Is the Twitter API free? Free access, trials and limits

The official X API charges for self-service usage through prepaid credits, without requiring a subscription. TweetAPI gives new accounts 100 one-time trial units, with no credit card required and a limit of 10 requests per minute. The units do not expire or renew each month.

Last checked September 25, 2026. TweetAPI is a third-party service. Not affiliated with X Corp.

Test one public read

Create an account, make an API key in the dashboard, and put it in an environment variable. Do not paste the key into code or a URL.

export TWEETAPI_KEY="your_api_key"
curl --get "https://api.tweetapi.com/tw-v2/user/by-username" \
  --data-urlencode "username=sample_user_00001" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $TWEETAPI_KEY" \
  --max-time 30 --fail-with-body

Replace sample_user_00001 with an existing public username, without @. A successful profile lookup has data.id, data.username, and public profile counts. This excerpt uses synthetic values:

{
  "data": {
    "id": "1234567890123456789",
    "username": "sample_user_00001",
    "followerCount": 1234
  }
}

The ID is a string. Keep it as a string when requesting the account's public posts. To try a request without writing code, open the prefilled profile Playground. The quickstart shows Python and TypeScript clients.

What the trial can tell you

Use a few public profile, post, and search requests to check the fields, pagination, and coverage your application needs. Set a page limit before fetching an entire timeline or search result. You can validate your parser and estimate the number of calls in your workflow without first buying a plan.

Most metered TweetAPI calls cost one unit, whether they return one record or several. Each billable pagination request or retry uses more of your allowance. A 100-unit trial does not mean 100 returned posts.

Some operations cost more: account login uses 500 units and X Chat send uses 10. The trial therefore does not cover 100 uses of every endpoint. The pricing and metering guide explains which response statuses are billable and what ongoing usage costs.

When the trial runs out, further metered requests need a paid plan or enough valid prepaid units. Waiting for the minute to reset only clears the rate limit; it does not restore trial units. The pricing page lists current paid options.

Create a TweetAPI account, make a key, and run the profile request above against a public account relevant to your application. If you need another kind of access, see which credentials each task requires.