X (Twitter) Scraper — Low-Cost, Reliable Tweet Extraction for Search, Users & Filters

🤖 What does X (Twitter) Scraper do?

This Apify Actor scrapes tweets from X.com (Twitter) using a rich set of filters (date range, media types, replies/retweets/quotes, verified, links, news, NSFW safety, geolocation via near). It's engineered to be LowCost yet reliable — perfect when you need a lot of tweets without burning budget.

Great for: social listening, brand monitoring, competitor research, trend mining, influencer discovery, lead gen, and academic/market research.

SEO keywords: Twitter scraper, X scraper, scrape tweets, download tweets, Twitter search, Twitter username scraper, Twitter API alternative, Apify actor, low cost Twitter scraper.

🚀 Quick Start

1. Set query, username, or both

   • query alone → search across X.
   • username alone → user timeline.
   • query + username → search within that user's tweets.

2. Add filters (optional): replies/retweets/quotes, verified, links, media/images/videos/native videos/pro videos, news, safe, near, and minDate/maxDate.

3. Run the Actor and download the dataset as JSON/CSV/Excel.

📝 Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
maxItems	Integer	Yes	Max tweets to scrape. Min 1. Default 10.
query	String	No*	Search text. If used with username, it filters that user's tweets.
username	String	No*	X handle (without @). If used with query, only tweets from this user that match the query are returned.
minDate	String	No	Lower bound date YYYY-MM-DD.
maxDate	String	No	Upper bound date YYYY-MM-DD.
replies	Enum	No	"" (Any) · "only" · "exclude".
retweets	Enum	No	"" (Any) · "only" · "exclude".
quotes	Enum	No	"" (Any) · "only" · "exclude".
verified	Enum	No	"" (Any) · "only" (Verified only) · "exclude".
links	Enum	No	"" (Any) · "only" · "exclude".
media	Enum	No	"" (Any) · "only" · "exclude".
images	Enum	No	"" (Any) · "only" · "exclude".
videos	Enum	No	"" (Any) · "only" · "exclude".
nativeVideos	Enum	No	"" (Any) · "only" · "exclude".
proVideos	Enum	No	"" (Any) · "only" · "exclude".
news	Enum	No	"" (Any) · "only" · "exclude".
safe	Enum	No	"" (Any) · "only" (Safe only) · "exclude".
near	String	No	Location bias for search (e.g., "Madrid", "New York").
proxyConfiguration	Object	No	Apify proxy settings (prefill uses RESIDENTIAL).

*Provide query or username (or both).

Example inputs

Global search

{
  "maxItems": 50,
  "query": "pizza",
  "images": "only",
  "retweets": "exclude",
  "minDate": "2024-05-01",
  "maxDate": "2024-08-31",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

User timeline only

{
  "maxItems": 100,
  "username": "elonmusk",
  "replies": "exclude",
  "retweets": "exclude"
}

Search within a user's tweets (combined)

{
  "maxItems": 100,
  "username": "elonmusk",
  "query": "pizza",
  "images": "only"
}

📊 Results (Output Schema)

Each dataset item (tweet) looks like:

{
  "id": "1819469673169408242",
  "permalink": "https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1819469673169408242",
  "userUrl": "https://x.com/elonmusk",
  "username": "elonmusk",
  "fullname": "Elon Musk",
  "avatar": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/.../kqqe2iWO_bigger.jpg",
  "verified": "blue",
  "text": "I did all my coding with just Diet Coke, burgers & pizza",
  "html": "I did all my coding with just Diet Coke, burgers & pizza",
  "isRetweet": false,
  "retweetedBy": "",
  "replyingTo": ["growing_daniel"],
  "relativeTime": "2 Aug 2024",
  "displayTime": "Aug 2, 2024 · 8:25 PM UTC",
  "createdAt": "2024-08-02T20:25:00Z",
  "images": null,
  "links": null,
  "comments": 430,
  "retweets": 156,
  "quotes": 59,
  "likes": 3890
}

Field reference: id, permalink, userUrl, username, fullname, avatar, verified, text, html, isRetweet, retweetedBy, replyingTo[], relativeTime, displayTime, createdAt, images, links, comments, retweets, quotes, likes.

🧭 Common Recipes

• Original tweets only: replies="exclude", retweets="exclude", quotes="exclude".
• Videos only: videos="only" or nativeVideos="only".
• News-only: news="only".
• Verified only: verified="only".
• Geo-biased search: set near (e.g., "San Francisco").
• Event window: combine minDate + maxDate.
• Search inside a user: set both username and query (e.g., "username":"nasa","query":"mars").

🏎️ Performance & LowCost Tips

• Set a realistic maxItems to avoid over-fetching.
• Combine username + query to cut noise (cheaper & faster).
• Use media filters (images="only", videos="only") to focus on assets.

🌍 Proxy Usage

Default prefill enables Apify RESIDENTIAL proxies to avoid being blocked or rate limited.

⚖️ Legal & Ethical Considerations

• Respect X.com's Terms of Service and robots rules.
• Privacy: Handle personal data responsibly (e.g., GDPR).
• Scope & rate: Avoid abusive request patterns.
• Attribution: When publishing analyses, follow fair-use and platform policies.

❓FAQ

Do I need both query and username? No. Provide either. If you provide both, the Actor searches the query within that user's tweets.

How do I keep only original tweets? Set replies="exclude", retweets="exclude", quotes="exclude".

Can I filter by media? Yes — use images, videos, nativeVideos, or general media with "only" / "exclude".

How do I restrict by date? Use minDate and/or maxDate in YYYY-MM-DD.

Is this really LowCost? Yes. It's optimized to minimize bandwidth/requests while preserving accuracy — cheaper per result than heavy browser solutions.

🛟 Support

Need a custom field or export? Open an issue or contact me at https://igolaizola.com/#contact I can adapt the scraper to your workflow.