Does scheduling itself cost reach? A 40-post manual vs API test

Does scheduling itself cost reach? A 40-post manual vs API test
The oldest fear in Threads: does the API down-weight scheduled posts? I tested it cleanly. 20 posts published by hand in-app, 20 identical posts published via Buffer's API, alternating days for 6 weeks.

— Manual posts: 1,310 median views
— API-scheduled posts: 1,160 median views (-11%)
— Text-only posts showed no gap; the penalty appeared only when media was attached

So there is a small, real API tax, but it's media-specific, not a blanket throttle.

Standout feature: Buffer's reliability, 0 failed publishes in 20. Annoying limitation: that 11% media tax is unavoidable through any API tool, Buffer included.

Verdict: schedule text freely, post media-heavy hero content by hand. Buffer: Worth it for everything else, from 6 dollars.