Twitter To Start Charging Developers In February For Access To API

Twitter has announced that the use of Twitter's API will eventually require payment from developers effective February 9 as it would no longer allow free access to both versions 1.1 and 2 of its API.

It will introduce a "paid basic tier" instead, but the company has yet to reveal how much it would cost. 

Since Elon Musk assumed leadership of the company, Twitter has been experimenting with different revenue-generating strategies.

The most significant adjustment to date has been Twitter Blue, which has developed into a $8–$11 per month subscription service that enables users to acquire the previously elusive blue checkmark on the platform.

Musk and his advisors reportedly discussed the notion of including paid direct messages and movies behind a paywall, according to a New York Times investigation from last year.

Even the short-form video app Vine, which was discontinued in 2016, was apparently a possibility.

Musk has been looking at all potential income streams in order to be able to repay the loans he took out when he paid $44 billion for Twitter.

According to The Information, in order to complete the transaction, he borrowed $13 billion from a number of banks, but they were unable to sell the loan to investors as intended.

The corporation is now required to pay interest alone of $1.5 billion annually.

When third-party clients like Tweetbot abruptly ceased functioning in January, Twitter gave hints that it planned to alter the way developers accessed its APIs.

Later, the business acknowledged that it had purposefully blocked their access because of "long-standing API rules," despite the fact that it had previously deleted the section of its developer policy that forbade developers from building apps that were identical to its main service.

The website modified its developer agreement a few days after third-party Twitter clients were taken offline to prohibit access to its "Licensed Materials to establish or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications."

"Twitter data are among the world’s most powerful data sets," the company wrote in a follow-up tweet. 

"We're committed to enabling fast & comprehensive access so you can continue to build with us." 

Twitter did not specify if it will provide exceptions for researchers, despite the fact that it is very obvious that it will charge developers to utilise its API.

People in academia have been accessing data from the website for their studies across several sectors, including politics and health, thanks to Twitter's privileged access to its API for academic study.

Next week, the website promises to provide more information regarding the new "paid basic tier" for its API.