Twitter has set a $100 monthly subscription charge for “low-level” use of its application program interface (API).
Last week, Twitter’s CEO Elon Musk mentioned the $100 monthly charge for API access, saying the interface was being “abused badly” by “bot scammers & opinion manipulators.”
The social media company said last week it would block free access to the API and start charging from February 9. That deadline has been reported to February 13.
Popular third-party services, including Tweetbot and Twitterrific, leaned on using Twitter’s API. Some of these services were forcefully shut down after Twitter blocked access mid-January.
Responding to feedback from users, Elon Musk said the company would offer a free “write-only” API for bots posting “good,” free content.
Since taking over Twitter in October, Musk has been on a mission to cut the company’s operating costs and increase its revenue. He previously said the company was losing $4 million a day.
