Key Takeaways
- In addition to introducing annual membership levels, X has raised the monthly pricing of its Basic API tier from $100 to $200.
- In addition to new capabilities like community search, the Basic tier will see an increase in read limitations from 10,000 to 15,000.
- The monthly posting limit for free tier members has been lowered from 1,500 to 500 posts, and a new read API has been limited to 100 queries.
Elon Musk’s social networking network X is undergoing significant changes to its access restrictions and API price structure.
The platform announced that it was raising the Basic API tier cost from $100 to $200 per month in a social media post by X’s development team.
For both Basic and Pro tiers, X has added annual subscription options to lessen the impact. These options offer cost savings for longer commitments. The cost of the Pro tier annual subscription is $54,000, while the Basic tier annual plan is $2,100.
Read limits will also be raised from 10,000 to 15,000 for the Basic tier, and developers will have access to additional features, including community search capabilities.
Monthly posting for free tier members has been cut in half, from 1,500 to 500 posts. Although X has made an experimental read API available to customers on the free tier, it has a 100 request limit.
Stricter restrictions on top-ups have also been put in place by the site; members of the Basic and Pro tiers are now only permitted to make two top-ups each month, as opposed to the prior caps of ten and five, respectively.
Developers Take Issue with X’s Price Changes
Users on X have responded negatively to the price increases in large numbers, with many expressing annoyance at losing free access to their data on a site that they already pay to use.
One customer asked why they were unable to get a free personal key to access their bookmarks. Others referred to the decision to raise costs for an already costly API as “stupid.” Some users proposed that users should have API access to their own posts if they have an X Premium subscription.
These revisions are in line with X’s history of altering its API since Elon Musk’s takeover, which has affected third-party developers. Third-party consumer tools were disabled by the first wave of changes, and these additional cost levels may further discourage developers from participating in X’s ecosystem.
