China Hot Search API – 热搜 Trends from Douyin, Weibo, Baidu, Zhihu and 12 more

China Trends Hub is a Chinese hot search API: Douyin hot search (抖音热搜), Weibo hot search (微博热搜), Baidu hot search (百度热搜) and Zhihu hot list (知乎热榜) plus Kuaishou, Toutiao, Bilibili popular, ranking & hot search (B站热搜), Douban hot movies, Maoyan box office, Tieba, 36Kr, ThePaper, ITHome (IT之家), Hupu, Tencent News (腾讯新闻) and Sina News (新浪热搜): 29 boards from 16 platforms in one call, as clean JSON trending-topic rows (rank, title, heat, label, url). No login, no cookies, no proxy needed.

• One call, many boards: leave the input empty for 10 default hot lists, or pick boards with boards: ["douyin_hot", "weibo_hot", "baidu_realtime"].
• Monitoring built in: deltaKey adds isNew, rankChange, heatChange, peakRank, minutesOnBoard; onlyNew: true returns only topics you have not seen yet; the summary lists leftBoard (topics that dropped off since the last run, free).
• Paste a board link: urls: ["https://s.weibo.com/top/summary", "https://top.baidu.com/board?tab=realtime"] is fetched as those boards.
• Completeness you can check: the summary row has isPartial, the limits you asked for, and boardStats per board (rows fetched, kept by filters, returned, fields that board never provides).
• Keyword watchlist: keywords: ["AI", "华为", "Tesla"] keeps only matching topics; English names are matched in Chinese too (Huawei → 华为).
• Cross-platform clusters (free): see which topic trends on Weibo, Baidu, Douyin and Toutiao at the same time.
• Full articles: 36Kr, ThePaper and IT之家 hot articles as Markdown.
• Maoyan box office: real-time today or any day of the last 365 days.
• Predictable cost: $0.003 per trend row, $0.002 per news article, free error / summary / cluster rows, maxCostUsd cap, free dryRun.

Unofficial; not affiliated with any of the platforms listed.

For AI agents

Call with an array input; nothing is required. Every row has type, operation, input, queryUsed, id, url, fetchedAt; the last row is type: "summary" (counts, cost, failed boards, isPartial, boardStats, nextSteps). null means the platform does not show that value; 0 is a real zero. Bad input never fails the run: you get a free type: "error" row with errorCode, message and fix.

Goal	Copy-paste input
Fast check, fewest tokens (the prefill, < 5 s)	{"boards":["douyin_hot","weibo_hot","baidu_realtime"],"maxItemsPerInput":10,"outputMode":"lean"}
Default 10 hot lists	{}
Paste board links	{"urls":["https://s.weibo.com/top/summary","https://www.zhihu.com/hot"],"maxItemsPerInput":10}
Bilibili hot search, Tencent News, Sina hot search	{"boards":["bilibili_hot_search","tencent_news_hot","sina_hot"],"maxItemsPerInput":10}
Brand / keyword watch with rank change	{"operation":"hot_lists","boards":["zhihu_hot","toutiao_hot","bilibili_popular"],"keywords":["AI","华为"],"deltaKey":"brand-watch"}
Only new topics since last run (schedule it)	{"boards":["weibo","douyin","baidu"],"deltaKey":"my-monitor","onlyNew":true}
Topics trending on 2+ platforms	{"operation":"trend_clusters","boards":["douyin","weibo","baidu","zhihu","toutiao"]}
Hot lists + free clusters	{"boards":["weibo","baidu","toutiao"],"include":["clusters"]}
Full text of 36Kr hot articles	{"operation":"news_articles","boards":["kr36_hot"],"maxItemsPerInput":5}
Full text of given articles	{"operation":"news_articles","urls":["https://www.36kr.com/p/4022353646555013"]}
China box office now	{"operation":"box_office"}
Box office on past days	{"operation":"box_office","dates":["2026-10-01","2026-10-02"]}
Highest heat across all boards	{"boards":["all"],"sortBy":"heat","maxItems":50}
Board list, fields, prices (free)	{"operation":"capabilities"}
Cost estimate (free)	{"boards":["douyin_hot"],"dryRun":true}

Operations: auto (default: urls → news_articles, dates → box_office, otherwise hot_lists), hot_lists, news_articles, box_office, trend_clusters, capabilities. Output modes: compact (default), full (every field), lean (platform, rank, title, heat, url, rankChange – about 50 tokens per row; a url that follows the board's pattern is replaced by id, patterns in summary.urlPatterns), table (flat CSV columns). leanFormat: "table" also writes one TSV table (record LEAN_TABLE). Control: fields[], include[] (clusters, body), maxItems (default 200), maxItemsPerInput (rows per board, default 20), minHeat, excludePinned, sortBy (rank, heat, rankChange), dedupe, maxCostUsd, dryRun, expandQuery. Legacy names accepted: platforms = boards, maxResultsPerBoard / maxItemsPerPlatform = maxItemsPerInput, onlyNew + memoryName = deltaKey, skipPinned = excludePinned.

Boards

Platform	Board ids (default set in bold)	Rows	heat =
Douyin hot search 抖音热榜	douyin_hot, douyin_trending (rising)	50 + 5	hot value
Weibo hot search 微博热搜	weibo_hot	~52 (pinned + ads flagged, category such as 民生新闻 / 艺人 / 财经)	search count
Baidu hot search 百度热搜	baidu_realtime, baidu_novel, baidu_movie, baidu_teleplay, baidu_car, baidu_livelihood, baidu_finance, baidu_game	10-51	hot score
Zhihu hot list 知乎热榜	zhihu_hot	30	热度
Kuaishou hot list 快手热榜	kuaishou_hot	~50	hot value
Toutiao hot board 头条热榜	toutiao_hot	50 + pinned	hot value
Bilibili popular / ranking / hot search	bilibili_popular, bilibili_ranking, bilibili_hot_search (B站热搜 trending searches)	50 / 100 / 50	views (ranking: score or views; hot search: none)
Douban movies & TV 豆瓣	douban_movie_hot, douban_showing, douban_tv_hot, douban_top250	10-50	hot score (hot movies)
Maoyan box office 猫眼票房	maoyan_boxoffice	~70 films	today's box office, CNY
Tieba hot topics 贴吧热议	tieba_hot	~30	discussions
36Kr hot articles 36氪	kr36_hot	50	reads
ThePaper hot news 澎湃	thepaper_hot	20	–
IT之家 daily rank	ithome_rank	12	– (commentCount)
Hupu 步行街 hot posts 虎扑	hupu_hot	~50	lights (亮)
Tencent News hot list 腾讯新闻热点	tencent_news_hot	~50 (excerpt, source, reads, comments)	hot score
Sina News hot search 新浪热搜	sina_hot	~45 (category)	hot value

Platform names work as shortcuts (douyin, weibo, baidu, zhihu, kuaishou, toutiao, bilibili, douban, maoyan, tieba, 36kr, thepaper, ithome, hupu, tencent, sina, also 抖音, 微博, 百度…); all = every board. Board page links (Weibo, Baidu, Zhihu, Douyin, Toutiao, Bilibili, Douban, Maoyan, Tieba, 36Kr, ThePaper, IT之家, Hupu) in urls work too.

Douyin hot search, Weibo hot search, Baidu hot search, Zhihu hot list

hot_lists returns one trend row per topic in board order:

{"type":"trend","operation":"hot_lists","input":"douyin_hot","queryUsed":null,"id":"2692378","url":"https://www.douyin.com/hot/2692378","fetchedAt":"2026-10-13T05:48:50.000Z",
 "platform":"douyin","board":"douyin_hot","rank":1,"title":"年轻人办婚礼有自己的想法","heat":12105112,"heatText":null,"label":"热","labelEn":"hot",
 "category":null,"excerpt":null,"author":null,"publishedAt":null,"isPinned":false,"isAd":false,"viewCount":null,"commentCount":null,"likeCount":null,
 "answerCount":null,"rating":null,"platformId":"2692378","matchedKeywords":[]}

Trend fields: platform, board, boardName, rank, title, heat, heatText, label, labelEn, category, excerpt, imageUrl, author, publishedAt, isPinned, isAd, onboardAt, videoCount, viewCount, commentCount, likeCount, answerCount, followerCount, rating, ratingCount, platformId, searchUrl, matchedKeywords; with deltaKey: isNew, previousRank, rankChange, heatChange, peakRank, firstSeenAt, minutesOnBoard. Pinned rows have rank: 0; Weibo ads have rank: null and isAd: true.

Copy-paste: {"boards":["douyin_hot","weibo_hot","baidu_realtime","zhihu_hot"],"maxItemsPerInput":20}

Bilibili popular and ranking, Douban hot movies, Toutiao, Kuaishou, Tieba, Hupu

Same trend row. Bilibili rows add author, publishedAt, viewCount, likeCount, commentCount; Douban rows add rating; Zhihu rows add answerCount and the question URL; Hupu rows add lights and replies.

Copy-paste: {"boards":["bilibili_popular","bilibili_ranking","douban_movie_hot","douban_tv_hot"],"maxItemsPerInput":10} · {"boards":["toutiao_hot","kuaishou_hot","tieba_hot","hupu_hot"],"excludePinned":true}

Maoyan box office

box_office returns one trend row per film with boxOfficeDate, boxOfficeToday (CNY), boxOfficeShare (%), screeningShare (%), screenings, seatRate (%), releaseDays, totalBoxOffice (CNY) and totalBoxOfficeText. dates: ["2026-10-01"] (or dateFrom / dateTo, max 31 days) for past days.

Copy-paste: {"operation":"box_office"} · {"operation":"box_office","dates":["2026-10-01"],"outputMode":"lean"}

News articles: 36Kr, ThePaper, ITHome (IT之家)

news_articles returns news rows: title, author, publishedAt (+08:00), summary, bodyMarkdown, textLength, images, readCount, commentCount, likeCount, tags, category. Use boards (top N hot articles per board) or urls.

Copy-paste: {"operation":"news_articles","boards":["kr36_hot","thepaper_hot","ithome_rank"],"maxItemsPerInput":3} · {"operation":"news_articles","urls":["https://www.36kr.com/p/4022353646555013"]}

Cross-platform trend clusters

trend_clusters (or include: ["clusters"]) groups the same story across platforms by title similarity: free cluster rows with label, platforms, platformCount, size, bestRank, totalHeat, members[{platform, board, rank, title, id}]. With trend_clusters, the member trend rows are returned too (billed as trend rows); topics on one platform only are left out.

Copy-paste: {"operation":"trend_clusters","boards":["douyin","weibo","baidu","zhihu","toutiao"],"outputMode":"lean"}

Pricing

Pay per event: $0.003 per trend row (hot-list topic or box-office film), $0.002 per news article, $0.00005 per run start. Error, summary, cluster, plan and capabilities rows are free. The default call (10 boards × 20 rows) costs about $0.60; maxItemsPerInput: 10 halves it; dryRun: true shows the estimate for free. Only need Weibo? Our Weibo Scraper sells hot-search rows at $0.002.

Reliability and limits

• Boards are fetched in parallel straight from the platforms' public web endpoints (2 retries with jitter; fallback endpoints for Douyin, Weibo, Baidu, Bilibili ranking and Hupu). Kuaishou uses hedged requests (a second connection to another edge after 3 s) so a stalled edge no longer adds 10-17 s. A failing board returns an error row; the rest of the run is unaffected.
• Lists show what each platform shows to a logged-out visitor in mainland China at that moment; rank and heat change by the minute.
• Not available without login or cookies: Douyin sub-boards (entertainment/society/challenge), Weibo entertainment board (weibo_ent now returns an error row instead of the main board), Xiaohongshu, top videos per Douyin topic. Douyin/Toutiao image links are signed and expire within days.
• Hupu fallback (mobile API) ranks recent 步行街 threads by lights when the desktop hot page is unreachable (summary.boardSources).
• Delta memory lives in a named key-value store in your own account (china-hot-search-delta-<deltaKey>); topics unseen for 72 h are forgotten.

FAQ

Do I need a Chinese IP or proxy? No. All boards work from Apify's default datacenter network. proxyConfiguration is only a fallback. How often do the lists change? Weibo, Douyin, Baidu and Toutiao refresh every few minutes; Douban, Bilibili ranking and IT之家 a few times a day. For monitoring, schedule every 15-60 minutes with deltaKey + onlyNew. What does it cost per 1,000 rows? 1,000 hot-list topics = $3.00; 1,000 full news articles = $2.00; the 30-row lean prefill = $0.09; the default 10-board call (190 rows) = $0.57. Error, summary and cluster rows are free, and maxCostUsd stops a run at your budget. Do I need a Douyin, Weibo or Zhihu account or API key? No. Nothing is required in the input and no cookies are used. Is there a summary of what left the board? Yes, with deltaKey: summary.leftBoard lists topics that were on a board in the previous run and are gone now (last rank, peak rank, minutes on board). Free. Is the text translated? No – titles stay in Chinese; your LLM can translate. queryUsed shows the Chinese keyword used for matching.