Twitter Streaming API: How It Was and What We Have Today

Access to masses of relevant information is a power that previous generations of researchers, journalists, marketers, influencers, PR managers, crisis managers, and more would envy our generation. X (formerly known as Twitter) is a source of incredibly diverse thoughts from people all over the world, as it has over 611 million active users.

If the request “Twitter Streaming API” has brought you here, then it’s the right place to be. Just as we’re going to talk about Twitter API, its features, and the other options out there. So, if you’re looking for a tool to gather Twitter real-time data, let’s dig deeper into the topic!

What is Twitter Streaming API: Historical Overview

Twitter Streaming API never was a standalone; it was a component of the bigger Twitter ecosystem, together with the Rest API, and other tools like Ads API (for managing advertising) and Gnip API (for enterprise-grade historical and real-time data). ​

Developers used it to receive and process actual tweets delivered in real-time. The API provided continuous data streams that enabled applications to monitor and respond to Twitter activity as it happened. The streams could be filtered based on a keyword, user account, or other criteria, making it a valuable tool for businesses that require up-to-the-minute data.

In 2018, the transition started impacting how developers use the Twitter Streaming API. Twitter aimed to offer more structured and scalable access to user activities. So the company began deprecating parts of its Streaming API, notably the User Streams and Site Streams endpoints (two endpoints users found the most useful when it came to delivering real-time behavior in their applications), replacing them with the Account Activity API, focused on user-specific activities — like mentions, direct messages, likes, follows, and tweets.

Twitter Streaming API: Features and Challenges (Before it Shut Down)

The Twitter Streaming API allowed apps to open a persistent connection and receive new tweets as they happen without delay. Here are the key features it offered:

• Real-time tweet delivery for specific keywords, users, or locations;
• Access to the Sample stream (a small, randomized portion of all public tweets);
• Access to the Filtered stream, where developers could define specific rules (e.g., hashtags, keywords, or user IDs) to get only relevant content;
• Support for high-frequency, low-latency data ingestion without excessive requests.

The product gained broad industrial value through its distinguishable features and became the fundamental foundation for various products: from news monitoring and sentiment analysis to trading algorithms, academic research, and event detection tools.

However, despite all the advantages, the Streaming API had its share of limitations:

• One connection per user. You could only have one connection per user or app per endpoint.
• 1% Firehose cap. You were limited to 1% of global tweet volume on public streams.
• Reconnect rules. Rate-limiting if you reconnect too quickly.
• No filtering logic server-side. You had to filter tweets from the client side unless you were using the filter endpoint.

How Does Twitter Streaming API Work: Features, Challenges, Limitations, and Prices

Streaming data with Twitter API was always a part of a broader system, but today its role has shrunk significantly. While the core idea remains the same (receiving tweets as they happen), access is now more limited and largely tied to paid plans.

Types of Streams (Filtered Stream, Sampled Stream, Firehose)

After the release of Twitter API v2, the legacy v1.1 Streaming API was deprecated. Twitter made the official decision to retire endpoints statuses/sample and statuses/filter during 2022 and 2023, respectively. The new release of Twitter API v2 introduced two endpoints: 

• Developers can achieve real-time tweet retrieval through Filtered Stream by creating filtering rules based on their specified criteria.
• Through the Sampled Stream service, developers can access real-time random samples of 1% of all public Twitter tweets to gain an extensive view of Twitter activity.
• Compliance Stream (Enterprise only) is used to track deletions and user changes in real time.

Twitter API v2: Current Twitter Streaming API Limitations

Twitter Streaming API works as a primary tool for tapping into the pulse of online conversations for many businesses, yet it comes with significant limitations that might have affected the results and the data collection process. Limits for streaming overlap with the general Twitter API limitations, such as rate limits, which depend on the tier chosen.

One major challenge is the connection cap imposed by Twitter. The API restricts simultaneous connections per IP address and per application, meaning that when you exceed these limits, older connections get terminated. 

Another critical element – rate limits. Different endpoints enforce specific limits on the number of requests within defined time frames, which can delay data retrieval during peak usage. Combined with the risk of dropped connections due to full buffers or network hiccups, these issues raise concerns about the consistency and reliability of the data collected. 

Recognizing these challenges, many companies seek new solutions like Data365. With its auto-scalable infrastructure, Data365 can handle vast volumes of data by scaling request rates by 5-6 times within minutes. 

Need a powerful solution that helps fetch Twitter data? Contact our live support team to learn more about your options and how we can help you collect data.

Data365 is also a bridge to four major social media platforms in a unified framework, simplifying data management. This standardization allows teams to focus on strategic goals instead of constantly reformatting data, ensuring that insights are derived more efficiently and accurately.

Twitter Streaming API Cost: The Current Reality

Twitter continues to transition toward big-business-oriented API services by implementing significant price increases through its pricing strategy. Pricing levels enable academic research along with smaller-scale projects to keep operating under free or restricted plans, but more and more developers and companies require full-time, real-time data access at elevated pricing levels.

Twitter Enterprise-level Streaming API now costs substantially more than it did in previous years. The Mashable report shows that Firehose access through the Twitter public tweet stream costs up to $42,000 per month for the option that delivers 50 million tweets. Additionally, Twitter's Enterprise API pricing can vary based on specific use cases and negotiated agreements, which might mean that the final price might be higher for large-scale projects. Businesses requiring access to larger data volumes of 100 or 200 million tweets per month need to pay steep prices, reaching approximately $125,000 and $210,000 per month.

Also, the current prices may not be justified, especially for those users who don’t need the API for content publishing or advertising campaign management. 

Twitter Public Streaming API Use Cases 

The public streaming API serves the main purpose of helping analysts achieve Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) tasks. The Public Streaming API serves analysts by helping them identify misinformation spread while tracking fake news, along with uncovering bot coordination activities. The monitoring of real-time tweet flows through specialists enables them to recognize sudden activity increases coupled with suspicious system behavior and false information dissemination patterns. 

The API also functions as a key tool for brand development while serving marketing purposes. Businesses extract information about trending subjects along with consumer sentiment, which helps them modify their messaging content to stay relevant to present-day public interest.

Specialists and companies encounter difficulties using the Twitter Streaming API solution because its built-in limitations yield inadequate data volumes. The necessity to respect rate limits and address data gaps leads professionals to submit repeated requests to acquire whole datasets. The data collection process becomes both time-consuming and reduces performance levels in data-driven projects.

An alternative solution to consider is Data365. Through its features, it reduces the need for constant, manual requests and allows teams to focus on analysis and decision-making rather than data collection logistics.

Twitter Streaming API Alternative: How to Get Data in Real-Time

Many companies are turning to Twitter API alternatives like Data365 to meet their real-time data needs, with the Twitter API becoming more and more restrictive, expensive, and less accessible.

One of the biggest advantages of Data365’s Social Media Search APIs is its auto-scalable infrastructure. The auto-scaling infrastructure can increase the number of requests by 5–6 times within minutes, making smooth and fast data retrieval even under high-demand conditions. That enables you to retrieve big volumes of data in one minute or so. If your company needs consistent, uninterrupted access to large data volumes, this flexibility becomes crucial.

Continuous Data Streaming VS. Traditional API Requests

​The Twitter platform allows developers to retrieve data through steady streaming in addition to standard API request procedures. Each serves distinct purposes and offers unique advantages and challenges at the same time.​

• Continuous Data Streaming through the Streaming API feature

Twitter public data is accessible through real-time data streaming operations. The establishment of a continuous connection allows developers to receive immediate updates whenever new tweets about the monitored topic are posted. However, to maintain a permanent connection, developers need strong error handling paired with strategies to reconnect automatically in case of disconnections.​ 

Besides these technical challenges that many are ready to face, the financial part of data streaming through the Twitter API becomes something not every business can face. In this case, the alternatives come to the stage, which are Rest APIs, like Data365.

• Traditional API Requests through Rest API

A request-response structure defines traditional API operations – a client sends requests to servers, which deliver response data back. A client takes control of data gathering, not the API. Data365 API gathers publicly available data in real-time — no pre-extracted content or outdated caches — making sure that the data you receive is accurate, relevant, and fresh. 

Data365’s APIs will be especially valuable for:

• Cybersecurity firms tracking misinformation and bot activity.
• AI companies training models on social discourse.
• Marketing teams conducting brand sentiment analysis.
• Developers building tools around live social feedback.
• Academic researchers collecting social data for studies.

Finally, companies rarely rely solely on Twitter for data collection, even though it’s incredibly diverse. With not many people being evenly active on a few platforms at the same time or posting different types of content depending on the platform specifics, the data from Twitter may not be enough these days. 

A solution that grants access to data from multiple platforms—some sort of the One Ring of the API world—can provide a broader perspective and deeper insights. For example, Data365 offers public data collection from Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Analyze one trend or newsbreak from various points of view.

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Twitter Streaming API: Conclusion

The evolution of Twitter Streaming API—from its early days of open access and innovation to the current, more restrictive, and costly model—mirrors the broader shifts in the social media landscape. The early API versions invited researchers and journalists alongside businesses to obtain unrestricted real-time data easily, but the subsequent implementation of rate restrictions and connection caps alongside evolving pricing tiers changed how users now access and use the data.

The alternative data solution Data365 provides special value during these situations. Data365 relies on an automatic and distributed platform infrastructure that manages large social data from various sources while operating at real-time speeds. Data365 allows users to access complete, updated public data efficiently. The system saves users from submitting repeated manual requests, so specialists can dedicate their time to analytical tasks and strategic decisions.

Reach out to our team to find out how we can improve your access to publicly available Twitter data.