# X API vs Twitter Scraper API: Which Should You Use?

Use the official X API when your product must post, act on accounts, or run under X's developer agreement; use a Twitter scraper API such as apidojo's Tweet Scraper V2 when you need to read public posts at volume, because it costs $0.40 per 1,000 tweets against the X API's $5 per 1,000.

[![apidojo](/blog/authors/apidojo.png)**Apidojo** *15+ years of experience in data retrieval.*](/blog/authors/apidojo/)

**7 October 2026** Published

**4 min** Read

![Cover card reading 'X API vs Twitter Scraper API: Which to Use'](/blog/covers/x-api-vs-scraper.png)

**Use the official X API when your product must post, act on accounts, or run under X’s developer agreement; use a Twitter scraper API such as apidojo’s Tweet Scraper V2 when you need to read public posts at volume, because it costs $0.40 per 1,000 tweets against the X API’s $5 per 1,000.** Many teams use both: the X API for account actions, a scraper for research data.

This guide compares the two on cost, coverage, limits, setup and risk, then gives a decision table. Both search options are explained in the [Twitter search API guide](/blog/twitter-api/search-api/).

## X API vs Twitter Scraper API: Side-by-Side Comparison

**The X API and a Twitter scraper API differ most on price, write access and the rules you operate under.** The table compares them on 9 points.

| Point | X API (pay-per-use) | apidojo Tweet Scraper V2 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Read price | $0.005 per post | $0.40 per 1,000 tweets |
| Profile reads | $0.010 per user | From $0.40 per 1,000 items (Twitter User Scraper) |
| Write actions (post, like, follow, DM) | Yes, billed per request | No, read-only |
| History | Recent search 7 days; full archive back to March 2006 | Same history as X web search, back to 2006 |
| Monthly volume | 3 million post reads cap, then Enterprise | No monthly cap; 1 concurrent run |
| Query language | X API operators (is:retweet, has:links) | X web search operators (min_faves:, filter:) |
| Setup | Developer account, Project, App, bearer token | Apify account and token |
| Contract | X Developer Agreement | Apify terms; you check X’s terms and data law for your use |
| Stability | Versioned, documented endpoints | Follows X web search, which can change without notice |

X API figures are from X’s documentation ([X API pricing](https://docs.x.com/x-api/getting-started/pricing), [X API docs](https://docs.x.com/x-api/posts/search)); actor figures from Apify ([Tweet Scraper V2](https://apify.com/apidojo/tweet-scraper), [Twitter User Scraper](https://apify.com/apidojo/twitter-user-scraper/input-schema)).

## Which Is Cheaper, the X API or a Scraper?

**A scraper is cheaper for reading: 100,000 posts cost $500 through the X API and $40 through Tweet Scraper V2.** The table shows common monthly volumes.

| Posts read per month | X API | Tweet Scraper V2 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 10,000 | $50 | $4 |
| 100,000 | $500 | $40 |
| 1,000,000 | $5,000 | $400 |
| 3,000,000 | $15,000 | $1,200 |

The X API is cheaper in two cases: reading your own account’s data, billed at $0.001 per resource as owned reads, and very small jobs where a handful of posts cost cents (X API pricing).

## When Should You Use the X API?

**Use the X API when your product acts on X, depends on an official data contract, or reads the authenticated user’s own data.** Listed below are the 4 cases.

1.  **Posting and account actions**: creating posts, replies, likes, follows and DMs are X API write operations, from $0.015 per request.
2.  **Official terms**: products whose customers or legal teams require X’s developer agreement.
3.  **Own-account data**: timelines, bookmarks, followers and mentions for the signed-in user, at owned-read prices.
4.  **Streaming and webhooks**: real-time delivery of events through X’s Activity API, billed per event.

## When Should You Use a Twitter Scraper API?

**Use a Twitter scraper API when you read public posts at volume, need X web search operators, or want results without building an X developer app.** Listed below are the 4 cases.

1.  **Research datasets**: topic, brand or event collections of tens of thousands of posts or more.
2.  **Operators the X API lacks**: `min_faves:`, `min_retweets:` and the other web filters, which the actor accepts in `searchTerms` (Apify).
3.  **Deep history at low cost**: date windows back to 2006 at $0.40 per 1,000 tweets; see [how to get historical tweets with an API](/blog/twitter-api/historical-tweets/).
4.  **Profiles, followers and replies**: dedicated actors for each, covered in [how to scrape Twitter data in 2026](/blog/twitter-scraping/how-to-scrape-twitter/).

## What Are the Limits of Each Option?

**The X API limits volume and rate; a scraper limits concurrency and query size and depends on X web search.** Listed below are the limits that most often decide the choice.

| Limit | X API | apidojo actors |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Volume | 3 million post reads per month on pay-per-use | None per month |
| Requests | Per-endpoint rate limits in time windows | 1 concurrent run per actor |
| Query size | 512 characters (recent), 1,024 (full archive) | 5 batched queries per Tweet Scraper V2 run |
| Minimum result | None | 50 tweets per query on Tweet Scraper V2; none on Twitter Scraper Unlimited |
| Polling | Allowed within rate limits | Not allowed on Tweet Scraper V2; use Twitter Scraper Unlimited |
| Missing posts | Protected and deleted posts excluded | Returns what X web search shows, so the same posts are excluded |

Query lengths are from X’s search documentation (X API docs); actor limits from Apify (Tweet Scraper V2).

## X API or Scraper: Decision Table

**Choose by the job, not by the tool: the table maps 7 common jobs to the better option.**

| Job | Better option |
| --- | --- |
| Post or schedule content | X API |
| Read the signed-in user’s own timeline or followers | X API (owned reads) |
| Build a 100,000-post research dataset | Scraper |
| Search old posts with engagement filters | Scraper |
| Collect every reply to a viral post | Scraper (Twitter Replies Scraper) |
| Monitor a keyword every few minutes | Scraper on Twitter Scraper Unlimited, or X API within its caps |
| Ship a product that must use X’s official terms | X API |

Recurring collection is covered 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/)
-   [Twitter User Scraper Profiles, followers, following and retweeters by handle, URL or keyword $0.004 / profile + $0.40 / 1K users](/scrapers/twitter-user-scraper/)
-   [Twitter Scraper Unlimited Single tweets, reply threads, X Articles and small queries; no minimum $0.016 / query + $0.40 / 1K](/scrapers/twitter-scraper-lite/)
-   [Twitter Replies Scraper Every reply under a tweet by ID or URL, with author data $0.014 / tweet + $0.40 / 1K replies](/scrapers/twitter-replies-scraper/)

## Questions people ask

### Is the X API free in 2026?

No, new developers pay per use from prepaid credits (X API pricing).

### Can a scraper post tweets?

No, apidojo's Twitter actors are read-only; posting requires the X API.

### Do you need an X developer account for apidojo's actors?

No, you need an Apify account on a paid plan to run them through the API.

### Where do you start?

At the [apidojo Twitter Scraper](/scrapers/twitter-scraper/), or with [how to scrape tweets by keyword](/blog/twitter-scraping/scrape-tweets-by-keyword/) for a first run.

## 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/)
-   [Twitter Recent Search API: The 7-Day Limit Why the X API's recent search returns only 7 days of posts, how to reach older tweets, and what each option costs.](/blog/twitter-api/recent-search-7-days/)

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