Pricing explained
Why Is the Twitter (X) API So Expensive?
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Quick Answer
Because X bills per resource returned, not per request. A search that returns 100 posts costs $0.50, a million post reads cost $5,000, and publishing a post that contains a link costs $0.20.
Every item is billed separately
| Operation | Official X API price | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Read a post | $0.005 per post returned | $5.00 |
| Read a user profile | $0.010 per profile returned | $10.00 |
| Read your own data (qualifying endpoints) | $0.001 per resource | $1.00 |
| Create a post | $0.015 per post | $15.00 |
| Create a post that contains a URL | $0.200 per post | $200.00 |
Followers, likers and reply threads are lists of posts or users, so they are billed item by item. Exporting 20,000 followers costs about $200.
Links cost 13x more to post
A plain post costs $0.015, but a post with a URL costs $0.200. A bot that shares 1,000 blog or news links a month pays $200 for posting alone.
The monthly read cap leads to Enterprise
Pay-per-use accounts are capped at 3 million post reads per monthly billing cycle. Above that, X directs you to Enterprise, which has no public price. Enterprise contracts were widely reported at $42,000 per month and up when they were introduced in 2023.
Why X prices it this way
X has not published a full rationale, but the public record points to three motives:
- Stopping abuse: when Twitter ended free API access in 2023, it cited bots and spam built on the free tier.
- Charging for data: large volumes of public posts are valuable for analytics and AI training, and per-item pricing captures that value.
- Moving heavy users to contracts: the monthly read cap pushes high-volume customers toward negotiated Enterprise deals.
What common workloads cost
| Monthly workload | Official X API | TwexAPI |
|---|---|---|
| Monitor brand mentions: 10,000 posts | $50.00 | ~$0.50 |
| Sentiment analysis: 100,000 posts | $500.00 | ~$5.00 |
| AI or research dataset: 1,000,000 posts | $5,000.00 | ~$50.00 |
| Post 1,000 tweets with links | $200.00 | ~$0.50 |
How to pay less
- Read only what you need: narrow searches with date ranges and filters so fewer items are returned and billed.
- Use owned reads where they apply: reading your own account data on qualifying endpoints costs $0.001 per resource.
- Use a third-party API for public data: independent providers such as TwexAPI price public reads at a fraction of the official rate. They are not official X partners, so weigh that against your compliance requirements.
FAQ
How much does the Twitter API cost per month?
There is no fixed monthly fee on pay-per-use. Your bill is the number of posts and users you read and the posts you create, multiplied by X’s rates. For example, 100,000 post reads cost $500.
Is there still a free Twitter API?
Not on X’s current pricing page. X offers a $20 credit when you save a payment card, and TwexAPI gives 20,000 free Credits with no card.
Is TwexAPI affiliated with X?
No. TwexAPI is an independent third-party provider of public social data and is not affiliated with or endorsed by X Corp.
Related Guides
Sources
Prices change. Confirm current rates on each provider’s pricing page before you buy. TwexAPI is an independent provider and is not affiliated with or endorsed by X Corp.