Frequently Asked Questions

1. What data is available as part of the Research Tools?

More information about public data accessible via our Research Tools can be found here.

For detailed information on the data returned via our tools, check out the codebook.

2. How do I know if I qualify for access to TikTok's Research Tools ?

Applicants must fulfill our criteria described here to be eligible for access to Research Tools.

3. How do I apply for Research Tools access?

If you meet the eligibility criteria described here and have prepared a research proposal, click here to apply.

4. Can I work with a group of researchers to collaborate on a research topic? How do I ensure we all get access to the Research Tools in order to collaborate on our approved project?

We support lab-level access to Research Tools. The application form should be submitted by the project's principal researcher. Once the application is approved, the principal researcher can log in and view the approved "Organization" on the TikTok for Developers (TT4D) home page. Here, the principal researcher will have the ability to manage access, including adding and removing collaborators.

The principal researcher can add up to 9 collaborators to work together on a research topic. It is preferable that the principal researchers submit the details of all anticipated collaborators during the application process. TikTok will review any collaborators that are invited to join an approved research project prior to granting them access. Further, it is the responsibility of the principal researcher to remove and revoke access to collaborators who are no longer working on the approved research project.

If the collaborators are from a different research entity, an application should be submitted with a list of collaborators for each research entity.

The collaborators need to ensure that they have setup their TT4D account in advance prior to getting an invite.

The approved data limits will be shared across the organization.

5. When will TikTok's Research Tools be available in my country?

TikTok is committed to supporting researchers and we hope to expand eligibility to additional regions soon. Please check this page for updates.

6. I am a creator, advertiser, or commercial user. Am I eligible for access to the Research Tools?

No. Click here to learn more about our other API access opportunities.

7. What are the daily quota limits? Can I request an increase in the quota limit?

Currently, the daily limit is set at 1000 requests per day, allowing you to obtain up to 100,000 records per day across our APIs. (Video and Comments API can return 100 records per request). The daily quota gets reset at 12 AM UTC.

For the Followers and Following lists API, you can obtain up to 2M records per day by making up to 20,000 calls per day. You get a maximum of 100 records in each call. The daily quota gets reset at 12 AM UTC.

If you are approved for access to the Virtual Compute Environment (VCE), then you can access up to 5,000 records per day in the "Test Stage".

If you believe a quota limit increase is necessary for your research, please email us at Research-API@tiktok.com. We can't grant exceptions, but we're eager to better understand use cases from the research community to evaluate and take your requests into account for the future.

8. I have a developer account with TikTok. Can I start using Research Tools?

Your developer account alone is not sufficient to grant you access to Research Tools. In order to access our Research Tools, you will need to meet our eligibility requirements, submit an application, and be approved for a specific research project.

Research API Usage FAQs

1. Why is my access token invalid?

Access tokens are set to expire every two hours. If you experience an invalid token error within two hours of generating it, please submit a support ticket to us with your token and client key, and we will investigate the issue.

2. Why did I receive a response back with code: "scope_not_authorized" and message: "The user did not authorize the scope required for completing this request?"

This indicates that you have not yet submitted your research application for our review and have not passed the necessary approval evaluations. If you are interested in accessing our Research Tools, visit our Research Tools page to learn more, check eligibility requirements and apply for access.

3. Why is the query video data (view_count, comment_count, like_count, share_count) significantly inaccurate, often showing lower numbers than what is live at the moment?

The User info API only retrieves data for an individual user, so we use online data. However, the video query API searches for the full dataset, so we use archived data instead of the current online data. New videos take up to 48 hours to be added to the search engine, and statistics such as view count and follower count can take up to 10 days to update.