Watching X (Twitter) accounts, and the official API costs too much: what now? (2026)
20 accounts checked once a day come to $1.20 a month with DataXAPI: x.users.posts.list reads an account's latest posts by its handle, about 20 for $0.0020 a call, with no X developer account. X's own API charges by what it returns: $0.005 for each post read, as its pricing page said on 2026-11-04. DataXAPI reads X (Twitter) with 21 endpoints, from $0.0003 a call; a failed call is not charged.
Updated 2026-11-04
How X's own API charges
Its pricing page describes pay-per-use with no subscription: you buy credits first, and each read is charged by the resource returned. Posts: Read is $0.005 each, so 1,000 posts are $5; User: Read is $0.010. The same resource read again within a UTC day is charged once, which it calls a soft guarantee. Reads are capped at 3 million posts a billing month, above which it points to Enterprise.
Your own account's data is priced apart, at $0.001 per resource, and it can post, which DataXAPI cannot. If you post through the API or mostly read your own account, stay with X's. Its page says prices can change, and the Developer Console has the current ones.
What each kind of watching takes
All of it is public data, read with one key. No X account of yours is used.
| To watch | Endpoint | Each |
|---|---|---|
What an account posts; tab picks posts, replies or media | x.users.posts.list | $0.0020 a call, about 20 posts |
| Who mentions an account, newest first | x.users.mentions.list | $0.0003 a post, about 20 a page |
A keyword, or X's own operators such as from:handle; sort=latest for newest | x.posts.search | $0.0020 a call, about 20 posts |
| The replies under a post | x.posts.replies.list | $0.0020 a call, about 35 replies |
What a month comes to
On a schedule, call for each account and compare each item's id with what you stored: new ones are the updates, to send wherever you read them. The three lines together come to $2.70. An AI client that runs scheduled tasks can do this with DataXAPI connected, and its model costs extra.
| Job | Calls | A month |
|---|---|---|
| 20 accounts' posts, once a day | 600 × $0.0020 | $1.20 |
| 5 accounts' mentions, one page of 20 a day | 3,000 posts × $0.0003 | $0.90 |
| 10 keywords, once a day | 300 × $0.0020 | $0.60 |
Endpoints
Each with its price; every page has the parameters, the fields and a recorded response.
Sources
What this page says of other services is from their own pages and documents, read on 2026-11-04. Prices and features change: check the source before you decide.