Social Media Posting APIs Compared: Pricing, Platforms and Reseller Terms (2026)
Upload-Post, Zernio, Ayrshare, bundle.social, Post for Me, Outstand and more: every pricing tier, which platforms each one posts to, whether you may resell it, and what it costs at 10, 100 and 1,000 users.
If you are adding "post to social media" to your own product, you have two choices. You can apply for developer access on every network yourself, or you can call one API that has already done that work and lets your users connect their accounts through it.
This guide compares the second kind: unified social media posting APIs. We read each provider's pricing page, docs and terms on October 18, 2026 and wrote down every tier, which platforms it really posts to, and whether its terms let you build a product for your own customers on top of it. Prices in this space change often, so check the linked pages before you commit. Where a provider's own pages disagree with each other, or a number only appears on third-party sites, we say so.
The short answer
- Cheapest per user when each user has one account per network: Upload-Post. It charges per profile with unlimited posts, and its terms explicitly allow your customers to connect their own accounts through a white-label page.
- Most features included at every price: Zernio (formerly Late). Inbox, analytics, webhooks and a fully custom connect screen come with every account, but you pay per connected account.
- Cheapest when users connect many accounts: post-based pricing from Post for Me or Outstand, where accounts are unlimited and you pay a fraction of a cent per post.
- Most networks: bundle.social covers Reddit, Mastodon, Discord and Snapchat as well as the usual eight.
- Most expensive at small scale: Ayrshare. Its multi-user plans start at $299 a month for 10 profiles, and you now need your own X developer app.
- Not usable as a backend for your users: the Buffer, Publer, Blotato, OneUp, Vista Social, Hootsuite and Sprout Social APIs. They either cannot connect your customers' accounts or their terms forbid it. Details are further down.
Three ways these APIs charge
The pricing unit matters more than the headline price, because it decides what happens when one of your users connects a second Instagram account.
| Unit | What you pay for | Who uses it | Good fit for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Profile | One bundle of accounts, usually one account per network. Two Instagram accounts need two profiles. | Upload-Post, Ayrshare, Postproxy (Business), SocialAPI.ai | Users with one account on each of several networks: creators, small businesses, one client per profile |
| Connected account | Every account counts, so one user on five networks is five units | Zernio, Postproxy (Agentic), PostZen, Unipile | Products where users connect only a few accounts |
| Post | Each post delivered to one account. Accounts are unlimited. | Post for Me, Outstand, bundle.social, PostPeer (credits) | Users who manage many accounts on the same network, or post rarely |
Pricing, provider by provider
All prices are USD per month on monthly billing unless noted.
Upload-Post
| Plan | Price | Profiles | Uploads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 2 | 10 a month, no TikTok |
| Basic | $24 ($16 billed yearly) | 5 | Unlimited |
| Professional | $50 ($33 yearly) | 25 | Unlimited |
| Advanced | $147 ($118 yearly) | 75 | Unlimited |
| Business | $438 ($350 yearly) | 225 | Unlimited |
- Extra profiles come in packs, for example +25 for $55 on Professional or +50 for $115 on Advanced. A price above 225 profiles is not published.
- The white-label connect page (your logo, text, language and which networks appear) starts on Professional.
- A profile holds one account per network, with one exception: one Facebook login can attach several Pages.
- Links are removed from X posts by default. The X Links add-on ($19 a month) keeps them on 50 posts a month.
- Daily caps per account include TikTok 15, YouTube 10, Instagram 50 and X 10 to 30 depending on plan.
Sources: pricing and limits, upload limits, terms.
Zernio (formerly Late)
There are no plans. You pay for each connected account on a sliding scale:
| Connected accounts | Price per account |
|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | Free |
| 3 to 10 | $6 |
| 11 to 100 | $3 |
| 101 and up | $1 |
- Every feature is included with every account: webhooks, analytics, inbox, comments, ads and MCP.
- Profiles are free and one profile can hold several accounts on the same network.
- X usage is passed through at X's own rates ($0.015 per post, $0.20 per post with a link), with a monthly cap you can set.
- Posting is limited to 25 posts an hour per account, with daily caps such as Instagram 100 and X 50.
Sources: pricing, rate limits, multi-tenant guide.
Ayrshare
| Plan | Price | Profiles |
|---|---|---|
| Premium | $149 | 1 (single user, no webhooks) |
| Launch | $299 | Up to 10 |
| Business | $599 ($499 yearly) | 30 included, then $8.99 each up to 100, $3.49 up to 500, $2.49 above |
| Enterprise | Custom | From 300 |
- Posts and API calls are unlimited under a fair-use policy.
- Since March 31, 2026 you must register your own X developer app and pay X directly.
- More branding on the connect page (custom CSS, favicon, footer) is in the Max Pack add-on at $300 a month.
- Ayrshare's own pages disagree on a few details, such as whether Business starts at 10 or 30 profiles.
Sources: pricing, X keys, business plan overview.
Post for Me
Priced by successfully delivered posts. Accounts and team members are unlimited on every tier.
| Posts a month | Price |
|---|---|
| 1,000 | $10 |
| 5,000 | $50 |
| 10,000 | $75 |
| 40,000 | $300 |
| 100,000 | $500 |
| 200,000 | $1,000 |
- By default your users see "Post for Me" on the platform's consent screen. To show your own name you create a white-label project with your own developer apps and pass each platform's review yourself.
- The project is open source (AGPL-3.0).
Sources: pricing, access levels.
Outstand
| Plan | Price | Included | Extra posts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay as you go | $19 | 3,000 posts | $0.007 each, $0.005 above 10,000 |
| Unlimited Posting add-on | +$249 | Unlimited | – |
| Business | $129 | 50,000 posts | $0.005 each |
- A post to three accounts counts as three posts. Accounts are unlimited.
- Its terms allow reselling only on the Business plan.
- Outstand's own developer apps cover eight networks. X, Google Business Profile, Reddit and Vimeo always need your own keys.
Source: pricing.
bundle.social
| Plan | Price | Posts a month |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 20 |
| Pro | $100 ($90 yearly) | 10,000 |
| Business | $400 ($360 yearly) | 100,000 |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom |
- Connected accounts are unlimited on paid plans.
- X posts are billed from prepaid credit: $0.015 each, $0.20 with a link.
- The hosted connect page can carry your logo, but a full white-label setup is an Enterprise request.
Source: pricing.
Smaller and newer providers
| Provider | Tiers | Unit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Postproxy | Free 10 posts · Agentic $17 (5 accounts, then $4 down to $1 each) · Business $49 (20 profile groups, then $2 down to $1.25) · Enterprise $399 (300 groups, then $1) | Account or profile group | A profile group holds one account per network. Embedding in your app is allowed; reselling the API on its own is not. |
| PostPeer | Free 20 credits · $33 (2,000) · $43 (6,000) · $120 (20,000) | Credit | An X post costs 5 credits, or 50 with a link. Run by a sole trader. |
| SocialAPI.ai | Free 2 profiles · $29 (10) · $109 (50) · $349 (200) | Profile | New in 2026. Its docs do not describe a white-label connect flow. |
| PostZen | Free 2 accounts · $19 (5) · $49 (20) · $149 (100), +$3 per extra account | Account | New. White-label claims come from its own blog. |
| Unipile | €49 for 10 accounts, then €5 down to €3 each | Account | Posts only to LinkedIn and Instagram. Mainly a messaging API. |
Which platforms each API posts to
✓ = supported, – = not supported. Instagram means Business and Creator accounts on every provider; personal Instagram accounts cannot be posted to through an API.
| Network | Upload-Post | Zernio | Ayrshare | bundle.social | Post for Me | Outstand | Postproxy | PostPeer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| X | ✓ (links removed without add-on) | ✓ (X fees passed on) | ✓ (your own X app) | ✓ (X fees passed on) | ✓ | Your own keys | ✓ (20 a day) | ✓ (extra credits) |
| ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Facebook Pages | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| TikTok | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| YouTube | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| LinkedIn (profile and page) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pinterest, Threads, Bluesky | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Paused | ✓ | Text, link, image | ✓ | – | Your own keys | – | – | |
| Google Business Profile | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | Your own keys | ✓ | ✓ |
| Telegram | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | – | ✓ (your bot) | – |
| Discord | ✓ | ✓ | – | ✓ | – | – | – | – |
| Mastodon | ✓ | – | – | ✓ | – | – | – | – |
| Snapchat | – | – | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | – | – |
Reels, Stories and carousels are supported by all eight. Server-side scheduling is supported by all eight, so you can send a future publish time and let the provider post it.
What it costs at 10, 100 and 1,000 users
To compare the units fairly we priced two typical users at list price, before any X fees.
A creator: one account on each of five networks, about 60 posts a month.
| Users | Upload-Post | Zernio | Ayrshare | Post for Me | Outstand (Business) | bundle.social | Postproxy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | $50 | $168 | $299 | $10 | $129 | $100 | $49 |
| 100 | $212 | $718 | $1,228 | $75 | $129 | $100 | $197 |
| 1,000 | Not published | $5,218 | about $3,869 | $500 | $179 | $400 | $1,099 |
A multi-account operator: ten TikTok accounts and five Instagram accounts, about 450 posts a month.
| Users | Upload-Post | Zernio | Ayrshare | Post for Me | Outstand (Business) | bundle.social | Postproxy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | $212 | $368 | $1,228 | $50 | $129 | $100 | $197 |
| 100 | Not published | $1,718 | about $3,869 | $500 | $129 | $400 | $1,099 |
Notes on the math:
- Profile-based APIs count the operator as ten profiles, because ten TikTok accounts cannot share one profile. That is why post-based pricing wins by a wide margin for this kind of user.
- Outstand is shown on Business because that is the only plan whose terms allow reselling. Its Pay as you go plan would cost $19 to $40 at the creator volumes above.
- bundle.social may count a post to several networks once rather than once per account, which would make it cheaper than shown.
- Ayrshare's figures above 100 profiles assume its per-profile prices step down the way its pricing page describes; Enterprise pricing is negotiated.
- Read the content rules before you sell to multi-account operators. bundle.social bans coordinated inauthentic behavior, Zernio bans near-identical content across many accounts, and Upload-Post bans mass use beyond plan limits. A provider can switch this use case off.
APIs that won't work as a backend
Several well-known scheduling tools have APIs, but they are built for posting to accounts you own, not for your customers' accounts.
| Product | Why it doesn't fit |
|---|---|
| Buffer | Each of your users would need their own Buffer account, there is no API to connect a channel, and the terms forbid building a substantially similar service. |
| Publer | The API is on Business plans and can read accounts but not connect them. |
| Blotato | Its own blog says there is no way for your customers to connect their own accounts through you. |
| OneUp | Its terms forbid using the service on behalf of third parties. |
| Vista Social | The API can create a connect link, but the terms forbid competing products and charging end users for access. |
| Hootsuite and Sprout Social | Seat-priced at $99 to $399 per user, need their own logins, and their API terms forbid replicating the product. |
| Metricool | Possible only through its white-label program on a custom-quoted plan. |
Building on the official APIs yourself
Self-hosted tools such as Postiz (AGPL-3.0) and Mixpost (its $1,199 Enterprise licence allows running a SaaS) remove the per-user fee. They do not remove the hard part: you register a developer app on every network and pass its review.
| Network | What you need |
|---|---|
| X | No review, but posting is paid per use: $0.015 per post and $0.20 per post with a link (X pricing). |
| Instagram, Facebook, Threads | Meta business verification and app review for the publishing permissions (Meta). |
| TikTok | A Content Posting API audit. Until you pass it, posts can only go to private accounts (TikTok). |
| YouTube | A daily quota, with an audit to raise it (YouTube). |
| Company Page posting needs Community Management API approval (LinkedIn). | |
| Trial access only creates pins you can see. Standard access needs a demo video of your OAuth flow (Pinterest). |
Expect weeks to months of reviews, with TikTok and LinkedIn pages the most likely to stall. That is the work a unified API sells you out of.
How to choose
- Count accounts per user per network. If it is almost always one, a profile-based API is cheapest. If users stack accounts on one network, look at post-based pricing.
- Check the consent screen. Find out whose app name your users will see when they sign in to Instagram or TikTok, and what it takes to show yours.
- Read the reseller clause. Look for wording on letting your customers connect their accounts, and on reselling the API itself.
- Price X separately. Between X's per-post fees and link fees, X is the one network whose cost depends on what your users post.
- Test the network you care about most. Daily caps differ by provider and by network, and the shared TikTok apps of some providers have a daily limit across all their customers.
If you just want to schedule posts
You don't need an API to post to your own accounts. Social Media Scheduler lets you connect TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, X, Threads, Pinterest, Bluesky and more, write a post once and schedule it to all of them. See the TikTok scheduler and LinkedIn scheduler pages, or the pricing.
FAQ
Are social media APIs free?
The networks' own APIs are mostly free to use once you pass their app reviews, except X, which charges per post. Unified posting APIs have free tiers for testing, such as Upload-Post (2 profiles, 10 uploads a month), Zernio (2 accounts) and bundle.social (20 posts), but none are free at production volume.
Does Instagram have an API for posting?
Yes, for Business and Creator accounts only. Meta's API can publish feed posts, Reels, carousels and Stories after your app passes review. Personal Instagram accounts cannot be posted to through any API.
What is the cheapest social media posting API?
It depends on the pricing unit. For users with one account per network, Upload-Post works out cheapest per user among providers that allow white-label use. For many accounts or low post counts, post-based APIs such as Post for Me ($10 for 1,000 posts) or Outstand ($0.005 to $0.007 per post) are cheaper.
What is a good Ayrshare alternative?
Upload-Post if you want the same profile-based model for less money, Zernio if you want every feature included and pay per account, or Post for Me and Outstand if you would rather pay per post.
Can I resell a social media API to my own customers?
Some allow it and some don't. Upload-Post's terms explicitly allow your customers to connect and use their own accounts through white-label. Outstand allows reselling on its Business plan. Postproxy allows embedding but not reselling the API on its own. Buffer, OneUp and Vista Social forbid it.