What data can you get from the Twitter API?

#The 15 kinds of public X data an API returns

Public X data is what X shows to anyone: posts from accounts that aren't protected, profiles, follower lists and the counts beside them. An API returns it as JSON in 15 kinds:

• Profiles: name, bio, location, join date, follower, following and post counts, avatar and verified badge.
• About this account: the country X links to the account, how often and when it changed its username, and its X Premium status.
• Followers and following: the whole list on either side, each account with its profile.
• Posts: text, language, date, six engagement counts (likes, reposts, replies, quotes, views, bookmarks), links, media and the author.
• Timelines: what one account posted, its replies and its reposts.
• Engagement lists: the replies under a post, its quote posts and the accounts that reposted it.
• Post search: any X Advanced Search query with its operators, across the archive back to 2006.
• Mentions: posts that tag an account, filtered by likes, replies, reposts and dates.
• Account search: accounts whose name, handle or bio match a keyword.
• Lists: a List's members, its followers and one feed of its members' posts.
• Communities: a Community's details, members and posts, and a search inside it.
• Spaces: a live audio room's title, state, hosts, speakers, listeners and listener counts.
• Trends: what is trending in a country or a city.
• X Articles: the full text of a long-form post, with its cover image and metrics.
• Checks: yes-or-no answers, such as whether one account follows another or reposted a post.

Private data stays out of that list. Since June 2024 X shows a post's likers only to its author and an account's likes only to that account, and no API returns another person's likes, bookmarks or messages; the full list of what you can't get is further down.

The route to the data differs too. The official X API covers most of the 15 kinds, has no fields for the About data, and bills each item it returns; our X API pricing guide lists every rate.

#Get each kind of data with Sorsa API

To map a project onto X data, use Sorsa API: it returns all 15 kinds through 45 endpoints on one API key, every plan runs at 20 requests per second, and prices start at $0.007 per 1,000 followers and $0.014 per 1,000 tweets. It needs no X developer account, app or OAuth, as our guide to the Twitter API without a developer account explains.

Every request costs the same, so the table shows how many items one request carries and what 1,000 items cost, next to the official X API's pay-per-use price (opens in a new tab) for the same data. All 45 endpoints, with their parameters, are on the Sorsa API endpoints page.

• Profiles

  Sorsa API endpoint

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

  Per request

  100 profiles

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.014

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $10.00

• About this account

  Sorsa API endpoint

  GET /about (opens in a new tab)

  Per request

  1 account

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $1.40

  Official X API, per 1,000

  no such fields

• Followers, following

  Sorsa API endpoint

  GET /followers (opens in a new tab), GET /follows (opens in a new tab)

  Per request

  200 followers

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.007

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $10.00

• Posts by ID or link

  Sorsa API endpoint

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

  Per request

  100 posts

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.014

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $5.00, plus $10.00 for authors from Nov 22

• Timelines

  Sorsa API endpoint

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

  Per request

  20 posts

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.07

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $5.00

• Replies, quotes, reposters

  Sorsa API endpoint

  POST /comments (opens in a new tab), POST /quotes (opens in a new tab), POST /retweeters (opens in a new tab)

  Per request

  20

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.07

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $5.00 posts, $10.00 accounts

• Post search

  Sorsa API endpoint

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

  Per request

  20 posts

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.07

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $5.00

• Mentions

  Sorsa API endpoint

  POST /mentions (opens in a new tab)

  Per request

  20 posts

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.07

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $5.00

• Account search

  Sorsa API endpoint

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

  Per request

  20 accounts

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.07

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $10.00

• Lists

  Sorsa API endpoint

  GET /list-tweets (opens in a new tab), GET /list-members (opens in a new tab)

  Per request

  20

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.07

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $5.00 posts, $10.00 members

• Communities

  Sorsa API endpoint

  POST /community-tweets (opens in a new tab), POST /community-members (opens in a new tab)

  Per request

  20

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $0.07

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $5.00 Communities, then each post or member

• Spaces

  Sorsa API endpoint

  GET /spaces (opens in a new tab)

  Per request

  1 Space

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $1.40

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $5.00

• Trends

  Sorsa API endpoint

  GET /trends (opens in a new tab)

  Per request

  1 location

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $1.40

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $10.00

• X Articles

  Sorsa API endpoint

  POST /article (opens in a new tab)

  Per request

  1 Article

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $1.40

  Official X API, per 1,000

  $5.00, read as posts

• Checks

  Sorsa API endpoint

  POST /check-follow (opens in a new tab) and 5 more

  Per request

  1 answer

  Sorsa API, per 1,000

  from $1.40

  Official X API, per 1,000

  no single call: lists at $10.00

Which data each job needs

Most projects read two or three of the 15 kinds, and each job maps to a short set of endpoints:

• Brand and keyword monitoring

  Data it reads

  Post search, mentions

  Sorsa API endpoints

  POST /search-tweets, POST /mentions

• Audience and influencer research

  Data it reads

  Followers, profiles, About data

  Sorsa API endpoints

  GET /followers, GET /info-batch, GET /about

• Competitor tracking

  Data it reads

  Timelines, replies, quotes

  Sorsa API endpoints

  POST /user-tweets, POST /comments, POST /quotes

• Datasets for research and AI

  Data it reads

  Search back to 2006, posts by ID

  Sorsa API endpoints

  POST /search-tweets, POST /tweet-info-bulk

• Giveaways and campaigns

  Data it reads

  Checks

  Sorsa API endpoints

  POST /check-follow, POST /check-retweet

• Watching many accounts or a market

  Data it reads

  Lists, trends

  Sorsa API endpoints

  GET /list-tweets, GET /trends

Your first request

Three steps take you from no account to your first profile:

1. Get a key. Sign up and copy your API key from the dashboard. The first 100 requests are free.

2. Ask for a profile. Call GET /info (opens in a new tab) with the key in the ApiKey header and name the account with exactly one of username, user_id or user_link.

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

   {
     "id": "1593004418823766016",
     "username": "orbit_data_studio",
     "display_name": "Orbit Data Studio",
     "description": "Charts and notes on public conversation.",
     "location": "Lisbon",
     "created_at": "2022-11-16T09:41:12Z",
     "followers_count": 18420,
     "followings_count": 312,
     "tweets_count": 4127,
     "favourites_count": 9230,
     "media_count": 688,
     "verified": false,
     "protected": false,
     "can_dm": true,
     "possibly_sensitive": false,
     "bio_urls": ["https://orbit-data.example"],
     "pinned_tweet_ids": ["1981442093318201344"],
     "profile_image_url": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/orbit.jpg"
   }
   

   Show full response

3. Follow the cursor on lists. Endpoints that return lists add next_cursor; send it back with the next request until it comes back empty. A 401 means a wrong key, a 403 a missing key or no requests left, and a 429 more than 20 requests in one second.

#What a post contains: 22 fields and its author

A post from Sorsa API carries 22 fields, and the author's full profile sits inside it: POST /tweet-info (opens in a new tab) returns one post by link or ID, and POST /tweet-info-bulk returns up to 100 in one request. Replies, quotes and reposts bring the original post along, with its author too.

The official X API starts smaller. Its post lookup returns three fields by default, id, text and edit_history_tweet_ids, as its fields guide (opens in a new tab) says; the rest takes tweet.fields, and the author takes an expansion that X bills as a $0.010 user read from November 22, 2026, according to X's notice (opens in a new tab).

Here is every field, with the name the official X API v2 uses for the same thing, so code written against either one maps across:

• id, created_at, lang

  What it holds

  The post's ID as a string, its ISO 8601 date and its language code

  Official X API v2 field

  id, created_at, lang

• full_text

  What it holds

  The whole text, long posts included

  Official X API v2 field

  text, or note_tweet.text for long posts

• likes_count, retweet_count, reply_count, quote_count, bookmark_count

  What it holds

  Engagement counts at the moment of the request

  Official X API v2 field

  public_metrics.like_count, retweet_count, reply_count, quote_count, bookmark_count

• view_count

  What it holds

  Views, which X calls impressions

  Official X API v2 field

  public_metrics.impression_count

• conversation_id_str

  What it holds

  ID of the thread's first post

  Official X API v2 field

  conversation_id

• is_reply, in_reply_to_tweet_id, in_reply_to_username

  What it holds

  Whether it replies, to which post and to whom

  Official X API v2 field

  referenced_tweets, in_reply_to_user_id

• is_quote_status, quoted_status, retweeted_status

  What it holds

  The quoted post or the original of a repost, in full

  Official X API v2 field

  referenced_tweets plus an expansion

• entities

  What it holds

  Photos, videos and links: type, link, preview

  Official X API v2 field

  entities, attachments plus a media expansion

• user

  What it holds

  The author's full profile

  Official X API v2 field

  author_id plus an expansion

• is_replies_limited, paid_partnership, made_with_ai

  What it holds

  Reply limits, and X's paid-partnership and made-with-AI labels

  Official X API v2 field

  reply_settings, paid_partnership

To read 100 posts at once, send their IDs or links to the batch endpoint:

import requests

URL = "https://api.sorsa.io/v3/tweet-info-bulk"
HEADERS = {"ApiKey": "YOUR_API_KEY"}

ids = ["1985274530112847105", "1985190021774452736"]  # up to 100
r = requests.post(URL, headers=HEADERS, json={"tweet_links": ids})
r.raise_for_status()
for t in r.json()["tweets"]:
    print(t["id"], t["view_count"], t["likes_count"], t["user"]["username"])

const res = await fetch("https://api.sorsa.io/v3/tweet-info-bulk", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { ApiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY", "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ tweet_links: ["1985274530112847105"] }),
});
const { tweets } = await res.json();
for (const t of tweets) console.log(t.id, t.view_count, t.user.username);

Good to know

Every count is a snapshot. likes_count, view_count and the rest are the values at the moment of your request and keep growing after it, so store the time of each read before you compare one post with another.

#What a profile contains, and the About data

A profile from Sorsa API has 19 fields, from GET /info for one account or GET /info-batch for up to 100. GET /about adds 7 more that X shows only on an account's "About this account" page.

• id

  What it holds

  The permanent account ID, as a string

  Official X API v2 field

  id

• username, display_name

  What it holds

  The handle without @, and the display name

  Official X API v2 field

  username, name

• description, bio_urls, location, created_at

  What it holds

  Bio, the links in it, location as typed, join date

  Official X API v2 field

  description, entities, location, created_at

• followers_count, followings_count, tweets_count, favourites_count, media_count

  What it holds

  Followers, following, posts, posts liked, media posted

  Official X API v2 field

  public_metrics counts

• verified, protected, possibly_sensitive, can_dm

  What it holds

  Badge, protected posts, sensitive flag, open to DMs

  Official X API v2 field

  verified, protected, receives_your_dm

• pinned_tweet_ids, profile_image_url, profile_background_image_url

  What it holds

  Pinned posts, avatar and banner

  Official X API v2 field

  pinned_tweet_id, profile_image_url, profile_banner_url

The About data has no counterpart in the official X API: its data dictionary (opens in a new tab) lists no country or username history for a user. GET /about returns:

• country: the country X associates with the account;
• username_change_count and last_username_change_at: how many times the handle changed, and when it last did;
• is_blue_verified and premium_start_at: the X Premium checkmark, and since when;
• source and affiliate_username: the account's source as X shows it, and the account behind its affiliation badge.

For one account, the free Twitter Account Location Finder shows the same country in the browser.

Good to know

Keep IDs as strings. Post and account IDs are 64-bit numbers that JavaScript rounds when it parses them as numbers. Store the account id, not the username, which the owner can change at any time.

#Followers, engagement lists and yes-or-no checks

Account lists come in pages of full profiles. GET /followers, GET /follows and GET /verified-followers (opens in a new tab) return up to 200 per request, so 1M followers take 5K requests, from $7; the guide to export Twitter followers has the cursor loop and the CSV.

Around a single post, three endpoints return its public engagement, 20 items a page:

• POST /comments: the replies under it, sorted by relevance, recency or likes;
• POST /quotes: the posts that quote it, each with its author;
• POST /retweeters: the accounts that reposted it, newest first, as full profiles.

An account's own output comes from POST /user-tweets, with type set to posts, replies or retweets. It pages back through the whole timeline, past the newest 3,200 posts where the official X API's timeline endpoint stops; the guide to download all tweets from a user turns it into a file.

Checks answer one question per request, from $0.0014 each:

• POST /check-follow: does one account follow another;
• POST /check-retweet (opens in a new tab): did an account repost a post, scanning 100 reposts per request;
• POST /check-quoted (opens in a new tab): quoted, retweet or not_found;
• GET /check-comment (opens in a new tab): did an account reply, and the reply itself;
• POST /check-community-member (opens in a new tab): is an account in a Community;
• GET /check-shadowban (opens in a new tab): search ban and search suggestion ban, clean, banned or unknown, cached for an hour.

The Twitter verification API guide runs them for a giveaway or a campaign.

#Search, Lists, Communities, Spaces, trends and Articles

POST /search-tweets takes any X Advanced Search query, with from:, to:, since:, until:, exact phrases and hashtags, sorted by popular or latest, across the archive back to 2006. The guide to historical Twitter data covers pulls by date range.

POST /mentions finds posts that tag an account and adds filters: min_likes, min_replies, min_retweets, and since_date and until_date in YYYY-MM-DD. POST /search-users finds accounts by a word in their name, handle or bio.

A List watches many accounts at once: one GET /list-tweets request returns the newest posts of all its members, and a List holds up to 5,000 accounts. GET /list-members and GET /list-followers (opens in a new tab) return its accounts as profiles.

Communities have five endpoints: POST /community-info (opens in a new tab) (name, description, member count, banner, creator and creation time as a Unix timestamp), POST /community-members, POST /community-tweets and POST /community-search-tweets (opens in a new tab) (popular or latest), and POST /search-communities (opens in a new tab), up to 10 per request.

GET /spaces takes a Space ID or link and returns its title, state, scheduled start and creator, the participants split into admins, speakers and listeners, its settings such as replay and clipping, and its stats: live listeners, participants and replay views. Its times come as Unix numbers, while the rest of the API uses ISO 8601 dates.

GET /trends takes a WOEID, the Where On Earth ID of a country or a city, and returns each trend's name, search query and link. POST /article returns an X Article: full text, preview, cover image, publication date, its counts with views in views_count, and the author's profile.

#What no Twitter API returns

No API returns data that X keeps private, and the official X API is no exception. On June 11, 2024, X announced (opens in a new tab) that its likes endpoints return likes and likers only for the authenticated account's own posts, and an empty result for every other post.

Each row below has a public signal you can read instead:

• Who liked a post

  Why no API returns it

  Private since June 2024: only the post's author sees it

  What you can read instead

  likes_count, plus the public replies, quotes and reposters

• An account's likes

  Why no API returns it

  Private to that account since June 2024

  What you can read instead

  favourites_count, how many posts it liked

• Bookmarks

  Why no API returns it

  Private to the account that saved them

  What you can read instead

  bookmark_count on each post

• Direct messages

  Why no API returns it

  Private between their participants

  What you can read instead

  can_dm, whether the account accepts them

• Posts of protected accounts

  Why no API returns it

  Visible only to approved followers

  What you can read instead

  The profile, with protected: true

• Deleted posts

  Why no API returns it

  Gone from X once deleted

  What you can read instead

  Only copies you stored before

• Who viewed a post or profile

  Why no API returns it

  X shows views only as a number

  What you can read instead

  view_count

• Past follower lists, follow dates

  Why no API returns it

  X keeps no public history of who followed when

  What you can read instead

  Export the list on a schedule and compare by id

• Email, phone number

  Why no API returns it

  Never public on X

  What you can read instead

  Nothing

Even the official X API reads likes, bookmarks and messages only for the account that authorized the app through OAuth, and never anyone else's.

What Sorsa API leaves out by design

Sorsa API reads and never writes: no posting, liking, following or DMs. It never asks for your X login, so your account carries no risk; to post as well, pair it with the official X API. It works on request, with no stream or webhook: new posts arrive by polling POST /search-tweets or GET /list-tweets, at 20 requests per second on every plan.

#What each kind of data costs per 1,000

Sorsa API bills one request whatever it returns, so the price per 1,000 falls as pages grow: from $0.007 per 1,000 followers (200 a page), $0.014 per 1,000 posts or profiles looked up by ID (100 a request) and $0.07 per 1,000 search results (about 20 a page). The official X API bills every item: $5.00 per 1,000 posts and $10.00 per 1,000 profiles or followers, and from November 22 each post's author adds $0.010.

Failed requests are never charged, and the official X API stops at 3M post reads a month, past which X sells only Enterprise contracts. The 100 free requests every new account gets cover up to 10K tweets or 20K followers.

#Read all 15 kinds with one key

An API returns 15 kinds of public X data and none of the private ones. To read them, use Sorsa API: one key, 45 endpoints, tweets from $0.014 per 1,000 and followers from $0.007, and 100 free requests to start, with no card.

#FAQ