How to Get Access to the Twitter API (X API Guide 2025)

Kelly Chan

September 23, 2025

7 min read

What Is the Twitter (X) API?

The Twitter API, now officially called the X API, is a set of tools that allows developers to interact programmatically with the Twitter platform. With the API, you can:

Read tweets and user data
Post tweets automatically
Track hashtags and mentions
Build bots or AI agents that interact with users

To do any of these, you need to first get API access keys and tokens from Twitter’s developer portal.

Step 1: Sign Up for a Developer Account

To begin, go to developer.x.com and log in with your X (Twitter) account.

Navigate to the Developer Portal.
If you don’t already have a developer account, sign up for a free account.
When prompted, explain how you intend to use the API (e.g., “for educational purposes” or “building a Python app”). Make sure your explanation is at least 250 characters long.
Submit the form. In most cases, approval is instant.

Step 2: Create a Project and App

Once approved, you’ll be taken to your Developer Dashboard.

Create a Project and an App inside the dashboard.
The App is what will generate your API keys.
Go to Settings → User Authentication Settings.

Go to Settings → User Authentication Settings.

Here you can define your app permissions:

Read Only – can only read tweets.
Read and Write – can read and post tweets.
Read, Write, and Direct Messages – full access including DMs.

For most use cases (like posting via Python), select Read and Write.

When asked to classify your app, choose Web App / Automated App / Bot. If you don’t have a website URL, you can simply enter a placeholder like https://example.com.

After completing the setup, you will receive a client ID and client secret. Make sure to keep them safe.

receive a client ID and client secret of twitter

Step 3: Generate API Keys and Tokens

Now it’s time to get the credentials you’ll use in your code. Twitter provides five different keys:

API Key
API Key Secret
Bearer Token
Access Token
Access Token Secret

Steps:

Go to your App dashboard and select Keys and Tokens.

Go to your App dashboard and select Keys and Tokens.
Click Regenerate to create new ones if necessary.
Copy each key and save it in a secure place.

👉 Best practice: Store them in an .env file so they don’t appear in your source code. For example:

X_API_KEY=your_api_key
X_API_SECRET=your_api_secret
X_BEARER_TOKEN=your_bearer_token
X_ACCESS_TOKEN=your_access_token
X_ACCESS_SECRET=your_access_secret

Step 4: Use Twitter API Keys in Python

Once you have your credentials, you can use them to connect your Python app with Twitter. The popular library for this is Tweepy.

Here’s a quick example:

import tweepy
import os

# Load from environment variables
api_key = os.getenv("X_API_KEY")
api_secret = os.getenv("X_API_SECRET")
access_token = os.getenv("X_ACCESS_TOKEN")
access_secret = os.getenv("X_ACCESS_SECRET")

# Authenticate
auth = tweepy.OAuth1UserHandler(api_key, api_secret, access_token, access_secret)
api = tweepy.API(auth)

# Post a tweet
api.update_status("Hello Twitter API! 🚀")

This simple script will automatically post a tweet to your X account.

Step 5: Best Practices for Using the Twitter API

Keep your keys secret — never share them publicly.
Use environment variables to protect credentials.
Follow Twitter’s rules — avoid spammy automation to prevent suspension.
Upgrade your plan if you need higher rate limits or enterprise features.

How AI Agents Use the Twitter API

One of the most exciting applications of the Twitter API is building AI agents that help content creators grow faster on X. Instead of manually drafting, researching, and posting tweets, an AI Twitter Agent can do the heavy lifting for you.

For example, Bika.ai’s Twitter Manager is designed as an AI-powered Twitter assistant that integrates directly with the Twitter API. Here’s what it can do:

Auto-Polish Drafts – Turn your rough notes or product impressions into catchy, viral-ready tweets.
Smart Research – Automatically search the web for trending topics, product news, or use cases, then recommend tweet ideas tailored to your audience.
Hashtag Targeting – Suggest and apply trending hashtags to maximize reach and visibility.
One-Click Posting – After you approve a tweet, the AI agent can publish it instantly via the connected Twitter API — no copy-paste required.

This workflow looks like:

Draft → Optimized Tweet → Research & Hashtags → One-Click Publish

By leveraging the Twitter API, tools like Bika.ai empower content creators, AI product reviewers, and social media strategists to tweet 10x faster and more effectively.

Using the X API in Bika.ai is much easier — you don’t need to know any coding. Just paste your API key into the required field, and you’re all set.

Final Thoughts

Getting access to the Twitter API may sound technical, but it’s actually straightforward:

Sign up for a developer account.
Create an app and configure permissions.
Generate your API keys and tokens.
Start coding with Python or another language.

With these steps, you can automate posting, build AI Twitter agents, or analyze tweets — opening up endless opportunities for developers, researchers, and content creators.