TikTok Keyword Search Scraper

TikTok Keyword Search Scraper — Captions, Stats and Author Data

Search TikTok by keyword and get back every matching video as structured JSON — caption, engagement stats (likes, plays, comments, shares), author profile, hashtags, and video/music metadata, with no login and no API key. Results stream into the dataset the moment each video is found, tagged with the query that produced it. Paste a keyword below and start a run to see it in action.

What is TikTok Keyword Search Scraper?

TikTok Keyword Search Scraper searches TikTok's public video search for one or more keywords and returns each matching video as a structured JSON record — caption, timestamps, engagement counts, author profile, hashtags, and video/music details. It runs against TikTok's own web search page with no TikTok account, login, or API key required. It's built for developers, marketers, and researchers who need TikTok search results as clean, structured data instead of scraping HTML or reverse-engineering signed API calls themselves.

What TikTok video data is publicly available to scrape?

Everything a visitor sees on TikTok's public search results page — without logging in — is fetchable: video captions, engagement counts, author username and follower count, hashtags, and video/music details. TikTok gates some things behind a login instead: its sort-by and date-posted filter controls only render for a signed-in session (this is why this Actor applies both client-side, against the data itself, instead of relying on a filter TikTok never sends to anonymous requests).

Data Category	Publicly Available (no login)	Requires TikTok Login
Video caption / description	Yes	—
Engagement counts (likes, plays, comments, shares, saves)	Yes	—
Author username, nickname, avatar, follower count	Yes	—
Hashtags and @mentions on a video	Yes	—
Video dimensions, duration, cover and playback URLs	Yes	—
Music/sound title, artist and playback URL	Yes	—
Server-side sort-by / date-posted filter controls	No	Yes (filters UI only renders for a signed-in session)
Private or unlisted videos	No	Never returned to an unauthorized viewer, logged in or not

TikTok Keyword Search Scraper only returns publicly visible data — what any visitor sees. Nothing behind a login wall.

What data can I extract with TikTok Keyword Search Scraper?

Each run returns caption and identity fields, engagement and status metrics, and author/media/hashtag detail for every matching video, reshaped into TikTok's own aweme_info field names so the keys match what TikTok's own app schema uses.

Field Name	Description
aweme_id	Unique TikTok video ID
aweme_type	TikTok's internal content-type code; always 0 for a video hit
group_id	Same value as aweme_id — TikTok's internal grouping key
desc	Video caption/description text
desc_language	Detected caption language code, if TikTok supplies one
is_description_translatable	Whether TikTok offers a "translate caption" control for this video
content_type	Always "video"
create_time	Unix timestamp the video was posted
create_time_utc	ISO-8601 UTC timestamp the video was posted
region	Author's region if TikTok reports one, else the region input value
url / share_url	Canonical TikTok video URL (both keys carry the same value)
is_ads / is_ad	Whether TikTok flags the item as an ad (both keys carry the same value)
is_top	Always 0 — pinned-result flag is not exposed on this endpoint
is_paid_partnership	Always false — branded-content flag is not exposed on this endpoint
is_eligible_for_commission	Always false — TikTok Shop commission flag is not exposed on this endpoint
shop_product_url	Always null — TikTok Shop product link is not exposed on this endpoint
aigc_info	AI-content label object (see below)
author	Author profile object (see below)
music / added_sound_music_info	Sound/music object (both keys carry the same object)
statistics	Engagement counts object (see below)
status	Video status-flags object (see below)
video	Video technical/media object (see below)
text_extra	Array of hashtag/mention text spans
cha_list	Array of hashtag objects attached to the video
aweme_acl	Duet/stitch/share/comment permission flags
search_query	Which input query this record came from (Actor bookkeeping, not a TikTok field)
scraped_at	ISO timestamp the record was scraped (Actor bookkeeping, not a TikTok field)

TikTok's native mobile app returns a much larger object per video (165+ top-level keys) than any browser-reachable endpoint can expose — that fuller object is served by an app-only, natively-signed endpoint with no public browser equivalent. This Actor returns every field TikTok's public web search page actually carries, and nothing padded out with guessed or fabricated values.

Video identity, timing and hashtags

aweme_id, desc, desc_language, create_time, create_time_utc, region, url, search_query, scraped_at, and the hashtag/mention arrays:

Field Name	Description
text_extra[].hashtag_name / hashtag_id	Hashtag text and ID for each #tag span in the caption
text_extra[].start / end	Character offsets of the span inside desc
text_extra[].user_id	Tagged user's ID, for an @mention span
text_extra[].is_commerce	Whether TikTok flags the span as commercial
cha_list[].cid / cha_name / desc	ID, name and description of each hashtag attached to the video

Engagement, status and content flags

Field Name	Description
statistics.digg_count	Like count
statistics.comment_count	Comment count
statistics.share_count	Share count
statistics.play_count	View/play count
statistics.collect_count	Save/bookmark count
statistics.repost_count	Repost count
statistics.download_count / forward_count / lose_count / lose_comment_count / whatsapp_share_count	Always null — not exposed on this endpoint
status.in_reviewing	Whether the video is still under TikTok's moderation review
status.private_status	1 if the video is marked private
status.allow_comment / allow_share	Whether commenting/sharing is enabled
aweme_acl.duet_enabled / stitch_enabled / share_enabled / download_enabled / comment_enabled	Per-action permission flags
aigc_info.aigc_label_type	TikTok's AI-content moderation label code, when present

Author, video and music details

Field Name	Description
author.unique_id	Author's @username
author.nickname	Author's display name
author.uid / sec_uid	Author's numeric and secure user IDs
author.follower_count / following_count / aweme_count	Follower, following and video counts
author.total_favorited	Total likes received across the author's account
author.verification_type	1 if the author is verified, else 0
author.secret	1 if the author's account is private
author.avatar_larger / avatar_medium / avatar_thumb	Avatar image URLs at each size
video.height / width / ratio	Video resolution and quality tier
video.duration	Video length in milliseconds
video.play_addr / download_addr	Playback and download URLs
video.cover / origin_cover / dynamic_cover	Cover-image URLs
music.title / author / album	Sound title, artist and album
music.is_original	Whether the sound is an original creation
music.play_url / cover_thumb	Sound playback and cover-art URLs

Add-on: Need additional TikTok data?

Need full profile timelines instead of a keyword search, or posts from a hashtag page? TikTok Posts Scraper covers profiles, hashtags, keyword search and pasted URLs in one Actor. Need a spoken-word transcript of the videos this Actor finds? Best TikTok AI Transcript Extractor turns TikTok videos into timestamped text with the same proxy-escalation approach used here.

Why not build this yourself?

TikTok's web search page requires three request-signing headers (X-Bogus, X-Gnarly, X-Dynosaur) that TikTok's own obfuscated JavaScript computes per request from a live browser fingerprint — a replayed signed URL comes back HTTP 200 with an empty body rather than an error, so there's no static formula to reverse-engineer once and reuse. Building and maintaining a scraper that generates these correctly means running a real anti-detect browser, keeping up with TikTok's frontend changes, and absorbing proxy costs once TikTok starts challenging requests. This Actor already does all three: Camoufox drives the real search page, the proxy tier escalates automatically only when TikTok actually blocks a request, and the output schema stays the same even after a TikTok frontend change.

How to use TikTok Keyword Search Scraper

This Actor runs on the Apify platform — no separate signup or SDK installation is required to try it.

1. Open TikTok Keyword Search Scraper on its Apify Store listing.
2. Fill in queries (required) with one or more keywords or full TikTok search URLs.
3. Optionally set datePosted, sortBy, region, or maxResults to narrow the results.
4. Click Start.
5. Watch results stream into the Output tab in real time, or download the finished dataset as JSON or CSV.

How to scale to bulk video extraction

queries is an array — paste any number of keywords or TikTok search URLs into it in one run, one per line, mixed freely; each is scraped independently and results from all of them land in the same dataset, tagged by search_query. There is no separate "bulk mode" to enable — a one-keyword run and a hundred-keyword run use the same input field, and concurrency (default 2, max 5) controls how many of them run in parallel.

What can you do with TikTok video data?

• 📈 A trend researcher tracking a niche uses statistics.play_count and statistics.digg_count across a keyword's results to spot which video formats are currently outperforming the rest.
• 🏷️ A brand-safety analyst screening sponsored content uses is_ads and aweme_acl.duet_enabled to flag ad-labeled videos that also allow duets before a partnership review.
• 🔎 A social listening team monitoring a competitor's keyword uses author.unique_id, create_time_utc and desc to build a timeline of who's posting about a topic and when.
• 🎯 A growth marketer scouting sounds uses music.title and music.author across top-viewed results for a keyword to find trending audio before it saturates.
• 🤖 An AI engineer builds a RAG pipeline over TikTok trend data by indexing desc and text_extra[].hashtag_name as searchable context, with statistics.play_count as a relevance signal an agent can reason over directly.

How does TikTok Keyword Search Scraper handle rate limits and blocking?

Every query starts on a direct connection with no proxy. If the search page won't load after maxMountRetries reload attempts, the Actor escalates itself one tier at a time — Direct → Datacenter proxy → Residential proxy — logging every switch, and stays on Residential for the rest of the run once it's reached. If a user configures their own proxy, that choice is used as-is and the automatic chain never overrides it. Pagination has its own budget: maxScrollRetries consecutive scrolls with no new videos ends a query's pagination, and maxScanned caps how many raw results a single query scans through as a runaway-crawl safety net. If four consecutive queries never load at all, the Actor logs the diagnosis once and stops attempting further queries rather than repeating the same failure — everything already collected stays saved either way, and a single record that fails to save never stops the rest of the run.

⚠️ If a Residential proxy is also blocked after 3 fresh-session rotations, the Actor gives up on that one query and moves to the next — the run itself keeps going, and every video already collected for that query has already been saved.

Input

Parameter	Required	Type	Description	Example Value
queries	Yes	array	One or more keywords/phrases, or full TikTok search URLs, mixed freely. Each is scraped independently.	["funny cats", "cooking recipes"]
datePosted	No	string	Keep only videos published within this window: today, this-week, this-month, this-year. Applied client-side.	"this-month"
sortBy	No	string	Result order: relevance (default), date, or views. Applied client-side after collection.	"views"
region	No	string	2-letter country code sent as an Accept-Language locale hint. Empty by default.	"US"
maxResults	No	integer	Maximum videos to fetch per query (0–100000 in the schema; default 10).	50
proxyConfiguration	No	object	Proxy settings. Default is no proxy — the automatic Direct → Datacenter → Residential chain handles most runs.	{"useApifyProxy": false}
maxMountRetries	No	integer	Page-load retries before escalating the proxy (1–20, default 5).	5
maxScrollRetries	No	integer	Consecutive empty scrolls allowed before a query is considered exhausted (1–20, default 4).	4
maxScanned	No	integer	Safety cap on raw rows scanned per query (100–200000, default 20000).	20000
concurrency	No	integer	Parallel browser tabs, one per query (1–5, default 2).	2

⚠️ maxResults accepts up to 100000 in the input schema, but the Actor's own validation clamps every query to at most 1000 results — a higher value logs a warning and is silently capped, not rejected.

Example input

{
    "queries": ["funny cats", "cooking recipes"],
    "datePosted": "this-month",
    "sortBy": "views",
    "region": "US",
    "maxResults": 50,
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false },
    "maxMountRetries": 5,
    "maxScrollRetries": 4,
    "maxScanned": 20000,
    "concurrency": 2
}

Output

Results are typed, normalized JSON with a consistent schema across every run, pushed to the dataset the moment each video is found. Download them as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the Output tab, or use the built-in Overview table view for a query/author/stats/link column layout.

Example output

{
    "aweme_id": "7680270017941835039",
    "aweme_type": 0,
    "group_id": "7680270017941835039",
    "desc": "we really cooked this up #FunnyCats #CatsOfTikTok",
    "desc_language": "en",
    "is_description_translatable": false,
    "content_type": "video",
    "create_time": 1788193182,
    "create_time_utc": "2026-08-31T16:19:42.000Z",
    "region": "US",
    "url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@catorahub/video/7680270017941835039",
    "share_url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@catorahub/video/7680270017941835039",
    "is_ads": false,
    "is_ad": false,
    "is_top": 0,
    "is_paid_partnership": false,
    "is_eligible_for_commission": false,
    "shop_product_url": null,
    "aigc_info": { "aigc_label_type": 0, "created_by_ai": null },
    "author": {
        "uid": "7663584039571899406",
        "sec_uid": "MS4wLjABAAAAexample",
        "unique_id": "catorahub",
        "nickname": "catora",
        "avatar_larger": { "url_list": ["https://p16-sign.tiktokcdn-us.com/avatar_larger.jpeg"], "url_prefix": null },
        "avatar_medium": { "url_list": ["https://p16-sign.tiktokcdn-us.com/avatar_medium.jpeg"], "url_prefix": null },
        "avatar_thumb": { "url_list": ["https://p16-sign.tiktokcdn-us.com/avatar_thumb.jpeg"], "url_prefix": null },
        "verification_type": 0,
        "follower_count": 29603,
        "following_count": 412,
        "total_favorited": 1882440,
        "aweme_count": 318,
        "secret": 0
    },
    "music": {
        "id": 7680270211014053000,
        "id_str": "7680270211014053000",
        "title": "original sound - catorahub",
        "author": "catora",
        "album": null,
        "is_original": true,
        "duration": 39,
        "play_url": { "url_list": ["https://sf16-ies-music.tiktokcdn.com/track.mp3"], "url_prefix": null },
        "cover_thumb": { "url_list": ["https://p16-sign.tiktokcdn-us.com/music_cover.jpeg"], "url_prefix": null }
    },
    "added_sound_music_info": {
        "id": 7680270211014053000,
        "id_str": "7680270211014053000",
        "title": "original sound - catorahub",
        "author": "catora",
        "album": null,
        "is_original": true,
        "duration": 39,
        "play_url": { "url_list": ["https://sf16-ies-music.tiktokcdn.com/track.mp3"], "url_prefix": null },
        "cover_thumb": { "url_list": ["https://p16-sign.tiktokcdn-us.com/music_cover.jpeg"], "url_prefix": null }
    },
    "statistics": {
        "aweme_id": "7680270017941835039",
        "digg_count": 150332,
        "comment_count": 1874,
        "share_count": 38544,
        "play_count": 1263171,
        "collect_count": 14024,
        "repost_count": 612,
        "download_count": null,
        "forward_count": null,
        "lose_count": null,
        "lose_comment_count": null,
        "whatsapp_share_count": null
    },
    "status": {
        "aweme_id": "7680270017941835039",
        "is_delete": false,
        "is_prohibited": false,
        "in_reviewing": false,
        "private_status": 0,
        "allow_comment": true,
        "allow_share": true,
        "self_see": false,
        "reviewed": 1
    },
    "video": {
        "height": 1280,
        "width": 720,
        "duration": 39126,
        "ratio": "720p",
        "play_addr": { "url_list": ["https://v16.tiktokcdn.com/play/video.mp4"], "url_prefix": null },
        "download_addr": { "url_list": ["https://v16.tiktokcdn.com/download/video.mp4"], "url_prefix": null },
        "cover": { "url_list": ["https://p16-sign.tiktokcdn-us.com/cover.jpeg"], "url_prefix": null },
        "origin_cover": { "url_list": ["https://p16-sign.tiktokcdn-us.com/origin_cover.jpeg"], "url_prefix": null },
        "dynamic_cover": { "url_list": ["https://p16-sign.tiktokcdn-us.com/dynamic_cover.jpeg"], "url_prefix": null },
        "has_watermark": null
    },
    "text_extra": [
        { "start": 20, "end": 30, "type": 1, "hashtag_id": "17001", "hashtag_name": "funnycats", "user_id": "", "is_commerce": false },
        { "start": 31, "end": 46, "type": 1, "hashtag_id": "17002", "hashtag_name": "catsoftiktok", "user_id": "", "is_commerce": false }
    ],
    "cha_list": [
        { "cid": "17001", "cha_name": "funnycats", "desc": "" },
        { "cid": "17002", "cha_name": "catsoftiktok", "desc": "" }
    ],
    "aweme_acl": {
        "duet_enabled": true,
        "stitch_enabled": true,
        "share_enabled": true,
        "download_enabled": true,
        "comment_enabled": true
    },
    "search_query": "funny cats",
    "scraped_at": "2026-09-01T12:00:00.000000Z"
}

How does it work?

TikTok Keyword Search Scraper drives Camoufox, an anti-detect Firefox browser, to load TikTok's own search page directly rather than calling any API endpoint by hand. TikTok's web search requires request-signing headers its own JavaScript generates from a live browser fingerprint, so this Actor reads the JSON straight out of the real network responses that page fires — no header is ever hand-crafted or replayed. Pagination scrolls the page's actual inner results container, not just the outer window, since scrolling the window alone never triggers TikTok's lazy-loaded pages. Every request starts on a direct connection and only escalates to a Datacenter, then a Residential proxy if TikTok actually blocks it. Only what a visitor could see on TikTok's public search page is ever returned, and the output schema stays the same shape run to run, regardless of how TikTok reshuffles its own search page's layout.

Integrations

TikTok Keyword Search Scraper is callable from any environment that can make an HTTP request, including from AI agent frameworks and no-code automation tools.

Calling TikTok Keyword Search Scraper programmatically

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<APIFY_API_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("<YOUR_USERNAME>/tiktok-keyword-search-scraper").call(
    run_input={
        "queries": ["funny cats"],
        "maxResults": 50,
    }
)
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["desc"], item["statistics"]["play_count"])

Works in Go, Ruby, Node.js, cURL — any language that can make an HTTP request.

MCP integration for AI agents

Apify publishes a general-purpose MCP server that exposes any Actor on the platform — including this one — as a callable tool for MCP-aware clients such as Claude Desktop and Cursor. Point it at this Actor by name (tiktok-keyword-search-scraper) using your Apify API token, and an agent can call it the same way it calls a local tool, no custom integration code required.

No-code tools (n8n, Make, LangChain)

In n8n, use the HTTP Request node pointed at this Actor's run-sync API endpoint with your queries payload as the request body. In Make, the Apify app's "Run an Actor" module takes the same input fields shown above and returns the dataset items as a bundle. In LangChain, the ApifyWrapper can call this Actor by ID and load the resulting dataset directly as documents for a chain or agent.

Is it legal to scrape TikTok videos?

Scraping publicly available data — the videos, captions and profile fields any visitor can see without logging in — is generally lawful in most jurisdictions, and TikTok Keyword Search Scraper returns only that kind of data. Because the output includes author profile fields (username, nickname, avatar, follower count), it can count as personal data under regimes like GDPR and CCPA if you store or process it — you're responsible for having a lawful basis for that use, and for TikTok's own Terms of Service governing how scraped data may be used. Consult legal counsel if your use case involves bulk storage of personal data.

Frequently asked questions

What TikTok video fields does TikTok Keyword Search Scraper return?

It returns desc (caption), statistics (likes/plays/comments/shares), author (username, nickname, followers), video (dimensions, duration, playback URLs), and text_extra/cha_list (hashtags), along with status and permission flags — see the full field table above.

Does TikTok Keyword Search Scraper require a TikTok account or login?

No. It searches TikTok's public web search page with no TikTok account, login, or API key — only publicly visible results are returned.

How many videos can I extract in one run?

Each query is capped at 1,000 results by the Actor's own validation (regardless of a higher maxResults value), and you can run as many queries as you like in a single queries array in one run.

What happens if a query returns zero results?

The run finishes normally with 0 records for that query and a log line explaining why — most often TikTok challenging a fresh session. The Actor already retries and escalates its proxy tier automatically on a block; if a query still comes back empty, retrying with a Residential proxy configured explicitly resolves most remaining cases.

Can I scrape multiple TikTok search queries at once?

Yes. queries is a bulk array field — add as many keywords or TikTok search URLs as you like, and they're scraped independently (up to concurrency at a time) with results streamed into one shared dataset.

Does TikTok Keyword Search Scraper work with Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI agent tools?

Yes. It's reachable through Apify's general-purpose MCP server for MCP-aware clients, and callable as a plain HTTP endpoint by any agent framework that can make a request and read JSON.

How does this differ from scraping TikTok search results by hand?

Beyond the browser and pagination handling, this Actor enforces sortBy and datePosted correctly by applying them client-side against the actual data — TikTok's anonymous search request carries no server-side sort or date parameter at all, so a hand-rolled scraper that trusts a URL parameter for either would silently get unfiltered, unsorted results back.

Does TikTok Keyword Search Scraper return data in a format LLMs can use directly?

Yes. Every record is typed, normalized JSON with consistent field names across runs — no HTML parsing or CSS selectors involved. Pass it directly to an LLM, index it into a vector store, or feed it to an agent tool.

What happens when TikTok changes its layout or anti-bot system?

The Actor is maintained, and the output schema is designed to stay stable across TikTok frontend changes — the parsing logic targets TikTok's underlying API response shape, not page markup that changes with every redesign.

Can I use TikTok Keyword Search Scraper without managing proxies or browser infrastructure?

Yes. The Actor runs its own anti-detect browser and handles proxy tier escalation (Direct → Datacenter → Residential) automatically; you only need to configure a proxy yourself if you want to force a specific tier from the start.

Which fields work best for AI training data and RAG indexing?

For RAG, index desc and text_extra[].hashtag_name as searchable text context. For structured training data, statistics.play_count, statistics.digg_count, and create_time are the most consistently populated numeric fields across records. All fields return as typed primitives (strings, integers, booleans) rather than raw HTML.

Related scrapers

Scraper Name	What it extracts
TikTok Posts Scraper	TikTok posts from profiles, hashtags, keyword search, or pasted URLs, with the same proxy-escalation and real-time output design
Best TikTok AI Transcript Extractor	AI-generated transcripts (SRT/VTT, timestamped segments) plus 40+ creator/video metadata fields from TikTok videos
Instagram Transcript API & Profile Scraper - AI Video to Text	AI transcripts from Instagram Reels/videos plus bulk public profile posts, for teams tracking both platforms
Spotify Play Count Scraper	Exact play/stream counts for Spotify artists, albums and tracks

Your feedback

Found a bug or a field that's missing? Let us know — reach out at dev.scraperengine@gmail.com or through the Issues tab on the Actor's Apify Console page, and we'll take a look.