The cheapest social media posting APIs with a real free tier

Four social media posting APIs have a free tier a developer can build on (read Oct 7, 2026): PostWire (1 business, every network connected including TikTok, 2 networks per post, 20 posts a month), Zernio (2 connected accounts, full API), Buffer (3 channels, 1 API key, 3,000 requests a month) and Upload-Post (2 profiles, 10 uploads a month, no TikTok). Ayrshare, Blotato and hosted Postiz have trials, not free plans. Which is cheapest after that depends on the unit each one bills: per business, per account, per channel or per profile.

Every price below was read on the vendor's own pricing page on Oct 7, 2026 (links under the table). The cheapest paid step is shown as each vendor sells it.

Start free — 1 business, no card Try the live demo

Updated Oct 7, 2026. Written from PostWire's own code; vendor prices read on Oct 7, 2026. Live networks: TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn (personal profiles), Facebook Pages, Bluesky, Mastodon, Telegram, Discord, and X on paid plans.

Try PostWire's API free in five minutes

Create a free PostWire account
Open postwire.io/dashboard.html, type your email and press Create my free account. PostWire emails you a link to confirm the address; connecting accounts and publishing unlock once it is confirmed. No password and no card (free plan: 1 business, 20 posts a month, 5 AI drafts a day (about 20 a month), 2 networks per post, 3 scheduled posts at a time — every network connects free, no card).
Connect one network
Bluesky, Telegram, Discord and Mastodon take text and connect with an app password, bot token or webhook in a minute or two; TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook Pages are one OAuth click.
Copy your API key
In the dashboard, open API & MCP and press Copy key on the API key card. It is sent as Authorization: Bearer pw_live_… (the X-API-Key header also works). Keep it server-side.

Write a post per network and publish

Two calls: write, then publish.

curl -X POST https://postwire.io/api/generate -H "Authorization: Bearer pw_live_…" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"prompt":"v2.0 is out: 3x faster sync","platforms":["bluesky","linkedin"]}'

curl -X POST https://postwire.io/api/post -H "Authorization: Bearer pw_live_…" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"platforms":["bluesky","linkedin"],"per_platform":{…drafts…}}'

Read your usage
GET /api/usage shows posts this month, AI drafts today and businesses against your plan. A post counts once per network and only successful publishes count. Spec: openapi.json.

Free tiers and first paid step

Read on each vendor's own pricing page on Oct 7, 2026.

API	Free tier	TikTok on free	Billed per	First paid step
PostWire	1 business, 20 posts/mo, 5 AI drafts/day (about 20/mo), 2 networks per post, API + MCP + n8n	Yes	Business — every network connects on every plan; paid plans post to all of them at once	$9/mo — 3 businesses, 1000 posts
Zernio	2 connected accounts, unlimited posts, full API	Not listed	Connected account	$6 per account (accounts 3–10)
Buffer	3 channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel; 1 API key, 3,000 requests/mo	Not listed	Channel	Essentials $5 per channel/mo, billed yearly
Upload-Post	2 profiles, 10 uploads/mo	No	Profile (plan bundles)	$24/mo — 5 profiles, unlimited uploads
Postiz (hosted)	No — 7-day trial (self-hosting is free, AGPL)	—	Channel (plan bundles)	$29/mo — 5 channels, API + MCP included
Blotato	No — 7-day trial, API excluded	—	Plan (accounts)	$29/mo — 20 accounts
Ayrshare	No — 28-day trial on Launch	—	User profile	$149/mo — 1 profile

Checked on Oct 7, 2026 (2026-10-07) on each vendor's own pricing or docs page, linked in the first column and below. Monthly billing in USD unless noted. "Not listed" means we could not find it on their page, not that it is missing.

Where PostWire is ahead

TikTok on the free tier, confirmed. Upload-Post's free tier leaves it out; Postiz, Blotato and Ayrshare have trials, not free tiers.
The writing is in the free tier: POST /api/generate, generate_posts and the n8n node write each network's post. Zernio's, Buffer's and Upload-Post's APIs publish text you send (Upload-Post's AI writes from a video, for 4 networks).
MCP and n8n on the free tier too, with OAuth 2.1 sign-in for Claude.
60 API requests a minute on the free tier, with a Retry-After header on a 429. Buffer's pricing page lists 100 requests per 15 minutes and 250 per 24 hours on Free.
Every network connects free to the one business; Free sends each post to 2 of them. Zernio's free tier is 2 connected accounts, Buffer's 3 channels, Upload-Post's 2 profiles.

Sources, all read on Oct 7, 2026:

Zernio pricing (machine-readable): zernio.com/pricing.md
Buffer pricing (free plan, API on free): buffer.com/pricing
Upload-Post plans and free-plan networks (their llms-full.txt): www.upload-post.com/llms-full.txt
Postiz pricing: postiz.com/pricing
Blotato pricing: www.blotato.com/pricing
Ayrshare pricing: www.ayrshare.com/pricing/

For developers: what the free API gives you to build on

Price is one half of "best posting API for a developer"; the other half is what you don't have to build. On PostWire's free tier, from the code that runs it (Oct 7, 2026):

A spec: openapi.json describes the REST API, so a client or an agent tool can be generated from it.
Safe retries: send idempotency_key with POST /api/post and a repeat with the same key is refused for 24 hours, so a retried job never posts twice.
One result per network: each network answers with its own id and link, or with the network's error and what to fix; a post to three networks that worked on two tells you which one failed.
Signed webhooks: 2 endpoints on Free (5 on Starter) for post.published, post.failed and connection.reauth_required, each delivery signed with HMAC-SHA256 in the PostWire-Signature header.
Limits you can read: 60 requests a minute per key on Free (120 on Starter, 300 on Pro), 20 posts a day, and a 429 carries a machine-readable code and Retry-After. GET /api/usage shows your use against the plan.
No developer apps of your own: no TikTok audit, Meta App Review or Google verification to pass before the first public post — PostWire's apps already passed them.

The same key works in the hosted MCP server and the n8n node, so a prototype in curl becomes an agent tool or a workflow without a second integration.

What PostWire's free tier includes

Networks: TikTok (Direct Post, audited), Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn (personal profiles), Facebook Pages, Bluesky, Mastodon, Telegram, Discord — and X on paid plans.
Writing: POST /api/generate writes a native post per network from one prompt; as of Oct 2026 we couldn't find another hosted API that does that in one call.
Surfaces: REST (OpenAPI), hosted MCP server (https://postwire.io/api/mcp, 21 tools), n8n community node, Make via HTTP.
Media: uploaded files up to 250 MB each on Free and 1 GB on paid plans; Instagram carousels up to 10 items, TikTok photo posts up to 35 images.

Full comparison by pricing unit: post to all social media with one API.

Questions people ask

What is the best social media posting API for developers?

It depends on the unit you are billed by and on what you would otherwise build. To start free and ship the same day, PostWire's free tier has the REST API with an OpenAPI spec, idempotency keys, signed webhooks, 60 requests a minute, a hosted MCP server and an n8n node, TikTok included, and it writes each network's post from one prompt. No TikTok, Meta or Google developer app of your own is needed.

What is the cheapest social media posting API?

On Oct 7, 2026, four had a free tier: PostWire, Zernio, Buffer and Upload-Post. Paid, PostWire starts at $9/month for 3 businesses with every network in each post; Zernio at $6 per account after 2 free; Buffer at $5 per channel billed yearly; Upload-Post at $24/month for 5 profiles.

Which free posting API includes TikTok?

PostWire's free plan includes TikTok (Direct Post, public posts). Upload-Post's free plan excludes TikTok. For Zernio and Buffer, we couldn't confirm TikTok on the free tier from their pricing pages.

Does Buffer's API work on the free plan?

Yes: Buffer's pricing page lists 1 API key and 3,000 requests a month on Free, with more keys and requests on Essentials and Team.

Is there a free API that also writes the posts?

PostWire's free tier includes 5 AI drafts a day (about 20 a month): POST /api/generate writes a different native post per network from one prompt.

Do I need my own TikTok or Meta developer app?

Not with PostWire: your users connect their accounts to PostWire's approved apps (TikTok audit July 7, 2026; Meta App Review July 14, 2026; Google verification July 1, 2026).

Try it on one business, free.

The free plan is 1 business, 20 posts a month, 5 AI drafts a day (about 20 a month) and 2 networks per post — every network connects free, no card, no time limit. Paid plans start at $9 a month and have a 14-day refund; Pro can be tried free for 7 days, with a card at checkout and nothing charged that day.

Start free — 1 business, no card See all plans