Free credit incentives for pay-per-use accounts

Pay-per-use accounts can now earn free X API credits two ways: a one-time $20 when an account saves its first eligible payment card, and a one-time match of the first successful auto-recharge, up to $50. A new account that earns both receives $70 in free credits. Credits are applied automatically with no code or form, appear in the Developer Console within about a minute, are spent before purchased credits, and expire 3 months after they are granted. The incentives are rolling out now.

See Free credit incentives for eligibility rules, examples, and FAQ.

Real-time reply moderation guide now uses Grok

We rewrote the Manage replies in real time integration guide. It now receives replies through the X Activity API post.reply.create event, classifies each reply with Grok through the xAI API using structured outputs, and hides high-confidence violations with the Hide Replies endpoint. The previous version relied on the deprecated Perspective API and the Account Activity API.

The guide includes complete Python and Node.js webhook examples, guidance on writing the moderation policy, and recommendations for keeping users in control of what is hidden.

Migrate OAuth 1.0a user tokens to OAuth 2.0 with token exchange

Apps with existing OAuth 1.0a users can now exchange each user’s stored OAuth 1.0a access token and secret for an OAuth 2.0 access token and refresh token, with no consent screen or re-authorization. Send grant_type=urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:token-exchange to POST /2/oauth2/token; the granted scopes are derived from the permissions the user originally authorized, and offline.access is always included.

See Migrating OAuth 1.0a user tokens to OAuth 2.0 for the request format, permission-to-scope mapping, rate limits, and error handling.

Lead Generation API

We documented the Lead Generation API for Lead Gen campaigns. You can now create and manage native lead forms, attach a form to a card with the LEAD_FORM destination, and export submitted leads as JSON, CSV, or XLSX.

POST /12/accounts/:account_id/lead_forms creates a form (introduction, fields, privacy policy, and optional thank-you page)

POST /12/accounts/:account_id/cards accepts destination type LEAD_FORM

POST /12/accounts/:account_id/ad-export/api/v1/exports with entity_type=leads exports submissions for a form and time window

The Leads API requires the Campaign user permission. Lead exports are restricted to account administrators.

Media upload and Post-create size and duration limits

We documented the size and duration limits that apply when uploading media and when attaching it to a Post. Upload and POST /2/tweets are separately enforced. Limits follow the authenticated user’s X Premium / verified status and media_category, not your developer API plan.

• Default accounts: Post video up to 20 minutes and 8 GB (tweet_video / amplify_video)
• X Premium / verified: Post video up to 125 minutes and 16 GB
• Direct Message video is unchanged: 140 seconds / 512 MB default, 10 minutes / 1 GB Premium
• Exceeding the posting user’s duration cap returns 403 This user is not allowed to post a video longer than N minutes.

The chunked upload quickstart now uses the v2 paths (POST /2/media/upload/initialize, /{id}/append, /{id}/finalize) instead of the previous command-style POST /2/media/upload flow.

X Ads API

Updated video_total_views definition

We updated the definition of the video_total_views metric in the VIDEO metrics group of the X Ads API Analytics endpoints. It now reports views that are 100% in-view for at least 3 seconds, plus any view where a user manually clicks the play button.

The previous definition (at least 50% in-view for 2 seconds, per the MRC standard) no longer applies. The prior “100% in-view for 3 seconds” definition remains available as the video_3s100pct_views metric, and you can continue bidding on it via the VIEW_3S_100PCT bid unit.

Effective April 20, 2026, we introduced new “Owned Reads” pricing at $0.001 per resource (1,000 for $1) for qualifying endpoints when accessing your own data:

GET /2/users/{id}/bookmarks, /blocking, /muting, /pinned_lists, /tweets, /mentions, /liked_tweets, /followers, /following, /owned_lists, /followed_lists, and /list_memberships.

We also updated writes — POST /2/tweets is now $0.015 per post, and Posts containing a URL are $0.20 per Post (summoned replies remain $0.01).

Following, Likes, and Quote-Posts via the API have been removed from all self-serve tiers. Learn more here.