X (Twitter) API pricing, per 1,000 posts
The official X API charges $0.005 for every post it returns. Third-party read APIs sell the same keyword search for 33× to 185× less. Every price below was checked on November 2, 2026.
1,000 posts from one keyword search
- X API, pay-per-use$5.00
- AnyAPI, dearest source$0.77
- twitterapi.io$0.15
- AnyAPI, cheapest source$0.027
Official X API rates in 2026
Since February 6, 2026, new developers pay per resource returned, with no free tier and no monthly plan.
| Operation | Price | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Post read | $0.005 | $5.00 |
| User (profile) read | $0.010 | $10.00 |
| Followers / following read | $0.010 | $10.00 |
| Your own posts, mentions, followers | $0.001 | $1.00 |
| Post create | $0.015 | $15.00 |
| Post create with a URL | $0.200 | $200.00 |
| Like, follow, repost, DM | $0.015 | $15.00 |
| Post counts, recent | $0.005 | $5.00 |
- Pay-per-use stops at 3 million post reads per billing month; beyond that you need an Enterprise contract.
- New paying accounts get $20 in credits after the first purchase. You can set a spending limit per billing cycle in the Developer Console.
- The old Basic ($200 a month) and Pro ($5,000 a month) plans are not offered to new developers.
- Source: X API pricing, docs.x.com. X says the Developer Console shows the binding rates.
The same search, four prices
A keyword search that returns 10,000 posts, priced by how each provider bills it.
| Route | How it bills | 10,000 posts |
|---|---|---|
| X API, pay-per-use | $0.005 per post returned | $50.00 |
| AnyAPI, dearest source | $0.0154 per page of ~20 | $7.70 |
| twitterapi.io | $0.00015 per post, at least one per call | $1.50 |
| AnyAPI, cheapest source | $0.00054 per page of ~20 | $0.27 |
AnyAPI serves twitter.search from four sources priced $0.00054, $0.0006, $0.0051 and $0.0154 per call. Its default retries a failed cheap source on a dearer one, so the same request can cost 28× more unless you pin the source and turn failover off. The same trap applies to Google SERP APIs. Sources: X, twitterapi.io, AnyAPI's live price API.
Which X API to use for which job
- Posting, likes, DMs, your own account's data
- Official X API. Third-party read APIs do not write, and owned reads are only $0.001 each.
- Keyword search and monitoring
- AnyAPI
twitter.searchpinned to its cheapest source, about 5.6× below twitterapi.io per post. - Profiles, followers, single posts by ID
- twitterapi.io. Profiles in batches of 100+ cost 1 credit each, against $0.010 per profile on X.
- Searches that often come back empty
- Check the minimum charge. twitterapi.io bills 15 credits for an empty call; X bills per post returned.
twitterapi.io and AnyAPI are not run or endorsed by X, and X's terms restrict collecting data outside its API. Check both sets of terms against your use case. Monitoring Reddit too? Its official API stops taking new apps; see Reddit API pricing and shutdown dates.
What a monitoring job costs per month
20 keywords, about 500 new posts each per day: 300,000 posts a month.
| Route | Calls | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| X API, pay-per-use | 300,000 posts | $1,500.00 |
| AnyAPI, dearest source | 15,000 pages | $231.00 |
| twitterapi.io | 300,000 posts | $45.00 |
| AnyAPI, cheapest source | 15,000 pages | $8.10 |
Pages assume about 20 posts each. Real searches return short last pages and some empty ones, so expect a little more per post on paged routes.
Check any price yourself, free
getcheapapi is an open-source agent skill. Its quote prices your query on every route it knows and spends nothing. Paste this into Claude Code or Codex to add it:
Read https://getcheapapi.com/llms.txt and install the getcheapapi skill for this agent by following its install steps.
Then ask your agent:
Quote x.search for “your keywords”. Don’t run it.
x.search: 1 input(s), prices per run
anyapi twitter.search
$0.00054 x1.0 1 call ok
twitterapi twitter/tweet/advanced_search
$0.00300 x5.6 1 call ok
would run: anyapi twitter.search $0.00054
X API pricing questions
Q.001 / Is the X API free?
Not for new developers. Since February 6, 2026, pay-per-use is the default and new sign-ups get no free tier. X gives $20 in credits after your first purchase.
Q.002 / How much does the X API cost per month?
There is no monthly fee on pay-per-use; you pay per resource. Reading 300,000 posts a month costs $1,500 at $0.005 each. Pay-per-use is capped at 3 million post reads a month; more needs an Enterprise plan.
Q.003 / How much does twitterapi.io cost?
$0.15 per 1,000 returned posts (15 credits each, $1 = 100,000 credits), with a minimum of 15 credits per call even when nothing comes back. Profiles in batches of 100 or more cost 1 credit each.
Q.004 / Are third-party Twitter APIs allowed?
They are not run or endorsed by X, and X's terms restrict collecting data outside its API. Read their terms and X's against your use case; anything that posts, likes or sends DMs needs the official API.
Q.005 / What is the cheapest way to search X by keyword?
On our November 2026 prices, AnyAPI's twitter.search pinned to its cheapest source: $0.00054 per page of about 20 posts, or about $0.027 per 1,000. Its dearest source charges 28 times more, so turn failover off.
Q.006 / Where do these prices come from?
X's developer pricing page, twitterapi.io's pricing page, and AnyAPI's live per-source price API, checked on November 2, 2026. Run getcheapapi quote x.search to price your own query; it spends nothing. Routes are ranked by price only.
Q.007 / How much does it cost to post on X through the API?
$0.015 per post, or $0.200 when the post contains a URL. Likes, follows, reposts and DMs cost $0.015 each. Third-party read APIs cannot post.
Q.008 / How do I get an X API key?
Create an app in X's Developer Console and buy credits; reads and writes are then billed per resource from that balance. New paying accounts get $20 in credits after the first purchase.