And that's what they're relying on. Companies who rely on the twitter API to have no choice but to pay up to stay afloat

Well that is their fault for basing their entire business on someone else’s API.

Twitter’s API terms are subject to change and now it has become a paid service. So it is time for those companies to pay up.

If its that important to your grade, could you not shell out for the paid service until your project is completed? I'm assuming this is a semester project of some kind, and probably not terribly high-traffic, so it shouldn't be too expensive. I know it sounds like giving into extortion because it more or less is, but at 40% it sounds like a serious chunk of your grade that it might be worthwhile if you factor in the cost of learning to not rely on someone else's charity.

The last part isn't meant to chastise you. Twitter's API has long been free to access so it wasn't unreasonable to assume it would be so. But it has been true pretty much forever that you should not rely on someone else's goodwill and charity for a critical part of your project or business.

(None of this is to say that this change isn't being badly managed, just that I think you still have options here, despite being somewhat unpleasant.)

Agreed, I'll be waiting for more information - but it's even more mad that I have to wait until 'next week' for that, a mere handful of days before the shut off date as well.

On the bright side, you've learned something important.

Switch to Mastodon for your project? Im sure your teacher will understand the situation.

Why? You're freeloading. Pay for the service you use. It's as simple as that.

How is it freeloading when they have literally offered it for free?

Ah, yes, freeloading on a service that has been available free of charge for over 16 years and which is now being shut off with a week's notice and with no details regarding the paid plans that will supposedly replace it. Definitely not appropriate for them to be mad about that at all.

So my bot with a hundred thousand of followers is providing content and thus twitter should pay me for the content I provide right? Since I add value to the service?

We already paid with our data, by wasting screen space for tweets of accs we haven't followed.