Best Twitter/X scrapers 2026
For most tweet pulls in 2026, start with apidojo/twitter-scraper-lite (event-based pricing, covers search/URLs/profiles/lists) or kaitoeasyapi Tweet Scraper at $0.25 per 1,000 tweets. The official apify/twitter-scraper listing is now a router surfacing these third-party Actors. It's fine as a starting point, but you'll end up on one of the community tools anyway.
X locked down its free API in 2023, and the Basic tier now runs roughly $200/month for a capped read allowance. That is more than enough to justify scrapers for any team doing read-only public research. The Apify Store has ~20+ Twitter Actors; the ones worth your time are the pay-per-result and event-based listings, not the monthly rentals.
- No-code tutorial: Run a mainstream Twitter Actor end-to-end.
- Browse all Twitter Actors: Full category listing.
Comparison table
Pricing and ratings verified on the Store listings as of the update date above. Re-check before committing to a large run.
| Actor | Pricing | Rating | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| apidojo/twitter-scraper-lite | Event-based (per query + per tweet tiers) | 4.47 | Default pick: one Actor for search, URLs, profiles, lists, conversations. |
| kaitoeasyapi/...cheapest | $0.25 / 1,000 tweets | 4.44 | Cheapest per-tweet pricing; best for high-volume keyword/handle pulls. |
| apidojo/tweet-scraper (V2) | $0.40 / 1,000 tweets | 3.97 | Advanced search filters, 30–80 tweets/sec, mature Actor. |
| epctex/twitter-profile-scraper | $10/mo rental + usage | 4.22 | Profile-only research (bios, counts, verified flag). |
| apify/twitter-scraper | Router listing | n/a | Discovery: links out to the community Actors above. |
Pick by input shape
Twitter scrapers diverge by what you hand them. Match the Actor to the input, not the other way around.
- Handles / profile URLs →
apidojo/twitter-scraper-liteorkaitoeasyapi. Both accepthttps://x.com/usernameand paginate the user timeline. - Keyword or advanced-search query (
from:,since:,until:,lang:,min_faves:) →apidojo/tweet-scraperV2 has the richest search-operator support;kaitoeasyapiis cheaper but with fewer filters. - Tweet URLs → full thread / replies →
apidojo/twitter-scraper-litehandles conversation expansion; single-tweet queries cost a flat fee per URL on most pay-per-result Actors. - Lists →
apidojo/twitter-scraper-liteis the only mainstream option that accepts list URLs directly. - Profile metadata only (no tweets) →
epctex/twitter-profile-scraperif you prefer a rental model with a stable schema; otherwise strip the profile block from any of the pay-per-result Actors. - Follower / following lists → There is no great cheap option. Every Actor I've tried in this category either requires login cookies or sits on a low rating. Scrape profile snapshots over time and diff them as a workaround, or budget for the friction.
X API vs Apify scrapers
| Dimension | X API (Basic tier) | Apify scrapers |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly minimum | ~$200/mo (Basic) for capped reads; Pro is $5,000/mo | None; pay per tweet or per run |
| Cost at 100k tweets | Hit monthly caps fast on Basic | ~$25 (kaitoeasyapi) to ~$40 (apidojo V2) |
| Data scope | Whatever your app tier allows | Whatever is publicly visible to the Actor |
| Search operators | Full filtered-stream / recent search | Most Actors expose X's web search operators |
| Login-gated content | Official app auth | Some Actors accept session cookies; others don't |
| Maintenance | Stable HTTP contract | Publisher ships fixes when X breaks markup |
| Compliance burden | Developer agreement | You own ToS, copyright, and privacy decisions |
For read-only public research at anything under Pro-tier volumes, Apify scrapers beat the X API on unit economics by 5 to 20x. The tradeoff is you're downstream of frontend changes, so budget a day or two of occasional breakage per quarter.
X aggressively rate-limits logged-out browsing and gates parts of search behind login. Mainstream Actors (apidojo, kaitoeasyapi) handle this internally with rotating sessions, so you shouldn't need to supply cookies for tweet/profile/search work. Follower lists and DMs are a different story: expect friction or paid rental Actors. Never paste your own session tokens into an untrusted Actor.
Cost control
- Pin maxItems early. Both apidojo and kaitoeasyapi honor hard caps; a missing
maxItemson a broad query is the most common way to burn through $20 by accident. - Prefer pay-per-result over compute-unit. Event-based and per-tweet pricing are predictable; CU-based Actors swing with page weight.
- Split by date window. For historical pulls, chunk
since:/until:queries by week and checkpoint between runs. - Use Apify Proxy only when needed. The pay-per-result Actors include proxy costs in the unit price.
The X API Basic tier starts around $200/month with tight read caps; Pro jumps to $5,000/month. For read-only public research, a pay-per-result Apify Actor at $0.25–$0.40 per 1,000 tweets is 5–20x cheaper at realistic volumes, with no monthly minimum.
The apify/twitter-scraper page is now effectively a directory that routes you to the 20+ community Twitter Actors on the Store. You'll end up on apidojo/twitter-scraper-lite, apidojo/tweet-scraper, or kaitoeasyapi regardless, so starting there directly is fine.
For tweets, profiles, and search, no. The mainstream Actors handle auth internally. For follower/following lists and some gated search results, you may need to supply session cookies to an Actor that accepts them. Never share session tokens in public repos or untrusted Actors.
kaitoeasyapi at $0.25 / 1,000 tweets, followed by apidojo/tweet-scraper V2 at $0.40 / 1,000. Rental Actors ($10–$30/month) rarely pencil out unless you're already running a consistent monthly workload.
Scraping public posts is generally tolerated but implicates X's terms, copyright, and regional privacy law (GDPR, CCPA). Don't scrape personal data without a legitimate basis, and read our scraping legality primer. It is not legal advice.
Free read access ended in 2023. The free tier today only allows writes (posting tweets) with very low limits. All meaningful read access now requires Basic ($200/mo) or above, which is what pushed most researchers and startups toward scraper marketplaces.
Common mistakes and fixes
Runs fail after X changes its frontend.
Pin to an actively maintained Actor (check the last-updated date on the Store listing), drop concurrency, and retry. Community publishers like apidojo and kaitoeasyapi typically ship fixes within a day or two of frontend breaks.
I'm getting empty results on search queries.
X gates some search results behind login. Either supply session cookies in an Actor that accepts them, switch to a profile/URL-based input, or use a pay-per-result Actor that handles login internally.
Costs ballooned on a large pull.
Prefer event-based or pay-per-result Actors (apidojo/twitter-scraper-lite, kaitoeasyapi) over compute-unit Actors for predictable unit economics. Split big queries by date window and cap maxItems.