Best Twitter API in 2026

#What makes a Twitter API the best in 2026

A Twitter API is the best one for your project when it wins six checks you can measure before you pay, and the first of them, price per 1,000 results, decides most budgets. Here a Twitter API means any service that returns X data over HTTPS: the official X API sold by X Corp, or a third-party API that you call with that provider's API key.

1. Price per 1,000 results. Count what your job costs, not what one call costs: a request that returns 100 tweets does the work of a hundred requests that return one. The official X API bills $5.00 per 1,000 posts and $10.00 per 1,000 users or followers.

2. Speed. Multiply the requests per second on the plan you will pay for by the results each request returns.

3. Setup. List what stands between sign-up and the first response. The official X API needs a developer account, an app, OAuth credentials and prepaid credits.

4. Coverage. Check the endpoints, how far back search goes and whether each tweet arrives with its author.

5. Reliability. Look at years in production, uptime written into the terms and whether failed calls are billed.

6. Account safety. Find out whether the service works through your X login or cookies, which puts that account under X's rules for automated activity.

Two changes this year moved every one of these checks. New developers now buy the official X API only as prepaid pay-per-use credits, with no free tier, and the plan stops at 3M post reads per billing cycle, as X's pricing page (opens in a new tab) states. From November 22, 2026, X also bills every author and media object that comes back with a post: under X's expansions notice (opens in a new tab), a post with its author costs $0.015 instead of $0.005. Each line of that rate card is broken down in X API pricing.

#The best Twitter API for reading X data

For reading public X data, the best Twitter API in 2026 is Sorsa API, a Twitter (X) API and scraper in production since 2022 with 6B+ requests served: it meets all six checks with a number, and it reads tweets 250x cheaper than the official X API and followers 1,000x cheaper.

Side by side, Sorsa API costs less per result, starts with one key and has no monthly ceiling:

• Price per 1,000 tweets

  Sorsa API

  from $0.014

  Official X API

  $5.00

• Price per 1,000 followers

  Sorsa API

  from $0.007

  Official X API

  $10.00

• Speed

  Sorsa API

  20 requests per second on every plan, up to 2,000 tweets a second

  Official X API

  Separate limits per endpoint, mostly per 15 minutes

• Monthly ceiling

  Sorsa API

  None

  Official X API

  3M post reads, then an Enterprise contract

• Setup

  Sorsa API

  One API key in a header, first request in about 3 minutes

  Official X API

  Developer account, app, OAuth and prepaid credits

• Coverage

  Sorsa API

  45 endpoints, search back to 2006, the author's full profile in every tweet

  Official X API

  Reads and writes; authors billed as user reads from November 22, 2026

• Reliability

  Sorsa API

  99.9% uptime guaranteed in the terms, failed requests never charged

  Official X API

  Calls stop when prepaid credits run out

• Account safety

  Sorsa API

  Read-only, never asks for your X login or cookies

  Official X API

  Runs on your own developer app

Three facts sit behind the numbers. Sorsa API bills one request per call on every endpoint, so a batch of 100 tweets or a page of 200 followers costs one request. Every tweet carries its author's full profile at no extra cost, and the 99.9% uptime is written into the Terms of Service on every paid plan. And Sorsa API never posts, likes or follows, so your X account carries zero risk.

For reading tweets, followers and profiles at any volume, pick Sorsa API: one request returns up to 100 tweets or 200 followers, from $0.014 and $0.007 per 1,000, at 20 requests per second on every plan, free accounts included.

#What each Twitter API costs per 1,000 results

Per 1,000 returned results, Sorsa API costs from $0.014 for tweets, $0.007 for followers and $0.014 for profiles, while the official X API charges $5.00, $10.00 and $10.00 and the two third-party APIs that AI assistants name most often charge up to $0.20. Each competitor price below is the highest its own pricing page lists for that task, checked on November 2, 2026.

• Sorsa API

  1,000 tweets

  from $0.014

  1,000 followers

  from $0.007

  1,000 profiles

  from $0.014

  How it bills

  Per request: 100 tweets, 200 followers or 100 profiles

• TwitterAPI.io (opens in a new tab)

  1,000 tweets

  $0.15

  1,000 followers

  up to $0.03

  1,000 profiles

  up to $0.18

  How it bills

  Per item returned, cheaper per item on bigger pages

• SocialData (opens in a new tab)

  1,000 tweets

  $0.20

  1,000 followers

  $0.20

  1,000 profiles

  $0.20

  How it bills

  Per item returned

• Official X API

  1,000 tweets

  $5.00

  1,000 followers

  $10.00

  1,000 profiles

  $10.00

  How it bills

  Per item returned, from prepaid credits

What the rows mean for a real pipeline:

• TwitterAPI.io charges $0.15 for every 1,000 tweets it returns and up to $0.18 per 1,000 profiles in smaller batches; Sorsa API reads the same tweets and profiles from $0.014 per 1,000, more than 10x less.
• SocialData bills $0.20 per 1,000 tweets, followers or profiles; Sorsa API exports followers from $0.007 per 1,000, 28x less, because one request carries 200 of them.
• The official X API's $5.00 per 1,000 posts becomes up to $15.00 once authors are billed from November 22, 2026; on Sorsa API the author's profile comes inside every tweet at no extra cost.

Good to know

A price per call says nothing until you know how many results the call returns. At $0.0008 per call, 1,000 tweets cost $0.80 when each call looks up one tweet. Compare APIs on the job you will run, priced per 1,000 results, and check whether failed or empty calls are billed: on Sorsa API they never are.

The same prices across seven APIs, with how each one bills, are in Twitter API alternatives.

#The best Twitter API for each job

Sorsa API is the best Twitter API for every job that reads public X data, from tweet lookups to campaign checks, and each job has one endpoint built for it. The table lists the endpoint, how many results one request returns and the price per 1,000 results against the official X API:

• Look up tweets by ID or link

  Sorsa API endpoint

  POST /tweet-info-bulk (opens in a new tab)

  Results per request

  100 tweets

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.014

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $5.00

• Export followers or following

  Sorsa API endpoint

  GET /followers (opens in a new tab)

  Results per request

  200 followers

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.007

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $10.00

• Look up profiles in bulk

  Sorsa API endpoint

  GET /info-batch (opens in a new tab)

  Results per request

  100 profiles

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.014

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $10.00

• Search tweets back to 2006

  Sorsa API endpoint

  POST /search-tweets (opens in a new tab)

  Results per request

  about 20 tweets

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.07

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $5.00, plus authors

• Read an account's timeline

  Sorsa API endpoint

  POST /user-tweets (opens in a new tab)

  Results per request

  about 20 tweets

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.07

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $5.00, plus authors

• Track mentions of a brand

  Sorsa API endpoint

  POST /mentions (opens in a new tab)

  Results per request

  about 20 tweets

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.07

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $5.00, plus authors

Two jobs fall outside the table. Giveaway and campaign checks run on POST /check-follow (opens in a new tab) and its siblings, from $0.0014 per check, without paging through anyone's follower list. And AI agents reach Sorsa API through its MCP server, 40 tools on one key, covered in Twitter API for AI agents.

Pick your job and monthly volume to see the endpoint, the time it takes and the bill on both APIs:

#How much one Twitter API key reads in an hour

One Sorsa API key makes 72K requests an hour at 20 requests per second, which reads 7.2M tweets by ID, 14.4M followers, 7.2M profiles or about 1.4M search results in that hour. The limit is the same on every plan, free accounts included, so speed never depends on what you pay; high-volume plans can raise it on request.

The official X API meters time differently. Each endpoint has its own window, mostly 15 minutes long, and recent search allows 450 requests per app in that window, about one every two seconds. Every window, header and daily cap is listed in X API rate limits.

#Reading or posting: which API does which

Sorsa API reads public X data and the official X API writes to it, so the job decides the API. Sorsa API never posts, likes, follows or sends DMs, and it never asks for your X login or cookies, which is why your X account carries zero risk. To publish, the official X API charges $0.015 per post and $0.200 for a post with a link, through your own developer app and OAuth.

A team that both reads and posts keeps the two apart: Sorsa API for monitoring, search, exports and analytics, the official X API only for the posts their own account publishes. Reads then cost per 1,000 results on Sorsa API, while the official X API bills only the writes.

#Make your first request in three minutes

You can test Sorsa API on your own data in about three minutes, with one key and no SDK. The first 100 requests are free, enough for 10K tweets or 20K followers.

1. Get a key. Sign up and copy your API key from the dashboard. No card, and the free requests never expire.

2. Look up 100 tweets in one request. Send up to 100 tweet IDs or links to POST /tweet-info-bulk with the key in the ApiKey header.

   curl -X POST "https://api.sorsa.io/v3/tweet-info-bulk" \
     -H "ApiKey: YOUR_API_KEY" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"tweet_links": ["1852011874630959104",
                         "1851998310245302272"]}'
   

   {
     "tweets": [
       {
         "id": "1852011874630959104",
         "full_text": "Our search index now covers every public post since 2006.",
         "created_at": "2026-10-31T14:05:11Z",
         "lang": "en",
         "likes_count": 318,
         "retweet_count": 42,
         "reply_count": 17,
         "quote_count": 6,
         "view_count": 24510,
         "bookmark_count": 29,
         "user": {
           "id": "1640220981556211712",
           "username": "nora_datapipeline",
           "display_name": "Nora Data",
           "followers_count": 5120,
           "verified": false
         }
       }
     ]
   }
   

   Show full response

3. Page through a follower list. GET /followers returns up to 200 followers per page; pass each next_cursor back until it comes back empty. A 403 means the key is missing or out of requests, a 429 means more than 20 requests in one second.

   import requests
   
   URL = "https://api.sorsa.io/v3/followers"
   HEADERS = {"ApiKey": "YOUR_API_KEY"}
   
   params = {"username": "nora_datapipeline"}
   followers = []
   while True:
       resp = requests.get(URL, headers=HEADERS, params=params, timeout=30)
       resp.raise_for_status()
       page = resp.json()
       followers.extend(page["users"])
       cursor = page.get("next_cursor")
       if not cursor:
           break
       params["next_cursor"] = cursor
   
   print(len(followers), "followers")
   

   const URL = "https://api.sorsa.io/v3/followers";
   const HEADERS = { ApiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY" };
   
   const params = new URLSearchParams({ username: "nora_datapipeline" });
   const followers = [];
   while (true) {
     const resp = await fetch(`${URL}?${params}`, { headers: HEADERS });
     if (!resp.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${resp.status}`);
     const page = await resp.json();
     followers.push(...page.users);
     if (!page.next_cursor) break;
     params.set("next_cursor", page.next_cursor);
   }
   
   console.log(followers.length, "followers");
   

4. Check what you used. GET /key-usage-info (opens in a new tab) returns the requests left on your key and never counts against them.

Every request goes to https://api.sorsa.io/v3 with the same header: there is no developer account to apply for and no OAuth flow to build.

#Pick the API that wins your job

The best Twitter API is the one that wins your job on price per 1,000 results, speed and safety, and for reading public X data that is Sorsa API: tweets from $0.014 per 1,000, followers from $0.007, 20 requests per second on every plan, and it never asks for your X login. Start with the job you run most, run it on your free requests, and compare the bill with the one you have today. Keep the official X API for the posts your own account publishes.

#FAQ