The Threads API is Meta's official way for apps to publish posts, replies, polls and carousels to Threads, read posts and replies, manage conversations and pull insights for a Threads profile. It's what scheduling tools use. Each profile can publish up to 250 posts and 1,000 replies through the API in any rolling 24 hours.
You'll mostly meet the Threads API through a social media tool asking to connect to your Threads account. Knowing what it allows helps you decide whether to connect and what to expect from the tool.
What the Threads API can do
Meta's developer documentation lists the main areas:
| Area | What apps can do |
|---|---|
| Publishing | Create posts, replies, reposts and quote posts, plus polls, spoilers, text attachments, location tags and ghost posts |
| Retrieval | Get a user's own posts, mentions and keyword search results |
| Replies | Retrieve replies and moderate them |
| Profiles and insights | Read profile details and performance insights |
| Other | Delete posts, webhooks, embeds and web intents, plus sharing to Instagram Stories |
Meta's overview also sets a boundary: the API lets apps publish on a person's behalf and display those posts inside the app only to the person who created them. It's built for tools that help you manage your own account, not for showing your Threads posts to the public through another app.
The daily limits for each profile
Meta caps what an app can do on any one Threads profile within a 24-hour moving window:
| Action | Limit per 24 hours |
|---|---|
| Posts published through the API | 250 (a carousel counts as one) |
| Replies | 1,000 |
| Deletions | 100 |
| Location searches | 500 |
If your scheduling tool says it can't post right now, these limits are one possible reason, though few businesses ever get close to 250 posts a day. Meta tells developers to build the limit into their apps, especially for scheduled posts, so a well-made tool shouldn't let you queue more than it can send.
Post and media rules
- Text: up to 500 characters per post.
- Carousels: between 2 and 20 items.
- Images: JPEG or PNG, up to 8 MB, between 320 and 1440 pixels wide (resized to fit), aspect ratio up to 10:1, converted to sRGB colour.
- Video: MOV or MP4, up to 5 minutes and 1 GB, 23 to 60 frames per second, up to 1920 pixels wide; Meta recommends 9:16 to avoid cropping.
These match what most people post anyway, but the video rules are worth checking if a tool rejects an upload. A long or very high bitrate file is the usual culprit.
How the call limits work
Separately from the posting caps, Meta limits how many calls an app can make for each app and user pair in a rolling 24 hours, and ties it to impressions. The formula Meta gives is 4,800 calls multiplied by the number of impressions your Threads content got in the last 24 hours, with a minimum of 10 impressions used for the sum. In other words, an account with more reach gets more room. A brand-new, quiet account still gets a workable baseline.
Why your tool asks you to reconnect Threads
This is the question I get most from people using schedulers. Meta's get-started guide explains it. When you connect a tool, you grant it permissions such as reading your profile, publishing, managing replies and viewing insights. For people with public profiles, that grant lasts 90 days, and the tool can extend it for another 90 days each time it refreshes its long-lived access token, which itself lasts 60 days.
If your Threads profile is private, though, Meta says the grant can't be extended. After 90 days you'll have to approve the tool again. So if you run a private account and your scheduler keeps logging you out of Threads, that's the reason, not a bug.
What a developer needs
- A Meta app with the Threads use case selected in the App Dashboard, using the Threads app ID and secret.
- Media hosted on a public server, because Meta downloads it at the moment of publishing.
- App Review approval for each permission before people without a role on the app can grant it.
- Threads testers, invited through the App Dashboard, for testing before review.
Privacy: what connected apps can see
Threads' help centre explains what you're agreeing to when you connect an app. Anything on your public profile, or anything you've made public, an app can access at any time. Other information it can only access if you choose to share it when you connect. If you share, the app gets ongoing access and Threads records when it accesses your information.
One detail many people miss: if you've turned on sharing to the fediverse, posts you make through the Threads API are shared to the fediverse too.
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The Pinterest equivalent is covered in my guide to the Pinterest API.
How to remove an app from Threads
- Click More on the left, then Settings.
- Click More settings, then Website permissions.
- Click Active at the top.
- Click Remove next to the app, or View and edit to see what you're sharing.
Connected apps show as Active, Expired or Removed depending on their state and how often you use them. It's worth a tidy-up every few months.
If you're still finding your feet on the platform, my Threads guide for business owners covers the basics, and Threads Insights explains the numbers the API's insights tools draw on.
My verdict
For most businesses, the Threads API matters because it lets your scheduling and analytics tools work with Threads directly, without workarounds. The limits are generous for normal posting. Connect only tools you trust, check what they can see in Website permissions, and remember the fediverse setting if you'd rather keep your posts on Threads alone.
If you work with more than one platform, my guide to the X API covers the equivalent on X.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Threads API?
It's Meta's official interface that lets apps publish posts and replies to Threads, read posts, moderate replies and access insights for a Threads profile.
How many posts can I publish through the Threads API?
Meta limits each Threads profile to 250 API-published posts in a 24-hour moving period, and a carousel counts as a single post.
How long can a Threads API post be?
Text posts are limited to 500 characters, and carousels can include between 2 and 20 items.
How do I disconnect an app from Threads?
Go to More, Settings, More settings, then Website permissions. Under Active, click Remove next to the app.
