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San Francisco–based social platform X (formerly Twitter) has announced a major overhaul of its application programming interface (API) pricing, introducing a usage-based pay-per-use model, industry sources confirm. Under the new structure, developers are charged exclusively for the API calls they make rather than flat monthly tiers, a shift aimed at reducing upfront barriers while aligning the platform with its broader artificial intelligence strategy.
Historically, X’s API was divided into fixed monthly packages, ranging from basic subscriptions to costly enterprise levels, which critics said priced many independent developers out of the ecosystem and led to the shutdown of popular third-party tools. The latest model replaces those large fixed fees with per-request charges, such as per post read or user profile detail fetched, potentially making consistent access more predictable for smaller projects.
A notable feature of the new scheme is the link between API expenditure and xAI credits, part of X’s artificial intelligence arm. Developers earn back a portion of their spend in credits usable for xAI model access, an incentive that simultaneously promotes deeper integration of AI functions into third-party tools. This strategy follows the company’s broader push to intertwine X with its AI business, which has included embedding AI tech into platform features and expanding developer offerings.
As you can see in this table, X’s new pricing structure is based on usage, which means that data access costs now increase depending on your activity. That means that developers who are creating X-aligned apps will have more capacity to scale their projects in line with user demand, as opposed to having to sign up to expensive monthly access feeds. There’s also an added element of the new structure, and a new incentive for X to be looking to work with developers.
As per X:
“An all-new Developer Console with consumption-based billing. No fixed monthly costs, no monthly caps.
When you purchase X API credits, you can earn free xAPI credits based on your cumulative spend during a billing cycle.”
So now, when developers cross certain thresholds in X API usage, they’ll also be eligible to earn xAI API credits worth up to 20% of their cumulative spend.
Despite the lowered entry point, analysts caution that costs could still escalate quickly for high-volume usage, meaning developers of large-scale applications must still carefully manage requests to avoid steep charges. While the new pricing may lure back some developers, its success hinges on how costs compare with legacy monthly plans and how friendly the revamped console proves in practice.
The shift to usage-based pricing also aligns with X’s documentation, which now describes its developer API access as flexible and scalable, with no contract or subscription commitments and real-time cost monitoring tools.
