X/Twitter Scraper — Profile, Tweets & Media API

Scrape public X/Twitter data in one call: user profile + latest tweets + media + followers. Export as JSON, CSV, or Excel. No OAuth approval, no login required for public data.

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Why use this instead of the X/Twitter API?

Problem with X API	How this Actor solves it
$100+/month for Basic tier, $5,000/mo for Pro	Pay-per-event — $0.00025 per result. No monthly fee.
OAuth approval can take days	No approval needed — paste a URL or @handle and run
3+ API calls for profile + tweets + media	One call — profile endpoint returns everything in a single run
No email/lead extraction from bios	Auto-extracts emails and links from user bios
Rate limits (17k reads/mo on Basic)	No hard cap — scale to 10k+ profiles with concurrent runs
No followers list without enterprise tier	Followers/following with a browser cookie (free)
JSON only output	JSON, CSV, Excel, JSONL — pick your format

Bottom line: if you need X/Twitter data for lead gen, research, or monitoring — this costs less, starts faster, and extracts more than the official API.

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🚀 Quick Start — One-Call Profile

Paste a profile URL, @handle, or numeric user ID, and pull everything in one run.

{
  "profileUrls": "https://x.com/NASA\nhttps://twitter.com/elonmusk"
}

Or use any of these input formats (all auto-detected):

{ "handles": "NASA, elonmusk, SpoxCHN_MaoNing" }

{ "userIds": "44196397, 813286" }

Default output: profile info + latest 20 tweets + media info.

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📥 Input Reference

You pick who/what (the target) and what to extract (the switches). Mix and match freely.

Target (choose one or several)

Field	What to paste	Example
profileUrls	Full X/Twitter profile URLs, one per line	https://x.com/NASA
handles	@handles, comma- or newline-separated. @ is optional	NASA, elonmusk
userIds	Numeric user IDs (rest_id)	44196397
searchQuery	Keyword to search X/Twitter users	AI researcher
tweetUrls	Full tweet URLs, one per line	https://x.com/user/status/2090877991228264814
tweetIds	Numeric tweet IDs	2090877991228264814

Extract switches (turn on what you need)

Switch	Default	What it adds to output
getProfile	✅ on	bio, followers, following, verified status, account age, avatar, banner
getRecentTweets	✅ on	user's latest 20 tweets, text + media + engagement
getRecentMedia	❌ off	user's recent image & video posts as separate items
getFollowers	❌ off	list of accounts following the user (requires cookie)
getFollowing	❌ off	list of accounts the user follows (requires cookie)
getRetweeters	❌ off	list of accounts who retweeted a given tweet (requires cookie)
includeBlueVerifiedFollowers	❌ off	restrict followers list to blue-check subscribers
includeTweetsForFollowers	❌ off	pull latest tweet for each follower (context enrichment)

Count knobs

Field	Default	Max
recentTweetCount	20	200
recentMediaCount	5	50
followListCount	100	5000

Advanced (only when needed)

Field	When to fill
auth_token	Required for getFollowers, getFollowing, getRetweeters. X.com auth cookie.
ct0	Required together with auth_token. X.com csrf cookie.
proxyUrl	Custom HTTP/SOCKS5 proxy if you need a specific exit IP.

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🔑 Which Identifier to Use?

X/Twitter accounts have two names:

Name	Example	Unique?	Use?
@handle (screen name)	@NASA	✅ yes	yes — always this
Display name	NASA	❌ no	never

Input accepts handle with or without @. Pasting a full profile URL works too — @handle is auto-extracted.

For numeric input (user_id), find it in any tweet URL like x.com/123456789/... where 123456789 is the user_id.

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📊 Output Fields

Every data item in the dataset is a flat JSON row. Two views are pre-configured:

User Profile row (item_type=user): @handle, display name, bio, location, links, extracted email, extracted bio links, account creation date, account age (days), followers/following ratio, verified/blue/protected flags, professional type, business email, fetched timestamp.

Tweet row (item_type=tweet or media): tweet text, tweet URL, created date, language, image/video URLs, like/retweet/reply/quote/view counts, retweet/reply/pinned/quote flags, reply-to handle & id, conversation id.

Filter by item_type to slice the data: user, tweet, media, follower, following, retweeter, search_result.

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💡 Common Use Cases

1. Lead generation from a KOL's followers

{
  "handles": "naval",
  "getFollowers": true,
  "followListCount": 1000
}

Then in the dataset, filter item_type=follower and sort by followers_count desc to find high-value accounts. bio_has_email=true flags leads with public contact info.

2. RAG / LLM knowledge base from a topic influencer

{
  "handles": "paulg, sama, sama",
  "getRecentTweets": true,
  "recentTweetCount": 100
}

Each tweet becomes one row with full text + media URLs + engagement metrics — ready to feed into a vector store.

3. Market research user profile dump

{
  "profileUrls": "https://x.com/AIresearcher1\nhttps://x.com/AIresearcher2\n...",
  "getProfile": true,
  "getRecentTweets": false
}

Lightweight: just bio, followers, account age. Cheap and fast.

4. Competitive tweet monitoring

{
  "handles": "competitor1, competitor2",
  "getRecentTweets": true,
  "getRecentMedia": true
}

Both text and media surface in one dataset. Use view_count to find viral posts.

5. Extract retweeters of a viral post

{
  "tweetIds": "2090877991228264814",
  "getRetweeters": true,
  "followListCount": 500
}

Who amplified this post? Perfect for influencer outreach.

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❓ Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Empty dataset, no error	Invalid input — the target doesn't exist or is private	Check the handle/ID; private accounts return no public data
code 353 — Could not authenticate you	X.com rate-limit / session expired	Wait 60s, retry; the Actor rotates proxies automatically
code 32 — Could not authenticate you	Cookie expired/invalid	Refresh auth_token + ct0 from a logged-in browser session
Followers/following returns empty	Missing or invalid auth cookie	Provide fresh auth_token + ct0 in Advanced fields
Email field is empty	Bio doesn't contain a public email	Try alternative accounts; not all users publish email publicly
Tweet URLs are short (t.co)	X uses t.co redirects	This is normal — use the tweet_url field for the resolved canonical URL
Run takes >2 min for one profile	Network throttle or large followers list	Reduce followListCount; split into smaller batches
Some followers missing	Cursor boundary; X.com only returns first ~1000 per page	Reduce target count; for >1000 use pagination across multiple runs

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❓ FAQ

Do I need an X/Twitter developer account or API key?

No. This Actor scrapes public data from x.com directly. No developer portal, no API key, no OAuth approval. Just paste a URL or @handle and run.

Is there a free tier? How much does it cost?

Yes. Apify gives every new account $5 free credit. At $0.00025 per result, that's ~20,000 results free. After that, pay-per-event — no monthly subscription. See the Pricing section for cost examples.

Can I extract followers without the paid X API?

Yes. Provide a valid auth_token + ct0 cookie from your logged-in x.com browser session. The Actor uses your session to pull followers/following lists — no enterprise API tier needed. See Authentication & Proxies.

Does this work with private or protected accounts?

No. Protected accounts (locked profiles) return no public data. The Actor only scrapes publicly visible profiles, tweets, and media.

How many profiles can I scrape in one run?

There's no hard limit. For best results, keep batches under 200 profiles per run. For 1,000+ profiles, split into multiple runs or use the API for concurrent execution.

Can I use this for lead generation?

Yes. The bio_has_email and bio_has_link fields flag leads with public contact info. Combine with getFollowers to extract follower lists from a target KOL's audience, then filter by email presence and follower count.

What's the difference between @handle and user ID?

	@handle (screen_name)	User ID (rest_id)
Example	@NASA	44196397
Changes?	Can be changed by user	Permanent
Use	Most common input	When handle is unknown

Both work as input. The Actor auto-detects which one you provided.

Can I schedule recurring scrapes?

Yes. Use Apify Scheduler to run the Actor daily/weekly. Or use the API to trigger runs from a cron job, Airflow, or n8n.

Does the Actor respect rate limits?

The Actor rotates proxies automatically and throttles requests to avoid X.com blocks. For large jobs, spread runs across time to stay under the radar.

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🔌 API Integration

Start a run

POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/7aVQYR4P86AUB5dFs/runs?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "handles": "NASA, elonmusk",
  "getProfile": true,
  "getRecentTweets": true,
  "recentTweetCount": 50
}

Wait + fetch (synchronous)

POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/7aVQYR4P86AUB5dFs/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "handles": "NASA",
  "getRecentTweets": true
}

The response includes the full dataset inline as a JSON array.

Python SDK

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("7aVQYR4P86AUB5dFs").call({
    "handles": "NASA, elonmusk",
    "getRecentTweets": True,
    "getRecentMedia": True,
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["item_type"], item.get("screen_name"))

Node.js SDK

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('7aVQYR4P86AUB5dFs').call({
    handles: 'NASA, elonmusk',
    getRecentTweets: true,
    getRecentMedia: true,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach(i => console.log(i.item_type, i.screen_name));

No-code integrations

This Actor works with any tool that can call a REST API or trigger an Apify run.

Zapier — connect to 6,000+ apps:

1. Create a Zap with "Apify — Run Actor" trigger
2. Map your input fields (handles, getProfile, etc.)
3. Use "Apify — Fetch Dataset Items" as the next step
4. Send results to Google Sheets, HubSpot, Notion, Slack, etc.

n8n (self-hosted or cloud):

{
  "nodes": [
    {
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest",
      "parameters": {
        "method": "POST",
        "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/7aVQYR4P86AUB5dFs/run-sync-get-dataset-items",
        "queryParameters": { "token": "YOUR_API_TOKEN" },
        "bodyParameters": { "handles": "NASA", "getRecentTweets": true }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Make (Integromat):

1. Add an "HTTP" module → POST to https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/7aVQYR4P86AUB5dFs/run-sync-get-dataset-items
2. Pass your API token as query parameter
3. Map the JSON response to downstream modules (Google Sheets, Airtable, email, etc.)

Airflow / cron:

# Airflow PythonOperator example
from apify_client import ApifyClient

def scrape_twitter(handles: list[str]):
    client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
    run = client.actor("7aVQYR4P86AUB5dFs").call({
        "handles": ",".join(handles),
        "getRecentTweets": True,
    })
    return list(client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items())

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💰 Pricing Model (Pay Per Event)

This Actor uses Apify Pay-Per-Event pricing. You only pay for results — no monthly subscription.

Event	When it fires	Cost
Dataset item	Each row pushed to dataset (profile, tweet, media, follower, etc.)	$0.00025
Actor start	Once per run (per GB of memory)	$0.001 / GB

Store discounts (automatic at higher usage tiers):

Tier	Per item price	vs. base
No discount	$0.00025	—
Bronze	$0.00020	20% off
Silver	$0.00015	40% off
Gold	$0.00010	60% off

Cost examples (default 4 GB memory, no discount):

Scenario	Items	Estimated cost
One profile + 20 tweets	21	~$0.01
100 profiles, no tweets	100	~$0.03
1,000 followers from one user	1,000	~$0.25
10,000 tweets across 50 users	10,000	~$2.70

You see the running cost in the Apify Console while the run is in progress.

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🔒 Authentication & Proxies

Public data (profiles, tweets, media, search results) — no auth needed. The Actor uses Apify's built-in proxy rotation.

Authenticated data (followers, following, retweeters, bookmarks) — requires a valid auth_token + ct0 cookie pair. You can:

1. Log into x.com in your browser
2. Open DevTools → Application → Cookies → x.com
3. Copy the values of auth_token and ct0
4. Paste them into the Actor's Advanced fields

Cookies are encrypted in transit and discarded after the run.

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📦 Output & Export

After each run, the Output tab in Apify Console shows results in a table view. Available exports:

• JSON — full structured output
• CSV — Excel/Sheets compatible
• Excel — formatted xlsx with headers
• JSONL — newline-delimited for streaming pipelines

Items are typed by item_type so you can filter in your code:

users = [i for i in items if i["item_type"] == "user"]
tweets = [i for i in items if i["item_type"] == "tweet"]
followers = [i for i in items if i["item_type"] == "follower"]

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⚡ Performance Notes

• One profile = ~5–15 seconds with default switches
• Followers list scales linearly: 100 followers ≈ 8s, 1000 followers ≈ 60s, 5000 followers ≈ 5min
• Proxies rotate automatically for anonymous operation
• Concurrent runs supported — you can launch multiple runs in parallel for batch jobs

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🆚 How It Compares

Capability	This Actor	Typical alternatives
One-call profile + tweets + media	✅	❌ usually separate calls
Multi-format input (URL/handle/user_id)	✅	partial
Bio email auto-extraction	✅	❌
Followers list without API approval	✅ (with cookie)	requires paid X API tier
Pay-per-event pricing	✅	❌ usually monthly subscription
Dataset with typed items	✅	partial
No OAuth approval	✅	❌

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📞 Support

• Issues: open a ticket on the Actor's Issues tab in Apify Console
• Documentation: see this README + the Actor's Input/Output tabs
• Status: run the Actor with empty input to get a health-check response