How to Export Twitter Followers to CSV (Free and Paid Ways)

You can export Twitter followers to CSV in three ways in 2026. X's own data archive is free, but it only covers your own account and gives you numeric IDs instead of names. Browser extensions work through your logged-in session and can export any public account, though the free tiers are capped and large pulls stall or get flagged. Follower export tools are paid, and they pull any public profile's followers into a clean CSV with handles, bios and follower counts.

The right one depends on whose followers you need and what you'll do with the file. Below is each method, with the limits we verified on October 13, 2026.

Which way to export Twitter followers fits your job

Which method fits depends on the question you are answering.

• If you want to know who follows you, for a backup or an audit of your own account, use X's archive. It is free and official, but slow.
• If you want to know who follows another account and only need a small one-off list, a browser extension can work when the list runs to a few hundred or a few thousand people.
• If you need a usable list from a large account, with profile data and filtered to people you can reach, use a twitter follower export tool. This is the usual route for research and outreach.

The rest of this post covers each method in turn.

Method 1: X's data archive (free, your own account)

X's archive is the only free, official way to export Twitter followers, and it only covers the account you are logged into.

These steps come from X's help page, checked October 13, 2026:

1. Open Settings and privacy, then your account settings.
2. Under Data and permissions, choose Your X data.
3. Verify your identity with a code sent to your email or phone.
4. Next to Download your data, choose Request data.
5. Wait for the email or notification, then download the .zip while logged in on the same browser.

X says "It may take a few days" to prepare, and your email address has to be confirmed first. In X's words, the archive contains "a list of your followers, a list of accounts that you are following," along with posts, DMs, media and more.

The problem is the format. The network files store each follower as a numeric account ID with an intent link. You get no handles and no bios. A digital preservation write-up by Bits Galore notes the files list accounts "as numerical identifiers" with an

To get a CSV out of the follower file, strip the JavaScript prefix and parse what's left. A short Python script handles it:

import json, csv
raw = open("data/follower.js", encoding="utf-8").read()
data = json.loads(raw[raw.index("["):])
with open("followers.csv", "w", newline="") as f:
    w = csv.writer(f)
    w.writerow(["account_id", "user_link"])
    for row in data:
        item = list(row.values())[0]
        w.writerow([item.get("accountId"), item.get("userLink")])

That gives you a CSV of IDs. Names, bios and follower counts need a separate lookup, and that's the point where most people give up on this route.

Method 2: browser extensions (free tiers, your session)

An extension reads the follower list the same way you would by scrolling, through your logged-in X session, and saves it as a CSV. It works on any public account. Three practical limits come up again and again.

The free tiers are small. Asking in r/Twitter for a free way to export a 50k-follower account, u/International_Mud141 wrote that "Most extensions I've found either have a very low limit for the free version (like 100-150 entries) or require a subscription."

Big lists stall, and doing it by hand is worse. The same user explained that "doing it manually for a 50k+ account is practically impossible," because of "endless scrolling that eventually crashes the browser tab" and X's "soft rate limits on how much data it loads per session." Extensions run into the same wall. u/dedominici tested a free exporter in r/chrome_extensions and got 800 profiles fine, but on a 5,000+ list "it worked till 2900 and then it was cooling down, but it didn't resume."

Your account carries the risk. The extension runs as you, so aggressive pulling counts as your account's activity. In the same thread, u/Shot_Juggernaut2113 reported: "Account got flagged on first use of this. No setting to make the pull slower."

For small lists an extension is fine. Run it on a secondary account, keep each pull small, and stop if X starts throwing errors.

Method 3: follower export tools for any public account

A follower export tool pulls a public profile's followers for you, adds profile data, and gives you a filtered CSV. Nothing runs on your personal session, and large lists run in the background.

This is the flow in XAutoDM, where both of our tool pages send you:

1. Enter a handle on the export Twitter followers tool or the Twitter follower scraper. The scraper also lets you pick roughly how many followers to pull, from up to 500 to up to 25,000.
2. You continue in the XAutoDM app's Leads section, which is where the scrape actually runs.
3. Filter by bio keywords, follower count, verified status and whether the account can receive DMs.
4. Download the CSV, with fields such as handle, display name, bio, follower count, verified status and can-DM, or launch a DM campaign straight from the list.

Both tool pages are entry points. Neither is a free exporter. A free account lets you explore the app, but scraping and exporting need a paid plan, from $29/mo per connected X account, with lead credits included.

The other paid route is the official X API. On October 13, 2026, its pricing page listed follower lookups at $0.010 per resource under pay-per-use, and $0.001 for owned reads of your own account. That works for developers who want raw data and don't mind writing code. You still build the CSV and the filtering yourself.

Methods compared

What to do with the CSV

A follower export is only as useful as what you filter out of it. In that r/Twitter thread, u/cozycup challenged the whole idea: "What will you do with it though? You can't import them anywhere else."

It's a fair question, and two answers hold up:

• Audience research. Count job titles and keywords in bios to see who a competitor's audience is. That is what the original poster wanted the data for.
• A short, relevant outreach list. Followers of an account your buyers trust are a warm starting point, but only after filtering. Keep bios that match your buyer, drop anyone who cannot receive DMs, and remove your do-not-contact list. Then write to a small group with a specific reason. Our Twitter lead generation playbook covers turning lists into conversations, and how DM-able X followers are explains why the can-DM filter matters.

Don't import 20,000 rows into a blast. X's automation rules prohibit sending unsolicited DMs "in a bulk or automated manner," and a big raw export is the fastest way to break that rule.

Is it allowed to export Twitter followers?

Exporting your own followers through the archive is allowed, since X built the archive for that purpose. Pulling other accounts' public follower lists is a grayer question, and the answer depends on how you do it and what you do with the data. X's terms restrict automated collection, even though the follower lists themselves are public. We cover the legal side in is scraping Twitter legal in 2026. To stay safe, collect only what you need, use it for research or relevant one-to-one outreach, honor opt-outs, and never resell personal data.

Frequently asked questions

Can I export my Twitter followers for free?

Yes, for your own account. In X, go to Settings and privacy, then Your account or Account, then Your X data. Verify your identity and request the archive. X says it can take a few days to prepare. The archive includes a list of your followers, but they appear as numeric account IDs in a JavaScript-wrapped JSON file, not as a ready CSV with names and bios.

Can I export someone else's Twitter followers?

Not through X's archive, which only covers your own account. For any public account you need one of three things: a browser extension that reads the list through your logged-in session, a follower export tool that does it for you, or the official X API. As of October 2026 the API bills follower lookups at $0.010 per resource under pay-per-use.

What does the X archive include about followers?

X's help page says the archive includes a list of your followers and the accounts you follow, along with posts, DMs and more. The network files themselves hold numeric account IDs and profile links, not handles, bios or follower counts, so you need a separate lookup to turn them into a list you can read.

How do I turn a follower export into a lead list?

Filter before you contact anyone. Keep followers whose bios match your buyer, drop accounts that can't receive DMs, and remove anyone on your do-not-contact list. Then message a small, relevant group with a specific reason to talk instead of working through the whole file. Outreach to people who fit is much less likely to read as spam.