Last updated October 1, 2026
Apify's Twitter scrapers are third-party Actors on Apify Store. Each one sets its own price, typically per 1,000 tweets, and runs on Apify's platform. For large scheduled jobs, the cheapest of them cost less per tweet than twitr.sh. twitr.sh is the alternative when you want one synchronous HTTP call per question. You get any result count from one, an exact price before you pay, and no plan or run to manage. You can also post, like and monitor accounts, not just read. Facts about Apify below come from apify.com and docs.apify.com, checked in October 2026.
Actors on Apify Store use one of two models. Pay per event charges a fixed price for events the developer defines, such as each result returned. Pay per usage passes through the platform compute the run consumes. On top of that you hold an Apify plan:
| Apify plan | Monthly price | Usage included | Compute unit price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $5 | $0.20 |
| Starter | $19 | $19 | $0.20 |
| Scale | $199 | $199 | $0.16 |
| Business | $999 | $999 | $0.13 |
Two popular X scrapers, as listed on their Store pages:
| Actor | Listed price | Limits the page states |
|---|---|---|
| Tweet Scraper V2 (API Dojo) | $0.40 per 1,000 tweets | At least 50 tweets per query; free plan 5 runs/month of 10 items, no API access; 1 concurrent run; no single-tweet lookup, no reply scraping, no monitoring |
| Cheapest Twitter Scraper (kaitoeasyapi) | From $0.18 per 1,000 tweets | Minimum charge per API call even with no results; free users restricted |
| Apify Twitter Actors | twitr.sh | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per 1,000 tweets | $0.18–$0.40 for the two Actors above | $1.20 |
| Smallest useful call | Varies; some require 50+ tweets per query | 1 result; $0.0024 minimum, $0 if empty |
| How a call runs | Start an Actor run, then read its dataset | One POST returns the data |
| Account | Apify account and token, or x402 prepaid token | None with a wallet; optional Google sign-in |
| Agent payments | x402 on Base, prepaid token from $1, expires in 14 days | x402 on Base or Solana, MPP on Tempo, per call |
| Writes | Mostly read-only Actors | Post, reply, like, repost, follow, DM |
| Real time | Tweet Scraper V2 says not to use it for monitoring | Prepaid monitors, 21 event types, signed webhooks |
| Inputs | Different schema per Actor | One schema per tool, in OpenAPI and MCP |
Apify is a full scraping platform, and for many jobs that is exactly what you want. Choose it when you pull tens of thousands of tweets on a schedule. Its cheapest Actors cost a fraction of our per-tweet rate. You get dataset storage, scheduling, webhooks and integrations in one place, and the Store covers far more than X. Apify has also moved toward agents. It has a hosted MCP server at mcp.apify.com, and you can pay for pay-per-event Actors with x402 on Base without an Apify account. If you have a data pipeline, it is the more complete tool.
Choose twitr.sh when the job is many small questions, not one big export. An agent asking “what did @nasa post today?” wants 20 tweets now, not a run to start, poll and read back. It shouldn't have to clear a 50-tweet minimum or keep a prepaid token alive. Each twitr.sh call is synchronous, priced exactly in the 402 response, and billed only for returned records. The same API also posts through a connected account and runs real-time monitors that stop on their own when the prepaid hours end. Nothing is left running and billing in the background.
You don't have to give up bulk work, either. x_extract runs 23 extractors (followers, repliers, likers, list members, search results and more) as async jobs of up to 10,000 rows at the same $0.0012 per row.
| Job | Tweet Scraper V2 | Cheapest Twitter Scraper | twitr.sh |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 latest tweets from one account | Query must return 50+ tweets | $0.0036 at the base rate, plus any per-call minimum | $0.024 |
| 1,000 tweets from a search | $0.40 | From $0.18 | $1.20 |
| 50,000 tweets for research | $20 | From $9 | $60 |
These are the Actors' listed per-tweet prices as of October 2026. Both are pay-per-event Actors, which charge for events rather than platform compute. Any Apify plan you hold is a separate monthly fee. If the bottom row is your workload, Apify is cheaper. If the top row is, and it repeats all day inside an agent loop, the per-call model is simpler to reason about.
Most Twitter Actor inputs map onto one twitr.sh tool and a flat JSON body. The main change is that you name an exact resultsLimit instead of a run size, and you get the items back in the response, with no dataset to fetch.
| Apify Actor input | twitr.sh tool | Example body |
|---|---|---|
| Search terms, advanced search | x_search | {"q":"from:nasa","resultsLimit":100} |
| Twitter handles (profile tweets) | x_timeline | {"kind":"user-tweets","id":"nasa","resultsLimit":100} |
| Tweet IDs or URLs | x_read | {"resource":"batch-tweets","ids":["…"]} |
| Followers / following | x_timeline | {"kind":"followers","id":"nasa","resultsLimit":500} |
| Replies to a tweet | x_timeline | {"kind":"tweet-replies","id":"…","resultsLimit":200} |
| Large one-off exports | x_extract | {"tool":"follower_explorer","targetUsername":"nasa","resultsLimit":10000} |
Scheduled runs become your own cron, or a prepaid x_monitor if what you really wanted was to be told when something new appears. Full schemas are in the docs and OpenAPI spec.
# the first request quotes the exact price
curl -i -X POST https://twitr.sh/api/tools/x_search \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"q":"from:nasa","queryType":"Latest","resultsLimit":20}'
# -> 402 "amount": "0.024000" (20 results × $0.001200)
# pay from a USDC wallet and retry
npx agentcash fetch https://twitr.sh/api/tools/x_search -m POST \
-b '{"q":"from:nasa","queryType":"Latest","resultsLimit":20}'In Claude Code or Cursor, the same call is the x_search MCP tool, or install the skills with npx skills add lnvestor/twitr-skills (see /skills). Every tool and price is on /tools, and the payment flow is in the docs.
Apify's Twitter page says scraping publicly available information is legal, and it warns that the data may contain personal data. X's terms of service prohibit crawling or scraping without X's prior written consent. twitr.sh is not affiliated with X either. The only access X sanctions is its official API, compared on Twitter API vs twitr.sh and X API pricing. Weigh your jurisdiction and use case before you choose. For the wider field, see X API alternatives. To see the data before paying, try the free shadowban checker and X algorithm checker.
There isn't just one. Apify Store hosts many Twitter/X scraper Actors built by different developers, such as Tweet Scraper V2 by API Dojo and Cheapest Twitter Scraper by kaitoeasyapi. Each Actor sets its own price, inputs and limits.
It depends on the Actor. As of October 2026, Tweet Scraper V2 lists $0.40 per 1,000 tweets and Cheapest Twitter Scraper lists from $0.18 per 1,000 tweets. Apify plans run from Free ($5 of monthly usage included) to Starter at $19, Scale at $199 and Business at $999 a month.
Not at bulk volume. twitr.sh charges $1.20 per 1,000 tweets ($0.0012 each), several times more than the cheapest Apify Actors. twitr.sh is competitive for small, frequent calls because there is no per-query minimum beyond $0.0024, no plan and no run to manage.
Some do. Tweet Scraper V2 says each query must return at least 50 tweets and limits free-plan users to 5 runs a month of 10 items each. Cheapest Twitter Scraper charges a minimum per API call even when nothing is returned.
Yes. Apify supports x402 on Base for pay-per-event Actors with no Apify account. The agent buys a prepaid token (minimum $1 in USDC) that expires after 14 days, and unused balance is not refunded, according to Apify's docs.
Each call is its own payment. The 402 response quotes the exact price of that call, the wallet pays only that amount, and per-result reads charge only for what comes back. There is no prepaid token to top up or let expire. twitr.sh also accepts Solana and MPP on Tempo.
Yes, a hosted one at mcp.apify.com. It signs in with OAuth or an Apify API token and exposes tools to search and call Actors. twitr.sh's MCP server at /api/mcp exposes 14 X tools directly, paid per call.
Most Twitter Actors on Apify Store are built for reading data. twitr.sh can post, reply, like, repost, follow and send DMs through an X account you connect once in your browser, from $0.012 per action.
Apify's Twitter page says scraping publicly available information is legal but the data may contain personal data. X's terms of service prohibit crawling or scraping without its prior written consent. Whether a given project is allowed depends on your jurisdiction and use, so check both before you build.
Apify, if you run large scheduled scraping jobs and want storage, scheduling and integrations in one platform at the lowest cost per tweet. twitr.sh, if an agent needs to make small synchronous calls, post, or watch accounts in real time with no setup.