X increases the cost of posting links via API by 1900%.

On April 20, 2026, X increased the fee for posting URLs via its API from $0.01 (approximately 1.6 yen) per post to $0.20 (approximately 32 yen). This change will have a significant impact on users who utilize third-party automated posting tools.

X API Pricing Update: Owned Reads Now $0.001 + Other Changes Effective April 20, 2026 - Announcements - X Developers
https://devcommunity.x.com/t/x-api-pricing-update-owned-reads-now-0-001-other-changes-effective-april-20-2026/263025

API Posting will increase to $0.015 per post from $0.01.

API Posting URL will be $0.20 except for summoned replies. This will remain at $0.01.

Following, Likes, and Quote-Posts via API Writes will be removed from all self-serve tiers.

More details: https://t.co/vdqTnQxJil

— Developers (@XDevelopers) April 16, 2026

Effective April 20th, X's API pricing structure has been revised, with the fee per post slightly increasing from $0.01 to $0.015 (approximately 2.4 yen). However, if the post includes a URL, the fee increases significantly to $0.20. This change only affects API users and does not apply to posts made through the X app or official website.

Additionally, API-based following, liking, and quoting are no longer supported.

Nikita Bier, product manager at X, has stated that the purpose of this price increase is to 'reduce spam attacks.'

Happy to pay personally for the API price bump. The aim was to reduce search spam attacks.

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) April 20, 2026

Regarding posting URLs on X, a study that investigated news site accounts pointed out that 'engagement rates decrease when URLs are included.' However, Mr. Bier commented on this point, saying that 'there is no code that lowers the engagement rate of URLs,' and dismissed it as not being due to X's specifications, but 'simply because people were habitually posting only titles and links.'

According to Mr. Bia, for the algorithm to receive a signal, posts must include something that people can interact with, such as comments. 'If your followers don't regularly interact with your content, it will naturally lose out to posts that do get interacted with,' Mr. Bia points out .

When the news site Techmeme posted that they were removing links from their posts because it was lowering their engagement rates, Mr. Bia advised them to 'try attaching screenshots of reactions to news events, similar to those quoted on your homepage, as an experiment.' He suggested that attaching screenshots of comments on Techmeme articles to posts with links could potentially increase engagement rates.

Techmeme should screenshot these and put them in the parent post. To succeed with links, the linked content must bleed into the post. pic.twitter.com/w353RExKVM

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) April 20, 2026

In response, Techmeme replied, 'We are a small organization and are doing our best to post quickly, and we don't have the resources to create content customized for X.' To this, Mr. Bia offered , 'I would be happy to personally cover the increase in API fees.'