How to Use the Twitter/X Search Export

Step 1: Connect your X/Twitter account

To let the Phantom act on your behalf:

1. Install the PhantomBuster browser extension and connect your X/Twitter session in one click.
2. If you’re not using Chrome or Firefox, you can retrieve your session cookie manually (see our cookie guide).

Step 2: Provide your search inputs

You can give your input in one of the following ways:

1. A keyword:
   • Paste a keyword directly into the setup (e.g. marketing).
2. A URL:
   • Paste a single X/Twitter search URL.
   • Paste the URL of a Google Sheet with your X/Twitter search URLs (make sure it’s shared with “Anyone with the link”).
   • Or upload a CSV file with your X/Twitter search URLs (make sure it’s publicly accessible, and note that CSV upload is only available on paid plans).

→ If you’re using a spreadsheet, the Phantom defaults to the first column (A). To use a different column, enter the column’s header name in the field “Column name where search terms are stored in the spreadsheet.”

Want to search for multiple keywords at once? Put each keyword or search URL on a separate row in a Google Sheet or CSV and use that as your input. The Phantom will process each one and combine the results in a single output file.

Step 3: Configure limits and search filters

1. Number of searches to process per launch (optional):
   • Default = 20.
   • If left empty, the Phantom processes up to 20 maximum.
2. Number of results per search (optional):
   • Default = 20.
   • If left empty, the Phantom returns up to 20 maximum.
3. Choose what kind of search do you want (optional):
   • Choose how X/Twitter displays results:
     • News (default) → Tweets X/Twitter categorizes as news content.
     • Recent → Tweets shown in chronological order.
     • People → Profiles that match your search.
     • Photos → Tweets containing images.
     • Videos → Tweets containing videos.

Advanced settings (dropdown in setup)

1. Watcher mode (optional):
   • Enable to reprocess the same keywords/URLs on every launch and collect new results over time.
2. Keyword filters:
   • Match exactly all following words → Tweet must contain every word.
   • Match any of the following words → Tweet can contain any of the words.
   • Excluded these words → Filter out tweets containing these words.
3. Date filters:
   • Since → Collect tweets posted on or after a specific date (format: MM-DD-YYYY).
   • Before → Collect tweets posted before the date (format: MM-DD-YYYY).

Result file settings (dropdown in setup)

1. Name your results file (optional)

   • You can customize the file name.

     If you rename the file between launches, the Phantom will create a new results file and start processing inputs from scratch.

2. Fields to keep (optional)
   • Export only the fields you care about by listing them (comma-separated).
     Example: profileUrl, job, location.
   • This generates a second CSV file with just those fields.
   • Learn more in our guide: Customize how your Phantom results files are saved.

Step 4: Select launch frequency

Choose how often the Phantom should run:

1. Launch manually: Start the Phantom yourself whenever you need.
2. Launch once at a specific time: schedule a one-time run at a set date and time.
3. Launch repeatedly: schedule regular runs (e.g. once per day, several times during working hours).
4. Launch after another Phantom: chain automations together so this Phantom starts right after another finishes.
5. Advanced scheduling: customize the exact minutes, hours, days, or months when the Phantom should run.

→ For a complete walkthrough of scheduling options, see our guide to scheduling Phantoms automatically.

Step 5 (Optional): Advanced settings

Advanced settings are available if you want to fine-tune how your Phantom runs, but by default they’re already optimized for most use cases.

We recommend leaving them as they are unless a guide specifically instructs you to change something.

→ For a detailed overview of all advanced options (like execution limits, retries, email notifications, proxies, webhooks, and file management), see our Advanced settings guide.

Launch and results

When you’re ready:

1. Click Launch to start your Phantom.
2. Once it finishes, open the Results tab in the Phantom console to see extracted tweets and their details.
3. Download your results as a CSV or JSON file.

→ To learn how to export your data to Google Sheets, integrate with other tools, or reuse it in more automations, check our Access and Export your Phantom Results guide.

Export and input limits on the Free plan
If you’re on the Free plan or Free trial, some features are limited:
- CSV exports include only the first 10 rows of results.
- CSV download links (for dynamic viewing in Google Sheets or integrations) are not available.
- JSON exports are not available.
- CSV upload as an input method is not supported.
To unlock all features, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.

What you give (Input) and What you get (Output)

This section gives you a detailed breakdown of everything you need to provide to run this Phantom, and everything you’ll receive once it completes.

What you give (Input)

What you get (Output)

Tips and troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• To refine results further, use the keyword filters in Advanced settings: match all words, match any word, or exclude specific words from results.
• Using a private spreadsheet (make sure it’s set to “Anyone with the link”).
• Empty results → Loosen your filters or broaden keywords; overly restrictive word/exclude/date filters can return nothing.
• Date filter errors → Use MM-DD-YYYY and valid ranges (e.g., Since must be before Before).

If you run into issues

• Check how to troubleshoot your phantom using Logs.
• Browse the Fix Issues & Troubleshoot Errors section for solutions to common problems.
• Review our Automation Rate Limits by Platform guide.
• Check our Best Practices for Social Media Automation guide.

Suggested automations

• Twitter Auto Liker → engage with the tweets you’ve just exported.
• Twitter Auto Retweeter → reshare relevant posts to build activity on your account.
• AI Advanced Enricher → analyze sentiment, extract entities, or generate summaries from the tweets you collected.