Elon Musk’s tweets displayed on a phone screen and the Twitter logo displayed on the screen in the background are seen in this photo illustration taken in Krakow, Poland on December 21, 2022
Jakub Porzycki Nurphoto Getty Images
Twitter will start charging developers for access to its API, a key tool that powers popular services like TweetDelete and bots that send users requests for data in real time.
The microblogging site, which was taken over by Elon Musk last October, said that from February 9 it will “not support free access to the Twitter API.”
Third-party services that use Twitter’s API must use the basic paid rate, the company said.
“Over the years, hundreds of millions of people have sent more than a trillion Tweets, with billions more added every week,” the official Twitter account tweeted late Wednesday.
“Twitter’s data is one of the most powerful datasets in the world. We’re committed to enabling fast & comprehensive access so you can continue to build with us.”
APIs are software used by third-party developers to access data from applications and use them to create new services.
The Twitter API, available in both free and paid versions, is used by thousands of developers for anything from setting reminders to showing alerts about changes to specific Twitter accounts.
Meanwhile, researchers are using the tool to track hate speech and misinformation online.
The Twitter API is also used by the newsgathering service Dataminr to alert journalists to information that appears on Twitter in real time.
Since Musk took the reins as CEO of Twitter, he has worked to dramatically reduce costs and increase monetization.
The billionaire is trying to turn Twitter into a profitable venture in an effort to recoup the investment he made under his $44 billion purchase of the company.
Under his leadership, Twitter cut half of its global workforce and integrated verification badges into its paid Twitter Blue subscription product.