Users and companies will need to pay to use API features.

One of the services provided by Twitter for its users and developers is access to its back-end API. Utilizing this tool, developers can create a variety of Twitter-derived bots and services, such as third-party apps that use Twitter as a base, automated posting bots, and user demographic research systems. Until now, this service was free to use for everyone, but in Twitter’s ongoing trend of cutting costs and increasing monetization, that will be changing.

Twitter announced this week that starting February 9, users will no longer be able to access either the v2 and v1.1 versions of the Twitter API for free. Instead, access will be given to those that pay an as-of-yet unspecified basic tier subscription rate.

“Over the years, hundreds of millions of people have sent over a trillion Tweets, with billions more every week,” wrote the official Twitter Dev account.

“Twitter data are among the world’s most powerful data sets. We’re committed to enabling fast & comprehensive access so you can continue to build with us.”

Current Twitter owner Elon Musk has touted this process as a step in increasing the site’s transparency and clamping down on bad actors like spam bots. However, users have countered that all this limitation will do is lock out hobbyist developers while ensuring that only major brand accounts or wealthy individuals can continue to use it. In a similar vein to the controversial overhauls to Twitter verification, many have also pointed out that as long as spammers and scammers can pay the fee, they can continue their crimes unmolested, defeating the purpose.