Posting to X with an API now costs $0.015 per plain text post and $0.20 per post that contains a link, charged per request against a prepaid credit balance. There is no monthly subscription required to post at all, and no minimum spend, according to X's own API pricing page. That is a real change from the $100-200/mo Basic tier most older guides still describe, and the gap between a plain post and a link post is the detail those guides usually skip.
This covers the current rates for every action, what happened to the old subscription tiers, a worked monthly-cost example, and the practical alternative if you would rather not manage a credit balance yourself.
X's current API pricing: pay-per-use, no subscription
X runs its API on a pay-per-use model: you buy credits in the Developer Console, and each request deducts from that balance. X's pricing page states it directly: "no contracts, subscriptions, or minimum spend." The rates by action, verified directly against X's own documentation in October 2026:
| Action | Rate |
|---|---|
| Create a plain text post | $0.015 per post |
| Create a post containing a URL | $0.20 per post |
| Create a summoned post (a reply someone else triggered) | $0.010 per post |
| Read a post | $0.005 per resource returned |
| Read a user profile | $0.010 per resource returned |
| Read your own posts, followers, or bookmarks (owned reads) | $0.001 per resource returned |
Reads are capped at 3 million posts per billing cycle on pay-per-use; above that, X points you to an Enterprise plan instead, which starts around $42,000/mo. For almost every developer building a posting tool rather than a firehose reader, the read cap is irrelevant and posting is the whole bill.
What happened to the old Basic and Pro tiers
X discontinued its free developer tier for new signups in February 2026 and made pay-per-use the default. The legacy subscription tiers that older posts still reference did not disappear overnight; they were migrated on a schedule. Legacy Basic subscribers moved to pay-per-use after 1 June 2026, at the end of their existing billing cycle, with unused value converted to credits automatically and no action required (opentweet.io's X API pricing guide). Legacy Pro subscribers followed on the same pattern after 1 September 2026: monthly Pro subscribers had a $5,000 credit balance charged to their card at cutover, with auto-recharge adding another $5,000 once the balance drops below $250, capped at $10,000 per billing cycle by default; annual Pro subscribers instead had their prorated remaining fee converted straight into expiring credits rather than a card charge (opentweet.io's Pro-to-pay-per-use migration guide).
In practice, this means the question "how much does the Basic or Pro tier cost" no longer has an answer, because neither tier can be purchased anymore and every account, new or migrated, now runs on the same per-request rates in the table above. The only real variable left is how much you post, and whether your posts carry links.
A worked monthly-cost example
The per-request rates sound small until you multiply them by a realistic posting schedule, and the gap between plain text and link posts is where the bill actually moves:
- 30 plain text posts a month: $0.45
- 30 posts with a link each: $6.00
- 300 plain text posts a month: $4.50
- 300 posts with a link each: $60.00
- Reading back results to confirm each post published (1 read per post, owned reads): an extra $0.30 for 300 posts
That 13x gap between plain and link pricing is easy to miss if you only skim a vendor's headline "starting at" number, and it compounds fast for any tool that defaults to attaching a link (a blog cross-post, a product update, an affiliate drop) to every post it sends.
Do you need to deal with this at all?
If you are building your own app or script against X's API directly, yes, the credit balance and per-request rates above are your real cost floor. If you are trying to post to X as part of a broader workflow rather than building the integration yourself, a social media posting API that already handles X as one of several platforms sidesteps this entirely. Synapse's own API and MCP server, for example, run on a flat $19-79/mo plan price with no separate usage meter layered on top; whatever X's own per-post rate happens to be in a given month is absorbed on Synapse's side of the integration, not billed back per post. That trade only makes sense once you are posting to more than one platform, since X's own metered rate is cheaper than any flat plan if X is genuinely the only place you post; for everyone cross-posting to X alongside other accounts, see how X's own scheduler and rate limits compare to a dedicated tool, and how Ayrshare's per-profile pricing stacks up if you are shopping specifically for a developer-facing posting API rather than a dashboard.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to post to X with an API?
$0.015 per plain text post and $0.20 per post containing a link, charged per request from a prepaid credit balance, with no subscription or minimum spend required, per X's own pricing page.
Can I still sign up for X's Basic or Pro API tier?
No. Both legacy subscription tiers were migrated to pay-per-use (Basic after 1 June 2026, Pro after 1 September 2026) and are no longer available to purchase; every account now runs on the same per-request rates.
Is there a free way to post to X's API?
X discontinued its free developer tier for new signups in February 2026. Existing free-tier users who were still active were given a one-time $10 credit voucher and moved to pay-per-use rather than kept on a free plan.
Why does a link cost more to post than plain text on X's API?
X prices link posts at $0.20 versus $0.015 for plain text, a deliberate 13x premium X has not published a stated reason for; the practical effect is that any workflow which auto-attaches a link to every post pays substantially more per post than one that does not.
Do I need to worry about this if I post to X through a scheduler like Synapse?
No. A flat-rate posting tool absorbs the per-post API cost on its own side of the integration; you pay the tool's plan price regardless of how many posts you send or whether they contain links.
What happens if I go over the 3-million-read cap on pay-per-use?
X directs accounts that need more than 3 million post reads per billing cycle to an Enterprise plan, which starts around $42,000/mo. Posting-only use cases rarely come close to this cap.