TikTok Search API 🔥

Search TikTok by keyword and extract structured video data programmatically. The fastest and most affordable way to get TikTok search results on Apify — and a practical replacement for TikTok's deprecated developer API.

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Data returned

For every video matching your search keywords:

Field	Description
url	Direct link to the TikTok video
desc	Full caption / description
createdAt	Upload date (ISO 8601)
cover	Thumbnail image URL
dynamicCover	Animated thumbnail URL
videoUrl	Playable video URL
duration	Video length in seconds
author	Username (@handle)
nickname	Display name
verified	Verified account status
avatar	Profile picture URL
followers	Follower count
following	Following count
videoCount	Total videos published
plays	View count
likes	Like count
comments	Comment count
shares	Share count
bookmarks	Save/bookmark count
hashtags	Array of hashtag strings
musicTitle	Background track name
musicAuthor	Music creator
musicUrl	Music playback URL
keyword	Search keyword that matched this video
id	TikTok video ID
embedUrl	Embeddable player URL

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Input

{
  "keywords": ["cosplay", "street food", "gym motivation"],
  "maxVideosPerKeyword": 100,
  "maxVideosTotal": 1000,
  "sortOrder": "mostRecent",
  "datePosted": "thisMonth"
}

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
keywords	string[]	—	One or more search terms. Required.
maxVideosPerKeyword	integer	100	Cap per keyword — set as high as you need
maxVideosTotal	integer	1000	Hard cap across all keywords combined
sortOrder	string	relevance	relevance, mostRecent, or mostViews
datePosted	string	allTime	allTime, today, thisWeek, thisMonth, 3months, 6months
includePhotoPosts	boolean	false	Include photo carousel posts alongside videos
sessionCookie	string	—	Advanced: your own TikTok session for personalised results

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Output example

{
  "keyword": "cosplay",
  "id": "7384920183746251051",
  "url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@mayacosplays/video/7384920183746251051",
  "desc": "POV: you spent 3 months on this armor #cosplay #anime #handmade",
  "createdAt": "2024-06-15T14:22:10Z",
  "duration": 28,
  "cover": "https://p16-sign.tiktokcdn-us.com/...",
  "author": "mayacosplays",
  "nickname": "Maya Cosplays",
  "verified": false,
  "followers": 284000,
  "following": 412,
  "plays": 1820000,
  "likes": 94300,
  "comments": 1240,
  "shares": 8700,
  "bookmarks": 12500,
  "hashtags": ["cosplay", "anime", "handmade"],
  "musicTitle": "original sound",
  "musicAuthor": "mayacosplays"
}

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Use cases

Content research — find what's trending in any niche right now, filtered by date or sorted by views.

Influencer discovery — search by topic and filter by engagement metrics and follower counts to find creators worth reaching out to.

Competitor monitoring — track what videos are being published in your space, who's gaining traction, and how audiences are responding.

Market research — monitor search volume and sentiment around a brand, product, or category over time.

Social listening — track keywords, hashtags, and topics across TikTok at scale.

Dataset building — collect labeled TikTok video data for machine learning, classification, or analysis projects.

Trend detection — pull recent videos on a keyword and watch engagement patterns to catch rising topics early.

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Pricing

Charged per result — no minimum run fee, no flat cost per execution. You pay for what you collect and nothing more. At current rates, this is the lowest cost-per-result of any TikTok search scraper on Apify.

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FAQ

Is there an official TikTok search API? TikTok's developer API does not expose search. This actor provides the same programmatic access to TikTok search results that TikTok's API never offered — structured, typed data ready to use without any parsing.

What happened to the TikTok developer API? TikTok restricted and eventually shut down most of their public developer API access. This actor is designed specifically to fill that gap for developers and researchers who need TikTok search data programmatically.

How fast is it? Around 3–5 seconds for 100 results. Multiple keywords are searched in a single run with results sorted globally at the end.

How does the cost compare to other TikTok scrapers? This actor consistently runs faster and costs less per result than alternatives on Apify. Because it requires no proxy and no browser, overhead is minimal and that saving passes directly to your bill.

Does it require a TikTok account or login? No. It works without any credentials by default.

Does it require a proxy? No. It runs reliably on standard Apify infrastructure without any proxy configuration or added cost.

How many results can I get per keyword? It depends entirely on how many results TikTok has indexed for that search term — some keywords return dozens, others return thousands. The actor paginates automatically until TikTok has no more results or your limit is reached. Set maxVideosPerKeyword as high as you need.

Can I search multiple keywords at once? Yes — pass an array and every keyword is searched in one run, with all results combined into a single dataset.

Can I filter by date or sort by views? Yes. Use datePosted to filter to recent content (today, this week, this month, 3 months, 6 months) and sortOrder to sort by most recent or most viewed.

How fresh are the results? Results come directly from TikTok's live search index — the same videos you'd see searching on TikTok.com at that moment.

Are follower counts and engagement stats accurate? Yes. All numeric fields are real integers, not strings or approximations. Follower counts, view counts, like counts, and comment counts are exact values as returned by TikTok.

What regions does it cover? Defaults to US region results. TikTok's search index includes global public content.

Is the data ready to use without further processing? Yes. Every field is typed — integers are integers, dates are ISO 8601 strings, booleans are booleans. Drop it straight into a spreadsheet, database, or downstream API.