Twitter, one of the world’s most popular (and currently controversial) social media platforms, extensively uses APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) in a number of ways to enable third-party developers and services to access its platform and data. These APIs allow developers to create a variety of applications that can interact with Twitter’s platform, extract data from Twitter, and publish content to Twitter on behalf of users. The APIs also allow developers to integrate Twitter data and functionality into their own applications and services, such as social media management tools, data analytics platforms, and other web and mobile applications. For instance, a really cool Twitter API lets its users know who they interact with on a daily basis, and which of their followers are dormant in their list. Before Elon Musk acquired Twitter, developers could access and create APIs with Twitter and use them with the platform for free – now, things are changing at the billion-dollar platform.

In a recent tweet, the company unveiled the details and pricing for its new API version. The company’s decision to ban third-party API clients was previously announced as part of its developer features overhaul, causing delays in its implementation. With a ton of layoffs and hierarchy adjustments happening at Twitter, this was expected. As per Twitter’s latest tweet, a free tier is still available for developers who want to experiment with APIs. However, it comes with far less functionality compared to its predecessor. This basic tier is aimed at bots and other “testing” purposes, allowing accounts to post up to 1,500 tweets per month without accessing other features. However, the posting limit of about 50 tweets a day may not be sufficient for those who post more frequently.

Developers can upgrade to the “basic” tier for $100 per month, which offers them a higher post limit of up to 3,000 tweets a month at the user level and 50,000 tweets a month at the app level, but still with a lower read limit of 10,000 tweets per month. Finally, the final tier, also labelled the “Enterprise” tier seems to be targeted towards organizations and “scaled commercial projects” with very specific needs. Those who sign up for the same will receive managed services, complete streams, and API access that allows them to tailor their projects to their own demands completely. It remains unclear how researchers and academics who rely on Twitter’s API for their work will be affected, but Twitter claims to be “looking at new ways to continue serving this community.” Also, it is worth noting that many APIs may stop functioning when Twitter implements these changes. Many of these APIs support bots that have been catering to the Twitter community for a long time now, but since Twitter is already losing money (with the company’s net worth dropping by $24 billion), Elon is clearly planning to create revenue streams in order to support the company’s backbone. Twitter Blue is another noteworthy example of such a revenue stream.

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