All questionsX (Twitter)

snscrape, Twint, and Nitter are dead. What now?

All three depended on X showing content to visitors who were not logged in. X removed that. Twint stopped working first, snscrape broke when guest tokens went, and public Nitter instances shut down when guest accounts were cut. No fork, flag, or version pin brings it back.

If you need public posts, profiles, followers, or search, call an API that reads X for you. Openhandle returns the same data these tools returned, absorbs X changes, and never asks you for an X account or a cookie.

Checked September 2026 · request and response run against the API · no affiliate links

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GET /v1/twitter/search/posts?q=…&sort=latest

curl "https://api.openhandle.dev/v1/twitter/search/posts?q=synthetic&sort=latest" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENHANDLE_API_KEY"

TypeScript SDK

import { OpenHandle } from '@openhandle/sdk';

const openhandle = new OpenHandle({ apiKey: process.env.OPENHANDLE_API_KEY! });
let page = await openhandle.twitter.search.posts.list({ q: 'synthetic', sort: 'latest' });

while (page) {
    for (const post of page.data) console.log(post.author.handle, post.text);
    page = await page.next();
}

200 OK

{
  "platform": "twitter",
  "resource": "post",
  "capturedAt": "2026-09-18T10:58:02Z",
  "source": "live",
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "940100000000000001",
      "url": "https://x.com/copperfield_lab_x_test/status/940100000000000001",
      "text": "A deterministic text post from a fictional lab. #synthetic",
      "createdAt": "2026-08-09T15:30:00Z",
      "author": { "id": "940000000001", "handle": "copperfield_lab_x_test" },
      "metrics": { "likes": 42, "reposts": 3, "comments": 3, "quotes": 0, "views": null }
    }
  ],
  "meta": { "cursors": { "next": "b3BhcXVlLWN1cnNvcg" } }
}

Trimmed to one post and the fields snscrape gave you. The example is a Test fixture, so you can run it on a free Test key.

Map the old tools to the API

You ran	Openhandle
`snscrape twitter-search "query"`	`GET /v1/twitter/search/posts?q=query&sort=latest`
`snscrape twitter-user handle`	`GET /v1/twitter/profiles/@handle/posts`, one page per request
`twint -u handle --followers`	`GET /v1/twitter/profiles/@handle/followers`
A Nitter profile page	`GET /v1/twitter/profiles/@handle`
A Nitter thread page	`GET /v1/twitter/posts/{id}` and `/comments` for the replies
A status URL	`POST /v1/urls/fetch` with the URL

What is different

—It costs money. One price per answered request, after use. The old tools were free because X paid the bill. That ended.
—Search is what X shows now. There is no full archive. sort=latest returns recent public posts. Run it on a schedule and store IDs to build your own history.
—Views may be null. X shows view counts only in some places. When it does not, the field is null, never 0.
—Protected accounts stay protected. A protected account returns PROFILE_PRIVATE. The old tools could not read those either.

What we never do

Openhandle never logs in to X with your account or anyone else’s. It never posts, likes, reposts, or follows. Public data only, read on request. The public data notice lists every limit.

When this does not work

The answers you will see instead of a stack trace.

Situation	Status	Code
The account is protected	403	PROFILE_PRIVATE
The account is suspended, deleted, or never existed	404	PROFILE_NOT_FOUND
The cursor came from another query or sort	400	CURSOR_MISMATCH

404 Not Found

{
  "error": {
    "code": "PROFILE_NOT_FOUND",
    "message": "This profile was not found.",
    "requestId": "req_01j8…",
    "retryable": false
  }
}

Every new workspace starts with 100 free live requests, no card needed. A full synthetic Test dataset covers every X endpoint at no charge.

More X (Twitter) questions

X (Twitter)Is the X (Twitter) API free to read posts?No. The free tier of the X API can post but not read. Reading needs a paid monthly tier with a post cap. For public posts, profiles, and search, a per-request public data API costs a fraction.Read the answer X (Twitter)How do I search X (Twitter) posts by keyword?Call the search endpoint with a query. Latest or top posts come back one page at a time with author, text, and metrics. No monthly X API plan.Read the answer X (Twitter)How do I get replies or a full thread on X (Twitter)?Call the post comments endpoint with the post ID. Replies come back one page at a time with author, text, and metrics. Nested replies have their own endpoint. Cursors keep working.Read the answer

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