How to get a tweet as JSON without an X API key

Unif API compared five ways to read a public X post as JSON without a developer account: FxTwitter, vxTwitter, X’s syndication endpoint, X’s oEmbed endpoint and UnifAPI. In its test against one NASA post, all five returned HTTP 200 without a key, cookies or a custom User-Agent.

The formats differ. FxTwitter and vxTwitter include text, metrics and media URLs. Syndication has fewer metrics and is undocumented. oEmbed returns JSON containing embed HTML, without metrics or media URLs.

UnifAPI’s free endpoint accepts a post ID or full status URL and returns author, media and metrics. Its cap is 20 lookups per 10 minutes per visitor, and it reads only public data.