Twitter (X) API Pricing — A Full Cost Breakdown + Alternatives
The X (Twitter) API bills pay-per-usage with no subscriptions: $0.005 per post read and $0.010 per user read per docs.x.com/x-api/getting-started/pricing. This guide walks the current official rates + the TwitterAPI.io per-result alternative (a third-party X (Twitter) API) at $0.00015/tweet ($0.15 per 1,000 tweets) — with the cost math.
Looking for what TwitterAPI.io charges per endpoint? See the TwitterAPI.io pricing page.
X (Twitter) Official API Pricing: Pay-Per-Usage
X no longer sells fixed monthly plans. The official API now bills pay-per-usage with no subscriptions: you pay for each resource you read or create. Here are the published rates.
Post reads
Searches, timelines, post lookups.
$0.005/post
- 1,000,000 posts = $5,000
- 100,000 posts = $500
User reads
Profiles, followers, following.
$0.010/user
- $0.010 per follower/following read
- $0.010 per DM event read
Post creates
Publishing via the API.
$0.015/post
- $0.200 if the post contains a URL
3 million post-read cap, then Enterprise
An Alternative: TwitterAPI.io Pricing
TwitterAPI.io bills per item returned, with a published price for each endpoint. $1 buys 100,000 credits, and a tweet costs 15 credits.
Simple, Pay-As-You-Go Pricing
No subscription required, no monthly commitment. Only pay for what you use.
Tweets
$0.15
per 1,000 tweets
Profiles
$0.18
per 1,000 users
Followers
from $0.01
per 1,000, tiered by page size
Flexible Payment & Credit System
- Pay as you go: No minimum spend required.
- Credits Never Expire: Your recharged credits are always available.
- Get Bonus Credits: Top-ups of $50 or more earn bonus credits, valid for 31 days.
- Volume Discounts: Larger top-ups earn bonus credits: up to +10% when paying by card and up to +12% with crypto.
Special Discount for Academic Research
Cost Comparison: X Pay-Per-Usage vs. TwitterAPI.io
Let's see what $5,000 gets you at each provider's published per-tweet rate: $0.005 per post read on X and $0.00015 per tweet on TwitterAPI.io.
| Feature | X Pay-Per-Usage | TwitterAPI.io |
|---|---|---|
| Spend | $5,000 | $5,000 (for comparison) |
| Tweet Reads | 1,000,000 | 33,333,333 (33x more) |
| Cost per 1,000 Tweets | $5.00 | $0.15 |
| Price Advantage | - | About 33x cheaper per read ($0.005 / $0.00015) |
In simple terms, TwitterAPI.io is about 33x cheaper per read than the official X API pay-per-use rate: 20,000 post reads cost $100 on X (20,000 x $0.005) and $3 on TwitterAPI.io (20,000 x $0.00015).
X API vs TwitterAPI.io: Monthly Cost by Workload
Both sides bill per read, so the monthly bill is volume times the unit price: post reads x $0.005 on X, tweets x $0.00015 on TwitterAPI.io.
| Reads / month | TwitterAPI.io | Official X API |
|---|---|---|
| 50,000 | $7.50 | $250 |
| 500,000 | $75 | $2,500 |
| 5,000,000 | $750 | $25,000 |
| 10,000,000 | $1,500 | $50,000 (above X's 3M cap: Enterprise) |
The ratio stays about 33x at every volume ($0.005 / $0.00015). Profile reads widen it: $0.010 per user read on X against $0.00018 per profile here, about 55x.
X API Pay-Per-Use Cost Calculator
Three common workloads at the published per-result rates. Move a slider to price your own volume.
100,000 credits = $1. Per-endpoint rates are listed on the pricing page.
What to Watch Out For When Comparing X API Costs
- On pay-per-use, the unit price is the whole bill. X lists no monthly tiers today, so there is no included quota to compare. Multiply your volume by $0.005 per post read and $0.010 per user read.
- Older comparisons still quote X's monthly tiers. Basic at $200 and Pro at $5,000 a month are no longer on X's pricing page, so a comparison built on them is out of date.
- Setup time is a cost too. The official API needs an X developer account before the first call; TwitterAPI.io needs a Google sign-in and an API key.
- Tiered bulk endpoints reward the maximum page size. Request 200 per call on /followers and 4,000 to 5,000 on /followers_ids; smaller pages cost 2 to 4 times more per result.
FAQ
How much does the official X (Twitter) API cost?
The official X API is pay-per-use: $0.005 per post read ($5 per 1,000) and $0.010 per user read, as published at docs.x.com/x-api/getting-started/pricing. X's pricing page lists no monthly subscription tiers today. Before the switch to pay-per-use, X sold fixed plans such as Basic at $200 a month and Pro at $5,000 a month.
What does TwitterAPI.io cost?
Per-result credits, where 100,000 credits = $1. A tweet costs 15 credits ($0.15 per 1,000 tweets) and a profile 18 credits. Bulk endpoints are tiered by page size: /twitter/user/followers costs 1 credit per follower at 200 per page, and /twitter/user/followers_ids costs 0.45 credits per ID at 4,000 or more per page, about $0.0225 for 5,000 IDs.
Is there a free tier?
There is a one-time credit rather than a free tier: up to $1 of free credits for new accounts (bot check, one per person), which expires after 31 days. There is no monthly free quota that resets.
How do I switch from the official X API?
Change the base URL to api.twitterapi.io, call the matching /twitter/... endpoint, and send your TwitterAPI.io key in an X-API-Key header instead of an OAuth bearer token. Search uses the same operator syntax as the search box on x.com, so existing queries carry over.
TwitterAPI.io on the Apify Store
TwitterAPI.io also publishes a tweet scraper actor on Apify, a marketplace for web scraping and automation tools. Apify Store actors for X data are priced per 1,000 results by each actor's developer; check the listing you intend to use. Calling the TwitterAPI.io API directly costs $0.15 per 1,000 tweets.
Conclusion: Choosing an Option for Twitter Data
X's pay-per-usage pricing makes it clear that accessing Twitter data at scale through official channels is a significant financial commitment: 1 million post reads cost $5,000, and anything above 3 million a month needs an Enterprise deal. For many developers, startups, and researchers, that is hard to fit into a budget.
TwitterAPI.io offers a pay-as-you-go model at $0.15 per 1,000 tweets, against $5 per 1,000 post reads on X's pay-per-usage pricing (docs.x.com/x-api/getting-started/pricing). That is about 33x cheaper per read ($0.15 versus $5.00 per 1,000), so the same budget covers about 33 times as many tweets.
Stop Overpaying for Twitter Data.
Sign up for TwitterAPI.io and start building today. New accounts that pass the bot check get up to $1 in free credits (one per person and network); it expires after 31 days. See /pricing.
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