The short version
Pick it if
- You only need to read public X data
- You want a bill you can predict, with failed requests left off it
- You want webhooks when specific accounts post, follow or change their profile
Skip it if
- You pull large follower lists, where it costs 20 times twitterapi.io’s bulk rate
- You need trends, follower-ID lists or write actions
- Your procurement team needs a named company and governing law
SocialData does one job: public X data at a flat $0.0002 per tweet, profile or follower returned, so $0.20 per 1,000. There are no plans or seats, the balance doesn’t expire, failed requests aren’t charged, and an unused deposit is refundable within 14 days. About 30 endpoints cover search with X’s operators, timelines, replies, quotes, threads, followers, lists, communities and Spaces. A Monitoring API pushes signed webhooks when an account posts, follows or edits its profile, or when a search matches.
It ranks second on X because twitterapi.io is cheaper and does more: $0.15 per 1,000 tweets, $0.01 per 1,000 followers in bulk, and trends and writes SocialData doesn’t have. SocialData’s case is simplicity. It’s read-only, so nothing in it touches an X account, and its docs show the price on every endpoint. The weak spots are a default limit of 120 requests a minute, email-only support, and no published legal entity, address or governing law.
SocialData at a glance
- Company
- Not published
- Headquarters
- Not published
- Online since
- December 2023
- Product type
- Unofficial live API, read-only
- Platforms
- X only
- Billing
- Prepaid balance, per item returned; failed requests free
- Price
- $0.20 per 1,000 tweets or profiles
- Free tier
- Unclear; demo account on request
- Rate limit
- 120 requests a minute; more free on request
- SDKs
- None; OpenAPI spec and MCP server
- Refunds
- Unused deposits within 14 days
Pricing
One prepaid balance covers every endpoint, with no plans or seats. Empty responses are free up to three a minute, then cost $0.0002 each, so heavy polling isn’t free. Custom rates are available for high volume, on request.
100,000 X posts a month, compared
At each provider’s entry rate, before volume discounts, from our X ranking.
Using SocialData
Signing up
There are no plans to choose: you top up a balance and call the API. The site can’t agree on a free trial. The homepage says “Try for Free” with no card, while the FAQ says there’s no free plan and that support can set up a demo account. When the balance hits zero the API returns HTTP 402, so turn on the low-balance alerts or auto top-up in the dashboard.
Making a request
REST with your API key as a Bearer token in the Authorization header. Responses are synchronous JSON in the old Twitter v1.1 style, with snake_case fields and cursor pagination on every collection endpoint. Multiple profiles or tweets can be fetched by ID, up to 100 a request. Webhooks are signed with HMAC-SHA256, and an event-history endpoint lets you replay ones you missed.
Documentation
The best in this category. Every endpoint page shows its price, there’s an OpenAPI spec, llms.txt, a Markdown copy of every page and a reference for X’s search operators. There’s no SDK and no official GitHub organisation, though developers have built community MCP servers and Val Town projects on it.
Support
Support is email only.
Verdict
The X API to pick if you want reads and nothing else, on a bill you can predict. It’s a strong second to twitterapi.io: a third dearer per tweet and twenty times dearer for bulk follower lists, with a lower default rate limit and fewer endpoints, but with free failed requests, better docs and no write endpoints to put an account at risk. The anonymous operator is a real drawback for anyone who has to sign a supplier off. Watch search monitors: at the default refresh, each costs about $17.28 a month before it finds a single tweet.
Visit SocialDataAlternatives
Questions
Who runs SocialData?
It doesn’t say. The site and terms name no legal entity, address or governing law. It describes itself as an independent third-party service, not affiliated with X Corp, and has been online since late 2023.
How much does SocialData cost?
A flat $0.0002 per tweet, profile or follower returned, which is $0.20 per 1,000. A few checks cost more: $0.004 to verify a follow and $0.008 to verify a retweet or comment. Account monitors start at $4.99 a month each.
Does SocialData have a free trial?
Its own site disagrees with itself. The homepage says you can try it free with no card; the FAQ says there’s no free plan but support may set up a demo account. Unused deposits are refundable within 14 days.
Can SocialData post tweets or send DMs?
No. It’s read-only. If you need to post, twitterapi.io sells write actions through your own X account, and the official X API does it with sanction.
What are SocialData’s rate limits?
120 requests a minute per user, shared across all endpoints. Higher limits are free on request.
SocialData or twitterapi.io?
twitterapi.io if price, bulk follower pulls, trends or writes matter. SocialData if you want a simple, read-only API with free failed requests and better docs.