How to Export a Twitter Following List

Looking to export your X (formerly Twitter) following list is a smart move, whether you're analyzing your network, researching competitors, or just keeping a personal backup. This guide will walk you through several effective methods, from the official archive feature to more advanced techniques that give you clean, usable data. We'll cover the step-by-step process for each so you can get the exact information you need.

So, Why Export Your Following List Anyway?

Before jumping into the "how," let's quickly cover the "why." Extracting your following list isn't just about collecting usernames, it's about unlocking insights. With a simple spreadsheet, you can start doing some powerful work that's impossible within the X app itself.

• Audience and Network Analysis: Are you following the right people? Sorting your list by follower count can instantly reveal the most influential accounts in your network. You can also scan bios for keywords to see how many people in a specific niche (like "SaaS founder" or "content creator") you follow.
• Find Collaboration Partners: By exporting your list, or even a competitor's, you can easily filter for accounts that look like great collaboration partners. Look for people in complementary niches with similar audience sizes.
• Manual Backup: Social media accounts can be suspended or lost without warning. Having a list of the people you carefully curated over the years is a valuable backup, allowing you to quickly reconnect on a new account or platform if needed.
• Migrate to Other Platforms: If you're building a presence on emerging platforms like Threads, Bluesky, or Mastodon, having your X following list makes it much easier to find and follow your favorite accounts there manually.
• Clean Up Your Feed: Sometimes your feed just gets too noisy. Exporting your list lets you sort by accounts you've followed the longest or those with low engagement so you can identify and unfollow accounts that are no longer relevant to you.

Method 1: The Official Way (Using Your X Archive)

This is the official method provided by X. It’s free and secure because you’re not giving your credentials to a third-party service. However, it's not a straightforward process. X doesn't give you a neat CSV of your followers, instead, the list is buried inside a technical file within a large archive of all your account data. But don’t worry, we'll show you exactly how to wrestle it into a useful format.

Step 1: Request Your Data Archive

First, you need to ask X for your data archive. This process can take 24 hours or longer, so it’s best to kick it off when you’re not in a hurry.

1. Log in to your X account on a desktop browser.
2. In the left-hand navigation menu, click More, then select Settings and privacy.
3. In the settings menu, click on Your account.
4. Choose Download an archive of your data.
5. You will be asked to re-enter your password and verify your identity through a code sent to your email or phone number.
6. After verification, click the Request archive button.

X will begin preparing your files. You’ll receive an in-app notification and an email when your archive is ready to download.

Step 2: Locate and Download the Archive

Once you get the notification, go back to the Download an archive of your data page. You'll now see a "Download archive" button. It’s a ZIP file, so just save it to your computer.

Step 3: Find the "following.js" File

This is where things get a little technical. Unzip the file and you'll see a folder full of data. Your following list lives inside.

1. Open the unzipped folder.
2. Navigate into the data folder.
3. Look for a file named following.js. This is it! This file contains all the accounts you follow.

Step 4: Convert the .js File to a Usable CSV

If you try to open the following.js file in a spreadsheet program, it will look like garbage. It’s a JavaScript file, not a spreadsheet. Here’s how to convert it.

1. Edit the File: Right-click on following.js and open it with a simple text editor like TextEdit (Mac) or Notepad (Windows). The very first line of the file will be something like: window.YTD.following.part0 = [ You need to delete that entire first line. Just that line.
2. Fix the End: Go to the very last character in the file. It will be a closing bracket ]. Your text cursor should be right after it. Save the file.
3. Rename to JSON: Now, rename the file from following.js to following.json. Your computer may warn you about changing the file extension, go ahead and approve it.
4. Convert to CSV: You now have a JSON file, which is a structured format that's easy to convert. Go to a reliable online JSON to CSV converter (a quick search will bring up dozens). Upload your new following.json file, and the tool will generate a downloadable CSV file.

You now have a clean spreadsheet with the accountId, userLink, and userName for every account you follow. It’s a bit of a process, but it’s free, safe, and works every time.

Method 2: Using a Third-Party Tool

If the archive method seems like too much work, you can use a third-party service. These tools are designed to easily export follower or following lists from any public X account. They are often much faster and give you the data in a clean CSV from the start.

Benefits and Cautions

Pros:

• Fast and Easy: They usually only require you to enter the username and click a button.
• More Data: Many of these tools provide additional data points, such as the account bio, follower count, location, and date they joined.
• Analyze Any Public Account: You can export the following list for any public profile, not just your own. This is great for competitive analysis.

Cons:

• Potential Security Risks: Many free tools ask for access to your X account to function. Be extremely careful about which tools you connect to your account, as you’re handing over permissions.
• Terms of Service: While a gray area, scraping data can potentially violate X's terms of service. Using these tools responsibly for your own analytics is generally fine, but avoid using them maliciously.
• Limitations: Free versions of these tools often cap the number of accounts you can export (e.g., the first 1,000) or limit how often you can perform an export.

How to Use These Tools (General Steps)

Because these services change often, we won’t recommend a specific one. However, most work similarly. Search for "export Twitter following tool" to find current options like PhantomBuster, Apify, or others.

1. Sign up for the service (look for a free tier or trial).
2. Find the "Twitter Following Exporter" or a similarly named feature.
3. Enter the X handle of the account you wish to analyze.
4. Configure any settings, like the number of accounts to export.
5. Launch the tool and wait for it to run.
6. Download the results as a CSV file.

Method 3: The Power User & Developer Route (Using the API)

For those with some technical comfort, using the X API is the most powerful and flexible method. It gives you direct access to the freshest data and allows you to customize exactly what information you pull for each account. This method avoids the hassle of the archive download and is more reliable than scraping.

What You'll Need

• An X developer account (you can apply for free).
• Basic knowledge of a programming language like Python.
• API keys and authentication tokens from your developer-approved app.
• A code editor.

The API Process in a Nutshell

The goal isn’t to teach you how to code here, but to give you an overview of how it works. You would essentially write a script that does the following:

1. Authenticate: The script uses your private API keys to make a secure connection to X. Libraries like Tweepy for Python make this part pretty simple.
2. Make a Request: It then calls a specific API "endpoint," in this case users/:id/following, which is designed to return a list of users followed by a specific user ID.
3. Handle Pagination: The API won't return thousands of accounts in a single request. It sends back a "page" of results (up to 1,000 users at a time) along with a token to request the next page. Your script needs to loop through these pages until it has collected the full list.
4. Parse and Save: For each user returned, the script can pull various fields like username, display name, bio, follower count, location, URL, and more. It then formats this data and saves it directly to a CSV file on your computer.

This method offers the most control, but it has the highest learning curve. If you plan on doing this type of analysis regularly, it’s worth an afternoon of learning.

What to Do With Your Exported Data

You have a spreadsheet! Now what? The real value comes from turning this raw data into insights. Open your CSV in Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel and get started.

Sort and Filter to Find Gems

• Find Key Influencers: Sort the entire sheet by the follower_count column in descending order. The most influential people in your network will immediately pop to the top.
• Categorize Your Network: Use the bio field to discover different segments of your audience. Use a filter or a function to find accounts with specific keywords in their bio, like "investor," "journalist," or "UX designer." In Google Sheets, a simple filter function can work wonders: =FILTER(A2:E, ISNUMBER(SEARCH("founder", C2:C))) This would show you all the rows where the bio (in column C) contains the word "founder."
• Build Targeted X Lists: Now that you've identified these groups, go back to X and create private lists like "Media Contacts," "Industry Leaders," or "Potential Clients." This lets you tune into specific conversations without cluttering your main feed.

Final Thoughts

Exporting your Twitter following list opens up a new layer of analysis, whether you're using the official archive, a handy third-party tool, or the powerful X API. Having your network’s data in a clean spreadsheet allows you to find influencers, organize contacts, and gain a clearer understanding of your social circle and industry.

Once you've used this data to identify key accounts and refine your strategy, the next step is consistently showing up with great content. This is where a social media management tool becomes your daily driver for turning plans into action. At Postbase, we designed our platform to make planning, scheduling, and engaging across all your social accounts simple and reliable. We help you take that strategic insight you've gathered and execute on it with a tool that works for you, so you can spend your time connecting with the audience you just worked hard to understand.