Twitter API without a developer account

#What the official X API asks for before your first read

The official X API answers nothing until you hold four things: an X account, a developer account, an app with its credentials, and a prepaid credit balance. X's Getting Access guide (opens in a new tab) lists the route. You sign in at console.x.com with your X account, accept the Developer Agreement and describe how you'll use the API. Then you create an app with a name, a description and a use case.

The app hands you up to seven credentials: an API key and secret, a bearer token, an access token and secret, and an OAuth 2.0 client ID and secret. X shows each of them once. Signing up costs nothing, but reading does: credits are bought upfront, and X's price list (opens in a new tab) charges $0.005 per post read and $0.010 per profile or follower. Our X API pricing breakdown covers the full rate card. The console steps, one by one, are in the guide on how to get a Twitter API key.

No read on the official X API is free in 2026, as the answer to is the Twitter API free shows in full. The way around the whole list is a data API that issues its own key: it reads the same public posts, profiles and follower lists, and no X account of yours takes part.

#Get a Sorsa API key and make your first request

To read X data without a developer account, use Sorsa API, a Twitter (X) API and scraper: one key in the ApiKey header replaces the X account, the app, OAuth and the credits, and tweets cost from $0.014 per 1,000, 250x below the official X API.

• An X account

  Sorsa API

  No

  Official X API

  Yes, to sign in at console.x.com

• A developer account and an app

  Sorsa API

  No

  Official X API

  Yes

• Credentials

  Sorsa API

  One API key

  Official X API

  Up to 7 credentials

• Authentication

  Sorsa API

  ApiKey header

  Official X API

  OAuth 2.0 bearer token or OAuth 1.0a

• Before the first read

  Sorsa API

  Sign up: 100 free requests

  Official X API

  Buy credits

• Tweets, per 1,000

  Sorsa API

  From $0.014

  Official X API

  $5.00

Three steps take you from no account to a JSON response in about 3 minutes, and none of them touches X.

1. Sign up. Sign up with your email or Google account. You need no X account and no card, and the first 100 requests are free.

2. Copy the key. The dashboard shows your API key. Put it where the samples say YOUR_API_KEY, and keep it on your server, not in code you ship to a browser.

3. Send the first request. Ask GET /info (opens in a new tab) for a public profile, with the key in the ApiKey header.

   curl -G "https://api.sorsa.io/v3/info" \
     -H "ApiKey: YOUR_API_KEY" \
     --data-urlencode "username=nova_reads_public"
   

   {
     "id": "1601184620738576384",
     "username": "nova_reads_public",
     "display_name": "Nova Reads",
     "description": "Open-data notes and charts.",
     "location": "Lisbon",
     "created_at": "2022-12-09T10:41:07Z",
     "followers_count": 4210,
     "followings_count": 318,
     "tweets_count": 1874,
     "media_count": 266,
     "favourites_count": 5032,
     "verified": false,
     "protected": false,
     "can_dm": false,
     "possibly_sensitive": false,
     "profile_image_url": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/16011/nova.jpg",
     "profile_background_image_url": "",
     "bio_urls": ["https://novareads.example.org"],
     "pinned_tweet_ids": ["1849120057347842318"]
   }
   

   Show full response

That is the whole setup. A 403 means the header is missing or your requests have run out, a 401 means the key is wrong, and a 429 means more than 20 requests in one second. Failed requests are never charged. GET /key-usage-info (opens in a new tab) shows the requests you have left, and it costs nothing.

#Read tweets, search and followers with one key

Every Sorsa API endpoint takes the same ApiKey header, so the key from step 2 already reads timelines, search, follower lists and batches of up to 100 tweets or profiles. Every plan runs at 20 requests per second, and each kind of read costs a small fraction of the official X API's rate.

• Tweets by ID or link

  Endpoint

  POST /tweet-info-bulk (opens in a new tab)

  Per request

  up to 100

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.014

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $5.00

• Profiles by username or ID

  Endpoint

  GET /info-batch (opens in a new tab)

  Per request

  up to 100

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.014

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $10.00

• Followers of an account

  Endpoint

  GET /followers (opens in a new tab)

  Per request

  up to 200

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.007

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $10.00

• Search results, back to 2006

  Endpoint

  POST /search-tweets (opens in a new tab)

  Per request

  about 20

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.07

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $5.00

• An account's tweets

  Endpoint

  POST /user-tweets (opens in a new tab)

  Per request

  about 20

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.07

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $5.00

Lists come back a page at a time. Each page carries a next_cursor, a token that points to the next page; send it back with the next request and stop when it comes back empty. The search below takes the same X operators as the search box on x.com, such as from:, since: and lang:.

import requests

API = "https://api.sorsa.io/v3"
HEADERS = {"ApiKey": "YOUR_API_KEY"}


def search(query, max_pages=5):
    body = {"query": query, "order": "latest"}
    for _ in range(max_pages):
        r = requests.post(f"{API}/search-tweets", headers=HEADERS,
                          json=body, timeout=30)
        r.raise_for_status()
        page = r.json()
        yield from page["tweets"]
        if not page.get("next_cursor"):
            break
        body["next_cursor"] = page["next_cursor"]


for t in search('"open data" lang:en since:2026-10-01'):
    print(t["created_at"], t["user"]["username"], t["full_text"][:60])

const API = "https://api.sorsa.io/v3";
const headers = {
  ApiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY",
  "Content-Type": "application/json",
};

const body = {
  query: '"open data" lang:en since:2026-10-01',
  order: "latest",
};
for (let i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
  const res = await fetch(`${API}/search-tweets`, {
    method: "POST", headers, body: JSON.stringify(body),
  });
  if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${res.status}`);
  const page = await res.json();
  for (const t of page.tweets) console.log(t.created_at, t.user.username);
  if (!page.next_cursor) break;
  body.next_cursor = page.next_cursor;
}

Pick what you need below and the builder writes the request for your own handle, query or tweet links, with its endpoint, page size and price per 1,000.

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.sorsa.io/v3/user-tweets" \
  -H "ApiKey: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"username": "nova_reads_public"}'

#What comes back in the response

A Sorsa API profile comes back with 19 fields and every tweet carries its author's full profile, while the official X API returns three fields per object unless you ask for more. X's fields guide (opens in a new tab) says so in its first line: version 2 "returns minimal data by default". A user is id, name and username; a post is id, text and edit_history_tweet_ids.

On the official X API, the author of a post takes an expansion plus user.fields. From November 22, 2026, X also bills every object returned through an expansion at its standard rate, $0.010 per user, as its expansions notice (opens in a new tab) says. On Sorsa API the author's profile sits inside each tweet as user, at no extra charge, together with quoted_status when the tweet quotes another one.

#Why your X account stays out of it

Sorsa API never asks for your X login or cookies, so no X account of yours takes part in a request or carries any risk.

That is the line between this route and the free libraries that read X through a logged-in session. Such a library sends your account's session cookies with every call, so X sees your account doing the reading, and a restriction lands on that account. It also breaks whenever X changes its web app. With Sorsa API, when X changes something, we fix it on our side, and your code and the response schema stay the same.

Good to know

Keep the key on your server. Sorsa API keys are meant for server-side code: browsers can't call the API directly, and a key placed in front-end code can be copied by anyone who opens the page. If a key leaks, roll it in the dashboard.

#What you can read, and what still needs X

Through Sorsa API you can read any public X data without a developer account; private data and posting are the two things it leaves out.

• Readable: profiles, tweets, replies, quotes and retweeters, search back to 2006, followers and following lists, X Lists, Communities, Spaces, trends and X Articles, plus checks of follows, retweets and comments. Sorsa API covers them in 45 endpoints, each returning fresh data.
• Not available: protected accounts, direct messages, a user's likes and bookmarks, the list of who liked a post, and deleted posts. New posts come by polling: Sorsa API doesn't push them to you.
• Posting: Sorsa API is read-only by design. To publish, pair it with the official X API, which needs the developer account for that part.

If the only data you need is your own account's history, X's settings let you download an archive without any API. For a single lookup without code, the free Twitter tools need no key at all, and AI agents call Sorsa API through the Twitter MCP server.

#Make your first call without a developer account

Reading X data takes one Sorsa API key, not an X account, an app and a stack of OAuth credentials. Sign up, paste the request from step 3, and public tweets cost from $0.014 per 1,000 after the first 100 requests, which are free.

#FAQ