Social Blade Dropped Twitter — Here’s How to Track X Accounts Now
If you used Social Blade to track Twitter follower counts, you already know: it stopped working in March 2025. No warning label, no grace period. One day the stats were there, the next they weren't.
Social Blade's own statement explained the situation bluntly. They had been using X's cheapest API tier at $200/month. Then X's legal team contacted them and said that tier was no longer available to Social Blade. The only option left was the Enterprise package, which starts at $42,000/month and can go up to $210,000/month depending on usage.
For a service that offered free Twitter stats supported by ads, that math doesn't work. So they pulled the plug.
What Social Blade Actually Provided for Twitter
Before we talk about replacements, let's be specific about what Social Blade did. It wasn't a full analytics suite. It was a simple, fast lookup tool that showed:
- Daily follower count changes (gains and losses)
- A letter grade (A+ through F) based on growth metrics
- Historical follower charts over 30, 90, and 365 days
- Following count, tweet count, and engagement estimates
- Public profile summary (bio, join date, verification status)
That's it. No data export, no bot detection, no audience demographics. If you wanted to download a follower list or analyze who actually follows an account, Social Blade couldn't help with that. But for a quick "how fast is this account growing?" check, it was the go-to.
What twtData's Profile Tracker Does Instead
twtData's Profile Tracker covers the core use case that Social Blade served: tracking follower counts over time. But it also goes further in several areas.
Daily Follower Snapshots
Once you add an account to the tracker, twtData records its follower count, following count, and tweet count every day. You get a time-series chart showing growth (or decline) over whatever period data is available. There's no 30-day limit like Social Blade had on the free tier.
It's Actually Free
Social Blade's free tier came with ads and limited data windows. Their paid plans started at $4/month for more slots. twtData's Profile Tracker is free with no account required. You enter a username, it starts tracking. Over 340 accounts are already being tracked by our users.
You Can Track Competitors Side by Side
Social Blade let you look up one account at a time. twtData lets you track multiple accounts and compare their growth on the same timeline. If you're a marketing team benchmarking against competitors, this is a significant workflow improvement.
Where twtData Goes Beyond What Social Blade Offered
Social Blade showed you that an account had 50,000 followers. It didn't tell you anything about those followers. twtData does.
Follower Data Exports
With twtData's follower download tool, you can export a complete follower list to CSV. Each row includes the follower's username, display name, bio, location, follower count, following count, join date, and verification status. This opens directly in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers.
Use cases that Social Blade simply couldn't address:
- Exporting a competitor's follower list for audience overlap analysis
- Building targeted outreach lists from niche accounts
- Filtering followers by location or bio keywords in a spreadsheet
- Tracking follower quality over time by comparing exports
Bot and Fake Follower Detection
Research suggests 5 to 15 percent of all X accounts may be bots or fake accounts. For brands evaluating influencer partnerships, this matters. An account with 100K followers and 30% bots delivers 70K real impressions at best.
twtData's Bot Detector uses machine learning to analyze account behavior patterns and assign a bot probability score. It checks account age, tweet frequency, follower-to-following ratio, profile completeness, username patterns, and engagement consistency. It's free for up to 10 accounts per check.
Social Blade never offered anything like this.
Follower Analytics Reports
twtData's Follower Analytics goes deeper than any tracking tool. It generates reports on audience demographics, geographic distribution, interest categories, and profession breakdowns. If you need to understand who follows an account and not just how many, this is the tool.
What About Tweet Data?
Social Blade showed tweet counts but never let you access the tweets themselves. With twtData, you can download an account's entire tweet timeline including the full tweet text, engagement metrics (likes, retweets, replies), timestamps, and media links. You can also search tweets by keyword or hashtag.
For researchers, journalists, or anyone doing content analysis, this is a category of data Social Blade never touched.
The Broader Picture: Why X Analytics Tools Are Disappearing
Social Blade isn't the only casualty. Since Elon Musk's acquisition and the subsequent API pricing overhaul, dozens of Twitter analytics services have shut down or scaled back. The free tier that powered an entire ecosystem of tools was first restricted in 2023 and effectively eliminated for new developers in February 2026.
The current API pricing structure:
- Free tier: No longer available to new developers
- Basic: $100/month for 10,000 tweet reads (was $0)
- Pro: $5,000/month for 1 million tweet reads
- Enterprise: $42,000+/month with custom limits
- Pay-per-use (new default): $0.005 per post read, $0.01 per post write
This is why tools that abstract away the API complexity matter more now than ever. You shouldn't need a $5,000/month API subscription and Python coding skills to find out how many followers an account gained last week.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Social Blade still work for Twitter/X?
No. Social Blade removed all Twitter/X data in March 2025. Their statement confirmed it was due to X requiring them to move to the Enterprise API tier ($42,000+/month), which wasn't economically viable for their free service model. Social Blade still tracks YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, and other platforms.
Can I see historical Twitter follower data from before Social Blade shut down?
Social Blade's historical Twitter data is no longer accessible. If you didn't screenshot or export it before March 2025, that data is gone. twtData's Profile Tracker begins recording from the moment you add an account, so the sooner you start tracking, the more history you'll build up.
Is there a free way to track someone's Twitter follower count over time?
Yes. twtData's Profile Tracker is free and doesn't require an account. Enter any public Twitter/X username and it begins daily snapshots of their follower count, following count, and tweet count. You can track as many accounts as you want.
How accurate is Twitter follower tracking compared to Social Blade?
twtData pulls data directly from the X API, so the numbers match what you see on the profile itself. Social Blade also used the API, so accuracy is equivalent. The difference is that twtData is still operational and recording new data daily.
Can I export Twitter follower data to a spreadsheet?
Yes. twtData exports follower lists as CSV files that open directly in Excel, Google Sheets, and Numbers. Each follower record includes their username, bio, location, follower count, join date, and verification status. Social Blade never offered data export for Twitter.
How do I check if a Twitter account has fake followers?
twtData's Bot Detector analyzes accounts using machine learning and provides a bot probability score. It examines account age, posting patterns, engagement ratios, profile completeness, and username characteristics. It's free for up to 10 accounts per check. Social Blade didn't offer bot detection.