X API Pricing
What the X API costs in November 2026: X’s published Pay-Per-Use rates, how a month of reads adds up, and a per-call way to read public X data.
Answer in brief
As of November 2026, self-serve X API access is sold only as prepaid Pay-Per-Use credits: X charges for every post, user or follower a read returns, charges writes per request, and caps post reads at 3 million per monthly billing cycle. For reading public X data, our pick is PrimaryAPI, the company that runs this site: it prices each call rather than each item returned, and you only pay when data comes back.
Run by PrimaryAPIReviewed
APIs
The APIs to start with
Prices from the PrimaryAPI catalog. You only pay when data comes back.
Why PrimaryAPI
Why PrimaryAPI is our pick.
Priced per call, not per item
X charges for each post, user and follower a response contains, so one full page is many charges. PrimaryAPI prices the call: a search or follower call returns a page with a cursor for the next, and spends credits at the price shown on the API’s page.
A budget that holds
Calls spend credits from a prepaid balance, and you only pay when data comes back. Pay as you go has no monthly fee or minimum, and each API key can carry its own credit limit.
No X developer app to set up
You call PrimaryAPI’s X APIs with your PrimaryAPI key. The same key and balance also cover Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit and Facebook, so a second platform doesn’t mean a second bill.
How to choose
What to check before you pick.
The checklist we use, true of any option you are weighing.
Know the billing unit
Find out whether you pay per request, per call or per item returned. On a per-item rate card, a search that fills a page is charged once for every post on it.
Count what each job returns
Estimate a month from the items each job brings back (posts, users, followers), not from the number of requests you send.
Check the monthly ceiling
Ask what the monthly limit is and what happens when you reach it: blocked requests, an upgrade or a new contract.
Ask how repeats and misses are billed
Check whether reading the same item twice is charged twice, and whether an empty or failed response costs anything.
Cap spend before you scale
A prepaid balance, a spending limit per cycle or a credit limit per key keeps one runaway script from draining the budget.
The full buyer’s guide goes further: How to estimate your X API bill.
The official API
The official X API in dated facts.
X runs the X API for reading and publishing on X: posts, users, lists, Spaces, DMs and trends. Self-serve billing is prepaid credits spent per resource read and per write, and volume above the monthly cap is sold as Enterprise.
Read on from X’s published pages. Check the official documentation (opens in a new tab) before you rely on a figure.
As of 2026-11-14, X charges reads per resource returned and writes per request, from credits bought upfront in the Developer Console, with no contracts, subscriptions or minimum spend.
X API pricing (docs.x.com) (opens in a new tab)As of 2026-11-14, Pay-Per-Use is subject to a monthly cap of 3 million post reads. For higher volume, X offers Enterprise plans with custom pricing.
X API usage and billing (docs.x.com) (opens in a new tab)Billable resources are deduplicated within a 24-hour UTC day that resets at midnight UTC, so a post requested twice that day is charged once. X calls this a soft guarantee (as of 2026-11-14).
X API pricing (docs.x.com) (opens in a new tab)As of 2026-11-14, only successful responses that return data are billed, and a post retrieved again on a later day is charged again.
X API usage and billing (docs.x.com) (opens in a new tab)From 2026-11-22, objects returned through expansions are billed like direct lookups: $0.010 per user and $0.005 per post, media object, poll or place.
X Developer Community: expansions update, 2026-10-23 (opens in a new tab)As of 2026-11-14, you can set a spending limit per billing cycle, after which requests are blocked until the next cycle, and auto-recharge tops up at most once every 5 minutes.
X API pricing (docs.x.com) (opens in a new tab)As of 2026-11-14, X is rolling out one-time free credits for new pay-per-use accounts: $20 after a first eligible card and first purchase, and a match of the first auto-recharge up to $50. They expire 3 months after they are granted.
Free credit incentives (docs.x.com) (opens in a new tab)Since 2026-02-06, when Pay-Per-Use launched, free scaled access has been limited to apps X classes as Public Utility Apps.
X Developer Community: Pay-Per-Use launch, 2026-02-06 (opens in a new tab)
X’s published prices
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Posts: Read | $0.005 per resource |
| User: Read | $0.010 per resource |
| Following/Followers: Read | $0.010 per resource |
| DM Event: Read | $0.010 per resource |
| List: Read | $0.005 per resource |
| Space: Read | $0.005 per resource |
| Community: Read | $0.005 per resource |
| Post: Create | $0.015 per request |
| Post: Create (with URL) | $0.200 per request |
| Post: Create (summoned) | $0.010 per request |
| DM Interaction: Create | $0.015 per request |
| Counts: Recent | $0.005 per request |
| Counts: All | $0.010 per request |
| Trends | $0.010 per request |
Resources
Official resources from the platforms.
The platforms’ own documentation, for when you need the primary reference.
How much does the X API cost?
X sells self-serve access to the X API as prepaid Pay-Per-Use credits. Reads are charged for each post, user or follower returned and writes per request, at the rates in X’s rate card, with no subscription or minimum. Our pick for public X data is PrimaryAPI, the company that runs this site, which prices each call instead of each item.
Is the X API free?
Not for most apps. Self-serve access runs on credits you buy upfront, and free scaled access is limited to apps X classes as Public Utility Apps. New pay-per-use accounts can earn one-time free credits, which expire three months after they are granted.
Is there a monthly limit on X API reads?
Yes. Pay-Per-Use stops at 3 million post reads per monthly billing cycle, and X sells higher volume as Enterprise plans with custom pricing. You can also set your own spending limit per cycle in the Developer Console.
Does X charge twice if I fetch the same post twice?
Not on the same UTC day. X deduplicates billable resources within a 24-hour window that resets at midnight UTC, though it calls this a soft guarantee. Fetch the same post the next day and it is charged again.
How do I estimate my X API bill?
Count the items each job returns in a month (posts, users, followers), multiply each count by its rate, and from 2026-11-22 add the objects that expansions pull in. Our guide works through keyword monitoring, account tracking, profile lookups, follower lists and trends.
Do failed X API requests cost anything?
X says only successful responses that return data are billed. PrimaryAPI follows the same idea for its X APIs: you only pay when data comes back.
What does PrimaryAPI charge for X data?
Each of PrimaryAPI’s X APIs shows its price per call on its page. Calls spend credits from a prepaid balance, and pay as you go has no monthly fee or minimum.
Try our pick on your own data.
Create a PrimaryAPI account, copy your key and make your first call from the docs. You only pay when data comes back.