Direct Post

Overview

To directly post a video to users' TikTok accounts, you must invoke the Content Posting API - Direct Post endpoint to perform the following actions:

Query creator information to render the UI elements to be displayed on the Export page of your app.

Learn more about the UX guidelines here.
Learn more about the creator_info/query API here.

Initialize the post request.
Export the video to TikTok servers.

This guide contains comprehensive information about the API, including the endpoint, request schema, and response schema.

Note: All content posted by unaudited clients will be restricted to private viewing mode. Once you have successfully tested your integration, to lift the restriction on content visibility, your API client must undergo an audit to verify compliance with our Terms of Service.

Initialize the posting request

Once you have requested creator info, and users have provided the necessary metadata for their posts and given explicit consent to send their video to TikTok, the next step is to initialize the posting request.

HTTP URL	/v2/post/publish/video/init/
HTTP Method	POST
Scope	video.publish

Request

Note: Each user access_token is limited to 6 requests per minute.

Field Name	Description	Value	Required
Authorization	The token that bears the authorization of the TikTok user, which is obtained through /oauth/access_token/.	Bearer {$UserAccessToken}	true
Content-Type	The content format of the body of this HTTP request.	application/json; charset=UTF-8	true

Body

Field Name	Nested Field Name	Type	Description	Required
post_info	privacy_level	string	Enum of: `PUBLIC_TO_EVERYONE` `MUTUAL_FOLLOW_FRIENDS` `FOLLOWER_OF_CREATOR` `SELF_ONLY` The provided value must match one of the `privacy_level_options` returned in the `/creator_info/query/` API.	true
	title	string	The video caption. Hashtags (#) and mentions (@) will be matched, or deliminated by spaces or new lines. The maximum length is 2200 in UTF-16 runes. If not specified, the ticket post will not have any captions.	false
	disable_duet	bool	If set to `true`, other TikTok users will not be allowed to make Duets using this post. The TikTok server disables Duets for private accounts and those who set the Duet permission to "No one" in their privacy setting.
	disable_stitch	bool	If set to `true`, other TikTok users will not be allowed to make Stitches using this post. The TikTok server disables Stitches for private accounts and those who set the Stitch permission to "No one" in their privacy setting.
	disable_comment	bool	If set to `true`, other TikTok users will not be allowed to make comments on this post. The TikTok server disables comments for users who set the Comments permission to "No one" in their privacy setting.
	video_cover_timestamp_ms	int32	Specifies which frame (measured in milli-seconds) will be used as the video cover. If not set, or the specified value is invalid, the cover is set to the first frame of the uploaded video.
	brand_content_toggle	bool	Set to `true` if the video is a paid partnership to promote a third-party business.
	brand_organic_toggle	bool	Set to `true` if this video is promoting the creator's own business.
source_info	source	string	Choose from: `PULL_FROM_URL` `FILE_UPLOAD` Learn about the limitations for these file transmission methods.	true
	video_url	string	A public-accessible URL from which the TikTok server will pull to retrieve the video resource.	true for `PULL_FROM_URL`
	video_size	int64	The size of the to-be-uploaded video file in bytes.	true for`FILE_UPLOAD`
	chunk_size	int64	The size of the chunk in bytes.
	total_chunk_count	int64	The total number of chunks.

Example

curl --location 'https://open.tiktokapis.com/v2/post/publish/video/init/' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer act.example12345Example12345Example' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8' \
--data-raw '{
  "post_info": {
    "title": "this will be a funny #cat video on your @tiktok #fyp",
    "privacy_level": "MUTUAL_FOLLOW_FRIENDS",
    "disable_duet": false,
    "disable_comment": true,
    "disable_stitch": false,
    "video_cover_timestamp_ms": 1000
  },
  "source_info": {
      "source": "FILE_UPLOAD",
      "video_size": 50000123,
      "chunk_size":  10000000,
      "total_chunk_count": 5
  }
}'

Response

Field Name	Nested Field	Type	Description
data	publish_id	string	An identifier to track the posting action, which you can use to check the status. The maximum length of this field is 64.
data	upload_url	string	The URL provided by TikTok where the video file can be uploaded. The maximum length of this field is 256. This field is only for `source=FILE_UPLOAD`.
error	code	string	You can decide whether the request is successful based on the error code. Any code other than `ok` indicates the request did not succeed. Learn more about error codes.
	message	string	A human readable description of the error.
	logid	string	A unique identifier for the execution of this request.

Note: The upload_url is valid for one hour after issuance. The upload must be completed in this time range.

Example

200 OK
{
    "data": {
        "publish_id": "v_pub_file~v2-1.123456789",
        "upload_url": "https://open-upload.tiktokapis.com/video/?upload_id=67890&upload_token=Xza123"    
    },
    "error": {
         "code": "ok",
         "message": "",
         "log_id": "202210112248442CB9319E1FB30C1073F3"
     }
}

Error codes

HTTP Status	error.code	Description
400	invalid_param	Check error message for details.
403	spam_risk_too_many_posts	The daily post cap from the API is reached for the current user.
	spam_risk_user_banned_from_posting	The user is banned from making new posts.
	reached_active_user_cap	The daily quota for active publishing users from your client is reached.
	unaudited_client_can_only_post_to_private_accounts	Unaudited clients can only post to a private account. The publish attempt will be blocked when calling `/publish/video/init/`.
	url_ownership_unverified	To use `PULL_FROM_URL` as the video transfer method, the developer must verify the ownership of the URL prefix or domain. Refer to this doc for more details.
	privacy_level_option_mismatch	`privacy_level` is not specified or not among the options from the `privacy_level_options` returned in /publish/creator_info/query/ API. All clients are required to correctly display the creator account's privacy level options and honor the users' choice. Occurances of this error for product-use applications suggest violations to TikTok's product-use guidance.
401	access_token_invalid	The access_token is invalid or has expired.
401	scope_not_authorized	The access_token does not bear user's grant on `video.publish` scope
429	rate_limit_exceeded	Your request is blocked due to exceeding the API rate limit.
5xx		TikTok server or network error. Try again later.

Send Video to TikTok Servers

Note: If you used the source=PULL_FROM_URL to initialize the video export, you can skip this part. The TikTok server will handle the video uploading process for you.

Once you have initialized the video export and received an upload_url, you must send the video file to TikTok for processing. We support many video formats and provide chunking for larger files. Learn more about media transmission.

HTTP URL	Returned in `upload_url`
HTTP Method	PUT

Note: Use the entire URL returned as the upload_url , including the returned query parameters.

Request

Note: This document provides schemas for the API request and response. Learn more about media upload formats and advanced capabilities.

Header

Field Name	Description	Value	Required
Content-Type	The content format of the body of this HTTP request.	Select from: video/mp4 video/quicktime video/webm	true
Content-Length	Byte size of this chunk.	{BYTE_SIZE_OF_THIS_CHUNK}	true
Content-Range	The metadata describing the portion of the overall file contained in this chunk.	bytes {FIRST_BYTE}-{LAST_BYTE}/{TOTAL_BYTE_LENGTH}	true

Body

The binary file data.

Example

curl --location --request PUT 'https://open-upload.tiktokapis.com/upload/?upload_id=67890&upload_token=Xza123' \
--header 'Content-Range: bytes 0-30567099/30567100' \
--header 'Content-Length: 30567100'\
--header 'Content-Type: video/mp4' \
--data '@/path/to/file/example.mp4'