X is testing a pay-as-you-go pricing model for the API

Two years after revamping its developer program and pricing, X is expanding the closed beta of its API’s pay-as-you-go plans to more developers.

In a post on X, the company’s developer account said the social network is accepting applications from developers who wish to participate in the program.

“We are expanding our closed beta to both new and power users who want to release great apps on X,” the post says.

X’s new API page shows costs for different types of requests, including reads, post creation, DM, trends, and bookmark pulls. This page also includes a calculator that allows developers to estimate the cost of a bundle of API usage. This differs from the old system in X, where all requests had the same cost.

A section on the new API page compares the new pricing to the old tier-based system. It’s not yet clear whether X ultimately wants to do away with the old plan-based system. We have asked X for clarification and will update this story if we receive a response.

The closed beta comes two years after X overhauled its API pricing. The company began blocking third-party clients for its apps in early 2023 and announced in February 2023 that it would end free access to its API, resulting in the closure of various apps.

Then, in March 2023, the social network introduced a basic tier for $100 per month (currently $200 per month) and an enterprise tier for $42,000 per month. A few months later, I started the Pro plan for $5,000 per month. This allows developers to retrieve 1 million tweets per month, post 300,000 tweets per month, and have access to a full archive search endpoint.

However, that plan turned out to be insufficient or simply out of reach for many developers. To alleviate this, last year the company launched a top-up pack for applications that hit their API layer limits.

This new usage-based plan allows X to win back developers who want to integrate their apps with social networks or who are looking to build applications that work with social networks.