadcast storage, etc.
Twitch Prime, on the other hand, is a premium service attained through linking your Amazon Prime account with your Twitch account. Twitch Prime has its own perks like free games, free loot, a free channel subscription, and more.
KEY SECTIONS
What is Twitch Turbo and how does it work?
Twitch Turbo, for the uninitiated, is a premium subscription service offered by the Twitch livestreaming platform. It’s similar to Spotify Premium and YouTube Premium, where ad-free listening and viewing are a big reason people choose to subscribe.
Many often confuse Twitch Turbo with Twitch Prime. Activating Twitch Prime on your account involves linking your Amazon Prime account to your Twitch account. Twitch Turbo, on the other hand, is an exclusive monthly subscription program that is offered by Twitch themselves.
Debuting back in February 2013, Twitch Turbo has been a prevalent option for streamers and viewers alike. When ads pop up during a stream, it detracts from the overall immersion. This is not to say the stream becomes unviewable, but watching without ads is a significant boon.
What are the benefits of Twitch Turbo?
Ad-free viewing
Twitch Turbo’s calling card is the ability to watch streams completely ad-free.
Advertisements take away from the stream as a whole, even if you know they’re supporting the streamer. They’re distracting, often irrelevant, and make you want to install some form of ad-blocker that will actually work on Twitch—which, by the way, there aren’t many of.
The easiest way to remedy ads is by getting Twitch Turbo. You can watch your streams ad-free and guilt-free because you know you’re still supporting the streamer.
Chat badge
Turbo subscribers get an exclusive badge. When you send messages in a stream’s chat, you can choose to display this icon next to your name, thereby indicating to the other viewers that you are a premium subscriber.
Here’s the thing about the badge, though. When interacting with other members in chat, you’ll gradually get other badges. You can’t display all of your badges in chat, so if you want to show this one, you may need to prioritize it over another.
It’s a very cool badge and one that people display proudly, but it isn’t one that people choose all the time.
Additional emotes
Subscribing to Turbo also nets you additional emotes. Will you use these over custom emotes that you get by subscribing to certain streamers? That’s up to you.
One thing to note is that if you are a Twitch Prime member—meaning you linked your Amazon Prime account—you also get these additional emotes.
Chat username color customization
As a Twitch Turbo subscriber, you can change your chat identity color. You can go into your settings and choose any color you want for your username as it appears in chat.
If you are a Twitch Prime member, you also get this feature.
Extended broadcast storage
The Turbo subscription allows you to save your past broadcasts for 60 days instead of 14 days. As a streamer, this is quite valuable.
READ MORE: How to change your name on Twitch
FAQs
To subscribe to Twitch Turbo, you must pay a monthly fee of $8.99.
If you are bypassing ads as a Twitch Turbo subscriber, you are still financially supporting them even if you don’t see the ads.
Twitch Turbo gets you ad-free viewing, an exclusive chat badge, an expanded emote set, custom chat username colors, and extended broadcast storage. Twitch Prime nets you a free monthly channel subscription, free games, free in-game loot, custom username chat colors, and an exclusive chat badge. Prime used to also include ad-free viewing, but that perk was removed in 2018 to give people a reason to subscribe to Turbo.
Not exactly. You can gift subscriptions to channels, but not Turbo subscriptions. You can buy other people Twitch gift cards, though, and they in turn can use the gift card to subscribe.