Social Media API Posting Limits: What Every Network Lets a Tool Do
Every cross-posting tool describes what it does. Almost none describe the ceiling the network puts on any tool. This table is the ceiling, read from each network’s own documentation, with the page each line came from.
What each network documents
- Approval
- App review for the publishing permission
- Ceiling
- The page gives two different numbers
- Scheduling
- No scheduled-publish parameter
- Media
- Images, video, Reels, Stories, carousels
- Account
- Professional account
TikTok
- Approval
- Not verified
- Ceiling
- Not verified
- Scheduling
- Not verified
- Media
- Not verified
- Account
- Not verified
YouTube
Also searched as YouTube Shorts
- Approval
- Unverified API projects upload as private
- Ceiling
- 100 calls per day
- Scheduling
- Yes — status.publishAt
- Media
- Video upload
- Account
- Not verified
- Approval
- Page token plus three permissions
- Ceiling
- Not verified
- Scheduling
- Not verified
- Media
- Video and Reels
- Account
- A Page, not a profile
- Approval
- Add the "Share on LinkedIn" product
- Ceiling
- 150 requests per member per day
- Scheduling
- Not verified
- Media
- Text, link, image, video
- Account
- Any member who authorises the app
- Approval
- Trial access until you are upgraded
- Ceiling
- 300 per day on trial access
- Scheduling
- Not verified
- Media
- Image and video Pins — original content only
- Account
- Not verified
Threads
- Approval
- Advanced Access, or testers only
- Ceiling
- Not verified
- Scheduling
- Not verified
- Media
- Text, image, video, carousel
- Account
- Not verified
X
Also searched as Twitter
- Approval
- Pay per use, in credits
- Ceiling
- 100 posts per user per 15 minutes
- Scheduling
- Not verified
- Media
- Not verified
- Account
- Not verified
Bluesky
- Approval
- None documented
- Ceiling
- 1,666 records per hour
- Scheduling
- Not verified
- Media
- Not verified
- Account
- Any account on an open network
Every cell, with its source
The table above is the summary. This is the part worth citing: what each network actually says, and the page it says it on.
- Before a tool can publish for you
- App review for the publishing permission. Publishing runs on the Instagram Graph permissions, which an app has to be granted before it can act for accounts other than its own testers.
Instagram Platform: content publishing - Published ceiling
- The page gives two different numbers. The Rate Limit section says accounts are "limited to 100 API-published posts within a 24-hour moving period". The Carousel limitations section on the same page says "Accounts are limited to 50 published posts within a 24-hour period". Meta does not reconcile them. Plan against 50.
Instagram Platform: content publishing - Scheduling held by the network
- No scheduled-publish parameter. The publish call has no future-time field, and a media container expires if it is not published within 24 hours. A tool that offers Instagram scheduling is holding the post on its own servers and calling at the moment it goes out — so its uptime, not Instagram’s, decides whether your post lands.
Instagram Platform: content publishing - What can be published
- Images, video, Reels, Stories, carousels. Carousels take up to 20 images, videos or a mix, and count as a single post.
Instagram Platform: content publishing - Account required
- Professional account. The publishing guide covers Instagram professional accounts. An account connected to a Page that requires Page Publishing Authorization cannot be published to until PPA is complete.
Instagram Platform: content publishing
TikTok
- Before a tool can publish for you
- TikTok’s developer documentation refused every connection from our checker, so we have not read these rules first-hand. We will not copy them from a third party and present them as verified. Read developers.tiktok.com directly before relying on anything here.
- Published ceiling
- TikTok’s developer documentation refused every connection from our checker, so we have not read these rules first-hand. We will not copy them from a third party and present them as verified. Read developers.tiktok.com directly before relying on anything here.
- Scheduling held by the network
- TikTok’s developer documentation refused every connection from our checker, so we have not read these rules first-hand. We will not copy them from a third party and present them as verified. Read developers.tiktok.com directly before relying on anything here.
- What can be published
- TikTok’s developer documentation refused every connection from our checker, so we have not read these rules first-hand. We will not copy them from a third party and present them as verified. Read developers.tiktok.com directly before relying on anything here.
- Account required
- TikTok’s developer documentation refused every connection from our checker, so we have not read these rules first-hand. We will not copy them from a third party and present them as verified. Read developers.tiktok.com directly before relying on anything here.
YouTube
- Before a tool can publish for you
- Unverified API projects upload as private. The reference states that "Videos uploaded from unverified API projects are not restricted to private viewing mode" — the restriction attaches to the API project, not to the channel.
YouTube Data API: videos.insert - Published ceiling
- 100 calls per day. The method costs 1 unit in the Video Uploads quota bucket, and the reference gives the quota impact as 100 calls per day. That is the ceiling on uploads, separate from the general daily quota.
YouTube Data API: videos.insert - Scheduling held by the network
- Yes — status.publishAt. publishAt is a settable property and the API returns an invalidPublishAt error for a bad time, so YouTube holds the video and publishes it itself. Of the networks here, it is the clearest case of real server-side scheduling.
YouTube Data API: videos.insert - What can be published
- Video upload. videos.insert uploads the file and sets its metadata in one call.
YouTube Data API: videos.insert - Account required
- The upload reference does not state an account-type requirement. It notes only that some uploads "might default to private based on creator account settings".
- Before a tool can publish for you
- Page token plus three permissions. A Page access token from someone who can perform the CREATE_CONTENT task, who has granted pages_show_list, pages_read_engagement and pages_manage_posts.
Meta: publishing videos and Reels to Pages - Published ceiling
- The publishing guide states no rate limit. Meta documents platform rate limiting elsewhere, in terms that are not a per-post number.
- Scheduling held by the network
- The publishing guide does not mention scheduling or a scheduled_publish_time field.
- What can be published
- Video and Reels. The file goes up through the Resumable Upload API first, which returns a video handle.
Meta: publishing videos and Reels to Pages - Account required
- A Page, not a profile. The guide publishes to /<PAGE_ID>/videos and describes publishing "Videos and Reels on Facebook Pages". It does not address personal profiles.
Meta: publishing videos and Reels to Pages
- Before a tool can publish for you
- Add the "Share on LinkedIn" product. w_member_social is not available by default. The app has to add the Share on LinkedIn product in the Developer Portal before it can request the scope.
Share on LinkedIn - Published ceiling
- 150 requests per member per day. LinkedIn publishes both throttles: 150 requests per day per member and 100,000 per day per application, counted in UTC. The member figure is the one that constrains a cross-posting tool.
Share on LinkedIn — rate limits - Scheduling held by the network
- The share guide documents no future-publish field; lifecycleState is PUBLISHED when creating a share.
- What can be published
- Text, link, image, video. Images and video are registered and uploaded first, then attached to the post by asset URN.
Share on LinkedIn - Account required
- Any member who authorises the app. Posting for a member needs the w_member_social scope granted through OAuth.
Share on LinkedIn
- Before a tool can publish for you
- Trial access until you are upgraded. Pinterest runs two access levels with different ceilings, so an app’s limits change after review rather than its abilities.
Pinterest API: rate limits - Published ceiling
- 300 per day on trial access. Creating a Pin falls in the org_write category: 300 requests per day per app on trial access, 100 requests per minute per user per app on standard access. A universal limit also applies — 1,000 requests per day on trial, 100 per second per user per app on standard.
Pinterest API: rate limits - Scheduling held by the network
- The Create Pin reference documents no future-publish field.
- What can be published
- Image and video Pins — original content only. The reference states the endpoint "is intended solely for publishing new content created by the user" and points curation at the Save button instead. For cross-posting that is the sentence to read twice: pushing somebody else’s video through it is not what the endpoint is for.
Pinterest API v5: Create Pin - Account required
- The Create Pin reference states the required OAuth scopes but no account-type requirement.
Threads
- Before a tool can publish for you
- Advanced Access, or testers only. Without Advanced Access for threads_content_publish, an app can only post on behalf of the Threads testers registered to it. After approval it can post for any user who grants the permission.
Meta: create Threads posts - Published ceiling
- The create-posts guide states no rate limit.
- Scheduling held by the network
- The create-posts guide does not mention scheduling.
- What can be published
- Text, image, video, carousel. Quote posts and reposts of existing posts are also documented.
Meta: create Threads posts - Account required
- The create-posts guide states the required permissions but no account-type requirement.
X
- Before a tool can publish for you
- Pay per use, in credits. X API v2 is credit-based rather than tiered by subscription: you buy credits and each request deducts from them. A resource requested twice within 24 hours is charged once.
About the X API - Published ceiling
- 100 posts per user per 15 minutes. POST /2/tweets is limited to 100 requests per 15 minutes per user, and 10,000 per 24 hours per app.
X API: rate limits - Scheduling held by the network
- Not documented on the rate-limit reference.
- What can be published
- The rate-limit reference covers request ceilings, not what may be attached to a post.
- Account required
- The rate-limit reference documents per-app and per-user limits without stating an account-type requirement.
Bluesky
- Before a tool can publish for you
- None documented. No partner programme, app review or audit appears in the rate-limit documentation — the constraint is the published ceiling, not an approval queue. It is the only network here where that is true.
Bluesky: rate limits - Published ceiling
- 1,666 records per hour. Writes are scored: 5,000 points per hour and 35,000 per day, with a create worth 3 points. Bluesky states that works out at most 1,666 records per hour and 11,666 per day.
Bluesky: rate limits - Scheduling held by the network
- Not documented on the rate-limit page.
- What can be published
- The rate-limit page covers write ceilings, not supported media. We have not read a media reference we could verify.
- Account required
- Any account on an open network. Bluesky runs on atproto, and the rate-limit page notes that other providers on the network set their own limits. The numbers here are the ones Bluesky’s own instances apply.
Bluesky: rate limits
What the table is actually telling you
Three things fall out of reading all nine sets of documentation side by side, and none of them show up in the marketing for any cross-posting tool, ours included.
Most “scheduling” is not the network’s scheduling
YouTube takes a publishAt time and holds the video itself. On the other
networks we checked, the documentation has no future-publish field at all. So when a
tool offers to post your Reel at 7pm on Thursday, the tool is keeping that Reel and
making the call at 7pm on Thursday. If the tool is down at 7pm, the post does not go
out late — it does not go out. That is a real difference, and it is invisible from
the outside.
The ceilings are low enough to hit
LinkedIn’s 150 requests per member per day sounds generous until you remember a single post with an image is several requests: register the upload, upload the file, create the share. YouTube’s uploads are capped at a quota impact of 100 calls per day for the whole project — shared across every account that project serves, not per channel.
Instagram’s own page contradicts itself
The rate-limit section says 100 API-published posts in a 24-hour moving period. The carousel section on the same page says 50 published posts in 24 hours. Meta does not reconcile the two. We have left both in the table rather than picking the friendlier one, because a reader building a posting schedule needs to know the number is not settled. Plan against 50.
If we have something wrong
These pages change without notice, and a table like this is wrong the moment a network edits a line. If one of the linked pages now says something different from what we have recorded, the network is right and we are wrong — tell us and we will correct it and re-date the table. We would rather be corrected than cited inaccurately.
Frequently asked questions
How many posts a day can a tool publish to my account?
It depends on the network, and the published numbers are far apart. LinkedIn documents 150 requests per member per day. YouTube gives video uploads a quota impact of 100 calls per day. Pinterest allows 300 Pin writes per day per app on trial access. Instagram’s own page states both 100 and 50 published posts in 24 hours, in two different sections, without reconciling them. Bluesky scores writes and works out to 1,666 records per hour.
Do social networks actually schedule posts, or does the tool do it?
Mostly the tool. YouTube’s API accepts a publishAt time and holds the video itself. On the others we checked, the documentation has no future-publish field, which means a scheduling tool is storing your post and calling the API at the moment it should go out. That matters because the tool’s uptime, not the network’s, then decides whether your post lands on time.
Why can my tool post to some accounts but not others?
Because most networks gate publishing behind a review. Threads limits an app to its registered testers until it is granted Advanced Access. Instagram requires an account connected to a Page with Page Publishing Authorization completed. Facebook needs a Page token from someone with the CREATE_CONTENT task. LinkedIn requires the app to add the Share on LinkedIn product before it can even request the posting scope.
Why is TikTok blank in this table?
Because we could not read TikTok’s developer documentation from here — every connection to it was refused outright, not blocked by a bot wall we could work around. TikTok does publish rules for third-party posting, and they are strict. We are not going to copy them from someone else’s summary and present them as verified, so the row stays empty and says so.
Does this mean cross-posting tools are breaking the rules?
No. It means they are working inside ceilings their marketing rarely mentions. A tool that posts to eight networks is making eight different bargains, and the one most likely to surprise you is Pinterest’s: its Create Pin endpoint is documented as being "intended solely for publishing new content created by the user", with curation pointed at the Save button instead.
Keep reading
Disclosure: BestCrossPosting.com is operated by the team behind Postpari. We benefit when readers sign up, so treat our Postpari recommendations as the recommendations of an interested party — and check our claims against the sources we link. Full disclosure · How we compare products