Ad platform

X campaigns, and what the X API costs

Demander creates X campaigns and line items from your plan and posts promoted-only ads with your images or video. X bills its API by the call, so organic posts and direct messages count against an amount of X usage that each plan includes.

Reviewed 2 October 2026

Fig. 01 The eight ad platforms circle one plan on inclined orbits with X highlighted, and the organic networks sit on a dashed outer ring.

Objectives Demander sets

Plan objectiveX objectiveNotes
AwarenessReachMaximum reach
Traffic and retargetingWebsite clicksLink clicks
EngagementEngagementsPost engagement
Video viewsVideo viewsVideo ads only
Leads and conversionsWebsite clicksWith a website conversion goal when your X web event tag id is in the connection

How campaigns are built

Media goes up first: up to 4 images per post (JPG, PNG or WEBP, 5 MB each; a carousel posts its first four cards) or one video (MP4 or MOV, up to 500 MB and 10 minutes), added to the ad account’s media library. If X refuses a file, nothing else has been created yet.

Then the campaign is created paused under your funding instrument, with a line item, its targeting and promoted-only posts that carry the landing URL in the text; website cards are not used. Targeting covers location (country, or the office city in geofence plans), language, broad keywords and X’s numeric interest codes.

X API usage: what it costs and what each plan includes

X moved its API to pay-per-use pricing with no subscriptions. Demander pays X and meters every billed call per workspace at X’s list prices.

ItemPrice or amount
Post$0.015
Post that contains a link$0.20
Direct message sent$0.015
Direct message event read$0.010 per event
Included each month$5 on Starter, $15 on Growth and Performance, $40 on Scale, $5 per Agency workspace, $3 for the whole trial
More usageX API pack: $20 of usage for €29 a month

When the month’s amount runs out, Demander stops calling X: the post fails with the reason, X messages go to a person, and message polling pauses until you add a pack or the month turns. See pricing.

Conversions, audiences and bidding

  1. 01

    No offline upload to X

    CRM stages go back as offline conversions to Google, Microsoft, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok and Reddit. Demander sends none to X; pipeline from X clicks still shows in its own attribution through the UTM parameters on every ad.

  2. 02

    No list sync

    Stage lists, customer exclusions and lookalikes do not sync to X, so retargeting by list runs on LinkedIn, Meta and Google.

  3. 03

    Bids per line item

    A maximum CPC for website clicks, a maximum CPM for reach, or a target cost on website conversion goals that X keeps within about 20 percent on average. A bid never exceeds the campaign’s daily budget, and clearing it returns to X’s automatic bidding.

Access and approvals

  1. 01

    What you do

    Authorise your X account and pick the ad account; the funding instrument’s currency is detected. The X Ads API accepts only OAuth 1.0a user context, so this is a separate connection from organic posting, which uses OAuth 2.0.

  2. 02

    What X requires of Demander

    Ads API access is approved through X’s access form, separately from the developer app; X asks to allow up to 3 business days.

  3. 03

    One open question

    Image and video ads upload through the X API v2 media endpoints. X’s published price list does not say whether those uploads are billed for an app approved for ads; if X bills them, they come out of the same usage amount.

Questions people ask

Why does a post with a link cost more?

X sets the price: $0.20 for a post that contains a URL and $0.015 for one without. Demander counts each at X’s list price against your included amount.

Do promoted ads use up our X usage amount?

X charges nothing extra for Ads API calls. Organic posts, DMs sent and DM events read are what count. Whether the media uploads behind image and video ads are billed is still open, as described above.

Can we run X Ads on Starter?

Yes. Starter connects up to three ad platforms of your choice, and Growth and Scale connect all eight. See pricing.

Will Starter need an X API pack?

A typical active workspace uses $5 to $10 of X usage a month, about 20 posts (most with a link) plus some DM traffic. Growth and Scale rarely need a pack; heavy X posting on Starter does.

See the plan for your own product

Enter the website. In about a minute you get the profile, two personas, the messaging, the funnel and three creatives. Keep the rest by signing up.

Free, no card. Demander reads the public pages, then shows your personas, messages, funnel and first creatives. Sign up to keep the full plan.