Twitter finally started pricing its paid API plans after announcing that the platform’s free API access would end soon.
And it’s not cheap.
Existing users of Twitter’s current free API service have started receiving emails from the company, eventually sharing pricing details about the new subscription package. According to Chris Stokel-Walker, Wired(opens in new tab) According to the person who first reported the news, those looking for enterprise API access will be paying millions of dollars a year.
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A document sent by Twitter representatives to these API users details pricing packages starting at $42,000 per month for access to 50 million tweets. Pricing goes up to $210,000 per month for the highest plan of 200 million tweets. The intermediate plan, which provides 100 million tweets, is priced at $125,000.
Oddly enough, rather than offering higher tiers at discounted prices for customers who pay more, as many other online companies offer, the pricing model charges extra. (For example, 100 million tweets costs $84,000 for twice as many tweets, but Twitter charges $125,000.)
Earlier, before Elon Musk came along, Twitter offered a generous free tier for their API. “Premium” and “Enterprise” API plans were offered.The highest advertised subscription price was the “Premium” plan, which set customers back $2,899.(opens in new tab) monthly. Previously, only large enterprises with more than 250 users were eligible for the “enterprise” API level. The costs were calculated by Twitter on a case-by-case basis, depending on the organization and company.
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In addition to the high fees, under the new rules, the lowest plan only allows access to 0.3% of your tweets. According to current API users, the free plan, which will be phased out soon, will give you access to 1% of your tweets.
Researchers make up a significant portion of Twitter’s API user base. Many researchers point out that this pricing makes using Twitter’s API financially unaffordable.
A little over a month ago on February 2nd, Twitter announced One of the biggest changes Twitter has made to its platform since Elon Musk took over the company. API access will no longer exist. All types of users must pay. However, no further details were provided at that time.
Musk’s plan to charge for API access isn’t going well. Free access was due to end, and he came and went on February 9th without any changes. Twitter then announced that the new API rules would go into effect on his February 13th.(opens in new tab)Twitter just announced instead(opens in new tab) Another delay of the day.
And earlier this week, Twitter suffered A major platform issue causing links, photos and other services to be completely down for hours. It was later discovered that the crash occurred when the developer was trying to prepare his Twitter for migration to paid API subscriptions.
Elon Musk’s decision to stop free API access was a no-brainer. criticized when first announced. Many popular free Twitter bots and automated accounts were going to close rather than pay.Musk, on the other hand, Changed With his plans, Twitter said it would provide free “read-only” access to free projects and lower API limits.
Although not official, the mask is floated(opens in new tab) The idea is to charge around $100/month for more basic API access for small projects and startups monetized by creators.
As Wired In his report, Musk noted that he once called Twitter a “virtual town square.” He also claims he bought the company to protect free speech. Now that Musk is in charge, access to the town square and its speeches will cost a lot.
