What stopped working for X research in 2026?
The short answer
Gone: Nitter, XCancel and the tools built on them, including IntelTechniques' X username lookups nitter.net (10 Oct 2026) IntelTechniques blog (checked 16 Oct 2026).
New and useful: the About this account panel shows a profile's country or region and how often its username changed. It warns when the location may be wrong Kiledjian (22 Nov 2025).
Read with care: in September 2026, six bot accounts run by X wrote 55% of all Community Notes rated Helpful Indicator (16 Oct 2026).
Paid but open: the X API now charges per item, with no subscription X API pricing (checked 16 Oct 2026).
Nitter. Nitter let people read X posts without an account, without JavaScript and without being tracked The Register (26 Aug 2026). On 24 August 2026, X Corp sent cease-and-desist letters demanding "a permanent takedown of Nitter instances" nitter.net (10 Oct 2026). The letters accused it of "unlawful use and circumvention" of X's API TechCrunch (25 Aug 2026). A second letter followed on 8 September nitter.net (10 Oct 2026). On 10 October the maintainer wrote: "Nitter currently has no legal counsel" nitter.net (10 Oct 2026). The GitHub repository is archived and read-only The Register (26 Aug 2026).
XCancel. XCancel ran on Nitter's code. The Register reported its home page saying the service was halted "until further notice" The Register (26 Aug 2026). On 16 October 2026, xcancel.com answered our status check with HTTP 451 (unavailable for legal reasons) and the line "XCancel service is suspended."
Knock-on effects. IntelTechniques had added automated X username queries "across XCancel", including filtering by year IntelTechniques blog (checked 16 Oct 2026). Those depend on a service that is now down. Our IntelTechniques alternatives page covers what else to use. The OSINT tool graveyard tracks Nitter, XCancel and other dead tools.
What does X's "About this account" panel show?
What the About this account panel can show, from reports between November 2025 and October 2026. Fields vary by account.
| Field | What it shows | Caveat |
|---|---|---|
| Account based in | A country, or a broader region if the owner chose that Kiledjian (22 Nov 2025) | Mainly from IP address location, per Privacy Guides Privacy Guides (26 Nov 2025) |
| Location warning | "Country or region may not be accurate", shown when X detects a VPN or proxy Kiledjian (22 Nov 2025) | A flag to dig further, not proof of deception |
| Connected via | Web, or the country of the iOS App Store or Google Play account Kiledjian (22 Nov 2025). Example: "Connected via Russian Federation App Store" Strick, OSINT Field Notes #13 (14 Oct 2026) | Strick treats the App Store field as the more reliable one Strick, OSINT Field Notes #13 (14 Oct 2026) |
| Username changes | How many times the handle changed, and the date of the last change Kiledjian (22 Nov 2025) | Shows the count, not the old names |
| Joined | The date the account was created Kiledjian (22 Nov 2025) | Also the link that opens the panel |
How to open it. Tap the "Joined" date on a profile Kiledjian (22 Nov 2025) Privacy Guides (26 Nov 2025). Visibility has been inconsistent since launch, so it may not appear for every account or every viewer Kiledjian (22 Nov 2025). Accounts with a grey government checkmark were exempt when it launched Privacy Guides (26 Nov 2025).
A short history. X rolled the panel out in late November 2025. Head of product Nikita Bier called it "an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square" Privacy Guides (26 Nov 2025). X pulled it briefly because the data was "not 100% for old accounts". It returned without the public "created in" location Privacy Guides (26 Nov 2025).
How investigators use it. Compare the panel with what the account claims to be. In Strick's example, a fact-checking group's account was "based in United States" but "Connected via Russian Federation App Store" Strick, OSINT Field Notes #13 (14 Oct 2026). Read that next to the group's own website, as Strick did, before drawing a conclusion. A high username-change count is a reason to look for old handles in archives and with our username search.
It changed behaviour. A preprint by Yuwei Chuai and colleagues looked at accounts posing as US-based but posting from elsewhere. After the feature launched, they "reduced their overall activity and sent fewer toxic replies to US accounts" Indicator (25 Sep 2026). That is a study finding, not yet peer-reviewed.
Owners can limit it. In Settings, then Privacy and safety, then About your account, users can show a region or continent instead of a country Kiledjian (22 Nov 2025).
Which X search operators still work?
Search operators as documented on X's own help page for X Pro, checked 16 October 2026. Spellings are X's.
| Operator | Finds |
|---|---|
| from:user | Posts sent by one account |
| to:user | Replies to one account |
| "exact phrase" | The words in that order |
| word1 OR word2 · -word · ( ) | Either term, exclude a term, group terms |
| since:yyyy-mm-dd · until:yyyy-mm-dd | Posts on or after, or on or before, a date |
| near:city within:10km | Posts geotagged in a place, within a radius |
| list:user/list-name | Posts from members of a List |
| filter:media · filter:images · filter:video | Posts with media, images or video |
| filter:replies · filter:news · filter:verified | Replies, posts linking to news, posts from verified users |
| min_faves:10 · min_replies:100 | A minimum number of likes or replies |
| source:client_name | Posts sent from a named app |
What we could verify. Every operator above appears on X's own help page X Help Center (checked 16 Oct 2026). That page also lists repost operators spelled "min_rePosts" and "filter:nativerePosts" X Help Center (checked 16 Oct 2026). Those spellings look like an automated rename from "retweet", so test them before you rely on them. We did not run logged-in test searches for this guide. Treat this as X's documentation, not a field test.
How to use them. Combine operators to build a timeline. For example, from:user since:2026-09-01 until:2026-09-30 filter:media asks for one account's media posts in September. Our social media search builds X search links for you.
The API has its own rules. Recent search covers the last 7 days and is "available to all developers". Full-archive search reaches back to March 2006 but is limited to pay-per-use and Enterprise customers X API docs (checked 16 Oct 2026).
Can you trust Community Notes in 2026?
As a lead, yes. As a verdict, no. Community Notes are the crowd-written context boxes shown under some posts. Since July 2025, X has let users submit notes written by AI Indicator (26 May 2026). The share of notes written by bots has risen fast:
- May 2026: eight AI contributors wrote 50.3% of all visible notes in the first three weeks of the month. Indicator found this in X's open data Indicator (26 May 2026).
- September 2026: six accounts powered by X's open-source "Community Writer" produced more than 90% of the notes written by AI writers. They also wrote 55% of all notes rated Helpful Indicator (16 Oct 2026).
- Who runs them: Indicator reports that the bots behind most published notes "were actually operated by X" Indicator (16 Oct 2026). Its source is a preprint by X engineers, the Community Writer code and a thread by Community Notes engineering lead Jay Baxter Indicator (16 Oct 2026).
A common misreading. The 90% figure is the share of AI-written notes, not of all notes. The comparable all-notes figure is 55% of Helpful notes Indicator (16 Oct 2026).
How to use a note. Open the links in the note and check them yourself. Indicator found that about 88% of notes are stuck in "Needs More Ratings", so most drafted notes are never shown Indicator (16 Oct 2026). A missing note does not mean a post is accurate.
How do you archive an X post so it holds up later?
Capture early. Posts and accounts disappear. Save before you start analysing.
- Record the basics. Note the full post URL, the numeric post ID in it, the account handle, and the time you viewed it in UTC.
- Take a full screenshot that shows the handle, the post text, the timestamp and the reply context.
- Submit the URL to a web archive. The Wayback Machine and archive.today are the usual choices. Always open the capture and confirm the post text actually appears in it.
- Check what is already saved. Our Wayback guide shows how to list every capture of a profile URL, including deleted profiles. The optional Archive Helper lets them run full Wayback Machine scans from your own browser.
- Log and hash. Our evidence logger gives each finding a timestamp and a SHA-256 hash (a fingerprint that changes if the content changes), in your browser.
A dedicated capture tool. XWhisperer, listed in Indicator's 25 September Briefing Indicator (25 Sep 2026), takes post links or IDs one per line. Its page says "No X login", calls itself "Local only" and hashes every source with SHA-256 XWhisperer (checked 16 Oct 2026). It also calls itself "Private capture, not a third-party attestation" XWhisperer (checked 16 Oct 2026). Its page names no operator and no price, so test it before you depend on it.
Old handles and deleted accounts. If you know an earlier handle, run the same capture check on its old profile URL. An archived profile that now returns an error shows the account existed under that name.
What does the X API cost for research now?
X API pay-per-use prices, from X's developer pricing page on 16 October 2026.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Post read | $0.005 per post |
| User read | $0.010 per user |
| Owned reads (your own posts, mentions, followers) | $0.001 per item |
| Post create | $0.015 per request ($0.200 with a URL) |
| Monthly cap | 3 million post reads per billing cycle; above that, Enterprise |
| Starter credit | $20 in X API credits after saving a first eligible payment card |
No subscription, pay per item. X says: "No subscriptions—pay only for what you use." You buy credits upfront in the Developer Console, and requests draw them down X API pricing (checked 16 Oct 2026). All prices above come from that page X API pricing (checked 16 Oct 2026).
What that means in practice. Reading 10,000 posts costs $50 at $0.005 each. Reading the profiles of 1,000 accounts costs $10. Full-archive search needs pay-per-use or Enterprise access X API docs (checked 16 Oct 2026). The pricing page shows no free tier beyond promotional credits, and no date of last update X API pricing (checked 16 Oct 2026).
What are the legal and ethical limits?
X's terms ban scraping. Its Terms of Service say "crawling or scraping the Services in any form, for any purpose without our prior written consent is expressly prohibited" X Terms of Service (10 Apr 2026). They also set a charge for anyone who requests, views or accesses more than 1,000,000 posts in 24 hours in breach of the terms. The charge is $15,000 per 1,000,000 posts X Terms of Service (10 Apr 2026). Outside the EU, EFTA states and UK, Texas law governs X Terms of Service (10 Apr 2026).
X enforces it. Its letter to Nitter cited the Texas Harmful Access by Computer Act and the Lanham Act TechCrunch (25 Aug 2026). Manual research on public posts is a different activity from automated collection. Keep automated work inside the API.
Use the location panel responsibly.
- A country label is a lead about an account, not proof of where a person is. Many people use VPNs for safety.
- Do not publish a private person's inferred location. Activists, journalists and abuse survivors may depend on not being found.
- Never use these methods to locate, track or harass a specific person.
- Data-protection law, such as the GDPR in Europe, can apply when you collect and keep personal data.
Read Is OSINT legal? before a larger project. This guide is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
Every source was read on 16 October 2026. The xcancel.com result is our own HTTP status check that day. This page is general information, not legal advice.
- zedeus — nitter.net status notice, update of 10 Oct 2026
- Sarah Perez, TechCrunch — "X sends cease-and-desist to open source project Nitter over alleged scraping" (25 Aug 2026)
- Richard Speed, The Register — "Nitter no more: X sends in the lawyers to shut down open source project" (26 Aug 2026)
- IntelTechniques blog — "OSINT Tools Update" (no date on the post; read 16 Oct 2026)
- Edward Kiledjian — "Understanding X's 'About this Account' Feature: A Fact-Based Overview" (22 Nov 2025)
- Jonah Aragon, Privacy Guides — "X (Twitter) Now Shows Your Account's Country/Region" (26 Nov 2025)
- Benjamin Strick — "OSINT Field Notes #13: Satellite Imagery, manipulation and account transparency" (14 Oct 2026)
- Craig Silverman and Alexios Mantzarlis, Indicator — "Briefing: UK's new anti-disinfo unit" (25 Sep 2026)
- X Help Center — "About advanced X Pro features" (read 16 Oct 2026)
- X Developer docs — "Search Posts" introduction (read 16 Oct 2026)
- X Developer docs — "X API pay-per-usage pricing and credits" (read 16 Oct 2026)
- Renée DiResta, Alexios Mantzarlis and Craig Silverman, Indicator — "Briefing: X handed fact-checking to the crowd. Then it became the crowd" (16 Oct 2026)
- Alexios Mantzarlis, Indicator — "8 AI bots now write 50% of X's Community Notes" (26 May 2026; partly paywalled)
- XWhisperer v1.0.0 — X post capture tool page (read 16 Oct 2026)
- X Corp — Terms of Service, effective 10 Apr 2026 (outside EU, EFTA and UK)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a Nitter alternative that still works?
Not one we can recommend as of 16 October 2026. Nitter.net is offline, its code repository is archived, and XCancel answers with a suspension notice. Other public instances received similar letters. For reliable access, use X itself with a dedicated research account, or the paid API.
Does the About this account location prove where someone is?
No. Privacy Guides reports the location comes mainly from IP address location, so a VPN or proxy can change it. X shows a warning when it detects one. Owners can also choose to show only a region or continent. Treat the label as one clue to test against other evidence.
Can I see an account's old usernames?
The panel shows only how many times the username changed and the date of the last change, not the old names. To find earlier handles, look for archived copies of the profile in the Wayback Machine. Also search old replies for mentions of the account, and try username search tools.
Can I still find deleted X posts?
Only if someone captured them before deletion. Check the Wayback Machine and archive.today for the post URL, and search for quote posts or screenshots that preserved the text. Once a post is deleted from X, archives and copies are the only route.
Is the About this account panel shown on every profile?
Not reliably. Its visibility has been inconsistent since launch in November 2025, and accounts with a grey government checkmark were exempt at launch. If the panel does not open, try again later or from another device, and note in your report that it was not shown.
How much does it cost to pull 10,000 posts with the X API?
About 50 dollars, at X's listed price of 0.005 dollars per post read. Each user profile read costs 0.01 dollars. Pay-per-use accounts are capped at 3 million post reads per monthly billing cycle; above that, X points to its Enterprise plans.
Next step
Archive before you analyse. Save the post in the Wayback Machine or archive.today and log it in our evidence logger. Then check the handle across other sites with our username search. For full Wayback scans from your own browser, install the optional Archive Helper.