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Free Twitter API in 2026: What You Can Still Read for $0

Is there a free Twitter API in 2026? Not from X, but you can read X for $0: Weir's 5,000 credits a month, TwitterAPI.io's $1 trial and browser tools.


Published · Updated · 7 min read · 阅读中文版

Cover image: What $0 still reads on X

There's no free Twitter API from X in 2026, but you can still read public posts without paying.

This guide is for builders and AI agent users who need some X (Twitter) data and no bill. You get every real $0 option, what 5,000 free credits read, a monthly budget, and tactics users found to stretch them. We run Weir, one of the options, so we say where the others win.

Check your free credits from any script or agent sandbox. The call itself is free:

import json, os, urllib.request

req = urllib.request.Request("https://api.weirapp.io/v1/usage",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer " + os.environ["WEIR_API_KEY"]})
with urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=30) as r:
    usage = json.load(r)["data"]
grant = usage["freeGrant"]  # null on any workspace but your oldest
print("credits you can spend:", usage["available"])
if grant:
    print(grant["remaining"], "of", grant["granted"], "free; resets", grant["resetsAt"])
X posts you can read for $0 in your first month
Official X API0
TwitterAPI.io trial, onceabout 6,600
Weir free tier, every monthabout 4,760

From the second month on, only Weir's line refills.

Is there a free Twitter API in 2026?

Not from X. The old Twitter API free tier is gone: X's pricing page lists only pay-per-use rates, and reading one post costs $0.005, as of October 2026.

X moved its Free users to pay-per-use when it launched that model in February, with one exception. We read X's own note through Weir, for 2 credits: "Only for-good Public Utility apps will continue to get Free scaled X API access."

What's left are two one-time bonuses on X's free-credits page, up to $70 in all:

  • $20 after your first credit purchase. Since 13 October 2026, adding a card alone doesn't count.
  • Your first auto-recharge, matched up to $50.

Both expire three months after X grants them. So X's credits come only after you pay, and our X API pricing guide has every rate.

Free Twitter API options, compared

Here is what X's API and each free Twitter API alternative give you for $0, checked on 25 October 2026:

Option What's free How long The catch
Official X API Nothing n/a You pay before a read
TwitterAPI.io Up to $1 of credit 31 days, once One per person
Weir 5,000 credits Every month Read-only
twscrape, twikit The code As long as it runs Needs your X accounts
Weir's browser tools Every tool Always No live search

TwitterAPI.io's trial gives you more in month one. Weir's grant is the one that comes back.

Speed differs too. TwitterAPI.io's rate-limit page holds you to 1 request every 5 seconds until you pay, while Weir's free tier allows 30 a minute.

Scraping libraries cost you nothing, but twscrape's README says it "requires authorized X/Twitter accounts," which means yours. Our twikit and twscrape alternatives guide covers what that risks.

  • A one-off pull of a few thousand tweets: TwitterAPI.io's trial goes further.
  • A small job every month, like a daily brief: Weir's free tier.
  • Posting, or a contract with X: X's own API, paid.
  • Dates, searches or your own archive: the browser tools.

How many posts do 5,000 free credits read?

You pay 1 credit per X post, plus 1 for each successful call. So a full search page of 20 posts costs you 21 credits.

4,760X posts, in 238 search pages of 20
1,600Reddit posts, at 3 credits each
1,660X profile lookups, at 3 credits each

The grant is monthly, not one-time. It arrives with your first call of the month, ends with the month and never rolls over. Here's the free usage call on our research account, trimmed:

{
  "freeGrant": {
    "granted": 5000,
    "remaining": 0,
    "resetsAt": "2026-11-01T00:00:00.000Z"
  },
  "tier": "free"
}

We had already spent October's grant, so remaining reads 0. It refills at midnight UTC on 1 November.

Each search counts as 2 requests toward Weir's limit of 30 a minute. That gives you about 15 searches a minute. You also get one monitor, run daily or weekly, and one webhook.

A monthly budget for 5,000 free credits

Here is one plan that fits your 5,000, with room to spare:

One month on 5,000 free credits
Ad-hoc research, about 95 searches2,000
Daily brief, one 20-post search630
Account watch, a daily monitor332
Weekly Reddit check, 25 posts304
Left over1,734

A monitor bills you 1 credit per run, plus 1 for each new post. If the account posts 10 times a day, you pay about 11 credits a day.

Its first run also costs you 2 credits for the profile. Our X research assistant guide turns this plan into prompts for Muse, Claude and other agents.

How to stretch free Twitter API credits

Readers of a Chinese post about Weir worked out the first tip themselves. The rest come from how billing works:

  • Start narrow. One account, one keyword, the last 24 hours. Check the time, author and counts before you widen.
  • Use a small limit first. Ask for 5 posts, then widen once the page proves useful.
  • Filter in the query. You pay for every post returned, even the ones you throw away.
  • Resume with sinceId. Pass the newest post id you've seen, and you pay only for newer posts.
  • Dedupe before an AI reads. Merging repeats first saves the model's tokens.
  • Read the charge. Every response states its cost in the x-credits-charged header, or meta.creditsCharged over MCP. The usage call is free.

We tried the narrow start on 25 October 2026, with @github and one keyword over 24 hours:

→ search_x {"fromUsers": ["github"], "query": "Universe",
            "since": "2026-10-24T08:10:00Z", "limit": 5}
← 0 posts · 1 credit · nextCursor null
→ search_x {"fromUsers": ["github"], "query": "GitHubUniverse",
            "since": "2026-10-24T08:10:00Z", "limit": 5}
← 1 post · 2 credits · @github's Universe badge post, 128 likes
→ get_x_user {"user": "zq9x7k2w4v1n3m"}
← 404 not_found · 0 credits

The first query missed, because the post said #GitHubUniverse and "Universe" didn't match inside the hashtag. Fixing the keyword cost us 2 credits.

An empty search still costs you 1 credit. A failed call, like the made-up handle, costs you nothing.

Free tools for X jobs that need no API

Some jobs don't need an API at all. These run in your browser, with no sign-up:

The full set is on our free tools page.

When not to use Weir

  • You need one big free pull. TwitterAPI.io's trial reads about 6,600 tweets before it ends.
  • You need to post. Weir is read-only, while X's API and TwitterAPI.io can write.
  • You need X's own terms, or a contract with X. Only X's API gives you that.
  • Price per tweet matters past the free tier. TwitterAPI.io lists $0.15 per 1,000 tweets, below our $5 pack's rate.

Weir isn't licensed by X, so access can change. Check X's terms; this isn't legal advice.

FAQ

Is the Twitter API free?

No. There's no free X API tier as of October 2026, and X kept free access only for public-utility apps. New accounts can earn up to $70 in one-time credits after a purchase, while Weir and TwitterAPI.io both offer free amounts.

Are Weir's 5,000 free credits monthly or one-time?

Monthly. They arrive with your first call each month, expire when the month ends and don't roll over. The grant resets at midnight UTC on the 1st, and it needs no card.

How many tweets can I get for free?

About 4,760 a month on Weir, in search pages of 20. TwitterAPI.io's trial reads up to about 6,600 once, by our math from its listed price. X's own API reads none without credits.

What happens when the free credits run out?

Calls return a 402 until the grant resets on the 1st. Retrying won't help. A $5 pack adds 25,000 credits that never expire.

Sources

All checked on 25 October 2026:

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