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The strategy to introduce a paid basic API plan is the latest step in Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s intention to monetise the site as much as possible.
From 9 February, Twitter users will notice a change in the social media platform’s API (application programming interface) offering. Twitter’s development account, @TwitterDev, tweeted today (2 February) that it will “no longer support” free access to both v2 and v1.1 of the API.
Instead, a basic paid tier will be made available. While Twitter does offer paid premium API tiers, it does not charge users for basic access.
Twitter’s free API currently allows third parties to obtain publicly available data from the platform which can be used to create external apps that connect back to the site.
The development team explained that it would share “more details” on what users can expect from this paid basic tier in the coming days. Twitter has not said how much it will cost to get access to the API via the incoming paid plan.
Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API, both v2 and v1.1. A paid basic tier will be available instead 🧵
— Twitter Dev (@TwitterDev) February 2, 2023
The development team offered a statement of its intent and commitment to deliver a quality API service to paying customers.
“Over the years, hundreds of millions of people have sent over a trillion Tweets, with billions more every week.
“Twitter data are among the world’s most powerful data sets. We’re committed to enabling fast and comprehensive access so you can continue to build with us.”
The plan to introduce a paid basic API plan is the latest step in Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s intention to monetise the site as much as possible.
Despite Musk announcing that he will step down as Twitter CEO last December, he is still steadily introducing new features.
At the end of last month, he tweeted to say that Twitter will introduce an ad-free version of Twitter Blue – its paid subscriber service – for a higher price than regular Twitter Blue users are paying.
Also last month, Twitter updated its developer agreement to ban third-party clients, having already made moves to block some of these apps from using its platform.
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