Elfa launches API v3 with free calls until October 31

Elfa opens its next generation of social data

Elfa announced API v3 on October 15, offering developers a new way to supply market context to software agents. An API is an interface through which one program requests information from another. Here, the intended users are developers building research assistants and monitoring applications. Elfa says the release adds finer detail, connected relationships and source provenance to its social data. Provenance means knowing where a signal came from, which matters when a program uses outside information to prepare an answer or decide what deserves attention.

What the temporary free period covers

Elfa’s v3 overview says Pay-as-you-go, or PAYG, and Grow requests consume no credits or monthly allowance until October 31, 2026. Request-rate limits still apply. No exact cutoff time or subsequent per-endpoint charge is specified there, so the temporary waiver should not become a permanent cost assumption.

Historical access also differs: PAYG can read back 30 days, Grow 60 days and Enterprise two years. Asking for an earlier starting point can shorten the returned range. The servedFrom field identifies the boundary actually used. A report needs to distinguish the period requested from the period supplied.

From individual posts to connected developments

The new vocabulary describes different levels of information. An event is a development assembled from the posts reporting it. A storyline connects events about one continuing development, while an arc groups related storylines into a broader movement. These relationships can help an application follow a subject across several updates instead of treating every item as an isolated headline.

Elfa also distinguishes a call from a call episode. A call is one post taking or changing a position; an episode follows the position across its opening, changes and closure. These are descriptions of what accounts post. Separately, mindshare measures an asset’s share of attention, and account standing measures engagement. Elfa explicitly distinguishes standing from accuracy. A highly visible account and an accurate caller answer different questions, so a research interface should label those measures separately.

Evidence links have practical limits

The event reference shows what an application can actually inspect. An event can carry a title, summary, named entities and cited-source records. X records can include a post link; Telegram records may instead have a message-group reference with a null link. The response does not reproduce original post text. Developers cannot assume that every citation supplies a directly readable original or that the summary alone establishes the underlying claim.

Timestamps need similar care. analyzedAt records when Elfa wrote up an event, while firstSeenAt refers to the earliest supporting post it observed, not necessarily when the news first happened. A new analysis timestamp should therefore not be displayed as the original announcement time. Elfa also warns that a novelty value of new does not guarantee one result per story. Applications seeking that behavior need to group by storyline, retaining meaningful updates rather than treating the label as a duplicate filter.

Access depends on the key’s plan

The authentication guide confirms that PAYG, Grow and Enterprise keys can access v3. A key on the separate Free plan can use only the key-status endpoint. The word free in the launch therefore describes the promotional treatment of eligible v3 calls, not open access through every account tier. Enterprise access is documented, but the waiver names PAYG and Grow specifically.

The documented setup begins in Elfa’s developer portal: sign in, open the API Key tab and supply the key in the x-elfa-api-key request header. The key is a credential and should remain private.

Credit-free calls still share a request limit

Elfa’s rate-limit documentation lists 60 requests per minute for PAYG and 120 for Grow, with custom limits for Enterprise. The v3 limit applies per key and is shared with that key’s v2 requests. Existing traffic therefore matters when adding a v3 workflow: the new requests do not receive a separate allowance merely because their credits are temporarily waived.

Responses expose the limit, remaining capacity and reset interval. Exceeding the rate produces a 429 response, and the v3 instructions say to wait for the stated reset interval. For a developer evaluating the launch, the useful checks are consequently distinct: whether the key has access, how far back it can read, and whether the combined request rate fits the plan.