After much anticipation and speculation, Twitter has finally revealed its new API pricing structure, which will replace the previous access levels. The new structure features three tiers, including a free level, a $100 per month basic level, and a costly enterprise level. The company has stated that subscribing to any level grants access to Ads API at no cost. In this article, we’ll dive deeper into the details of Twitter’s new API pricing and what it means for developers.
Discontinuation of Old Access Levels
Twitter has also announced that it will discontinue old access levels, including Standard (for v1.1) and Elevated (for v2), and Premium, over the next 30 days. This move has come after the company announced in February that it was ending free API access in a few days, which faced heavy criticism. Later, the company offered a free tier to bots providing “good content.” It then stated that the basic tier would start at $100 per month without revealing the level of access. However, the launch was delayed, and over 45 days later, the company finally provided information about the new APIs.
New API Pricing Structure
Someone mostly intended the free tier for content posting bots and offers 1,500 post requests per month along with access to Login with Twitter. The basic tier, which is designed for hobbyists or students, provides 50,000 post requests and 10,000 read requests per app per month. Developers who want to access more data will need to apply for enterprise access, which reportedly costs a staggering $42,000 a month.
Impact on Developers
With the introduction of v2 in 2020, Twitter offered multiple access levels to developers like Essential and Elevated, which could give them access to 500,000 to 2 million tweets per month. However, with the new pricing structure, app makers who fall in that category of users will have to subscribe to the enterprise plan. Some developers who tried to subscribe to the new basic tier found out that they have already hit the limit.
Twitter’s New Offering: A Money Grab?
Some have criticized the new API offering as a money grab, as it appears to cater mostly to enterprise-level clients. This move has ostracized the developer community, who were already unhappy with Twitter’s previous decisions to shut down several developer-related projects, including Twitter Toolbox for app discovery.
Twitter’s New Offering: Impact on Academia
When Twitter announced the end of free API access, many researchers and academics were concerned that this move would hamper student projects and the transparent outlook of the platform achieved through data. Twitter’s new announcement mentions it is “looking at new ways” to serve the academic community, but it has provided no information about potential solutions. Researchers can subscribe to free, basic, and enterprise tiers, but the free and basic tiers may be useless for academics, while the enterprise tier may be too expensive for projects with limited budgets.
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Twitter’s new API pricing structure has received mixed reactions from the developer community, with some applauding the move and others criticizing it. While the free tier may suffice for content-posting bots, the basic tier may not be enough for developers who require more data. The enterprise tier may be too expensive for small projects or those with limited budgets. As Twitter continues to look for new ways to serve different communities, only time will tell how the new API pricing structure will impact developers and researchers in the long run.
