X has announced a new set of technical limits for users who do not hold the blue verified checkmark on the platform, introducing daily caps on posts, replies, direct messages, and account follows that will primarily affect heavy users operating without a premium subscription. The company stated the restrictions are designed to reduce strain on the platform’s background systems and help cut down on downtime and error pages, framing the changes as infrastructure-driven rather than punitive.
Under the new rules, unverified accounts can publish up to 50 original posts and 200 replies per day, send up to 500 direct messages daily, and follow up to 400 new accounts per day, with the company noting that the follow limit is purely technical and does not replace existing rules against aggressive following behaviour. The daily post limit of 2,400 updates is further divided into smaller semi-hourly intervals, meaning users who post heavily in a short window may hit their limit before the end of the day even if they have not reached the overall daily cap. Account email changes are capped at four per hour. Once an account follows more than 5,000 accounts, further follow attempts become subject to account-specific ratios rather than a flat daily ceiling.
On the developer and third-party application side, X confirmed that all API requests from connected applications count against the hourly API limit, meaning users who have linked multiple third-party tools to their X account may exhaust their API allowance faster than those using the platform through the native app alone. Users who hit any of the time-based limits, including those for direct messages, posts, email changes, and API requests, will receive an error message identifying which limit they have reached, and will be able to resume activity once the relevant time period resets.
The restrictions fall almost entirely on unverified users, leaving the path to avoiding them straightforward: subscribing to X’s premium service and obtaining verification removes the daily caps. The move follows a pattern that X has pursued since Elon Musk acquired the platform in 2022, progressively restricting the experience for non-paying users while expanding capabilities for premium subscribers, with the latest round of limits adding further pressure on heavy users to either subscribe or accept a more constrained platform experience than they previously had access to without payment.
Follow the SPIN IDG WhatsApp Channel for updates across the Smart Pakistan Insights Network covering all of Pakistan’s technology ecosystem.
