TikTok Followers / Following Scraper

Extract TikTok followers and following lists with public profile metadata for influencer research, lead generation, audience mapping, and analytics workflows.

What does this actor do?

TikTok Followers / Following Scraper is an Apify Actor that extracts public follower and following lists from one or more TikTok profiles, including:

• Relationship records — one row per follower/following with full profile metadata, stats, and relationship lineage
• Lead-gen fields — email-in-bio detection, Instagram/YouTube handles, and external URLs
• Summary records — per-profile/mode run stats with item counts, duration, and status
• Deduplication — within-profile and cross-profile dedup for clean audience lists

This actor is designed as a relationship intelligence tool — not just a list extractor, but an analytics-ready pipeline for audience research, lead generation, and network mapping.

Modes

Mode	Description
followers	Scrape accounts that follow the target profile
following	Scrape accounts that the target profile follows
both	Scrape both followers and following in a single run

Input

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
profiles	string[]	["@tiktok"]	TikTok profiles to scrape — accepts username, @handle, or profile URL (required)
mode	string	"followers"	followers, following, or both (required)
maxItemsPerProfile	integer	100	Max accounts per profile per mode (1–5000)
includeSourceProfile	boolean	true	Include source profile metadata on each row
includeSummary	boolean	true	Emit summary records per profile/mode
deduplicateWithinProfile	boolean	true	Remove duplicate users within each profile
deduplicateAcrossProfiles	boolean	false	Remove users already seen from other profiles
stopOnError	boolean	false	Stop entire run on first profile failure
debugMode	boolean	false	Enable verbose logging
proxyConfiguration	object	—	Apify proxy configuration (residential recommended)

Profile input formats

The actor accepts profiles in any of these formats — you can mix them freely:

• Username: charlidamelio
• With @: @charlidamelio
• Profile URL: https://www.tiktok.com/@charlidamelio

Duplicates are removed automatically after normalization.

Sample input: Influencer audience research

Scrape followers of AI-related profiles to discover audience composition and find adjacent creators.

{
  "profiles": ["claude", "@openai", "https://www.tiktok.com/@google"],
  "mode": "followers",
  "maxItemsPerProfile": 100,
  "includeSourceProfile": true,
  "includeSummary": true,
  "deduplicateWithinProfile": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}

Sample input: Competitor audience overlap

Scrape followers of competitor accounts with cross-profile dedup enabled to find unique audiences per brand and measure overlap.

{
  "profiles": ["@nike", "@adidas", "@puma"],
  "mode": "followers",
  "maxItemsPerProfile": 500,
  "includeSourceProfile": true,
  "includeSummary": true,
  "deduplicateAcrossProfiles": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}

Sample input: Creator network mapping

Discover who top creators follow to find niche communities and potential collaborators.

{
  "profiles": ["@charlidamelio", "@khaby.lame"],
  "mode": "following",
  "maxItemsPerProfile": 200,
  "includeSourceProfile": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}

Output

The actor outputs a dataset where each relationship is one row with full source lineage. Results are available in four dataset views:

• Overview — record type, source profile, relationship type, key profile data, and stats
• Profiles — full profile details with follower/following counts and metadata
• Lead Gen — contact signals: email-in-bio, Instagram handle, YouTube handle, external URL
• Summary — per-profile/mode run stats with items returned, dedup counts, and duration

Overview record

The Overview view shows each relationship with the key profile data at a glance.

{
  "recordType": "relationship",
  "sourceUsername": "claude",
  "relationshipType": "followers",
  "position": 12,
  "username": "hannahustles",
  "displayName": "Hanna 🤍",
  "profileUrl": "https://www.tiktok.com/@hannahustles",
  "isVerified": false,
  "accountPrivate": false,
  "followersCount": 8475,
  "followingCount": 1361,
  "likesCount": 77777,
  "videosCount": 417,
  "bio": "Tech • Fashion • Creator Commerce\nFounder scaling @Love and War\nI build income systems in public\n↓ Partnerships + collabs\nHannalaikin@gmail.com",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-03-17T04:16:08.732Z"
}

Profiles record

The Profiles view shows full profile details including avatar, external URL, and user ID.

{
  "username": "hannahustles",
  "displayName": "Hanna 🤍",
  "profileUrl": "https://www.tiktok.com/@hannahustles",
  "userId": "7500424991441290271",
  "isVerified": false,
  "accountPrivate": false,
  "bio": "Tech • Fashion • Creator Commerce\nFounder scaling @Love and War\nI build income systems in public\n↓ Partnerships + collabs\nHannalaikin@gmail.com",
  "followersCount": 8475,
  "followingCount": 1361,
  "likesCount": 77777,
  "videosCount": 417,
  "profilePictureUrl": "https://p16-common-sign.tiktokcdn-us.com/tos-useast5-avt-0068-tx/e4a99e9aa571bc1fe51fae0669da808d~tplv-tiktokx-cropcenter:1080:1080.jpeg?...",
  "externalUrl": null,
  "sourceUsername": "claude",
  "relationshipType": "followers",
  "position": 12
}

Lead Gen record

The Lead Gen view surfaces contact signals extracted from bios and links — useful for outreach targeting.

{
  "username": "chiefofstafftok",
  "displayName": "KG | Chief of Staff",
  "profileUrl": "https://www.tiktok.com/@chiefofstafftok",
  "bio": "👩🏻‍💻 Chief of Staff in NYC helping you grow your career & work smarter \n📩 kg@coachingwithkg.com\n💡 Views and ideas are my own (not my employers)",
  "emailInBio": "kg@coachingwithkg.com",
  "instagramHandle": null,
  "youtubeHandle": null,
  "externalUrl": null,
  "isVerified": false,
  "followersCount": 18101,
  "likesCount": 110683,
  "videosCount": 210,
  "sourceUsername": "claude",
  "relationshipType": "followers"
}

Summary record

When includeSummary is enabled, the actor emits one summary record per profile/mode with run statistics.

{
  "recordType": "summary",
  "sourceUsername": "claude",
  "sourceProfileUrl": "https://www.tiktok.com/@claude",
  "relationshipType": "followers",
  "requestedMaxItems": 100,
  "returnedItems": 100,
  "deduplicatedItems": 0,
  "runStatus": "completed",
  "isPrivateOrRestricted": false,
  "startedAt": "2026-03-17T04:16:06.351Z",
  "finishedAt": "2026-03-17T04:16:16.514Z",
  "durationSeconds": 10,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-03-17T04:16:16.514Z"
}

Error record

Failed profiles emit structured error records so individual failures don't break the run.

{
  "recordType": "error",
  "sourceInput": "@deleteduser",
  "sourceUsername": "deleteduser",
  "sourceProfileUrl": "https://www.tiktok.com/@deleteduser",
  "relationshipType": "followers",
  "errorType": "secUid_extraction_failed",
  "errorMessage": "Could not extract secUid for @deleteduser. Profile may be private, deleted, or page structure changed.",
  "sourceResolved": false,
  "isPartial": false,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-03-17T05:30:00.000Z",
  "runMode": "followers"
}

Output fields

Relationship / lineage fields

Field	Description
recordType	Always "relationship" for relationship rows
sourceInput	The original profile input as provided
sourceUsername	Normalized username of the source profile
sourceProfileUrl	Full TikTok profile URL of the source
sourceUserId	TikTok user ID of the source profile
relationshipType	"followers" or "following"
position	Position/rank in the returned list
scrapedAt	ISO 8601 timestamp of extraction
runMode	The mode setting for this run

Related profile identity fields

Field	Description
username	TikTok username
profileUrl	Full TikTok profile URL
userId	TikTok user ID
displayName	Display name / nickname
bio	Profile bio/signature
isVerified	Verified badge status
profilePictureUrl	Avatar URL
accountPrivate	Whether the account is private

Profile stats fields

Field	Description
followersCount	Follower count
followingCount	Following count
likesCount	Total likes/hearts received
videosCount	Number of videos posted

Lead-gen / contact fields

Field	Description
externalUrl	Bio link URL
emailInBio	Email address detected in bio text
instagramHandle	Instagram handle detected in bio or bio link
youtubeHandle	YouTube handle detected in bio or bio link

Source profile fields (when includeSourceProfile is enabled)

Field	Description
sourceDisplayName	Source profile display name
sourceBio	Source profile bio
sourceIsVerified	Source profile verified status
sourceFollowersCount	Source profile follower count
sourceFollowingCount	Source profile following count
sourceLikesCount	Source profile total likes
sourceVideosCount	Source profile video count

Quality / parsing fields

Field	Description
inputNormalized	Normalized source username
sourceResolved	Whether the source profile was successfully resolved
isPartial	Whether results are partial (interrupted)
errorType	Error classification (null on success)
errorMessage	Error message (null on success)

Best-effort fields

The following fields depend on what TikTok includes in its API responses. They are extracted when available and returned as null when not: emailInBio, instagramHandle, youtubeHandle, externalUrl, profilePictureUrl

Use cases

• Influencer audience research — get follower lists from seed creators to find adjacent creators in the same niche
• Competitor audience mining — scrape follower lists of competitor accounts to identify potential audience pools
• Creator network mapping — understand who a creator follows and how creators cluster in a niche
• Lead generation — extract public bio links, emails, Instagram handles for outreach targeting
• Community segmentation — compare accounts across several seed profiles and identify overlap with cross-profile dedup
• Enrichment pipeline — use returned usernames as input into TikTok Profile Scraper or external CRMs

How this differs from TikTok Profile Scraper

Feature	Profile Scraper	Followers/Following Scraper
Focus	Single profile metadata	Relationship lists
Output	1 row per profile	1 row per follower/following
Lead-gen	Basic profile fields	Email, Instagram, YouTube detection from bios
Modes	N/A	Followers, following, or both
Dedup	N/A	Within-profile and cross-profile
Summary	N/A	Per-profile/mode run stats
Batching	Multiple profiles	Multiple seed profiles with error isolation

Tips and best practices

• Start small — use maxItemsPerProfile: 20–50 for initial exploration, then increase
• Use both mode sparingly — it doubles the API calls per profile
• Enable cross-profile dedup for audience overlap reduction across competitor accounts
• Filter by recordType — use "relationship" to get only relationship rows, "summary" for run health
• Use the Lead Gen view — surfaces contact signals (email, Instagram, YouTube) for outreach workflows
• Schedule for monitoring — run on a schedule to track audience changes over time
• Chain with other actors — feed returned usernames into TikTok Profile Scraper for deeper analysis

Proxy configuration

Residential proxies are recommended for reliable TikTok scraping.

{
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Integrations

• Google Sheets — export follower/following data to spreadsheets for team dashboards
• Slack/email — set up notifications when a run completes
• Webhooks — trigger downstream workflows on completion
• API — access results programmatically via the Apify API
• Other actors — feed discovered usernames into TikTok Profile Scraper for deeper analysis

Limitations

• Results per profile depend on how much data TikTok returns via its API. The actual number may be lower than maxItemsPerProfile.
• Some fields are best-effort and may be null depending on what TikTok includes in its responses (see "Best-effort fields" above).
• This actor scrapes public data only. Private accounts will return error records.
• Very large follower lists (millions) may be partially extracted depending on TikTok's rate limiting.
• TikTok may change its API structure, which could affect extraction reliability.

FAQ

How many results can I get per profile? Up to 5000 per profile per mode. The actual number depends on TikTok's API response behavior and rate limiting.

Why are some fields null? Lead-gen fields (emailInBio, instagramHandle, youtubeHandle) and externalUrl depend on what users have in their bios and what TikTok includes in its API responses. They are extracted on a best-effort basis and returned as null when not available.

What happens if a profile fails? Failed profiles emit a structured error record with recordType: "error" and errorMessage. Other profiles continue unless stopOnError is enabled.

What is the difference between within-profile and cross-profile dedup? Within-profile removes duplicate users in a single profile's list. Cross-profile removes users already seen from other profiles in the same run — useful for identifying unique followers across competitors.

Can I scrape private accounts? No. Private accounts will return an error record indicating the profile is restricted.

How does "both" mode work? The actor navigates to the profile once, extracts the secUid, then runs both the followers and following API pagination loops sequentially. This is more efficient than two separate runs.

What is the recordType field? Every output row has a recordType for easy filtering: "relationship" for follower/following rows, "summary" for run stats, or "error" for failed profiles. Use this to separate record types in spreadsheets or downstream workflows.

How does the actor extract emails and social handles? The actor scans each user's bio text for email patterns, Instagram mentions (e.g., "IG: @handle", "instagram: handle"), and YouTube references. It also checks bio link URLs for Instagram and YouTube domains.