Guide
How to export your Twitter followers
An audience you spent years building lives on a platform you don't control. There are four real ways to get a follower list out of X and into a spreadsheet — this guide walks through each one, what it costs, and where it falls short.
Updated August 2026 · Works for your account or any public account
What a follower export contains
A useful follower export is not a list of names — it's one spreadsheet row per follower, with the full public profile attached. That means each row carries:
- handle
- display name
- bio
- followers count
- following count
- location
- website
- join date
With those columns you can sort an audience by influence, filter out inactive accounts, find the followers with websites worth a reach-out, or seed a CRM. Keep this list in mind as the bar — most methods below don't clear it.
Method 1: The official X data archive
X lets you download an archive of your own account: Settings → Your account → Download an archive of your data. It's free, official, and takes a day or two to arrive.
The catch: the archive's follower.js file contains only numeric account IDs. No handles, no names, no bios, no follower counts — just rows like {"follower": {"accountId": "12345678"}}. To turn those IDs into anything readable you'd have to resolve each one through the paid API, which defeats the point of a free download. It also only works for your own account.
Use it as a legal-completeness backup, not as a working export.
Method 2: The X API
The API is the technically correct answer, and since 2023 it has been priced for enterprises. Free and hobby tiers don't include follower endpoints in any usable form; the Basic tier starts at $200/month with tight caps, and real follower access sits in tiers that cost thousands.
On top of the subscription you're writing and maintaining code: authentication, pagination, rate-limit handling, and a script to flatten JSON into CSV. If you already run engineering infrastructure and need follower data continuously, it's the right tool. For a one-off or monthly export, the economics make no sense.
Method 3: Chrome extensions
Browser extensions that scrape follower lists sit one click away in the Chrome Web Store, and they look like the easy option: install, open the profile, press export.
The mechanics are the problem. An extension works inside your logged-in session — it scrolls the follower list in your browser, as you, and X's anti-automation systems watch for exactly that pattern. Extensions get rate-limited quickly, so a large list means hours of a browser tab you can't touch, and exports that silently stop partway through.
The bigger cost is whose neck is on the line: because the automation runs as your account, it's your account that gets flagged. Users regularly report temporary locks and suspensions after running scraping extensions. You're risking the exact audience you're trying to back up.
If you try one anyway, use it only on small lists, and never on an account you can't afford to lose.
Method 4: TweetExporter
TweetExporter's follower export is built to be the sane middle: no code, no API subscription, and — the part that matters after the last section — no connection to your X account at all. You sign up with an email, type any public handle, and the export runs on TweetExporter's infrastructure, not in your browser session. There is nothing for X to suspend.
Every follower arrives as a full profile row with all the columns listed at the top of this guide, delivered as CSV, XLSX, or JSON. Pricing is one credit per row, shown exactly before you confirm, and the first 50 rows are free — no credit card.
The four methods, compared
| Method | Cost | Any account? | Full profiles? | Account risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Official X archive | Free | Own account only | No — numeric IDs only | None |
| X API | $200+/mo + dev time | Yes | Yes | None |
| Chrome extensions | Free–$20/mo | Yes, slowly | Partial | Your session — suspension risk |
| TweetExporter | First 50 rows free, then credits | Yes, any public account | Yes | None — no X login |
Step by step: export with TweetExporter
- 1
Create an account with an email
No X login, nothing to authorize. Signing up gives you 50 free export credits — enough to test with a real account before spending anything.
- 2
Type the handle
Yours or any public account's. TweetExporter looks up the follower count and shows the exact price before you confirm — one credit per follower row.
- 3
Wait for the file
Small accounts finish in a couple of minutes. Big ones run in the background and you get an email with the download link — a 100k-follower list is a coffee break.
- 4
Open it in a spreadsheet
Download as CSV, XLSX, or JSON. Your first 50 rows are free, so you can see the real data before you spend anything.
Follower exports, answered
Can I export Twitter followers for free?+
Partially. TweetExporter's first 50 rows are free with no credit card, which covers small accounts outright and gives you a real preview of larger ones. The official X archive is also free, but it only contains follower account IDs — no handles, names, or bios.
Can I export someone else's followers?+
Yes, if the account is public. A follower list is visible to anyone browsing the profile, so no login or permission is needed — type the handle and export. Protected accounts can't be exported.
Does the official X data archive include my followers?+
Only as numeric account IDs in a follower.js file. There are no handles, display names, bios, or follower counts — to make the list readable you'd have to resolve every ID through the paid API, which defeats the point of a free download.
Do I need to log in with my X account?+
Not with TweetExporter — you sign up with an email and never connect X at all. That's the key difference from browser extensions, which act inside your logged-in session and put your own account on the line.
How long does a follower export take?+
Accounts under 10,000 followers usually finish in a couple of minutes. Larger accounts run in the background and you get an email with the download link when the file is ready — a 100k-follower export is a coffee break, not an afternoon.
Is exporting followers allowed by X?+
TweetExporter only collects public data — the same profile information anyone can see in a browser — and respects X's rate limits. You're responsible for using exports in line with applicable laws and platform terms.