Twitter/X killed free API access in 2023. Here's what options remain.
Current API Pricing (2026)
| Tier | Price | Tweets/month |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1,500 reads |
| Basic | $100/mo | 10,000 reads |
| Pro | $5,000/mo | 1M reads |
| Enterprise | Custom | Unlimited |
For most scraping needs, these prices are prohibitive.
Alternatives That Work
1. Nitter (Third-Party Frontend)
Nitter instances serve Twitter data without API:
https://nitter.net/elonmusk
https://nitter.net/search?q=web+scraping
Warning: Nitter instances frequently go down. Not reliable for production.
2. Google Cache
site:twitter.com "web scraping" inurl:status
Google indexes tweets — you can search them through Google.
3. Switch to Bluesky
Bluesky's AT Protocol is fully open with no rate limits:
// Free, no auth, structured JSON
const res = await fetch('https://public.api.bsky.app/xrpc/app.bsky.feed.searchPosts?q=web+scraping');
const data = await res.json();
Many users have migrated from Twitter to Bluesky (41M users, 302% growth).
4. Use Other Social Platforms Instead
For social media sentiment and community data:
-
Reddit —
.jsonendpoint, free, no auth - Hacker News — Algolia API, free
- Bluesky — AT Protocol, free
These often give better sentiment data than Twitter anyway.
Resources
Need social media data? I extract from Bluesky, Reddit, HN, YouTube — $20. No Twitter API costs needed. Email: Spinov001@gmail.com | Hire me
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