SocialPipe and the official TikTok APIs
TikTok has two official APIs. One is free but only for researchers, the other needs each creator to say yes. This is about which door you can actually walk through.
The two official routes
The Research API is the one that reads public TikTok data properly, and it costs nothing. To get it you have to be at an academic institution in the US, EEA, UK, Canada or Switzerland, or a non-profit research body in the EU, or an approved organisation in Brazil studying youth safety. You apply, you show an ethical review, and you wait around four weeks.
You also have to be independent of commercial interests and working on a non-profit basis. That is their wording, and it is the whole story for most people reading this page: it is not that the Research API is expensive, it is that a company cannot have it.
The Display API is the commercial one, and it reads a creator's profile and videos only after that creator installs your app and grants it permission. Good if you are building something creators sign into. No use at all if you need to look up an account that has never heard of you.
We sit in the gap between those two: public TikTok data, commercial use, no application. 117 TikTok capabilities at $5 per 1,000 calls.
Side by side
| SocialPipe | the official TikTok APIs | |
|---|---|---|
| Who can use it | Anyone with an email address | Approved researchers, or creators who opt in |
| Commercial use | Yes | Not on the Research API |
| Time to first call | An API key, straight away | An application and review, around 4 weeks |
| Cost | $5 per 1,000 calls | Free, if you qualify |
| Results per request | A page, as TikTok returns it | 100 at most, 20 by default |
| Date range | Not limited by us | 30 days per query |
| TikTok surface | 117 capabilities | Accounts, content and EU shops |
| Other platforms | 9 behind the same key | TikTok only |
We took their side of this table from the Research API product page, the Query Videos spec and the Display API overview on 20 September 2026. They can change it without telling us, so check before you decide. Ours comes from the same price sheet that bills you.
When the official APIs are the right answer
- You qualify for the Research API. Then use it. It is free, it comes from TikTok directly, and for published research the provenance matters in a way that no reseller can match. We are not the better choice and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
- Your users are the creators. If the accounts you need are people who will install your app and grant it access, the Display API gives you their data with their consent, which is a cleaner footing than anything here.
- You need a direct agreement with TikTok. If your compliance review needs the data to arrive under TikTok's own terms, we do not satisfy that.
- You need to post. We read public data and nothing else. Uploading, commenting and account management are theirs.
When we are the better fit
- You are building something commercial. This is the main one. The Research API rules you out by design, and the Display API only reaches people who opted in.
- You have no institution behind you. No university, no research body, no ethical review board. An API key does not ask.
- You need more than 30 days, or more than 100 rows. Their query window and page cap are fixed. Ours are whatever TikTok returns.
- You need other platforms too. The same key reaches 9, so you write one integration. The full list is in the API reference.
What comes back is TikTok's own JSON in a data field with nothing renamed. Pricing is on the pricing page.
TikTok data, asked and answered
The questions that come up before the first call.
For anything this FAQ does not cover, read the docs.
Start pulling clean JSON today.
100 credits to start, no card required. The free tier is the whole API.