About X limits

Why have limits?
 

Limits alleviate some of the strain on the behind-the-scenes part of X and reduce downtime and error pages. For the sake of reliability, we've placed some limits on the account actions below.
 

Current X limits
 

The current technical limits for accounts are:

  • Direct Messages (daily): The limit is 500 messages sent per day.
  • posts: 2,400 per day. The daily update limit is further broken down into smaller limits for semi-hourly intervals. Reposts are counted as posts.
  • Changes to account email: 4 per hour.
  • Following (daily): The technical follow limit is 400 per day. Please note that this is a technical account limit only, and there are additional rules prohibiting aggressive following behavior. 
  • Following (account-based): Once an account is following 5,000 other accounts, additional follow attempts are limited by account-specific ratios. 

These limits include actions from all devices, including web, mobile, phone, API, etc. API requests from all third-party applications are tracked against the hourly API limit. People who use multiple third-party applications with their account will therefore reach the API limit more quickly. 

These limits may be temporarily reduced during periods of heavy site usage. In such cases, we will post an update on the X status site.
 

What happens if I hit a limit?
 

If you do reach a limit, we'll let you know with an error message telling you which limit you've hit. For limits that are time-based (like the Direct Messages, posts, changes to account email, and API request limits), you'll be able to try again after the time limit has elapsed.

The post limit of 2,400 updates per day is further broken down into semi-hourly intervals. If you hit your account update/post limit, please try again in a few hours after the limit period has elapsed.
 

Having trouble?
 

If you've hit a follow limit, please see this follow limit troubleshooting article for more information.

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