What an X API post really costs
X, formerly Twitter, now charges for its API per request. A plain post costs $0.015 and a post with a link costs $0.20. What that means over a month, what else gets billed, and how to keep the bill down.
The X API, formerly the Twitter API, charges per request. You buy credits up front, and X’s pricing page states there are no subscriptions, contracts, or minimum spend requirements. A plain post costs $0.015. However, a post containing a link costs $0.20, which is more than thirteen times the base rate.
We pay these exact rates ourselves because postmoderno publishes to X through this API. These figures reflect X’s pricing as of November 2026, and since X reserves the right to change them, you should verify their page before finalizing your budget.
The price list
| Request | Price |
|---|---|
| Create a post | $0.015 |
| Create a post with a URL | $0.200 |
| Create a post, summoned | $0.010 |
| Read a post | $0.005 each |
| Read a user | $0.010 each |
| Read a like | $0.001 each |
| Read your own data | $0.001 each |
Reads are charged per item returned; therefore, a single request returning 100 posts costs $0.50. X counts each item only once per UTC day, meaning reading the same post again within that day is free. They also cap pay-per-use plans at 3 million post reads per month, directing higher volumes toward an Enterprise plan.
What a month of posting costs
| Posting | Plain posts | Posts with a link |
|---|---|---|
| Once a day (30 posts) | $0.45 | $6.00 |
| Three times a day (90 posts) | $1.35 | $18.00 |
| Ten times a day (300 posts) | $4.50 | $60.00 |
Ninety plain posts cost less than seven with a link, meaning the presence of a link dictates most of your bill.
A thread consists of one request per post, so five plain posts cost $0.075. If you add a link to just one of those posts, the entire thread jumps to $0.26.
What the list doesn’t settle
X automatically converts a bare domain like example.com into a link, so we budget those at the higher link price as well.
“Summoned” might sound like it covers replies, but we price our own replies at the full rate until a bill proves otherwise.
Media is the murkiest area. Alt text on an image triggers its own $0.005 request, so four described images add $0.02 to a single post. The list has no specific line item for the upload itself, yet developers on X’s forum report images being billed as extra posts. We couldn’t confirm that specific behavior, so check the usage tab in your developer console to be sure.
On our own account, a plain post billed $0.015 and connecting an account billed $0.01 for the user read, both matching the list exactly.
How to keep the bill down
The biggest saving comes from dropping a link that isn’t the main point of the post. A post that stands alone often reads better anyway. If a thread requires a link, use just one: each post with a link pays the higher price, and moving that link to a reply does not avoid the charge.
If you poll for replies or stats, read less. Every item returned costs money, and that can quickly surpass your posting bill. The usage tab shows exactly what X charged, so check it rather than trusting your own calculations.
Why other networks don’t cost this
We pay no per-post fee to publish on Bluesky, Mastodon, or LinkedIn. That is why schedulers often treat X as a special case and why plans offering unlimited posts may still have limits on X.
If you’d rather not run this yourself
You need a developer account, an app, OAuth, credits, and a method to retry failed posts. If you only want your posts to go out, postmoderno handles that for you. X posts draw from a prepaid wallet counted in posts rather than dollars, and pricing details what each plan covers.
How to schedule tweets from Claude or ChatGPT provides the steps.
Length has a flat rule for links too: every URL counts as 23 characters. The free X character counter adds a post up the way X’s docs describe.