One week after Twitter announced it will stop providing free API access, the company today announced it would charge $100 per month for the entry-level tier of the API. Developers will now have access to the Ads API and a “minimal level of API usage,” though it is unclear exactly what that entails.

The business originally intended to discontinue free access to its API on February 9, but it has now moved up that date to February 13. However, since developers won’t be able to prepare for the changes, this expansion seems symbolic in light of the lack of information around the restructuring of API fees and access levels.

Developers were very critical of the announcement made last week, especially those that make fun of bots that publish content or images. Later, Elon Musk claimed that the business would give “excellent” content-posting bots a free API. In the most recent round of announcements, Twitter stated that these bot developers will have access to a light write-only API with a monthly tweet limit of 1,500. (or two tweets per hour).

A new form of free access will be introduced as this is extremely important to our ecosystem – limited to Tweet creation of up to 1,500 Tweets per month for a single authenticated user token, including Login with Twitter.

— Twitter Dev (@TwitterDev) February 8, 2023

Twitter also mentioned that on February 13 it would devalue its premium API, which was a component of v1.1. Even though the firm stated that developers can apply for enterprise access, it is unclear whether or not people who have enhanced access with API v2 will be impacted.

There is a lot of uncertainty around academic research, even though the new announcement lays the foundation for fundamental API levels and bots. Under the previous leadership, the business gave researchers privileged access via API v2. There is no indication, however, to suggest that access will be restricted once the social network ends its free API tiers. These statistics are used by researchers to identify trends in hate speech and disinformation on the site.

In addition, it has been noted that engineers using Twitter API to create solutions for natural calamities like earthquakes. Therefore, ending the free tier will have an impact on such solutions.

Couldn’t come at a worse time. Most analysts and programmers that are building apps and functions for Turkey earthquake aid and relief, and are literally saving lives, are reliant on Twitter API. Any limit/structure/architecture change will make everyone’s life difficult. https://t.co/mpwMnWmSPh

— Akin Unver (@AkinUnver) February 8, 2023

Musk’s most recent effort to increase revenue for Twitter involves charging for API access. Twitter Blue has now been introduced in 15 nations by the business. Only 180,000 Americans have signed up for it, according to recent statistics. According to The Information, Twitter will only generate $27.8 million in revenue from memberships this year at current rate.