How to Scrape Twitter/X Followers and Profile Data in 2026

Twitter/X API is expensive now. Here are alternatives. Twitter API Pricing (2026) Free: 1,500 reads/month (useless) Basic: $100/mo (10,000 reads) Pro: $5,000/mo Alternatives 1. Public Profile Metadata Some data is in page source without API: // Profile pages embed JSON-LD const res = await fetch ( " https://x.com/elonmusk " ); const html = await res . text (); // Parse embedded metadata 2. Google Cache site:x.com inurl:/status "web scraping" 3. Switch to Open Platforms Platform Followers API Auth Free Bluesky Yes None Yes Reddit Yes (.json) None Yes GitHub Yes None Yes Mastodon Yes None Yes 4. Bluesky as Twitter Alternative // Get profile with follower count - FREE const res = await fetch ( " https://public.api.bsky.app/xrpc/app.bsky.actor.getProfile?actor=handle.bsky.social " ); const data = await res . json (); console . log ( data . followersCount ); // No API key needed! Resources Bluesky AT Protocol Twitter/X 2026 Guide 77 Free Scrapers Need social media profile data? Bluesky, Red