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.
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.
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, X API docs); actor figures from Apify (Tweet Scraper V2, Twitter User Scraper).
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.
- Posting and account actions: creating posts, replies, likes, follows and DMs are X API write operations, from $0.015 per request.
- Official terms: products whose customers or legal teams require X’s developer agreement.
- Own-account data: timelines, bookmarks, followers and mentions for the signed-in user, at owned-read prices.
- 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.
- Research datasets: topic, brand or event collections of tens of thousands of posts or more.
- Operators the X API lacks:
min_faves:,min_retweets:and the other web filters, which the actor accepts insearchTerms(Apify). - 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.
- Profiles, followers and replies: dedicated actors for each, covered in how to scrape Twitter data in 2026.
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.
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, or with how to scrape tweets by keyword for a first run.