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Quickstart

Updated

You can make your first call in about two minutes. All you need is an API key and a terminal.

1. Get a key

Sign up with your email. New accounts get 1,000 free credits, and you don't need a card.

Open API keys and create a key. You only see it once, so copy it into an environment variable right away:

terminal
export CHATTERAPI_KEY="ca_live_..."

2. Make your first call

Search Reddit posts from the past year that mention a small business CRM:

curl "https://chatterapi.com/v1/reddit/search?q=best+crm+for+small+business&time=year&limit=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CHATTERAPI_KEY"

3. Read the response

Every successful call returns the same envelope. This one was recorded from a live call:

response (first two rows)
{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "1wdihhj",
      "fullname": "t3_1wdihhj",
      "title": "What CRM should a small business use?",
      "body": "We’re a small B2B business with 6 people and sales is still pretty founder led, but revenue has grown enough that keeping leads, follow ups and customer conversations spread across spreadsheets and inboxes is starting to fall apart. I’m trying to figure out what the best CRM for a small business looks like when you need something the whole team can use without spending weeks setting it up.  \n  \nI keep finding everything from really basic small business CRM tools to newer AI native CRM platforms, and I’m more interested in something that can take some of the sales work off the team rather than just becoming another database we have to maintain. Main thing is finding a CRM we can grow into without needing a dedicated ops person just to keep it running.",
      "author": "NotedWhisky",
      "subreddit": "CRM",
      "permalink": "/r/CRM/comments/1wdihhj/what_crm_should_a_small_business_use/",
      "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/CRM/comments/1wdihhj/what_crm_should_a_small_business_use/",
      "externalUrl": null,
      "score": 51,
      "numComments": 186,
      "upvoteRatio": null,
      "createdAt": "2026-09-11T14:52:16.000Z",
      "nsfw": false,
      "locked": null,
      "media": null
    },
    {
      "id": "1vmy4xb",
      "fullname": "t3_1vmy4xb",
      "title": "If You Had to Pick the Best CRM for Small Business Today, What Would It Be?",
      "body": "I've spent the last few days reading reviews and watching videos, and somehow I'm even more undecided than when I started.\n\nEvery CRM looks amazing on its website, but that doesn't tell you what it's like after you've been using it for six months.\n\nI'm more interested in hearing from people who rely on one every day. Which CRM are you using, and what keeps you from switching? Is there anything about it that drives you crazy, or do you feel like it's been worth every dollar?\n\nMy main goal is to stay on top of leads, keep follow-ups organized, and automate the routine work without ending up with a system that's harder to manage than the business itself.\n\nI'd appreciate hearing some live experiences. If you've found a CRM you'd choose again, I'd love to know which one and why.",
      "author": "Living_Dependent242",
      "subreddit": "CRMSoftware",
      "permalink": "/r/CRMSoftware/comments/1vmy4xb/if_you_had_to_pick_the_best_crm_for_small/",
      "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/CRMSoftware/comments/1vmy4xb/if_you_had_to_pick_the_best_crm_for_small/",
      "externalUrl": null,
      "score": 10,
      "numComments": 56,
      "upvoteRatio": null,
      "createdAt": "2026-08-13T02:25:31.000Z",
      "nsfw": false,
      "locked": null,
      "media": null
    }
  ],
  "page": {
    "nextCursor": "eyJ2IjoxLCJwIjoiYW55YXBpIiwiYyI6ImN1cl9qWGJYVzlhZ3E1NXBDdHI4d3VCeG9nIiwibyI6MCwiaCI6ImQ4ZmU3ZjZiNjM0OSJ9",
    "hasMore": true
  },
  "credits": {
    "charged": 1,
    "remaining": 24999
  },
  "requestId": "req_01JA7Q3V8K2N4P5R6S7T8V",
  "cached": false
}

Recorded from a live call on 2026-10-07, cut to two rows. Your balance will differ.

  • data: the result. An array on list tools, an object on lookups.
  • page.nextCursor: pass it as cursor to get the next page. Null on the last page.
  • page.hasMore: false on the last page. Only list tools have page.
  • credits.charged: what this call cost.
  • credits.remaining: your balance after it.
  • requestId: quote it when you contact support.
  • cached: true when served from our cache. Cached calls cost the same.
  • warnings: only present when something was partial, for example one platform of two did not answer.

Headers on every response: x-request-id, x-credits-charged, x-credits-remaining, x-ratelimit-limit, x-ratelimit-remaining and x-ratelimit-reset.

4. Get the next page

When page.hasMore is true, send page.nextCursor back as cursor with the same parameters. Each page is charged separately. See Pagination for a full loop.

5. Try an X call

The same key works for X. Look up an account by handle:

curl "https://chatterapi.com/v1/x/users/levelsio" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CHATTERAPI_KEY"
response
{
  "data": {
    "id": "1577241403",
    "handle": "levelsio",
    "name": "@levelsio",
    "bio": "💸http://levels.vc\n📸http://PhotoAI.com $86K/m\n🎮http://VibeJam.com $44K/m\n🏡http://InteriorAI.com $23K/m\n👙@X $13K/m\n🌍http://Nomads.com $7K/m\n🏩http://Hotelist.com $5K/m",
    "followers": 974707,
    "following": 3276,
    "tweets": 181450,
    "verified": false,
    "blueVerified": true,
    "canDm": false,
    "protected": false,
    "location": "📕My book $5K/m 👉",
    "url": "https://readMAKE.com",
    "avatarUrl": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/2077111020305162240/PwddgOau_400x400.jpg",
    "createdAt": "2013-07-08T09:31:59.000Z"
  },
  "credits": {
    "charged": 3,
    "remaining": 24996
  },
  "requestId": "req_01JA7Q3V8K2N4P5R6S7T8W",
  "cached": false
}

Recorded from a live call on 2026-10-13.

6. Use it from an agent

Agents can call the same tools through the hosted MCP server at https://api.chatterapi.com/mcp. The MCP page has setup instructions for each client.

7. Next steps