Twitter rate limit exceeded: how to fix the 1,000 posts a day limitation
Tips to get around the 1,000 posts per day rate limit exceeded error message, Elon Musk's latest highly unpopular Twitter changes
Update: Twitter has released a statement addressing the platform’s rate limit (the ability to read new tweets of users). The social media company said:
“To ensure the authenticity of our user base we must take extreme measures to remove spam and bots from our platform. That’s why we temporarily limited usage so we could detect and eliminate bots and other bad actors that are harming the platform. Any advance notice on these actions would have allowed bad actors to alter their behavior to evade detection.
“At a high level, we are working to prevent these accounts from 1) scraping people’s public Twitter data to build AI models and 2) manipulating people and conversation on the platform in various ways.
“Currently, the restrictions affect a small percentage of people using the platform, and we will provide an update when the work is complete. As it relates to our customers, effects on advertising have been minimal.
“While this work will never be done, we’re all deeply committed to making Twitter a better place for everyone.
“At times, even for a brief moment, you must slow down to speed up.
“We appreciate your patience.”
Elon Musk increased the rate limit on Sunday, July 2, 2023, to 10,000 for verified Twitter Blue subscribers, 1,000 for unverified users, and 500 for new unverified users. It sounds like this move is still a temporary measure according to Twitter’s statement, but the timing couldn’t be worse with Instagram’s Threads releasing soon.
We’ll update our explainer if there’s ever a permanent fix to the rate limit error message.
Original Story: If you’re seeing the Twitter error message “rate limitation exceeded” today, you’re not alone, as the social media platform suddenly stopped working for troves of unverified users. Even Twitter Blue subscribers donning the blue verified mark are seeing the rate limit error after a while – and they’re paying money for the Twitter platform.
Here’s what’s happening and how to fix it: Elon Musk says that Twitter is “addressing extreme levels of data scrapping and system manipulations.” At first, he announced the following limitations on all “readable” tweets:
Verified accounts can read: 6,000 posts per day (now 10,000)
Verified accounts can read: 600 posts per day (now 1,000)
New unverified accounts can read: 300 posts per day (now 500)
These numbers have since increased twice, with daily counts expanding for verified that can now see 8,000 posts, unverified at 800 posts and new verified held at 300 posts. The most recent numbers were pushed to 10,000, 1,000 and 500, according to Musk in this latest update on the platform’s troubles
Why the Twitter ‘rate limit exceeded’ error exists
There are several theories on why this is happening. You can take Elon Musk at face value, and, yes, many services harvest Twitter’s public data and API for profit – from ChatGPT at one time before Musk shut down their Twitter API access to countless social media services that help you organize and post to the platform for their own profit. Musk has been bent on limiting this free-for-all one-way exchange.
But other possible explanations are floating around, including one theory from Zoe Schiffer and Casey Newton, fellow Substackers over at Platformer (paid post but worth subscribing). Twitter has apparently stopped payments to Google (for Google Cloud) and delayed payments to Amazon (for Amazon Web Services). Considering the fact that the “rate limit exceeded” message started July 1, this makes sense.
Other less plausible theories suggest that this is Musk’s play to increase Twitter Blue subscriptions (that’s shortsighted as it’s turned into an advertisement for BlueSky and Mastodon) or purposely crashing the website as a write-off.
1. Log into an alt account
You should really have one of these for a variety of reasons, including security. Twitter erroneously banned my account twice in 2021 while I was issuing helpful PS5 restock alerts when the console was really hard to get. Twitter used an algorithm to flush out scammers with similar messages and poof, I was gone. The only way I was able to be in contact with fellow Twitter restock accounts was through alt-account DMs.
You’ll only be able to see an additional 1,000 posts per day this way (500 if it’s a new account), but that least you’ll be able to get by if an important tweet gets sent to you in iMessage or is embedded (wait, can’t do that anymore) is linked to on a website.
2. Subscribe to Twitter Blue – if you want
You should want to subscribe to Twitter Blue for its features, not being you’re being cornered by a “rate limit exceeded” error message or gaining a blue check mark. However, I get it. Your work may depend on speaking to an audience on Twitter like me (encouraging my 953,000 Twitter followers to Mastodon just isn’t feasible).
I suggest that you avoid subscribing through the iOS and Android app (Apple and Google take a 30% cut from Twitter, and Twitter therefore charges more vs paying through the web) and consider paying for a full year at an even cheaper rate. Maybe try it out for a month or two by paying on a monthly basis at first. Because who knows, it could all come crashing down quicker than a full year’s worth of Twitter Blue.
3. Diversify your Twitter audience
I’ve begun to post my content on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok a bit more, and I recently secured an invite to BlueSky, the Jack Dorsey-backed alternative to Twitter. I mostly wanted to secure the “matt swider” handle there. I also post on a daily basis to Substack with The Shortcut (you should subscribe to support us).
Encouraging users to migrate (aka “platform jump”) is a tough business. They’re probably on their platform of choice already and most social media networks make it very difficult to exit their apps to outside websites and rival platforms (Instagram and TikTok being the worst offenders). But that trickle of users does add up over time. I can attest to through from experience.
I’ll have updates on when this “temporary” Twitter rate limit exceeded error message disappears. This is one Twitter headache that can’t be blamed on Hunter Biden’s Laptop or the FBI.
Last updated: June 5, 2023