20 posts/day, 40% with a link
Over a 30-day cycle: 600 posts, 240 with a link. 360 plain posts at 1.5 cents and 240 link posts at 20 cents cost about six times what the same posts would with no links.
X (Twitter) API pricing calculator
The X API costs 1.5 cents per post and 20 cents per post that contains a link, plus half a cent per post read, paid from credits with no subscription (X’s pricing page, checked 5 November 2026). Enter your posts a day, the share with a link and your reads to estimate a month’s cost.
How much does the X API cost per post?
X charges per request, paid from credits bought in its Developer Console, with no subscription. A post costs $0.015, a post with a link $0.20, and each post read back through the API $0.005.
| Request | Price |
|---|---|
| Post: Create | $0.015 per post |
| Post: Create (with URL) | $0.20 per post |
| Posts: Read | $0.005 per post returned |
| Read cap | 3 million Post reads a month on pay-per-usage |
What will your X API bill be?
Total posts you publish to X per day, across all accounts.
Share of posts with an outbound URL: X prices these at $0.20 each against $0.015 for a plain post.
Usually 30, to match X's monthly billing cycle.
API calls that read posts (timelines, mentions, metrics), billed separately at $0.005 each and capped at 3,000,000 a month.
360 plain + 240 with a link
$53.40
(plain posts × $0.015) + (link posts × $0.20)
vs. if none of these posts had a link
$44.40
post cost − (total posts × $0.015)
15,000 reads this cycle
$75.00
min(reads, 3,000,000) × $0.005
Total estimated X API cost this billing cycle
$128.40
If every one of these 600 posts were plain text with no link, the same volume would cost $9.00. If every one of them contained a link instead, it would cost $120.00 — a 13.3x multiplier between the two, per X's own pricing page. Per-post prices used: $0.015 standard, $0.20 with a link, $0.005 per read.
How do you use the X API pricing calculator?
- Enter your daily post volume. Total posts you publish to X per day, across every connected account.
- Set your link ratio. The share of those posts that contain an outbound URL — this is what drives most of the cost difference.
- Set your billing cycle length. Usually 30 days, to match a typical monthly X API billing cycle.
- Add your daily Post reads. API calls that read posts back (timelines, mentions, metrics), billed separately at half a cent each.
- Read the cost breakdown. See the plain-post cost, the link surcharge alone, and the total, computed from X’s published pricing.
What does it look like in practice?
5 posts/day, 0% with a link
Over a 30-day cycle: 150 plain posts at 1.5 cents each, with no link surcharge.
Why does a link make an X post cost more?
X lists the two prices side by side and gives no reason. The effect is large: a post with a link costs about 13 times a plain one, so the share of posts with links drives most of the bill. For 20 posts a day over 30 days:
| Posts | Monthly post cost |
|---|---|
| No posts with a link | $9.00 |
| 40% with a link (240 posts) | $53.40 |
| Every post with a link | $120.00 |
A link also always uses 23 of a post’s 280 characters, whatever its length; see how X counts characters and check a draft with the X character counter.
How does SkedCast bill X posts?
SkedCast publishes to X through X’s API and passes X’s per-post charge through as a line item with a 10% handling fee, so you need no X developer account or credits of your own. The composer shows the estimate before you schedule, and spend caps vary by plan; see pricing and the X scheduler.
X API pricing FAQ
- Where do the per-post prices come from?
- From X’s pricing page (docs.x.com/x-api/getting-started/pricing), which lists Post: Create at 1.5 cents, Post: Create (with URL) at 20 cents and Posts: Read at half a cent, checked 5 November 2026.
- Why does a link make an X post so much more expensive to publish via API?
- X's pricing page lists the two prices side by side and does not state a reason for the difference.
- Does this calculator include X's older monthly subscription tiers like Basic or Pro?
- No. X’s pricing page describes pay-per-usage with credits bought upfront and no subscriptions, so the calculator uses the per-request prices. Volumes above 3 million Post reads a month need X’s Enterprise plan.
- What counts as a "Post read" in this calculator?
- Any API call that reads back posts, such as timelines, mentions or metrics, billed separately from posting at half a cent per post returned, capped at 3 million reads per monthly billing cycle.
- Does this calculator send my numbers anywhere?
- No — every calculation runs entirely in your browser using the input values you type; nothing is sent to a server.
- Can I use this to estimate cost for multiple X accounts?
- Yes — enter your combined daily posting and reading volume across every account you plan to publish from, since X bills per request regardless of which of your connected accounts made it.
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