Twitter Releases Subscription Models and Costs for API Usage
Twitter has finally released information about its subscription models and costs for using the v2 API. There will be a free version for tweeting, allowing up to 1500 posts per month, although it seems reading tweets is not included here. Those accessing Twitter via third-party applications will be affected. However, the change will not impact those using the short message service directly in the browser or via Twitter’s own apps.
For “hobbyists and prototypers,” the Basic plan costs $100 per month. This allows for 3000 tweets to be written per month at user level, up to 50,000 at app level. There is also a tweet reading limit of 10,000 per month. Two app IDs and unlimited logins are included in this plan. Commercial projects can get a business tariff, details of which are available upon contact. The APIs available include PowerTrack, a real-time filter for desired tweets extracted from Twitter Firehose, and a historical API that allows access to previous tweets.
It is essential to switch over to the new APIs within the next 30 days as Twitter wants to close the old accesses. There is currently no separate contract for researchers, but Twitter is working on this. The change will impact all applications that do not directly fill Twitter, including social media management tools and bots.
Elon Musk has repeatedly stated his support for the change, citing his concerns about spam bots. Twitter announced in February that the interfaces’ use would cost money in the future, but the original dates for the transition passed without any further details. Overall, the change will allow Twitter to better control and monetize its platform.
