Twitter’s latest API pricing plan has caused a stir among indie developers who have built apps that rely on the social media platform’s data and features. The new pricing structure imposes a steep $42,000 per month fee for the Enterprise plans, leaving many smaller developers unable to afford access to the API.

The new free tier of the API, which allows developers to write only 1,500 tweets per month, no longer includes the ability to access tweets, making it far less useful than the old free plan called “Elevated,” which allowed access to 2 million tweets per month. The new paid plan, called Basic, costs $100 per month and allows access to 10,000 tweets per month.

The new API pricing plan has caused a number of indie developers to shut down their Twitter-based apps, which were previously useful and popular with regular users. The lack of a mid-tier plan between the $100 per month Basic tier and the $42,000 per month Enterprise plans means that most developers with a few regular users are going to exceed the Basic plan’s limits quickly.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has stated that the new API pricing plan is aimed at killing off bots, but the reaction on Twitter suggests that it has instead caused an “armageddon” for indie developers who run actually useful Twitter apps. Many developers have already taken to Twitter to announce the shutdown of their apps due to the new pricing structure.

In conclusion, the new Twitter API pricing plan has caused a lot of consternation among indie developers who have built apps that rely on Twitter’s data and features. The steep $42,000 per month fee for the Enterprise plans is prohibitive for most smaller developers, leaving them unable to afford access to the API. The lack of a mid-tier plan between the $100 per month Basic tier and the Enterprise plans means that developers with a few regular users are likely to exceed the Basic plan’s limits quickly, causing them to shut down their Twitter-based apps.