Since X removed free API access and imposed aggressive rate limits in 2023, scraping has become the primary method for accessing tweet data at scale. However, X has some of the toughest anti-bot protections of any platform.
Why X is Difficult to Scrape
X's anti-bot measures include:
- Aggressive IP rate limiting (even for logged-out browsing)
- JavaScript rendering requirements for content loading
- Browser fingerprinting and bot detection
- Login walls for certain content types
- Dynamic content loading (infinite scroll)
Using Snowpad for X Scraping
Indian mobile proxies from Jio and Airtel bypass X's anti-bot restrictions by appearing as genuine Indian mobile users. Use sticky sessions for browsing (same IP during session), limit to 20-30 tweets per minute, and rotate IPs between separate scraping sessions.
Best Practices
- Use sticky sessions for browsing — same IP during a session
- Limit to 20-30 tweets per minute
- Rotate IPs between sessions
- Use realistic mobile User-Agent headers
- Add delays between scroll actions
FAQ
Is scraping Twitter legal? Scraping publicly available tweets visible without login is generally legal. However, always respect robots.txt and platform ToS.
Why did Twitter restrict its API? Elon Musk announced API restrictions in 2023 to combat data scraping and AI training. The free tier was removed and paid tiers are expensive.
Can I scrape DMs or private tweets with proxies? No. Snowpad helps you access publicly available content through Indian IPs. Attempting to access private content is against our terms of service.
