X API payment declined, short answer: since February 2026 the X API (formerly the Twitter API) is sold as prepaid pay-per-use credits. You add a card and buy credits in the Developer Console at console.x.com; payments run through Stripe, and every API call deducts from that balance. The old Basic ($200 a month) and Pro ($5,000 a month) subscriptions have been moved to pay-per-use, so there is no monthly plan to subscribe to. A credit purchase usually fails because the bank refuses foreign USD charges, the billing address does not match, or the same card was retried too many times. If your local card does not work, a prepaid virtual card bought with USDT or USDC, such as Pink Card from pinkcard.cc, can be added in the console. X says prepaid cards can be used for purchases; they just do not earn the free starter credit.
Written by the Pink Card team (pinkcard.cc). X API prices and rules are taken from docs.x.com (pricing, free credits, usage and billing), the X Developer pay-per-use agreement, the X changelog and X staff posts on devcommunity.x.com as of October 2026. Prices can change; the console is the source of truth. Pink Card fees are those shown on the purchase page on 2026-10-20. Pink Card is not affiliated with X Corp.
How the X API charges in 2026
- Pay-per-use only for self-serve accounts: buy credits upfront, pay only for what you use, no contract and no minimum spend. A verified phone number is required to buy credits.
- Sample unit prices: Post read $0.005 per resource, User read $0.010, Post create $0.015 per request, Post create with a URL $0.200, owned reads $0.001. Resources are deduplicated within a 24-hour UTC day, and failed requests are not billed.
- Pay-per-use accounts are capped at 3 million Post reads a month; above that is Enterprise with custom pricing.
- Auto-recharge is optional: set a trigger threshold and a recharge amount (minimum $5). It runs at most once per 5-minute window and pauses while the balance is zero or negative.
- Spend limit: you can set a maximum spend per billing cycle; when it is reached, requests are blocked until the next cycle.
- Credits do not expire unless stated otherwise, but they are prepaid and non-refundable except where the law requires (X lists a 14-day withdrawal right for unused credits in the EU and UK).
- Taxes and possible surcharges are added on top of the credit amount.
Why was I charged $25?
X does not sell a fixed $25 pack, and the docs say there is no minimum purchase. $25 is simply the example recharge amount used on X’s own pricing page, and a common amount for manual top-ups. Both X API charges we saw on our cards were exactly $25.00. If you did not buy it yourself, check Billing → Payments in console.x.com for an auto-recharge rule before contacting your bank.
X DEVELOPER PLATFORM vs X Premium on your statement
API credits appear as X DEVELOPER PLATFORM (Bastrop, TX). The consumer X Premium subscription appears as X CORP. PAID FEATURES with the same Bastrop address. They are separate products with separate billing, and Premium does not include API credits.
402 "credits depleted": what it means
When the balance runs out, API requests fail with HTTP 402 Payment Required and a body like {"detail":"credits depleted","status":402,...}. The balance can dip slightly below zero; requests stay blocked until you add enough to cover it, and auto-recharge will not restart on its own from a zero or negative balance, so buy credits manually once. X staff have also pointed out that 402 can appear when the API keys belong to a different developer account that has no credits, so check which account the keys came from.
Why a credit purchase gets declined
- The issuing bank refuses the charge. Many banks block foreign online USD payments, and Stripe only shows "card declined".
- The balance does not cover the credit amount plus tax and any surcharge.
- Billing address mismatch. The country and postal code are checked against the issuer.
- Too many attempts. Retrying the same card repeatedly, or switching between several cards in minutes, triggers risk checks. Waiting is usually the only fix.
- An auto-recharge rule keeps firing against a card with too little balance. Failed charges do not add credits, so turn the rule off or top up the card first.
Fix it in this order
- Stop retrying. In console.x.com, open Billing and note the amount you want to buy.
- Make sure the card balance covers that amount plus tax, plus about $1 if your prepaid card charges per transaction.
- Check the card number, expiry, CVV and billing address exactly as the issuer has it, and that your phone number is verified.
- Buy once. If the same card fails two or three times, wait several hours or use a different card. For billing problems, X has a billing support form at docs.x.com/forms/billing-support.
Does a prepaid virtual card work for the X API?
We checked X API charges (merchant X DEVELOPER PLATFORM BASTROP) on our own cards up to 2026-10-19: two Pink Cards each paid one $25.00 credit purchase (one in June, one on 2026-10-16 UTC), and we saw no declined X API charges. The sample is two charges, so we cannot promise every card and every purchase will pass; buy a small amount first and keep the balance above your auto-recharge amount.
Buy X API credits with a prepaid virtual card (USDT or USDC)
- Open pinkcard.cc/en and choose an amount: presets start at $110 ($110, $220, $500, $1000), or enter a custom amount from $100.
- Pay with USDT on BEP-20 (shown as BSC or BNB Smart Chain on most exchanges; network fee usually under $1) or ERC-20, or with USDC on ERC-20. Send exactly the amount shown, on exactly the network you picked.
- Enter your email twice. No account and no sign-up are needed.
- The card number, expiry, CVV and billing address arrive by email about 1–2 minutes after the payment confirms (check spam).
- In console.x.com, go to Billing information → Add payment method, enter the card with the billing address from the email, then buy credits once.
- If you enable auto-recharge, keep the card balance above the recharge amount. Top-ups of the same card usually arrive within about 30 minutes, and the card number does not change.
How much to load (worked examples)
- Four $25 purchases: 4 × ($25 + $1 per transaction) = $104, plus the $2.50 monthly card fee, fits the $110 preset for one month.
- One $100 purchase: $100 + $1 + $2.50 = $103.50, inside the $110 preset.
- Auto-recharge at $25: each recharge costs $26 from the card, so a $110 card covers four recharges.
- Paying for a $110 card: ($110 + $10) × 1.03 = $123.60. A $220 card: ($220 + $10) × 1.03 = $236.90.
- Topping up $100 later: $5 + ($100 + $5) × 5% = $10.25 in fees, $110.25 in total.
Pink Card fees (as of 2026-10-20)
- Card issuance: $10 one-time, plus a 3% service fee on (card amount + $10).
- From the card balance after activation: $1 per transaction and $2.50 per month.
- Failed authorizations are charged $1 too (at most 3 failed charges per card per month), so do not leave auto-recharge firing at an empty card.
- Top-up of the same card: $5 plus 5% of (top-up amount + $5), usually on the card within about 30 minutes. Full fee table: pinkcard.cc/en/fees.
- Once the card details are emailed, the order cannot be cancelled, so double-check your email address before paying.
Paying for X Premium (the consumer subscription) instead? See: X Premium payment declined: prices and fixes
Calling Grok and other models by API through OpenRouter? See: OpenRouter payment methods and card declined fixes
Chinese version (中文版，付款方式按中文站): X API（推特 API）怎么付款充值
Related guides: OpenAI and Anthropic API credits at pinkcard.cc/en/guides/pay-openai-anthropic-api-with-crypto, and the overview for paying several AI tools with USDT at pinkcard.cc/en/guides/pay-chatgpt-claude-cursor-with-usdt. Fees: pinkcard.cc/en/fees. The Pink Card Android app (Google Play: cc.pinkcard.app) shows the balance and every transaction.