Twitter has restored free access to its API for some public institutions. The company says verified government and publicly-owned services that use the tool for critical purposes such as weather alerts, transport updates, and emergency notifications will get free access to it. “One of the most important use cases for the Twitter API has always been public utility,” the social network said in a tweet announcing this policy change. It blocked free API access for all in early April.
Twitter restores free API access for some public institutions
Twitter has undergone numerous changes since Elon Musk took over the company in October last year. Mont notably, the social network removed legacy verified checkmarks and blocked free access to its API. Both of these changes took effect last month, though the firm has been preparing for it for a long time. It abruptly blocked several third-party Twitter clients in mid-January citing API rules. The company said developers would need to pay for API access.
The paid version of Twitter API was supposed to arrive in February but was delayed until late March. The firm eventually launched three tiers, including a Free tier. However, the new free version offers very little. It is limited to “write-only use cases and testing the Twitter API”. It allows a maximum of 1,500 tweets per month and one app ID. The $100 per month “Basic” tier, meanwhile, is ideal for “hobbyists or prototypes,” Twitter said. It also comes with fixed caps on tweets.
Finally, for “businesses and scaled commercial projects,” Twitter offers an “Enterprise” tier of its API with varying monthly subscription plans. Depending on the individual use case, it can cost tens of thousands of dollars. A week or so after launching the paid version, the company blocked access to the existing free version of its API. Unsurprisingly, the cost of the Enterprise tier was too much for some developers, forcing them to shut down their projects. The Free and Basic tiers, meanwhile, didn’t offer enough resources to keep them alive.
While Twitter won’t backtrack on this decision, it has shown leniency for public institutions. Services that use its API for communicating emergency information and other critical purposes would get back free access. But for everyone else, it’s a choice between paying the company or stopping using its full API suite. Microsoft has already refused to pay and removed Twitter from its social media tool for advertisers.