The Twitter API allows developers to access and integrate Twitter data into their own applications. The API provides methods to post tweets, retrieve user timelines and profiles, search tweets, and more.
Many developers wonder - is the Twitter API free to use? The short answer is yes, the Twitter API is free, but with some limitations.
Free Developer Account
Twitter offers a free developer account that provides basic API access capabilities suitable for getting started. With the free developer account, you can:
Here is an example request to retrieve mentions of a user's username using the free account:
GET https://api.twitter.com/2/tweets/search/recent?query=to:myusernameSo for small projects and testing, the free account provides enough functionality.
Paid Access for Increased Quotas
If building an application that will have more than 100 users or requires more than 150K requests per month, you will need to apply for an elevated paid account.
With a paid account, you can:
Pricing starts around $99/month but increases based on usage needs.
So in summary, the Twitter API is free to access for development purposes, but if releasing commercial applications, a paid account will likely be necessary to support increased usage quotas. The key limitations are number of requests per month and percentage of Tweet volume accessible.