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X API Status: Is X Down or Is It Your App? (2026)

X API status in 2026: where X's status page is, what a 502, 429, 401 or 402 means, and a three-step check that shows if X is down or your app is at fault.


Published · Updated · 7 min read

Cover image: Is it X or is it you?

X API status lives on X's developer status page at developer.x.com/status, and three checks tell you if X is down or the fault is yours.

This page is for a developer whose X (Twitter) API calls just started failing. You get a table from the HTTP code to the cause, a free control test, and what to do while you wait. We run Weir, which reads X by a different route, so we say below what that test proves and what it cannot.

Add -i to your failing call so you see the status code and headers. This request is from X's pricing page:

curl -i "https://api.x.com/2/usage/tweets" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BEARER_TOKEN"
  1. Read the code and bodyThe status code and the title in the error body name the cause.
  2. Check X and your accountOpen the status page, then your balance and limits in the Developer Console.
  3. Run a control callA search through another route shows if X's data is up.
  4. Back off and queueRetry with growing gaps and hold your writes.

Where is the X API status page?

X's official status page is https://developer.x.com/status. We checked on 12 November 2026 that the old address, docs.x.com/status, sends you there with a 307 redirect.

Our tools could not read its contents that day, so open it in a browser. X's response-codes page tells you to check "the status page" after a 500 error.

We also read the 10 newest posts of the public @XDevelopers account, dated 10 October to 10 November 2026. None of them reported an incident, so do not wait for an announcement there.

What does each X API error code mean?

Use this table to go from the code you got to the cause. Every row comes from X's own documentation, opened on 12 November 2026.

Code Likely cause What X's docs say
500, 502, 503 X-side outage Wait and retry. 500: check the status page.
504 X-side timeout Gateway timeout. Wait and retry.
429 Rate limit Wait for x-rate-limit-reset. Body code 88.
401 Bad credentials Invalid or missing. Check keys and header.
403 No permission Valid auth, but no access or scope.
404 Wrong id or retired Resource gone. Retired routes can return it.
400 Your request is wrong Bad JSON, query or missing parameter.
Blocked, no code Out of credits Requests blocked until you add credits.

The last row needs a note. X's pricing page says requests "will be blocked until you add credits" but names no status code. Developers we found on X on 21 October 2026 reported a 402 with the title "Payment Required", which X has not documented, as we explain in our guide to the 402 error.

X's changelog dated 5 November 2026 says two Livestream routes, /2/users/:user_id/sources and /2/users/:user_id/broadcasts, will return 404 after 1 January 2027. Retired routes are rare, so rule out the other causes first.

The pay-per-use model also lets you set a spending limit for each billing cycle. When you reach it, X says requests are blocked until the next cycle.

Why does the X API return a 502, 503 or 504?

A 5xx means X failed, not your code. X's page says a 503 means "X is overloaded" and the fix is to wait and retry. For a 502 and a 504 it gives the same advice.

You cannot fix this from your side. Log the status and the time, because that is what a support ticket needs.

X documents an error body with type, title and detail. If the type ends in rate-limit-exceeded, usage-capped, client-forbidden or invalid-request, X is up and the cause is on your side. Our list of X API error codes has the rest.

Check 1: read the error body, not just the code

A 429 is the most common false alarm. X's rate limits page shows this body, with code 88:

{
  "errors": [{ "code": 88, "message": "Rate limit exceeded" }]
}

The same page lists three headers on every response: x-rate-limit-limit, x-rate-limit-remaining and x-rate-limit-reset. The last one is the Unix time when your window resets.

If remaining is 0, you are the cause and X is fine. Our guide to X API rate limits shows the limit for each endpoint.

Check 2: open the status page and your Developer Console

Open https://developer.x.com/status. Then open your Developer Console, where X says your credit balance is shown.

X's pricing page documents GET /2/usage/tweets, which returns daily Post consumption counts. It shows use, not your balance.

Look at three things in the console:

  • Balance. Zero credits is an out-of-credits stop, not an outage.
  • Spending limit. A limit you hit blocks calls until the next billing cycle.
  • Keys. X lists a regenerated key as a cause of a 401.

Our X API usage guide shows how to read the numbers.

Check 3: run a control call that needs no X key

A control call asks the same question by another route. If it works, X's public data is up. We ran one through Weir on 12 November 2026 at 17:13 UTC, with the MCP tool search_x:

{ "query": "X API down OR outage OR 502 developers", "language": "en", "limit": 5 }

It returned this. The REST call, POST /v1/x/search, takes the same fields.

posts returned: 5
newest createdAt: 2026-11-12T17:13:56.000Z
creditsCharged: 6

Read the result with care. Weir reads X by a different route than X's developer API, so it can answer while your calls fail. It can also fail by itself, so one failure proves nothing about X.

If Weir answers and your call fails with a 5xx, X's developer API is the likely problem. If it answers and you got a 401 or 429, look at your own credentials and limits.

Weir's own status page is at weirapp.io/status. From the page's code, it measures the API, X, monitors and webhooks over the last 15 minutes of live traffic. A part with fewer than 20 requests in that window shows "No recent data", and the page refreshes about every 30 seconds.

A 10-post search costs 11 credits. Weir gives 5,000 credits free each month, and $5 buys 25,000.

What should you do while X is down?

Do less, not more.

  • Back off. Wait, then retry with growing gaps and a cap on attempts. For a 429, wait until x-rate-limit-reset.
  • Keep your credentials. Do not rotate keys during an outage. A new key fixes nothing and can break a working one.
  • Queue writes. Hold posts and other writes in your own queue, then send them when X recovers.
  • Check before you file. Read the status page, run the control call, then open a support ticket with your timestamps.

If the error is a 403 and you use Tweepy, our Tweepy 403 Forbidden guide shows the exact fix.

When not to use Weir

  • You need to post or send DMs. Weir is read-only, so your writes still go through X's API.
  • You need X's own status. Weir's status page measures Weir, not X.
  • A contract with X is required. Weir is not licensed by X, so access can change.

FAQ

What is the X API status page?

It is https://developer.x.com/status, X's official page for the developer platform. We checked on 12 November 2026 that docs.x.com/status redirects to it. If it shows no incident and your calls fail, check your code and quota.

Why do I get an X API status 502?

A 502 means a bad gateway on X's side. X's docs say to wait and retry. Back off with growing gaps, log the time, and run the control call above to see whether X's data is up.

Is the X API down or is it my app?

Read the code. A 500, 502, 503 or 504 means X, and a 400, 401, 403 or 429 means your app. If you are out of credits, X blocks calls without a documented code. Check your balance in the Developer Console.

Why is the Twitter API not working for me?

Most failures are on your side: a regenerated key, a rate limit, a spending limit or no credits. Read the error body's type and title. Only a 5xx points at an outage.

Does X announce a Twitter API outage on its developer account?

In the 10 newest @XDevelopers posts, from 10 October to 10 November 2026, we found no incident notice. Use the status page, not the timeline.

Sources

Checked on 12 November 2026:

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