Best Twitter/X Data APIs: X API Pricing Compared (2026)

The single biggest change to X API pricing in 2026 is that the tiers everyone quoted are gone. The old $200/month Basic and $5,000/month Pro plans no longer appear in the live X developer docs. X moved to a pay-per-usage credit model: you pay per read, per lookup, per post, against a monthly cap. That reshapes the whole build-versus-buy math, and it is why third-party X data APIs now undercut the official one by two orders of magnitude on read-heavy workloads.

This is the honest pricing comparison. Seven providers including the official X API, every number verified live in July 2026, SocialCrawl argued on real strengths and real limits alongside them.

The 7 best Twitter/X data APIs at a glance

1. Official X API, required for posting and authenticated actions; expensive for reads
2. SocialCrawl, best overall for reading: unified schema across 44 platforms
3. twitterapi.io, cheapest tweets at scale ($0.15 / 1,000)
4. Apify, pay-per-result tweet scraper ($0.40 / 1,000)
5. ScrapingDog, general scraper with X coverage
6. Bright Data, enterprise volume with a free tier
7. ScrapeCreators, flat never-expiring credits

X API pricing compared

Every figure below was verified live in July 2026. X changes its terms often, so re-check the official docs before committing.

Provider	Entry price	Read economics	Free tier	Pricing verified
Official X API	pay-per-usage	~$0.005/read, 2M/mo cap	Free tier for testing	July 2026
SocialCrawl	£15 (2,500 credits)	1 credit / profile call	100 credits, no expiry	July 2026
twitterapi.io	PAYG, no minimum	$0.15 / 1,000 tweets	none (min 15 cr/call)	July 2026
Apify	$0.40 / 1,000 tweets	pay-per-result	demo mode only	July 2026
ScrapingDog	$40/mo (200,000 credits)	~5 credits / tweet-profile	200 credits forever	July 2026
Bright Data	$1.50 / 1,000 records	~$0.001 / record	5,000 records/month	July 2026
ScrapeCreators	$47 (25,000 credits)	1 credit / request	100 lifetime credits	July 2026

The two search intents here point the same way. "Twitter data api" is developers wanting to read tweets and profiles; "x api pricing" is the same developers checking whether the official API is affordable for it. In 2026 the answer is usually no for reads, and the table above is why.

1. Official X API: the pay-per-usage anchor

Best for: posting, authenticated user actions, and any use that requires first-party access.

The live X API pricing model is pay-per-usage credits. Verified rates in July 2026: post reads are about $0.005 each, user lookups $0.010, likes/mutes/blocks $0.001, and post creation $0.015 per request (a post containing a URL is $0.200). The hard cap is 2 million post reads per monthly billing cycle. There is a free access level for testing, a 24-hour dedup so reading the same resource twice in a day is charged once, and up to 20% back in xAI credits at higher spend. For posting and authenticated actions it is the only legitimate option. For reading data at scale it is the most expensive on this list (pricing verified July 2026).

Pricing: pay-per-usage; ~$0.005/read, ~$0.010/lookup; 2M reads/cycle cap; free tier for testing.

2. SocialCrawl: X in a unified schema across 44 platforms

Best for: developers reading X profiles and tweets who also pull other platforms, or who want one schema and one bill.

SocialCrawl covers Twitter/X across 44 platforms and 358 endpoints behind one API key. An X profile call sits in the Standard tier at 1 credit and returns the same field names as every other platform. Here is a real, unmodified GET /v1/twitter/profile response, called with a live dev key in July 2026:

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "author": {
      "id": "11348282",
      "username": "NASA",
      "display_name": "NASA",
      "bio": "Making the seemingly impossible, possible. ✨",
      "verified": true,
      "followers": 92203790,
      "following": 119,
      "posts_count": 74231,
      "private": false
    },
    "computed": {
      "language": "en",
      "content_category": "other"
    }
  },
  "credits_used": 1
}

The rest of the X surface, user tweets, single tweets, communities, and an AI-grounded search, returns in the same envelope. The Visual Explorer shows the shape before you write code, there are free tools built on the same data, and there is an MCP server for agent callers. What SocialCrawl does not do is post or take authenticated actions on your behalf; for that you still need the official API.

What we like: one schema across every platform; 1-credit X profile reads; AI-grounded X search; 100 free credits that never expire; Explorer and MCP for no-code and agent use.

What to watch: read-only, so no posting or authenticated actions; at pure tweet-firehose volume, twitterapi.io's per-tweet rate is lower.

Pricing: Free (100 credits) then £15 for 2,500 credits, £49 for 20,000, £299 for 150,000. Credits never expire. See pricing.

3. twitterapi.io: cheapest tweets at scale

Best for: read-heavy tweet and profile pulls where per-unit cost is the priority.

twitterapi.io is pay-as-you-go at $0.15 per 1,000 tweets and $0.18 per 1,000 profiles, with followers from about $0.01 per 1,000 on a tiered basis. The minimum is 15 credits ($0.00015) per call, there is no minimum spend, and credits never expire. It is unofficial and read-only, so no posting, but for reading tweets at volume it is the lowest verified rate here (pricing verified July 2026).

Pricing: $0.15 / 1,000 tweets; $0.18 / 1,000 profiles; no minimum spend.

4. Apify: pay-per-result tweet scraper

Best for: teams that want per-result billing and are fine with query-based batch scraping.

Apify's tweet scraper (the apidojo actor) is $0.40 per 1,000 tweets on a pay-per-result basis, plus a platform plan. The free plan is demo mode only (5 runs per month, max 10 items, no API access). Two constraints to know: each query must return at least 50 tweets, and this actor does not support single-tweet scraping, so it is built for batch queries rather than targeted lookups (pricing verified July 2026).

Pricing: $0.40 / 1,000 tweets; free plan is demo mode only.

5. ScrapingDog: general scraper with X coverage

Best for: teams already on ScrapingDog who want X lookups on the same plan.

ScrapingDog's Lite plan is $40/month for 200,000 credits, and an X tweet-profile scrape costs about 5 credits; Standard is $90/month for 1,000,000. There are 200 free credits forever with 1 concurrency. It is per-URL lookups rather than a firehose, so it suits targeted reads more than bulk timeline collection (pricing verified July 2026).

Pricing: $40/mo (200K credits) or $90/mo (1M credits); free 200 credits.

6. Bright Data: enterprise volume with a free tier

Best for: high-volume teams that want a real free allowance and enterprise reliability.

Bright Data's X scraper is $1.50 per 1,000 records pay-as-you-go, with a Scale tier at $499/month (384K records included, then $1.30 per 1,000) and a free 5,000 records per month plus $2 credit. It is URL-collection based and roughly 10x pricier per record than twitterapi.io, which is the cost of enterprise onboarding and reliability (pricing verified July 2026).

Pricing: $1.50 / 1,000 records; Scale $499/mo; free 5,000 records/month.

7. ScrapeCreators: flat never-expiring credits

Best for: developers who want simple credits across X and other platforms from one vendor.

ScrapeCreators covers 6 X/Twitter endpoints on the same flat plans as the rest of its catalog: 100 lifetime free credits, then Freelance $47 for 25,000 credits and Business $497 for 500,000, credits never expiring. It is a reasonable single-vendor option for mixed platform work, though it is solo-maintained (pricing verified July 2026).

Pricing: free 100 lifetime credits; Freelance $47 (25K), Business $497 (500K).

Feature matrix: Twitter/X data APIs compared

✓ genuine capability, ✗ absent, ~ partial or conditional.

Provider	Unified schema	Posts/writes	Read at scale	Free tier	Other platforms
Official X API	✗	✓	~ (2M cap)	✓ testing	✗ X only
SocialCrawl	✓	✗	✓	✓ 100 cr	✓ 43 more
twitterapi.io	✗	✗	✓	✗	✗ X only
Apify	✗ (per-actor)	✗	~ (batch)	~ demo	✓ (actors)
ScrapingDog	✗	✗	~	✓ 200 cr	~ (web scraper)
Bright Data	~	✗	✓	✓ 5,000/mo	✓
ScrapeCreators	✗	✗	✓	✓ 100 cr	✓

Which Twitter/X data API should you choose?

• You need to post or take authenticated actions → the official X API. It is the only legitimate path, and the pay-per-usage model is fine when writes, not reads, are the volume.
• You read X and also pull other platforms → SocialCrawl. One schema, one bill, X profiles and tweets in the same envelope as 43 other networks, plus AI-grounded search.
• You need the cheapest tweets at scale → twitterapi.io at $0.15 per 1,000, if read-only and X-only is acceptable.
• You want per-result billing on batch queries → Apify at $0.40 per 1,000, with the 50-tweet-minimum and no single-tweet caveats.
• You want enterprise reliability with a free tier → Bright Data, accepting the ~10x per-record premium over twitterapi.io.

For the fuller picture on the official API's history and the cheaper routes around it, see our X (Twitter) API in 2026 guide. If you are comparing every network rather than just X, the best social media scraping APIs roundup covers the full field.

Frequently asked questions

How much does the X API cost in 2026?

The official X API moved to a pay-per-usage credit model. Verified July 2026 rates are about $0.005 per post read, $0.010 per user lookup, $0.001 per like/mute/block, and $0.015 per post created ($0.200 if the post contains a URL), capped at 2 million post reads per billing cycle. The old $200 Basic and $5,000 Pro monthly tiers no longer appear in the live docs.

What is the best Twitter data API for reading tweets?

For reading, SocialCrawl if you also pull other platforms (unified schema, 1 credit per profile call, AI-grounded search), or twitterapi.io if you want the lowest per-tweet cost at $0.15 per 1,000 and X-only, read-only is fine. The official X API is the most expensive option for read-heavy work.

Is there a free Twitter/X API?

The official X API has a free access level for testing, but it is limited. Among third parties, SocialCrawl gives 100 credits that never expire, Bright Data 5,000 free records per month, ScrapingDog 200 free credits forever, and ScrapeCreators 100 lifetime credits. twitterapi.io has no free block but no minimum spend either.

Why is the official X API so expensive for data?

Because it now bills per read at about $0.005 each with a 2-million-read monthly cap, which adds up fast for analytics or monitoring workloads. Third-party APIs read public data in bulk and price per 1,000, so twitterapi.io at $0.15 per 1,000 tweets is roughly two orders of magnitude cheaper per read. The official API is priced for posting and authenticated actions, not bulk reading.

Can I post to X through these third-party APIs?

No. SocialCrawl, twitterapi.io, Apify, ScrapingDog, Bright Data, and ScrapeCreators are all read-only for X. Posting and authenticated user actions require the official X API. A common pattern is to read data through a cheaper third party and post through the official API.

What is the cheapest way to scrape X at scale?

twitterapi.io at $0.15 per 1,000 tweets is the lowest verified per-tweet rate here, followed by Apify at $0.40 per 1,000. For mixed workloads that also touch other platforms, SocialCrawl's 1-credit profile reads and never-expiring credits often work out cheaper overall than paying per platform. Verified July 2026.

Does SocialCrawl support X communities and search?

Yes. Beyond profiles and user tweets, SocialCrawl exposes X communities and an AI-grounded search endpoint, all in the same unified response envelope. You can preview any of them in the Visual Explorer before integrating.