Twitter is Replacing Free Access to its API With a New Paid Tier
upstart writes:
Twitter is replacing free access to its API with a new paid tier:
Twitter will no longer provide free access to the Twitter API from February 9th. As announced by the official Twitter Developer account late Wednesday night, Elon Musk's social media hobby will stop supporting free access to the Twitter API and will instead provide a "paid basic tier." Twitter hasn't provided any information regarding pricing, but said that it will provide "more details on what you can expect next week."
[...] Twitter's API - abbreviated from Application Programming Interface - allows third parties to retrieve and analyze public Twitter data, which can then be used to create programmable bots and separate applications that connect to the platform, such as Pikaso, Thread Reader, and RemindMe_OfThis. Twitter currently provides limited free access to its API alongside premium, scalable tiers for developers that need to lift restrictions on accessing endpoints and unlock additional enterprise features. Twitter does not publicly disclose the price of its premium API tiers, though it was reported in February last year that fees start from $99 a month and increase depending on the level of access required.
[...] Many small developers have used Twitter's free API access to create fun tools and useful bots like novelty weather trackers and black-and-white image colorizers which are not intended to earn income or turn a profit. As a result, it's likely that many bots and tools utilizing Twitter's free API access will need to charge a fee or be shut down. It would also impact third parties like students and scientists who use the platform to study online behavior and gather information for research papers.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.