Last updated: August 31, 2026
Fix: the X API like and follow endpoints are gone
Between April 16 and 20, 2026, X removed like, follow, and quote-post writes from every self-serve API tier. They are Enterprise-only now, at roughly $42,000 a month. Retweet writes were not removed: POST /2/users/:id/retweets still works. Posting and DMs also survived and stay on pay-per-use.
If your bot stopped liking and following in late April, your code is fine. The endpoints moved tier. This page lists exactly which write paths are still callable, corrects the widely repeated claim that retweets went too, and covers what to do with the automation you can no longer run.
What happened, precisely
Over five days in April 2026, X pulled three write families off self-serve access: likes, following, and quote-posts. They still exist, but only under Enterprise agreements, which price at roughly $42,000 a month. That is 210 times the old $200 Basic tier, and the gap is the message. These endpoints were not deprecated for technical reasons. They were priced out of reach of the automation that used them.
The change did not arrive alone. It followed the April 9 suspension wave that removed 42,000 accounts for chatbot-automated replies, and the February reply restriction before it. Read together, 2026 is a single sustained move: X kept the write paths that produce content and closed the ones that manufacture engagement.
Retweets were not removed
A lot of write-ups from late April lumped retweets in with likes and follows. They are wrong. POST /2/users/:id/retweets is still callable on self-serve access, verified against production traffic in August 2026. If you rewrote a working integration because a blog post told you retweets were dead, you can put it back.Every write path, current status
Self-serve pay-per-use access, as of August 2026.
# Still works on self-serve access. Verified in production, August 2026.
curl -X POST "https://api.x.com/2/users/$YOUR_USER_ID/retweets" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $X_USER_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "tweet_id": "1893000000000000000" }'
# Gone from self-serve since April 2026. Enterprise only.
curl -X POST "https://api.x.com/2/users/$YOUR_USER_ID/likes" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $X_USER_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "tweet_id": "1893000000000000000" }'
curl -X POST "https://api.x.com/2/users/$YOUR_USER_ID/following" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $X_USER_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "target_user_id": "44196397" }'Automated likes were never worth much anyway
X open-sourced the Phoenix For You ranker on August 13, 2026, under Apache 2.0, with published weights. They settle an argument that engagement-bot builders had been having with themselves for years.
| Signal | Weight | Automatable on self-serve? |
|---|---|---|
| Copy-link share | 20.0 | No, and never was |
| Reply | 5.0 | Only when summoned |
| Quote | 5.0 | No, Enterprise only since April 2026 |
| Follow | 4.0 | No, Enterprise only since April 2026 |
| Repost | 1.0 | Yes, retweet writes survived |
| Like | 0.5 | No, Enterprise only since April 2026 |
| Report | -234 | This is what spam replies earn you |
A like is worth 0.5. A single report is worth -234, which cancels roughly 468 likes. An automated engagement loop was therefore spending real money to generate the cheapest signal on the board while accumulating the most expensive one. The April removal took away a strategy that was already losing.
Rebuild on the write paths that survived
Three things are still fully automatable, and they happen to be the three the ranker pays for.
- Publishing. Original posts and threads, on a schedule, at the times your audience is online. Nothing in 2026 touched this.
- Retweets. The one engagement write that survived. Use it deliberately rather than on a timer, and see the auto-retweet guide for the rules that keep it safe.
- DMs. Still on pay-per-use, and still the highest-intent channel on the platform when a human approves each send. See how to automate X DMs without getting banned.
# The write path that survived every 2026 change, without a
# developer account or pay-per-use credits.
curl -X POST https://opentweet.io/api/v1/posts \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ot_your_api_key" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"text": "Three things we changed after the April 2026 X API cut.",
"scheduled_date": "2026-09-04T14:30:00Z"
}'OpenTweet posts and schedules through your connected X account. No developer account, no pay-per-use credits, no per-link surcharge, and a flat monthly fee at $11.99 for Pro. Endpoint reference in the developer docs, and the agent path is at mcp.opentweet.io/mcp.
7-day free trial. Cancel anytime.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the X API like endpoint no longer work?
Between April 16 and April 20, 2026, X removed like, follow, and quote-post writes from all self-serve API tiers. Those endpoints now exist only under Enterprise agreements, which start at roughly $42,000 a month. This is a tier change, not an outage. Rotating tokens, adding scopes, or retrying will not restore access.
Do retweets still work through the X API?
Yes. Retweet writes were not part of the April 2026 removal. POST /2/users/:id/retweets is still callable on self-serve access. This is the single most commonly misreported detail about the change, and it matters, because retweeting is the one engagement action that survived.
What X API write endpoints are still available on self-serve?
Creating posts (POST /2/tweets), including threads made of self-replies, retweets (POST /2/users/:id/retweets), direct messages, and replies where the original author summoned you by mention or quote. Everything else in the engagement family moved to Enterprise.
How much does Enterprise X API access cost?
Roughly $42,000 a month. That is the tier the like, follow, and quote-post write endpoints now live behind. For context, an engagement bot that was economical at $200 a month on the old Basic tier is not economical at 210 times that price, which is the point of the change.
Is every engagement bot tutorial online now wrong?
Most of the ones written before April 2026, yes. Any guide that shows an auto-liker, an auto-follower, a follow-back bot, or a growth loop built on POST /2/users/:id/likes or POST /2/users/:id/following describes an integration that cannot be built on self-serve access any more. Check the publication date before you follow one.
Can I automate likes and follows another way?
Not legitimately. Browser automation and unofficial endpoints will work for a while and are a direct platform rules violation. Automated liking and following is exactly the behaviour X removed 42,000 accounts for in the April 9, 2026 purge, so the technical workaround and the account risk are the same thing.
What should I build instead of an engagement bot?
Publishing. Posting, threads, scheduling, and DMs are the write paths that survived every 2026 restriction, and they are the ones the ranker actually rewards. In the open-sourced Phoenix weights a like is worth 0.5 while a reply is 5.0 and a copy-link share is 20.0, so automated likes were low-value even when they were legal.
Related guides
The rest of the 2026 X API changes, and what to build now.
The reply restriction
Replies need a summon since February 23, 2026. What still works.
Suspended in the April purge?
The detection signals, the appeal path, and what to do next.
Auto-retweet safely
The one engagement write that survived, and how not to abuse it.
X API rules for AI agents
What the 2026 automation rules require before your agent posts.
X API pay-per-use explained
Every current rate and what real workloads cost per month.
OpenTweet vs the X API
Feature by feature, with the tradeoffs stated plainly.
Build on the write path X kept
Posting, threads, and scheduling through a REST API or hosted MCP server. Flat monthly fee, no developer account, nothing that moves to Enterprise next quarter.
7-day free trial. Cancel anytime.