X bills writes per request, not per resource returned. A plain text post costs $0.015. The same post with a link costs $0.20. This page isolates every self-serve write rate, the April 2026 URL markup, and the operations X removed from pay-per-use.
Read endpoints multiply cost by result count. Write endpoints do not. One POST /2/tweets call is one charge whether the body is 20 characters or 280. That flat per-request model makes write pricing easier to forecast than search, until a scheduler adds links.
For read-side multiplication and the full endpoint table, see X API pay-per-use endpoint costs. For tier history and legacy Basic math, see the X API pricing comparison.
Pay-per-use accounts deduct credits per write request. Rates below come from the official X Developer documentation and the April 20, 2026 pricing update. Verify current figures in the Developer Console before committing a production bot.
| Action | Unit cost | Billed per |
|---|---|---|
| Content: Create (no URL) | $0.015 | request |
| Content: Create (with URL) | $0.200 | request |
| Content: Create (summoned reply with URL) | $0.010 | request |
| DM Interaction: Create | $0.015 | request |
| Interaction: Delete | $0.010 | request |
| Content: Manage (edit) | $0.005 | request |
| List: Create | $0.010 | request |
| List: Manage | $0.005 | request |
| Bookmark | $0.005 | request |
| Media Metadata | $0.005 | request |
| Privacy: Update | $0.010 | request |
| Mute: Delete | $0.005 | request |
User Interaction: Create (follow, like, quote-post) is Enterprise-only on new accounts. Do not budget self-serve rates for engagement automation.
The April 2026 repricing moved URL-bearing creates from $0.010 to $0.200 per request. Plain creates rose from $0.010 to $0.015 at the same time. The gap between link and no-link posts is now $0.185 per request.
| Volume | Plain posts ($0.015) | URL posts ($0.200) | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 posts/month | $1.50 | $20.00 | $18.50 |
| 1,000 posts/month | $15.00 | $200.00 | $185.00 |
| 10,000 posts/month | $150.00 | $2,000.00 | $1,850.00 |
A content syndication bot that shares article links on every run crosses $200/month at roughly 1,000 posts. The same bot posting headline-only text with no outbound URL stays near $15/month at that volume.
Summoned replies with URLs bill at $0.010 per request, not $0.200. That path applies when the URL appears inside a reply thread summoned through the documented endpoint, not in the root post body. Misclassifying the endpoint can inflate a monthly bill by an order of magnitude.
Direct messages cost $0.015 per send, the same as a plain post create. High-volume DM bots should still watch rate limits: 15-minute windows apply independently of credit balance.
List operations split between creation ($0.010) and management ($0.005). Adding a user to a list, updating list metadata, or removing members each triggers a management charge. Bulk list hygiene across hundreds of accounts adds up faster than a single-post scheduler.
Deletes cost $0.010 per interaction removal. Content edits through the manage endpoint cost $0.005. Neither operation refunds the original create charge.
Headline-only news bot. 50 plain posts per day, no URLs. 50 × 30 × $0.015 = $22.50/month in write spend alone. Add read costs for timeline polling separately.
Affiliate link sharer. 20 URL posts per day. 20 × 30 × $0.200 = $120.00/month on writes. Switching half those posts to summoned-reply URLs at $0.010 would cut that line item substantially if the content structure allows it.
Customer support DM router. 200 DM sends per day. 200 × 30 × $0.015 = $90.00/month. DM reads bill separately at $0.010 per event returned.
New pay-per-use signups cannot programmatically follow accounts, like posts, retweet, or quote-post without an Enterprise contract. Teams migrating from legacy Basic or Pro tiers lose those self-serve interaction endpoints unless they retain grandfathered access.
Filtered stream ingestion also remains off self-serve write-adjacent tiers. New accounts polling search endpoints for monitoring pay read rates instead. See X API enterprise pricing for contract floors when read caps or interaction endpoints block the pipeline.
Many trend dashboards only need ranked topic names, not programmatic posting. The official GET /2/trends/by/woeid/:id path costs $0.010 per trends read and still counts against rate limits.
Trends MCP exposes live X trending topics through get_top_trends with one request per poll. No X developer account, no write endpoints, no URL markup risk. For teams comparing read-side costs, the X trending topics monitoring API page walks through feed polling patterns.
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