X

X collection uses the official Recent Search API and batch user lookup API. It requires appropriate developer access and an explicit spending approval.

Get authorized API access

1. Register/sign in at the X developer console.
2. Create the required developer project/application for your use case.
3. Confirm your account has access to Recent Search and user lookup endpoints. Complete any required developer/policy approval.
4. Generate the application's Bearer Token and store it privately.
5. Review current pricing, fund/limit the account as appropriate, and set provider-side spending controls.

The app does not purchase credits, create developer access, or authorize spending for you. Never enable scraping as a substitute for API access.

Configure Admin

Setting	Value
Social__X__BearerToken	Authorized application's bearer token
Social__X__Enabled	true
Social__X__PolicyApproved	true after policy review
Social__X__SpendApproved	true only after budget approval
Social__X__MaximumDailySpendUsd	Positive approved USD ceiling
Social__X__PollIntervalSeconds	Optional; default 300, clamped 60-3600

Zero/no budget keeps reads off. Set credentials only on Admin and restart.

The query groups the configured hashtag and literal event name before excluding retweets, replies, and quotes, for example:

(#myevent OR "My Event") -is:retweet -is:reply -is:quote

Returned reference metadata is checked again before ingestion. New original posts still need moderation. Use a distinctive event name/hashtag to avoid unrelated matches.

Understand the spend guard

The local accounting model currently uses $0.005/post and $0.010/user reads. These matched published pricing when checked in November 2026, but are not a billing guarantee. If X changes prices, review/update XReadBudget before relying on its USD estimate.

• Search reserves a 100-post request against the shared persisted UTC-day budget. At those rates it needs at least $0.50 of headroom to attempt a search.
• Profile batches contain at most 100 IDs and shrink to affordable headroom.
• Both post and profile reads share the same ceiling.
• Every returned resource counts, even if filtered locally.
• Definitive search 4xx responses (except timeouts) refund the search reservation. Uncertain/server failures and failed profile lookups conservatively retain it.
• Cached profiles last 24 hours (unavailable profiles five minutes). Restarting may cause another lookup but does not reset daily spending.
• Provider-side billing deduplication is not assumed by this local estimate.

Set provider-side limits as well. Shared accounts, other applications, changed pricing, and reservation conservatism can make actual billing differ.

Delivery limits and rehearsal

The collector persists since_id and requests posts newer than the latest seen; it stops using a checkpoint once it is older than six days. Each poll fetches at most 100 posts, without a complete backlog-draining loop. A busy event can lose posts between polls; shorter intervals trade quota/cost for lower gaps.

Recent Search does not supply source deletion events. Staff must withdraw removed/unwanted content, and you must determine whether this satisfies the platform's obligations for your use. A partial source status is expected, not a claim of deletion completeness.

Test a new standalone post, profile attribution, an excluded reply/quote, approval, and manual withdrawal before enabling collection at an event.

Official references: Recent Search, pricing.