# Social Media API: What You Can Automate on Each Platform (and How to Use One API for All)

> What each social media API lets you automate, from X and Instagram to TikTok and Bluesky, what approval and limits apply, and how one scheduling API covers ten networks.

Canonical: https://scheduleforyou.com/blog/social-media-api
Last updated: 2026-10-28

Category: Guides. 

A social media API is a programming interface that lets your code do what you'd otherwise do in an app: publish posts, upload images and video, read comments and pull stats. Every major network has one (X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Threads and Bluesky), but each has its own sign-in flow, app review, media upload process and rate limits. If you only need to publish to one network, use its API directly. If you need to publish to several, a unified scheduling API that has already been through each platform's review lets you send one request instead of building and maintaining ten integrations.

Below: what each platform's API allows, what it takes to get access, a concrete case where going direct becomes a burden, a fair comparison of the options, and working requests against the Schedule For You API.

## What you can automate on each platform's own API

Each network decides what outside apps may do. Publishing is widely available; reading other people's data and analytics is much more restricted. The table covers publishing, which is what most teams automate first.

| Platform | API | What it takes to publish publicly | Limits worth knowing (at the time of writing) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| X | X API v2 | A developer account and paid usage. New developers have been on pay-per-use since February 2026 | Billed per request; third-party guides quote about $0.015 per post and much more for posts with links, so check X's developer console |
| Instagram | Instagram Graph API | A Business or Creator account, a Meta app and Meta's app review for publishing permissions | Meta's docs list 100 API-published posts per account per rolling 24 hours (some older pages say 50); images must be JPEG |
| Facebook | Graph API (Pages) | A Meta app with app review and Page permissions | Posts go to Pages, not personal profiles |
| Threads | Threads API | A Meta app with Threads publishing permissions | 250 API-published posts per profile per 24 hours |
| LinkedIn | Posts API | "Share on LinkedIn" for personal profiles; company pages need the Community Management API, which LinkedIn reviews separately | Tokens last about 60 days; page posting requires an admin or content-admin role |
| TikTok | Content Posting API | An app audit by TikTok. Until it passes, everything you post is private | Separate flows for video and photo posts; TikTok processes video after upload |
| YouTube | YouTube Data API | A Google Cloud project, OAuth consent screen verification for public apps | 10,000 quota units per project per day by default; uploads have their own cost and reports differ on the current figure |
| Pinterest | Pinterest API v5 | Trial access first (pins only visible to you), then Standard access after a video review of your OAuth flow | Trial apps have low daily caps |
| Bluesky | AT Protocol | No review. An account and an app password or OAuth | 5,000 points per hour and 35,000 per day per account; creating a post costs 3 points |
| Google Business Profile | Business Profile APIs | Google's access request form | Posts attach to a location |

Two patterns stand out. First, the review is the slow part, not the code: TikTok, Meta, LinkedIn pages and Pinterest all gate public posting behind a review that can take weeks. Second, every network uploads media differently. Instagram wants a public URL it fetches itself, TikTok and YouTube want chunked or resumable uploads, Bluesky wants a blob uploaded first, and X has its own media endpoint.

### Building against one platform directly

If you're automating a single network, going direct is reasonable:

1. Register a developer app with the platform and request the publishing permissions.
2. Pass app review if the platform requires it (and record the demo video Pinterest and TikTok ask for).
3. Build the OAuth sign-in flow, store tokens encrypted, and refresh them before they expire.
4. Implement that platform's media upload flow, including waiting for video processing.
5. Handle its error codes and rate limits, and retry temporary failures without posting twice.
6. Keep up with version changes. LinkedIn, for example, versions its API monthly with a required `LinkedIn-Version` header.

That's a few days of work for a developer who knows the platform, plus the review wait.

## Where going direct gets painful: one changelog, five networks

Take a software company that ships a release every week. Each release note should go out as a short post on X, a longer one on LinkedIn, a version on Bluesky and Threads, and an image post on Instagram, all at 9 a.m. on release day, with someone notified if any of them fails.

Built directly, that is five integrations:

- **Five app registrations and reviews**, one of which (Meta's) covers both Instagram and Threads permissions, and one of which (X) bills per post.
- **Five token lifecycles.** LinkedIn tokens lapse after about 60 days and need the person to sign in again; Bluesky sessions are short and re-created; Meta tokens need refreshing.
- **Five caption rules.** 280 characters on X, 300 on Bluesky, 500 on Threads, 3,000 on LinkedIn, and Instagram refuses a post without an image (and refuses PNGs).
- **A scheduler.** None of these APIs schedule for you except a few native options, so you need a job runner that fires at 9 a.m., retries safely and never double-posts when a request times out.
- **A failure channel.** When the LinkedIn token has expired, someone has to find out before release day, not after.

None of this is hard on its own. Together it's a small product to build and maintain, for a job that isn't the company's product.

## Your options compared

| Option | Best for | Setup | Ongoing work | Cost |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Each platform's own API | One or two networks, or features a scheduler doesn't expose (analytics, replies, ads) | App reviews per platform, OAuth, media flows | Token refresh, version changes, retries, rate limits | Developer time; X charges per request |
| No-code automation (Zapier, Make, n8n) with per-platform steps | Light, low-volume flows without a developer | Connect each network inside the tool | Breaks when a step's connection expires; limited caption rules | Per-task pricing |
| A unified scheduling API (such as Schedule For You) | Publishing the same content to several networks on a schedule | Connect accounts once in a dashboard, create an API key | Reconnect an account when a platform revokes access | A subscription; reviews already done |

Be honest about the trade-off: a scheduling API publishes and reports what happened, but it doesn't replace a platform's API for reading comments, running ads or pulling analytics. Schedule For You, for example, reports publishing results and link clicks but not impressions or engagement from the platforms.

## The same scenario with the Schedule For You API

Schedule For You's REST API comes with Solo and Studio. You connect accounts once in the dashboard (each platform's sign-in, or a Bluesky app password), then create a key under **Settings → API keys**. Base URL: `https://scheduleforyou.com/api/v1`. Every request sends `Authorization: Bearer sfy_…`.

![Settings page in the Schedule For You dashboard with posting slots and an API keys section listing keys named Claude Desktop and Zapier](https://scheduleforyou.com/images/blog/settings-posting-slots-api-keys-1440x900.webp)

### 1. List the connected accounts

```bash
curl https://scheduleforyou.com/api/v1/accounts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sfy_your_key"
```

The response lists each account's `id`, `platform`, `username` and `status`. An account whose `status` is `error` needs reconnecting in the dashboard, and `last_error` says why, so your code can warn someone days before release day.

### 2. Upload the release screenshot

Files go straight to storage in three steps: register the file, `PUT` the bytes to the presigned URL, then confirm.

```bash
# Register the file: returns an id and an upload_url (valid for 15 minutes)
curl -X POST https://scheduleforyou.com/api/v1/media \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sfy_your_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"filename": "release-4-2.jpg", "mime": "image/jpeg", "size": 482113}'

# Send the bytes
curl -X PUT "$UPLOAD_URL" -H "Content-Type: image/jpeg" --data-binary @release-4-2.jpg

# Confirm the upload
curl -X PATCH https://scheduleforyou.com/api/v1/media/med_a41c7e2093bd5f18 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sfy_your_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"uploaded": true}'
```

JPG, PNG and WebP images up to 20 MB and MP4, MOV or WebM video up to 1 GB are accepted. Upload a JPEG if the post includes Instagram.

### 3. Create one post with a version per network

Send one post with a `targets` list. Each target can have its own caption and platform options, such as a first comment that holds the link.

```bash
curl -X POST https://scheduleforyou.com/api/v1/posts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sfy_your_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "caption": "Version 4.2 is out: bulk editing, faster search and dark mode for reports. Full notes on the blog.",
    "targets": [
      { "account_id": "acc_7d21e0c94b3a6f15", "caption": "4.2 is out: bulk editing, faster search, dark reports.", "options": { "first_comment": "Release notes: https://example.com/4-2" } },
      { "account_id": "acc_c0a85f3e17d94b26", "caption": "Version 4.2 is out.\n\nThree things customers asked for most: bulk editing, search that is twice as fast, and dark mode for reports.\n\nFull notes: https://example.com/4-2" },
      { "account_id": "acc_2e6b0c41d7f93a58" },
      { "account_id": "acc_5a8d3f61b0c27e94" },
      { "account_id": "acc_91f4a7c2e05b3d16", "options": { "first_comment": "Release notes: https://example.com/4-2" } }
    ],
    "media": ["med_a41c7e2093bd5f18"],
    "scheduled_at": "2026-11-03T14:00:00Z",
    "labels": ["Release"]
  }'
```

Here the five IDs are the X, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Threads and Instagram accounts from step 1. Bluesky and Threads use the main caption; X gets a shorter one, LinkedIn a longer one, and the link goes in a first comment on X and Instagram.

Before anything is saved, every target is checked against its platform's rules. If the X caption runs long or the Instagram target has no image, you get a `422` with an `errors` list such as `X / Twitter (@yourapp): 312/280 characters`, and nothing is scheduled. That replaces a failure at 9 a.m. with an error in your build log. Use `publish_now: true` instead of `scheduled_at` to post straight away, and `repeat` or `evergreen` for recurring posts.

On TikTok, a target takes `options.privacy` (`PUBLIC_TO_EVERYONE`, `MUTUAL_FOLLOW_FRIENDS` or `SELF_ONLY`); on YouTube, a `title`; on Pinterest, a `board_id`. On X, Bluesky and Threads, a caption with a line holding only `---` is published as a thread.

### 4. Find out what happened

`GET /api/v1/posts/{id}` returns each target's `status` (`pending`, `publishing`, `published` or `failed`), its `external_url` on the platform and any `error`. A post where LinkedIn published and X failed reads `partial`, and `POST /api/v1/posts/{id}/publish` retries only the failed targets.

Rather than polling, register a webhook. Schedule For You sends a signed `POST` for `post.published`, `post.partial` and `post.failed`. Check the `X-SFY-Signature` header before trusting it:

```javascript
import crypto from 'node:crypto';

// rawBody: the request body exactly as received, before JSON parsing.
export function verifySignature(rawBody, header, secret, toleranceSeconds = 300) {
  const parts = Object.fromEntries(header.split(',').map((p) => p.split('=')));
  const t = Number(parts.t);
  if (!t || Math.abs(Date.now() / 1000 - t) > toleranceSeconds) return false;
  const expected = crypto.createHmac('sha256', secret).update(`${t}.${rawBody}`).digest('hex');
  const given = Buffer.from(parts.v1 || '', 'hex');
  const wanted = Buffer.from(expected, 'hex');
  return given.length === wanted.length && crypto.timingSafeEqual(given, wanted);
}
```

The same posts appear in the dashboard's queue and calendar, so the people who don't read code can see, edit or approve what the release script scheduled.

![Schedule For You queue showing upcoming posts with account chips, labels and a banner listing three failed posts with reasons and a Retry button](https://scheduleforyou.com/images/blog/queue-1440x900.webp)

If your release notes already live on a blog with an RSS feed, you may not need code at all: RSS auto-post turns each new item into a draft or a queued post for the accounts you choose.

The [API overview](https://scheduleforyou.com/api) has a shorter tour, and the [API reference](https://scheduleforyou.com/docs) lists every endpoint, field and error. Plans start at $19 a month for 15 connected accounts, and the API is included on both paid plans.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is there one API for all social media platforms?
No platform offers that; each network has its own. Unified APIs, including scheduling tools with a public API like Schedule For You, connect to each network for you and expose one set of endpoints. You trade direct access to every platform feature for not having to pass each review and maintain each integration.

### Are social media APIs free?
Most platform APIs don't charge for publishing, but X does: new developers pay per request. Others cost time instead of money, through app reviews, quota limits and maintenance. Unified APIs charge a subscription.

### Can I post to Instagram with an API?
Yes, with the Instagram Graph API and a Business or Creator account, after Meta's app review. Images must be JPEG and Meta caps API-published posts per account per day. See [how to schedule Instagram posts](https://scheduleforyou.com/blog/how-to-schedule-instagram-posts) for the options without code.

### Can a social media API post to LinkedIn company pages?
LinkedIn's API can, but only for apps approved for its Community Management API. Schedule For You publishes to personal LinkedIn profiles only; for company pages, use LinkedIn's own scheduler. Our guide on [how to schedule LinkedIn posts](https://scheduleforyou.com/blog/how-to-schedule-linkedin-posts) covers both.

### Can I use the API from an AI agent?
Yes. Schedule For You also runs a hosted MCP server that exposes the same actions as tools, so an assistant like Claude can list accounts, draft and schedule posts with your API key. The next guide, [social media MCP](https://scheduleforyou.com/blog/social-media-mcp), walks through it.

## Related

- [All guides](https://scheduleforyou.com/blog)
- [Pricing](https://scheduleforyou.com/pricing)