# Twitter Recent Search API: The 7-Day Limit Explained

The X API's recent search endpoint, GET /2/tweets/search/recent, returns only posts from the last 7 days; any start\_time earlier than that is outside its range.

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**7 October 2026** Published

**2 min** Read

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**The X API’s recent search endpoint, `GET /2/tweets/search/recent`, returns only posts from the last 7 days; any `start_time` earlier than that is outside its range.** To reach older posts, use the full-archive endpoint, `GET /2/tweets/search/all`, which goes back to March 2006 on pay-per-use and Enterprise access, or a scraper that searches X’s web history.

The two endpoints are compared in the [Twitter search API guide](/blog/twitter-api/search-api/). This page covers the 7-day window, what to do about it, and what each option costs.

## What Is the X API Recent Search Limit?

**Recent search covers the last 7 days, returns up to 100 posts per request, and accepts queries of up to 512 characters (4,096 on Enterprise).** It’s available to all developers, which is why most first projects hit the 7-day wall ([X API docs](https://docs.x.com/x-api/posts/search)).

| Point | Recent search | Full-archive search |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Endpoint | /2/tweets/search/recent | /2/tweets/search/all |
| Time range | Last 7 days | Back to March 2006 |
| Posts per request | Up to 100 | Up to 500 |
| Query length | 512 characters | 1,024 characters |
| Access | All developers | Pay-per-use and Enterprise |

## Why Does Recent Search Return Nothing for Older Dates?

**Recent search returns nothing older than 7 days because the endpoint only indexes that window; setting `start_time` or `since_id` further back doesn’t extend it.** If your query mentions an older event, the endpoint can only find posts about it from the past week (X API docs).

## How Do You Get Tweets Older Than 7 Days?

**You get tweets older than 7 days through full-archive search, through your own account’s owned reads, or through a scraper that searches X’s web history.** Listed below are the 3 options.

1.  **Full-archive search.** Call `/2/tweets/search/all` with `start_time` and `end_time`; without them it returns only the last 30 days ([X API quickstart](https://docs.x.com/x-api/posts/search/quickstart/full-archive-search.md)).
2.  **Owned reads.** Your own account’s posts are billed at $0.001 each as owned reads ([X API pricing](https://docs.x.com/x-api/getting-started/pricing)).
3.  **A scraper.** apidojo’s [Tweet Scraper V2](https://apify.com/apidojo/tweet-scraper) searches the same history as X web search with `since:` and `until:`, at $0.40 per 1,000 tweets.

Code for options 1 and 3 is in [how to get historical tweets with an API](/blog/twitter-api/historical-tweets/).

## What Does It Cost to Go Beyond 7 Days?

**Full-archive search costs the same $0.005 per post as recent search; the difference is access level, not price per post.** Pay-per-use plans cap post reads at 3 million per monthly billing cycle (X API pricing).

| Posts | X API (recent or full archive) | Tweet Scraper V2 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 10,000 | $50 | $4 |
| 100,000 | $500 | $40 |
| 1,000,000 | $5,000 | $400 |

Size a job first with the counts endpoint, billed at $0.010 per request rather than per post (X API pricing).

## When Is the 7-Day Window Enough?

**The 7-day window is enough for live monitoring, alerts and dashboards that look at the current week.** Poll recent search on a schedule, keep the newest post ID, and pass it as `since_id` on the next call so you only pay for new posts. The scheduling pattern is in [how to monitor a keyword on X with an API](/blog/twitter-scraping/monitor-keyword/).

## The scrapers behind this

-   [Tweet Scraper V2 Tweets from searches, profiles, Lists and URLs; 49–64 tweets/sec; minimum 50 per query $0.40 / 1K tweets](/scrapers/twitter-scraper/)

## Questions people ask

### Is the 7-day limit 7 calendar days?

It is a rolling window of the last 7 days from the time of your request.

### Does the 7-day limit apply to X web search?

No, X web search reaches back to 2006 when you're logged in ([X Help Center](https://help.x.com/en/using-x/x-advanced-search)).

### Which option should you choose?

Compare them in [X API vs Twitter scraper API](/blog/twitter-api/x-api-vs-scraper/), or start at the [apidojo Twitter Scraper](/scrapers/twitter-scraper/).

## More on the X API

-   [Twitter Search API: Endpoints, Pricing and Examples X API recent and full-archive search explained: limits, operators, $0.005 per post pricing, code, and a cheaper scraper API option.](/blog/twitter-api/search-api/)
-   [How to Get Tweet Data by ID With an API Look up tweets by ID with the X API, 100 at a time, or without a developer account, and see which route is cheaper at each volume.](/blog/twitter-api/tweet-by-id/)
-   [How to Get Historical Tweets With an API Get tweets back to 2006 with X's full-archive search or a scraper API: code, costs per 1,000 posts, and how to size a job first.](/blog/twitter-api/historical-tweets/)
-   [X API vs Twitter Scraper API: Which to Use Compare the X API and a Twitter scraper API on price, history, limits, write access and terms, with a decision table for 7 jobs.](/blog/twitter-api/x-api-vs-scraper/)

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