About following on Twitter
Overview
March 2019
Following accounts is an easy way to curate your Twitter feed and know what’s happening with the topics or people you’re interested in. To prevent spam and manipulation of follow relationships and to ensure site reliability, there are technical limits regarding how many Twitter accounts you are able to follow. These limits are based on the rate at which you are following new accounts, as well as how many followers you have. In addition, because follow relationships on Twitter aren’t mutual by nature, we’ve also put into place a few rules around follow behavior to promote authentic experiences.
What are the technical follow limits?
- We don’t limit the number of accounts you can follow overall, but there are some limits as to the pace at which you can do so.
- Every Twitter account is able to follow up to 400 accounts per day. Verified Twitter accounts are able to follow up to 1,000 accounts per day.
- In addition to the daily limits, there are follow ratios that go into effect once you’re following a certain number of accounts:
- Every Twitter account can follow up to 5,000 accounts. Once you reach that number, you may need to wait until your account has more followers before you can follow additional accounts.
- This number is different for each account and is automatically calculated based on your unique ratio of followers to following.
Are there other rules that apply to follow behavior?
Yes. The Twitter Rules prohibit abusive following, and violation of these rules may result in the suspension of your account. Specifically, the rules prohibit:
- “follow churn” – following and then unfollowing large numbers of accounts in an effort to inflate one’s own follower count;
- indiscriminate following – following and/or unfollowing a large number of unrelated accounts in a short time period, particularly by automated means;
- duplicating another account’s followers, particularly using automation; and
- using or promoting third-party services or apps that claim to add followers.
What happens if I hit a follow limit?
You may encounter a message that states, “You are unable to follow more people at this time.” You’ll encounter this message for one of the following reasons:
- You’ve reached the daily follow limit. You can follow more accounts after a day has passed.
- You've followed too many accounts too quickly. Try again in an hour or so.
- You’ve hit a follow ratio limit. You can try again once your account has more followers, or you can unfollow a few accounts to follow new ones.
- Your account is locked or limited. We may lock an account if appears to be compromised or if it is in violation of the Twitter Rules or Terms of Service, including due to aggressive follow behavior. Accounts in a locked state are limited in actions they can perform, including following. Read more about locked and limited accounts.
Additional resources
Learn more about our automation rules and best practices (intended for developers), and our following FAQs.
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