Social Media API: One API for Every Platform You Post To

A social media API lets your code publish, schedule and read posts on social networks instead of clicking through each app. SociaHive gives you one REST API for 22 platforms, from Instagram and LinkedIn to Telegram channels and WordPress, with Node and Python SDKs, a CLI, a hosted MCP server for AI assistants, and signed webhooks.

This page explains what a unified social media API does, what SociaHive's covers platform by platform, and how to get from an API key to a scheduled post. It does not teach each network's own API; the point of a unified API is that you do not have to.

What is a social media API?

An API is a set of URLs your program calls to do something in another service. A social media API does social jobs: list the accounts you connected, create a post, schedule it, upload media, and tell you when it went live or failed.

There are two kinds:

• A platform's own API. Each network has its own, with its own sign-in, permissions, review process, media rules and errors. Posting to nine networks this way means nine integrations to build and keep working.
• A unified social media API. One service connects to the networks, and you call one API with one key. SociaHive is this kind: you send a post with a list of target accounts, and it handles each platform's sign-in, token refresh, media processing and limits.

A unified API makes sense when social posting is a feature of your product or workflow, not the product itself.

What can you do with the SociaHive API?

Everything below runs through the same account, the same API key scopes and the same audit log.

Surface	What it is	Where to start
REST API	HTTPS endpoints with an X-API-Key header and an OpenAPI 3.1 spec	Developer quickstart
Node SDK	npm install @sociahive/sdk, typed client	SDK docs
Python SDK	pip install sociahive	SDK docs
CLI	npm install -g sociahive, JSON output for scripts and CI	Instagram automation CLI
MCP server	Hosted at https://www.sociahive.com/api/mcp for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and others	MCP for social media
Webhooks	Signed events when a post is published or fails	Webhook docs
No-code	n8n, Zapier and Make connect through the same API	Zapier, Make, n8n

The API also covers automations: you can list, create and generate DM flows on the platforms SociaHive automates. This page sticks to posting.

Which platforms does the API support?

These are the platforms you can schedule to through the API today. The list comes from the same platform definitions the app uses, so the API and the dashboard always match.

Platform	What you can publish
Instagram	Feed photos, carousels of up to 10 items, and videos
Facebook	Posts to a Facebook Page
LinkedIn	Posts on your personal profile
X	Posts (X is on paid plans only)
Threads	Text, photo and video posts
TikTok	Videos and photo posts
YouTube	Video uploads
Bluesky	Posts with up to 4 images
Pinterest	Pins to a board
Mastodon	Posts on any Mastodon server
Telegram	Posts to a channel, through your own bot
Discord	Messages to a channel, through a webhook
WordPress	Articles on your site
Dev.to	Articles
Hashnode	Articles on your publication
Lemmy	Posts to a community
Listmonk	Email campaigns to your lists
Slack	Messages to a channel, as a bot
Tumblr	Posts on your blog
Dribbble	Shots, as a GIF, JPG or PNG
Twitch	A chat message or announcement in your own stream chat
Kick	A message in your own stream chat

Each target has its own text limit, from 300 characters on Bluesky to 63,206 on Facebook. If a post's text does not fit a target, the API answers with a 400 that names the platform and account, so you can fix it before anything goes out. For the full list of limits, see social media character limits.

Social media scheduling API: from key to scheduled post

1. Create an API key. In SociaHive, open Settings, then API Keys, and generate a key with the scopes you need, such as accounts:read and posts:write. Keys start with sk_ and are shown once.
2. List your accounts. Call GET /api/v1/connected-accounts with the key in the X-API-Key header and note the id of each account you want to post to.
3. Upload media if you have any. Use the presigned upload endpoint for files, or import a public file by URL.
4. Create the post. Send POST /api/v1/posts with the text, the target accounts and a future scheduled_at time. A future time schedules the post in the same call.
5. Listen for the result. Subscribe a webhook to post.published and post.failed, which fire once per platform.

With the Node SDK, steps 2 and 4 look like this:

import { SociaHive } from '@sociahive/sdk'

const sh = new SociaHive({ apiKey: process.env.SOCIAHIVE_API_KEY! })
const { data: accounts } = await sh.accounts.list()

await sh.posts.create({
  text: 'New guide is live. Link in bio.',
  platforms: accounts.slice(0, 2).map((a) => ({ platform: a.platform, account_id: a.id })),
  schedule_type: 'scheduled',
  scheduled_at: '2026-11-03T15:00:00Z',
  timezone: 'UTC',
})

The Python SDK has the same resources (accounts, posts, flows, analytics). The machine-readable spec lives at https://www.sociahive.com/api/v1/openapi.json, which you can load into Postman or a code generator.

Social media posting API for AI agents

If an AI assistant should do the posting, use the MCP server instead of writing code. Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients connect to it and get tools such as schedule_post, get_scheduler_calendar and publish_post_now. Publishing live needs your confirmation. The Connect your AI page has setup steps for each assistant, and best social media MCP servers compares the options.

Limits, keys and plans

• Scopes. Each key carries only the scopes you give it, for example read-only analytics for a dashboard.
• Rate limits. Per user, not per key: 120 reads and 30 writes a minute, 5 expensive calls such as AI generation, and 1,000 requests a day across all of them. A 429 response includes a Retry-After header (rate limit docs).
• Webhooks. Signed with a secret, delivered at least once, so skip duplicates by event id.
• Plans. API, MCP and CLI access come with the free trial and every paid plan, not the free plan. See pricing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a social media API?

It is a set of endpoints a program calls to post, schedule and read content on social networks. A platform's own API covers one network; a unified API like SociaHive's covers many networks behind one key.

Which social media API is free?

SociaHive's API is included in the free trial and in every paid plan, so you can test it at no cost for the trial period. The free plan includes scheduling in the dashboard but not API access.

Is Instagram's API free?

Building on a platform's own API usually costs engineering time rather than a fee: app review, permissions, token refresh and media rules. A unified API trades that work for a subscription. Check each platform's current developer terms for exact conditions.

Can I post to LinkedIn and TikTok with one API call?

Yes. Put both accounts in the platforms list of one POST /api/v1/posts request. SociaHive checks the text against each platform's limit and publishes to each at the scheduled time.

Does the API support video uploads?

Yes, for platforms that accept video, such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Threads. Upload the file first, then attach it to the post. YouTube takes one video per post.

Is there a webhook when a post goes live?

Yes. Subscribe to post.published and post.failed. A post sent to three platforms sends three events, one per platform, each signed so you can verify it came from SociaHive.

Sources

1. SociaHive, Developer quickstart, read October 20, 2026
2. SociaHive, SDKs, read October 20, 2026
3. SociaHive, Rate limits, read October 20, 2026
4. SociaHive, Webhooks, read October 20, 2026