Twitter: announced today a new API tier called Twitter API Pro for beginners that costs $5,000 per month. This tier allows developers to receive 1 million tweets per month, publish 300,000 tweets per month, and access a searchable endpoint for the entire archive.
The Elon Musk-led company announced the new price levels in March. At the beginning of the year, Twitter announced that it would be shutting down access to its free API tier. However, it backtracked somewhat on that decision by offering free access to 1,500 tweets per month for content bots.
The new tier sits between the $100 per month basic tier and the $42,000 per month enterprise tier. Twitter calls this new tier suitable for “startups scaling their business.”
When Twitter announced the new pricing, many developers and founders argued that the company should introduce a middle tier between Basic and Enterprise for startups that can’t afford to spend nearly half a million dollars a year.
The new Pro API tier will cater to some of those people, but won’t be a solution for businesses operating on tight budgets, as they still have to spend $60,000 a year. For example, this new Pro level posting limit may be sufficient for some bots, but it will be difficult for developers to raise money through subscriptions or donations to sustain the service for a long time.
Notably, Twitter hasn’t been developed yet solution for researchers and scientists. In March, the company said it was “looking for new ways” to serve that community, but the social network has yet to make an announcement.
At a recent event, Musk said Twitter is on a “reverse cycle” after it took drastic measures to cut costs. Earlier this month, the company hired NBCU’s Linda Yaccarino as COO of Twitter and an ambitious “everything X app.”