Tweet

When to use this

Use it to check how a post performed or to pull its text and media. Pass the tweet's URL (x.com or twitter.com) or its id. Videos come with playable MP4 files in media[].variants, best quality first.

text is what x.com shows: long posts in full and t.co links expanded. A retweet shows the original's text, media and counts, and retweeted_tweet holds the original with its author. For a quote, quoted_tweet holds the quoted tweet. views is null on tweets from before 2023.

When X's main source is busy, we answer from its embed data instead. Then retweets, quotes, bookmarks, views and author.followers are null, and long posts are cut to 280 characters.

Deleted tweets, tweets from protected accounts and age-restricted tweets return 404 not_found.

Example request

Copy one and replace YOUR_API_KEY with your API key (get one free). The code versions read the key from the LURKAPI_API_KEY environment variable instead.

curl "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/twitter/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fx.com%2FNASA%2Fstatus%2F2104593672624886205" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  url: "https://x.com/NASA/status/2104593672624886205",
});
const res = await fetch(`https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/twitter/tweet?${params}`, {
  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.LURKAPI_API_KEY },
});
const data = await res.json();
if (!data.success) throw new Error(`${data.code}: ${data.error}`);
console.log(data.media);

import os
import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/twitter/tweet",
    params={
        "url": "https://x.com/NASA/status/2104593672624886205",
    },
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["LURKAPI_API_KEY"]},
    timeout=60,
)
data = res.json()
if not data["success"]:
    raise RuntimeError(f"{data['code']}: {data['error']}")
print(data["media"])

package main

import (
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
	"net/url"
	"os"
	"time"
)

func main() {
	params := url.Values{}
	params.Set("url", "https://x.com/NASA/status/2104593672624886205")
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/twitter/tweet?"+params.Encode(), nil)
	req.Header.Set("x-api-key", os.Getenv("LURKAPI_API_KEY"))

	client := &http.Client{Timeout: 60 * time.Second}
	res, err := client.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()

	var data map[string]any
	if err := json.NewDecoder(res.Body).Decode(&data); err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	if data["success"] != true {
		panic(fmt.Sprintf("%v: %v", data["code"], data["error"]))
	}
	out, _ := json.MarshalIndent(data["media"], "", "  ")
	fmt.Println(string(out))
}

<?php
$params = http_build_query([
    'url' => 'https://x.com/NASA/status/2104593672624886205',
]);
$context = stream_context_create(['http' => [
    'header' => 'x-api-key: ' . getenv('LURKAPI_API_KEY'),
    'timeout' => 60,
    'ignore_errors' => true,
]]);
$body = file_get_contents('https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/twitter/tweet?' . $params, false, $context);
$data = json_decode($body, true);
if (!$data['success']) {
    throw new Exception("{$data['code']}: {$data['error']}");
}
print_r($data['media']);

require 'json'
require 'net/http'

uri = URI('https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/twitter/tweet')
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form(
  'url' => 'https://x.com/NASA/status/2104593672624886205',
)
req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
req['x-api-key'] = ENV.fetch('LURKAPI_API_KEY')
res = Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port, use_ssl: uri.scheme == 'https', read_timeout: 60) do |http|
  http.request(req)
end
data = JSON.parse(res.body)
raise "#{data['code']}: #{data['error']}" unless data['success']
puts JSON.pretty_generate(data['media'])

Parameters

Add them to the URL after a ?. Join several with &.

Example response

A real response, captured from the live API. Lists are trimmed to a couple of items, and long text such as media links is cut short with ….

{
  "success": true,
  "credits_remaining": 999966,
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "id": "2104593672624886205",
  "url": "https://x.com/NASA/status/2104593672624886205",
  "text": "How do we respond when we detect an asteroid that could pose a threat to…",
  "created_at": "2026-09-28T15:26:47.000Z",
  "lang": "en",
  "source": null,
  "author": {
    "id": "11348282",
    "handle": "NASA",
    "name": "NASA",
    "avatar": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1321163587679784960/0ZxKlEKB_400x400.jpg",
    "verified": true,
    "verified_type": "Government",
    "followers": 92378647
  },
  "counts": {
    "likes": 3312,
    "replies": 225,
    "retweets": 553,
    "quotes": 45,
    "bookmarks": 278,
    "views": 743122
  },
  "media": [
    {
      "type": "video",
      "url": "https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HTUEyn0XkAALVB_.png",
      "width": 405,
      "height": 720,
      "duration_ms": 38605,
      "variants": [
        {
          "url": "https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2104593621043314689/vid/avc1/608x1…",
          "content_type": "video/mp4",
          "bitrate": 2176000
        },
        {
          "url": "https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2104593621043314689/vid/avc1/480x8…",
          "content_type": "video/mp4",
          "bitrate": 950000
        },
        {
          "url": "https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2104593621043314689/vid/avc1/320x5…",
          "content_type": "video/mp4",
          "bitrate": 632000
        },
        {
          "url": "https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2104593621043314689/pl/iMMWqCJ1OZowER7i.m3u8?tag=16&v=2b3",
          "content_type": "application/x-mpegURL",
          "bitrate": null
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "hashtags": [],
  "mentions": [],
  "links": [
    "https://go.nasa.gov/4AUCQ3Z"
  ],
  "poll": null,
  "article": null,
  "reply_to_id": null,
  "reply_to_handle": null,
  "conversation_id": "2104593672624886205",
  "quoted_id": null,
  "possibly_sensitive": false,
  "quoted_tweet": null,
  "retweeted_tweet": null
}

Response fields

Every field in a successful response, and what it means. A name with [] belongs to each item of a list: media[].type is the type of every item in media. null means there's no value.

Cost and freshness

Each call costs 1 credit. Calls turned away before they reach the platform (invalid parameters, a key or balance problem, a rate limit) are free, and so are 5xx errors. A not_found is charged, since the platform was checked. How charging works.

Answers are cached for up to 5 minutes. A repeat call within that time can return the same data, and costs the same.

Errors

A failed call returns success: false, an error message, a code your program can check, and a docs link. These are the errors this endpoint can return. All error codes.

Use it in Claude

Connect LurkAPI to Claude and ask in plain English. This endpoint is the twitter_tweet tool. For example:

Use LurkAPI's twitter_tweet tool with url "https://x.com/NASA/status/2104593672624886205", then summarize what you find.

Claude calls twitter_tweet with arguments like these, and each call costs 1 credit:

{"url": "https://x.com/NASA/status/2104593672624886205"}

To save tokens, tool results leave out empty fields, keep one URL per image or video, and give transcripts as plain text unless you pass timestamps=true. A result over 45,000 characters comes in parts. Its _note gives the offset for the next part, and later parts are free for 15 minutes. Pass trim=false for the full response.