The best social media schedulers with an API in 2026

The best social media scheduler with an API depends on whose accounts you're posting to. If your customers connect their own social accounts inside your product, pick a platform API built for that: Ayrshare is the most established (from $149/month) and Zernio is the cheapest way to start (first two accounts free). If you're posting to your own or your clients' accounts and want a calendar where people can check the posts, a scheduler with a full API is simpler and cheaper: Buffer has a free API for a few channels, and Postiz and Postbase include their API, webhooks and MCP server on every plan from $29/month.

We make Postbase, so weigh what we say about it accordingly. Everything about other products below comes from their own pricing pages and docs, linked in each section and checked on 27 October 2026. Plans change, so check the links before you commit.

The short answer

• Building a SaaS where your users connect their accounts: Ayrshare or Zernio.
• Automating a few of your own channels for free: Buffer.
• The widest network list, or self-hosting: Postiz.
• Your own or clients' accounts, with retry-safe posting, webhooks and an AI agent on one calendar: Postbase.
• One or two easy networks: skip the scheduler and use the network's own API (see below).

What's the difference between a platform API and a scheduler API?

This is the question most comparisons skip, and it decides everything else:

1. Platform APIs are built for products that post on behalf of many customers. Each of your users links their own accounts to a profile you manage, and you're billed per profile or per account. Ayrshare and Zernio work this way.
2. Scheduler APIs sit on top of a scheduling app. You connect your own (or your team's, or your clients') accounts in the app, then use the API to create and manage posts, which also show up on the app's calendar. Buffer, Postiz and Postbase work this way.

If you're building a product for other people's accounts, you want the first kind. If you're automating your own posting, a launch script, a CMS or an AI agent, the second kind is usually cheaper and gives you a calendar for free.

How do the main options compare?

	Built for	Starting price	API on every plan	Webhooks	MCP server
Ayrshare	Your users' accounts	$149/month (1 profile)	Yes	Yes	Yes, API key
Zernio	Your users' accounts	2 accounts free, then per account	Yes	Yes	Yes, OAuth
Buffer	Your own accounts	Free (3 channels), then $5 per channel	Yes, capped by plan	Not stated	Yes, OAuth or API key
Postiz	Your own accounts	$29/month (5 channels)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Postbase	Your own or clients' accounts	$29/month (5 channels)	Yes	Yes, signed	Yes, OAuth or API key

Which scheduler APIs are built for apps with many users?

Ayrshare

Ayrshare is the established choice for products that post on behalf of their users. Its site describes a multi-tenant setup with white-label user profiles, and says it covers "14+ social networks." Its hosted MCP server has 27 tools and authenticates with your API key, plus an optional profile key to act for one managed account.

• Price: Premium is $149/month for 1 profile, Launch $299/month for up to 10, Business $599/month for 30 (pricing).
• Watch out for: since 31 March 2026, posting to X through Ayrshare needs your own X developer app and keys, sent with every X request (Ayrshare docs). You pay X for that usage directly.
• Best for: SaaS products, white-label tools and agencies where each client links their own accounts.

Postbase vs Ayrshare

Zernio

Zernio (formerly Late) is developer-first and billed per connected account, which makes it cheap to start. Its API page says it posts to "16 major platforms" and lists webhooks for post status and analytics, plus an official n8n node. Its hosted MCP server signs in with OAuth.

• Price: the first 2 connected accounts are free, then $6 per account per month (accounts 3–10), $3 (11–100) and $1 (101+). Zernio says every feature is on every account (pricing).
• Watch out for: it's an API first, not a calendar app for a marketing team. We couldn't find Mastodon in its platform list.
• Best for: developers embedding social posting in a product on a small budget.

Postbase vs Zernio

Which scheduler APIs are best for your own accounts?

Buffer

Buffer is a scheduler first, with a GraphQL API for working with your own Buffer account: create and delete posts, save ideas, and read channels and posts. Its MCP server is on every plan, including Free, and connects with OAuth or your API key.

• Price and limits: Free covers up to 3 channels with 1 API key and 3,000 API requests a month. Essentials is $5 per channel per month (7,500 requests), and Team $10 per channel per month (15,000 requests) (pricing).
• Watch out for: monthly request caps, and per-channel pricing adds up past a handful of channels.
• Best for: a few channels, and teams who already use Buffer.

Postbase vs Buffer

Postiz

Postiz is open source, so you can self-host it, and its menu lists around 30 networks, the widest set here. Its pricing page says every plan includes the MCP server, CLI and API, with webhooks on every plan too. Its API docs limit post creation to 90 requests an hour (100 on its cloud), the same on every plan.

• Price: $29/month for 5 channels, up to $99/month for 100.
• Best for: the broadest network coverage, or teams that want to run the scheduler themselves.

Postbase vs Postiz

Postbase

That's us. Postbase is an open-source scheduler for X, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Mastodon, TikTok and YouTube. Its REST API and hosted MCP server are on every plan, and everything they create lands on the same calendar a person can review. Instagram, Facebook and Threads aren't supported yet.

What the API covers, from the docs:

• Posts: create drafts, scheduled posts and threads, with different text per channel; get, edit, cancel and retry a post, and see each channel's status, live link or error.
• Retry-safe creates: send an Idempotency-Key header and a repeated request returns the original post instead of posting twice.
• Media: attach files from your media library, or pass public links in media_urls and Postbase downloads them (up to 10 per request, 200 MB each).
• Webhooks: signed events when a post publishes, partly fails or fails, or a channel needs reconnecting, with automatic retries.
• Analytics: per-channel metrics for published posts in a date range.
• Rate limits: 120 requests a minute and 60 posts an hour per workspace, shared with the MCP server (authentication docs).

curl -X POST https://www.postbase.so/api/v1/posts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $POSTBASE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: launch-2026-11-03" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"body": "Shipped!", "channel_ids": ["..."], "scheduled_at": "2026-11-03T09:00:00Z"}'

The MCP server is hosted at https://mcp.postbase.so/mcp, so Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor and others sign in with OAuth and no API key. It's also on npm as @postbasehq/mcp for API-key setups.

• Price: Creator is $29/month for 5 channels, Team $39 for 15, Pro $59 for 50 and Agency $99 for 100, each with a 7-day free trial. Plans include workspaces that share the plan's channels (Agency covers 20, one per client), and API keys are scoped to one workspace (pricing).
• Watch out for: six networks, fewer than Postiz or Ayrshare. TikTok posts can only be saved as drafts through the API, because TikTok requires the creator to pick who sees each post in the composer. X posts that contain a link are capped per plan (20 a month on Creator), because X charges per linked post; plain posts and threads aren't. It isn't built for your users to connect their own accounts inside your product.
• Best for: developers and AI agents posting to their own or their clients' accounts, where a person checks the calendar.

Should you skip the scheduler and use each network's API?

Go direct if you only post to one or two networks, especially easy ones. Bluesky needs no app review, and Mastodon only needs a token. Our guides to the X, LinkedIn and Bluesky APIs show the whole job.

Use a scheduler API when you need several networks, especially ones with heavy app reviews (TikTok, YouTube, Meta), or when you'd rather not maintain OAuth flows, token refreshes, media uploads and retries for each one.

What should you check before you choose?

• Whose accounts. Your users' accounts need a platform API; your own need a scheduler.
• Networks and post types. Check the exact networks and formats you need. Video, threads and first comments vary the most.
• How pricing scales. Per profile, per account, per channel or flat per plan changes the bill a lot at 20 or 100 accounts.
• Rate limits. Monthly request caps (Buffer) and hourly post limits (Postiz, Postbase) matter for bulk jobs.
• Safe retries. If a request times out, can you retry without posting twice? Look for idempotency keys, or save each post's id and check before retrying.
• Status back to your code. Webhooks save you polling every post to see whether it went out.
• AI agents. If an agent will post, an MCP server with OAuth sign-in is the easiest setup. See the best MCP servers for social media.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best social media scheduler with an API?

For products where your users connect their own accounts, Ayrshare is the most established and Zernio is the cheapest to start. For your own accounts, Buffer has a free API for up to 3 channels, and Postiz and Postbase include their API, webhooks and MCP server on every plan from $29/month.

Which social media scheduler has a free API?

Buffer's Free plan includes 1 API key and 3,000 requests a month for up to 3 channels. Zernio's first 2 connected accounts are free. Postiz and Postbase are open source, so self-hosting them is free, but you need your own API keys for each network.

Is Ayrshare worth $149 a month?

If you're building a product where many users link their own accounts, Ayrshare's multi-tenant profiles are what you're paying for. If you're only posting to your own accounts, a scheduler API at $29/month or less does the same job.

Does Postbase have an API?

Yes. The Postbase REST API is on every plan. It creates drafts, scheduled posts and threads, gets, edits, retries and cancels posts, attaches media, sends signed webhooks and returns analytics. A hosted MCP server is included too.

Can an AI agent use a social media scheduler API?

Yes. Ayrshare, Zernio, Buffer, Postiz and Postbase all have MCP servers that Claude and other AI tools can use. Zernio, Buffer and Postbase also support OAuth sign-in, so you don't paste an API key into a config file.

Which scheduler API supports the most networks?

Of the options here, Postiz lists around 30 networks, Ayrshare says 14+, and Zernio says 16. Postbase covers six: X, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Mastodon, TikTok and YouTube.