Stream Source Management

Stream sources are persistent RTMPS ingest endpoints. Manage them with the /2/sources routes: each source has a non-secret source id and a separate stream key you configure in your encoder.

A stream source is a persistent RTMPS ingest endpoint. Create sources once per region/encoder setup and reuse them across many broadcasts.

A per-user limit on the number of sources may apply. Create sources sparingly and reuse them across broadcasts rather than creating a new source per broadcast. Sources belong to the creating user.

Source id and stream key

Every source has two different values. Don’t mix them up:

Value	Example	What it is
Source id (id)	9123456789012345678	Identifies the source, 19 digits. Not a secret. Use it in /2/sources/:id paths and as source_id when you go live or schedule a broadcast.
Stream key (stream_key)	YOUR_STREAM_KEY	A credential your encoder uses to publish video. Anyone with it can stream to the source.

The stream key is returned only by Create a Source and by Get Source Stream Key. Every other response leaves it out.

Treat the stream key like a password. Keep it out of logs, URLs, analytics and client-side code. Use the source id everywhere else.

rtmp_url and rtmps_url are server URLs and don’t contain the stream key. In your encoder, set the server to rtmps_url and enter the stream key in its stream key field. If your encoder takes a single URL, append the key: rtmps_url + / + stream key.

Source object

Field	Description
id	Source id (19 digits).
name	Label for your own organization. Doesn’t affect functionality.
region	Region of the X ingest location serving the source: us-east-1 or us-west-2. It can differ from the region you requested; for example, eu-central-1 is served from us-east-1. Sources created before October 31, 2026 keep the AWS region they were created in.
rtmp_url, rtmps_url	Ingest server URLs. Both are RTMPS (TLS) URLs; configure your encoder with rtmps_url.
is_stream_active	true while the source is receiving video from your encoder.
created_at_ms	Creation time in milliseconds since the Unix epoch, as a string.
stream_key	Only in the Create a Source response.

Endpoints

Endpoint	Method & Path
Get Recommended Region	GET /2/region
Create a Source	POST /2/sources
Get Sources	GET /2/sources
Get Source by ID	GET /2/sources/:id
Get Source Stream Key	GET /2/sources/:id/stream_key
Update Source by ID	PUT /2/sources/:id
Delete Source by ID	DELETE /2/sources/:id

All of these require user context authentication: OAuth 2.0 with the broadcast.read and broadcast.write scopes (recommended), or OAuth 1.0a. Responses wrap the result in data, and errors use the standard X API problem format.

Rate limits

Each /2/sources route allows 450 requests per 15 minutes per user, the same as the deprecated /2/users/:user_id/sources routes.

Errors

Status	Problem type	When
400	https://api.x.com/2/problems/invalid-request	The request is invalid, for example a missing name, an unsupported region, or an unknown body field. Also returned when :id isn’t a source id, for example when you pass a stream key (The `id` value is not a source id.). The value you sent isn’t echoed back.
404	https://api.x.com/2/problems/resource-not-found	The source doesn’t exist or belongs to another user.

Deprecated routes

The original source routes under /2/users/:user_id/sources are deprecated and will be removed on January 1, 2027. On those routes the source’s id is its stream key. They keep working unchanged until then. See the migration guide.

Deprecated route	Replacement
POST /2/users/:user_id/sources	POST /2/sources
GET /2/users/:user_id/sources	GET /2/sources
GET /2/users/:user_id/sources/:source_id	GET /2/sources/:id
PUT /2/users/:user_id/sources/:source_id	PUT /2/sources/:id
DELETE /2/users/:user_id/sources/:source_id	DELETE /2/sources/:id