X, then Twitter, began charging developers for API access in February 2023, and has now announced a major price increase.

X made the announcement in a developer community page.

Free tier

Developers on the Free tier will be able to Post 500 Posts per month using the X API. Additionally, you can read 100 Posts per month to test out the API.

Note: We will continue enabling verified services who post weather alerts, transport updates and emergency notifications without cost.

Basic and Pro tier

Annual Pricing

We are introducing discounted annual subscription plans for both Basic and Pro, along with updated monthly pricing for Basic.

• Basic Monthly will increase from $100 to $200 USD
• Pro Monthly will stay at $5000 USD

The monthly Tweet cap for Basic will be 15,000 (up from 10,000)

Additional endpoints will be available for Basic and Pro developers such as reposts_of_me, communities search etc.

Users who pay annually will receive a discount of 12.5% for the Basic plan, coming in at $2,100. Pro users will receive a 10% discount, with a cost of $54,000.

X and Its Tumultuous API Pricing

X angered users when it introduced API pricing, with the change leading to the demise of some popular third-party clients, including Twitterrific. The company sparked further controversy when it initially refused to allow public services to continue using its API for free, a move that would have killed services like National Weather Service alert posts. While X eventually reversed that decision, its policy continued to be a sore point with many users and developers.

It’s unlikely X will win much fanfare with its latest price hike.