Am I Shadowbanned on Twitter (X)?
You are shadowbanned if the checker above detects a search ban or a search suggestion ban, since those are the two restrictions X applies without ever sending a notification. Run the test and read the result: any check marked as detected means X is limiting that part of your visibility. If every check is clear but your reach still dropped, the cause is usually a ghost ban or reply deboosting, which you can confirm with the 2-minute manual check further down this page, or a recent posting pattern that triggered a temporary filter.
X does not notify you when search or search suggestions stop showing your account, and its own Under the Hood report only covers last month's labels, so a live external test is the fastest way to confirm a shadowban. This checker reads public visibility signals only, so it works on any public account without a login.
What Is a Twitter Shadowban?
A Twitter shadowban (also written shadow ban, and sometimes called a stealth ban or ghost ban) is a visibility restriction that X applies to an account without telling its owner. Your posts still publish and your existing followers still see them, but X hides or downranks them in search results, in search autocomplete, and inside reply threads, so new people stop discovering you.
X refers to this mechanism as visibility filtering and does not send a notification when it applies one. Its Under the Hood report now lists some of these labels after the month ends, but the only live way to know is to test the account from the outside, the way a stranger sees it. A shadowban is not a suspension: the account stays fully active, and most restrictions lift on their own once the behavior that triggered them stops.
X's Official Shadowban Checker: Under the Hood vs This Test
In August 2026, X introduced Under the Hood, its own transparency page at x.com/i/under_the_hood. It gives you a downloadable report of the labels that limited the visibility of your account and your posts during the previous month, for example spam or sensitive media labels that keep posts out of recommendations for people who do not follow you. Since September 2026 it also lists posts withheld in specific countries because of legal requests.
Under the Hood and this checker answer different questions, so they work best together.
| Under the Hood (X) | This shadowban test (Sorsa API) | |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts you can check | Only your own | Any public account |
| Who can use it | Accounts at least one year old with at least 10 posts in the previous month | Anyone, and you do not need to log in |
| Time frame | The previous calendar month, available after the month ends | Live, results cached for up to one hour |
| What it shows | Visibility labels X applied to your account and posts, plus posts withheld by country for legal reasons | Search ban and search suggestion ban status, plus the protected and sensitive profile flags |
| Format | A JSON file you download | A result on this page, or JSON through the API |
Start with the test above for a live read on search visibility. If it comes back clear but your reach is still down, open Under the Hood to see whether X attached a label to your account or posts last month, then run the manual ghost ban check below. A clean Under the Hood report does not rule out a search ban today, and a clean test today does not show labels X applied to last month's posts.
What Each Check Means
Run the test above and you get two visibility tests plus the two account settings that affect them. Each test can also come back as “can’t tell”: that means the measurement was not possible, not that your account is clear. Here is what each one looks at.
Search Ban
Your posts are hidden from X search entirely. We test this by running a from:username query against X's live search: if you have recent posts but the search returns nothing, you are search-banned.
Search Suggestion Ban
Your handle stops appearing in X's search autocomplete when other people type it. We query the autocomplete index itself, not full-text user search: they are separate indexes, and X restricts them independently, so testing the wrong one would miss the ban.
Sensitive Profile
X can flag an account as sensitive when it posts adult or graphic media. Flagged profiles sit behind a content warning and drop out of default search for many users. We read the flag off your profile. It is a setting on the account rather than a restriction X imposed, so on its own it does not count as a shadowban.
Account Privacy
A protected (private) account hides its posts from everyone who does not follow it, so no external tool can measure its search visibility. We check whether the account is public before reading the other signals.
The 4 Types of Shadowban on X
A shadowban on X (also called a shadow ban, stealth ban, or ghost ban) is not one setting but several visibility restrictions. There are four, and this checker auto-detects the first two.
01Search ban
X drops all of your posts from search results, including hashtag and keyword searches, even for someone typing your exact handle.
from:username02Search suggestion ban
Your @handle disappears from the autocomplete dropdown when people start typing it, so new users cannot find you.
03Ghost ban (thread ban)
Your replies are removed from other people's view of a conversation while they still look normal to you. It depends on thread-specific signals.
04Reply deboosting
Your replies stay in the thread but are pushed behind the "Show more replies" fold, cutting their reach. It is personalized and varies by conversation.
The two automatic tests run in seconds with no login. The manual check for the other two takes about two minutes and follows below; for every method in depth, see the full shadowban guide.
Signs You Might Be Shadowbanned on X
If two or more of these apply, run the test above to confirm.
Posts missing from search: a post with a hashtag or keyword does not show in the Latest tab when you search for it while logged out.
Replies getting no traction: you reply to popular posts but get zero engagement, and a non-follower confirms your reply is not visible in the thread.
Impressions dropped overnight: views and engagement fell 50% or more with no change in how or what you post.
Missing from autocomplete: typing your @username in X search does not surface your account in the dropdown.
Follower growth stalled: new people are not discovering you despite active posting.
Ghost Ban Check on X (Twitter): The 2-Minute Manual Test
The checker above reads search and autocomplete, not reply threads, so a ghost ban and reply deboosting need a quick manual check.
Before you start: do this from a logged-out browser window, or from a second account that does not follow you. If X asks you to log in to view a thread, use the second account.
- 1
Check Account status and Under the Hood
1 minIn X, open Settings and privacy, then Your account, then Account status. If your account is at least a year old and posted 10 or more times last month, also open x.com/i/under_the_hood and download last month’s visibility label report.
A label is listed in Account status or in the Under the Hood report: X has officially limited the reach of your account or some of your posts.Nothing listed: no official label. Search and suggestion bans rarely appear here, so this does not replace the test above. - 2
Ghost ban test
~1 minReply to a fresh post from a large account you do not follow. Wait a few minutes, then open that post in the logged-out view or your second account and scroll the replies.
Missing from the thread while it still shows on your own profile: ghost ban.Visible to a stranger: no ghost ban. - 3
Reply deboosting test
~30 secIn the same view, tap "Show more replies" at the bottom of the thread.
Only appears after that click, or sits in the "Show additional replies" section: your replies are being deboosted.Appears in the normal reply list: you are clear.
Both restrictions are personalized and thread-specific, so repeat the test on two or three different posts before drawing a conclusion. If everything is clear here and the checker above is clear too, a reach drop is most likely a temporary filter from a recent posting pattern rather than a shadowban.
How to Fix or Remove a Shadowban on X (Twitter)
Most restrictions lift within 2 to 7 days once the trigger stops. There is no button to remove a shadowban, because X does not officially acknowledge one, but this three-step recovery protocol clears the majority of search bans and suggestion bans.
- 1
Cool down
24-72 hoursStop all activity: no tweets, replies, likes, follows or retweets. The algorithm needs a clean window with no signals to work with. This single step resolves the majority of suggestion bans and light search bans.
- 2
Clean up
one sitting- Delete tweets with excessive hashtags, repetitive links or mass-tagging from the last 48-72 hours.
- Revoke third-party app access in Settings > Security and Account Access > Apps and sessions.
- Complete your profile (avatar, bio, verified email and phone) if anything is missing.
- 3
Re-enter gradually
next 2 weeksResume with 2-3 high-quality original posts per day, spaced at least an hour apart, and engage in conversations with substantive replies. Avoid follow/unfollow patterns and automation tools for at least two weeks.
Re-run the test above after a few days to confirm your account is clear. If X shows the "This request looks like it might be automated" message, that is a separate rate-limit block with its own fix: see what the automated-request error means. If a restriction persists past a week, submit a support request through X's Help Center describing the drop in reach, and read the full shadowban recovery guide for the manual tests and fixes for all four ban types.
How This Shadowban Checker Works (and How to Automate It)
The tool queries X's public search and typeahead systems to test visibility, the same method every reputable shadowban checker uses. It runs in seconds, needs no login or account connection, and stores nothing about the accounts you check.
Under the hood it runs on Sorsa API, an alternative X (Twitter) API, on a single dedicated endpoint you can call yourself: check-shadowban. One request takes a handle, runs both measurements, and returns a structured verdict, so you get the same result this page shows without stitching search calls together yourself.
Every response separates a real restriction from a failed measurement. Each check comes back as clean, banned, or unknown with a reason, and is_shadowbanned only turns true when a check actually found a restriction, so an account with no recent posts is never reported as banned by default. The response also carries the protected and possibly_sensitive profile flags and a checked_at timestamp.
Shadowban API: check accounts at scale
Checking one account is free here. If you monitor a roster of accounts, call the endpoint directly. Your first 100 requests are free: no card, no expiry.
- One API key, no app approval, setup in about 3 minutes
- Flat 20 requests per second on every plan
- One request per account: both checks, one call, one unit of quota
- Clean JSON verdict, built for pipelines and alerting
- Far cheaper than the official X API for read-heavy work (roughly an order of magnitude or more)
- Built on the same infrastructure, in production since 2022
import requests
resp = requests.get(
"https://api.sorsa.io/v3/check-shadowban",
headers={"ApiKey": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
params={"username": "targethandle"},
).json()
# True if any check found a restriction
resp["is_shadowbanned"]
# clean | banned | unknown
resp["checks"]["search_ban"]["status"]
resp["checks"]["search_suggestion_ban"]["status"]Frequently Asked Questions
How accurate is this shadowban checker?
It tests search ban and search suggestion ban with high accuracy by querying X's own search infrastructure directly. When a measurement cannot be made, the result says so with a reason instead of guessing, so an inconclusive check is never counted as a ban. Ghost ban and reply deboosting are harder to detect automatically and are best confirmed manually.
Does X have an official shadowban checker?
Yes, with limits. In August 2026 X introduced Under the Hood (x.com/i/under_the_hood), a report of the visibility labels applied to your own account and posts during the previous month, which now also lists posts withheld in specific countries for legal reasons. It is available only to accounts at least one year old with at least 10 posts in the previous month, and it does not show whether search or search suggestions hide you right now. This checker runs that live test for any public account, so the two work best together.
Is the shadowban test really free?
Yes. The test is free, and you do not need to log in or connect an X account. Every visitor gets 5 free checks a day, which reset at 00:00 UTC. To check many accounts at once, run the same tests through Sorsa API: your first 100 requests are free, no card required.
Do I need to log in or connect my X account?
No. The checker only needs a public username or profile link. There is no login, no OAuth, and no permissions, and it stores nothing about the accounts you check.
What restrictions can this checker detect?
This checker reliably detects a search ban (posts hidden from search) and a search suggestion ban (handle missing from autocomplete), and reads the sensitive-content and protected flags that affect them. Ghost bans and reply deboosting need the 2-minute manual check on this page.
Can I check someone else's account?
Yes. Enter any public X username or profile link. The test reads public visibility signals and works for any account that is not set to private.
Is there a shadowban API I can call from my own code?
Yes. This page runs on the check-shadowban endpoint in Sorsa API, and you can call the same endpoint yourself: pass a handle, get back a structured verdict with both checks, the reason behind any inconclusive result, and the protected and sensitive-content flags. Authentication is one API key header, there is no app approval, and at 20 requests per second a script can audit a full roster of accounts in a single pass. The first 100 requests are free.
How often are shadowban results refreshed?
Each result is measured live and then cached for one hour, so re-running the same handle within the hour returns the same verdict. If you have just changed something on the account, wait an hour before re-testing. Restrictions rarely lift in minutes anyway: most take 2 to 7 days to clear.
Is this an alternative to shadowban.yuzurisa.com or hisubway?
Yes. shadowban.yuzurisa.com and hisubway.online are the classic checkers, and both depend on X's front end, so they stop working or return errors whenever X changes its search internals, and their quality-filter test was dropped after X deprecated that mechanism. This checker runs on a maintained API with a dedicated shadowban endpoint, so the search ban and search suggestion ban tests keep working through those changes, and developers can call the same endpoint directly instead of scraping a checker page. If yuzurisa or hisubway is down or not loading, run your handle here.
Why does this checker say I'm not shadowbanned when my reach has dropped?
A clear result means no search ban or suggestion ban. A reach drop with a clean result usually points to a ghost ban or reply deboosting, which you can confirm with the manual ghost ban check on this page, or a temporary filter from a recent posting pattern. The search ban test also needs recent public posts to read, so an account that has not posted in the last few days can return an inconclusive result.
How long does a shadowban on X last?
Most shadowbans are temporary and lift within 2 to 7 days once you stop the behavior that triggered them, such as aggressive automation, repeated links, or excessive hashtags. Persistent or repeat restrictions can last longer.
Does X Premium remove a shadowban?
No. X Premium does not lift a shadowban on its own. A verified subscription can raise your account's algorithmic trust over time, which lowers the risk of being flagged, but rule violations still trigger restrictions regardless of subscription status.
How do I tell if my X account is banned or just shadowbanned?
A shadowban limits how far your posts and replies travel while your account stays fully active, and that is what this tool detects through the search and suggestion checks. A suspension or lock is different: X disables or blocks the account outright and shows a notice the moment you log in, so no external tool is needed to confirm it. If your account is active and posts normally but reach has fallen, you are looking at a visibility restriction, not a ban.
How do I check my X account status or health?
This tool is the fastest way to check your X account's visibility health: it tests whether your posts are search-banned and whether your handle is missing from search autocomplete, the two restrictions that most often drag down reach. For X's own view, open Settings and privacy, then Your account, then Account status, where any official reach label appears with its reason, and if your account qualifies, download last month's label report from Under the Hood (x.com/i/under_the_hood). This tool does not check whether an account is suspended or locked, which X shows directly in the app. For a fuller account-health audit, you can also audit any account for fake or bot followers, since low-quality followers inflate your numbers without adding real reach.
How do I remove a shadowban on X?
Stop the behavior that triggered it, pause all activity for 24 to 72 hours, delete posts with repeated links, excessive hashtags or mass tagging, then resume slowly: the three-step protocol above walks through each stage. Most restrictions lift within 2 to 7 days. There is no button to remove a shadowban, because X does not officially acknowledge one; if a restriction persists past a week, submit a general support request through X's Help Center describing the drop in reach.
What is a ghost ban on X?
A ghost ban, sometimes called a stealth ban or thread ban, is a form of shadowban where your replies stay visible to you but are hidden from everyone else inside the conversation, so your account looks normal while its reach quietly collapses. This checker does not detect it, because a ghost ban lives inside reply threads, which the search and suggestion tests never look at. Use the 2-minute manual ghost ban check on this page. X does not send a notification when it applies one, and Under the Hood shows last month's labels rather than how your replies appear in a live thread, so a manual test is still the most direct way to spot it.
What is the difference between a search ban and a shadowban?
A search ban is one specific type of shadowban: your posts stop appearing in X search results even when someone searches your exact text or handle. Shadowban is the broader term, covering search bans, suggestion or autocomplete bans, and reply deboosting. This checker runs both a search test and a suggestion test, so a search ban is one of the restrictions it can detect.
How long does a search suggestion ban last, and how do I get rid of it?
A search suggestion ban is usually the lightest restriction and often clears within a few days once the trigger stops: repetitive replies, aggressive follow and unfollow activity, or engaging with spam-heavy accounts. Pause activity for 24 to 72 hours, remove repeated links and promotional keywords from your recent posts and bio, then resume normal posting. Re-run this test after two or three days to confirm your handle is back in X's autocomplete.