International SMM

TikTok

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RegionChina

Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.

Overview

TikTok is a platform for short vertical videos in which the recommendation feed is the main way material is delivered: the viewer sees not a feed of the accounts they follow but a "For You" selection. The key practical difference from social networks with a subscription feed follows from this — a video can gather an audience without an accumulated follower base, and equally it may fail to gather one even with a large base.

Besides videos the platform supports photo posts, live streams, paid video series and commerce. For external services there is a set of programming interfaces at developers.tiktok.com with an important quirk: until an audit is passed, everything published through the API is visible only to its author.

A word about the nature of the sources. TikTok's help centre and "Creator Academy" are assembled by a script in the browser and return no text without it. What can be read are the legal pages at tiktok.com/legal — that is where the exact programme thresholds live, and this article relies on them.

Who's here

The platform's official sources publish no numeric metrics for the platform itself.

The newsroom newsroom.tiktok.com at the time of the check contained a piece about a single performer with their personal figures — those are a creator's metrics, not the platform's.

The tiktok.com/transparency page opens, but its content is cut off when read, before the section with figures. Reports under the EU Digital Services Act, where platforms publish the average monthly number of recipients of the service in the European Union, cut off the same way.

What is confirmed indirectly: the terms of service exist in separate editions for the United States, for the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and for India (legal/terms-of-service) — so the platform operates in at least those jurisdictions. The Creator Academy, in the wording of the platform's own news item, is available in seven languages.

Getting started

Account and age

The age requirement depends on which edition of the terms applies. For the EEA, the UK and Switzerland the platform writes: "The Services and the Platform are only for people 13 years old and over". In the US edition the wording is different: people under 18 may use the service only with the consent of a parent or legal guardian.

For money products the bar is higher. The virtual items policy requires 18 and over to buy coins, send gifts, receive gifts with monetary value and cash out "diamonds". The same page notes an exception: selected users aged 16 and over may take part — selection is based on a history of quality publications and follower count.

Account type matters for money

The terms of the rewards programme explicitly exclude non-personal accounts: "Creator's account does not belong to a government organization, politician, or political party, nor is it a non-personal account, such as a Business Account or Organization Account". In other words, a business account opens up the advertising tools but closes the door to the creator rewards programme.

What you can publish

Video

The platform publishes the requirements in its media transfer documentation for the Content Posting API: MP4 (recommended), WebM and MOV containers; H.264 (recommended), H.265, VP8 and VP9 codecs; frame rate from 23 to 60 FPS; resolution from 360 to 4096 pixels on each side; weight — "Maximum of 4GB".

On duration the same page says: "The longest video a developer can send via the initialize Upload Video endpoint is 10 minutes" — you cannot pass a video longer than 10 minutes through that API endpoint. Note the wording: this is a limit of a specific API endpoint, not a statement about the maximum length of a video in the app itself.

Photos

For photo posts the documentation sets the formats WebP and JPEG, resolution "Maximum 1080p" and weight "Maximum of 20MB for each image".

Chunked upload

Uploading a file in chunks has its own bounds: a chunk of at least 5 MB and no more than 64 MB, the last one may reach 128 MB, from 1 to 1000 chunks in total. A file under 5 MB is sent as a single chunk.

What is prohibited

The terms of service prohibit automated data collection: a user may not "use automated scripts to collect information from or otherwise interact with the Services". The pages of the full body of community guidelines, tiktok.com/community-guidelines, cut off when read.

How to grow

What the platform says about the algorithm

There are no direct statements by the platform about how the recommendation feed works in the sources we managed to read. Wording about criteria exists only in the context of the rewards programme: the platform writes that it will continue to reward quality original material longer than a minute, using metrics of originality, watch duration and search value. That relates to how rewards are calculated, not to ranking in the feed, and carrying one over to the other would be a stretch.

Advertising

The ad manager is TikTok Ads Manager. On its TikTok for Business page the platform describes targeting by demographics, interests, behaviour and devices, custom and lookalike audiences, daily and lifetime budgets, and the Lowest Cost and Cost Cap bidding strategies. The platform gives a recommended daily ad group budget of 30 dollars for North America and the EMEA region and 20 dollars for the Asia-Pacific region — that is a recommendation, not a minimum threshold.

Statistics

The platform's built-in analytics stays behind help centre pages that return no text when read. Through the API only basic per-video data is available — see the next section.

Path to monetization

The creator rewards programme

The most precise figures are in the programme's legal terms. The platform requires: the creator to be 18 or older (or the age of majority where they live); "at least 10,000 authentic followers"; "at least 100,000 authentic total video views in the last 30 days"; a personal account (not a business, not an organization, not a politician); residence in a country where the programme is available.

The platform's news item of 18 March 2024 repeats the same thresholds and adds a content requirement: material longer than a minute is what gets rewarded.

Payouts, under the same terms: the threshold is a "minimum payment threshold of $50.00 USD", that is 50 dollars; money goes out on the 15th of each month once the threshold is reached; settlement runs through a third-party payment service, and the account must be in the creator's own name.

TikTok Series is paid access to a set of videos. The creator terms set a noticeably higher bar: "at least 100,000 followers at the time of participation"; the account created at least 30 calendar days ago; at least one public post in the last 30 days; an account in good standing with no repeat violations.

The creator picks the price from the options offered on the creation page. Deducted from the revenue are: the app store commission, the platform's own service fee and the transaction costs of the transfer. The size of these deductions is not named in the terms. The payout threshold is the same 50 dollars or equivalent.

Gifts and "diamonds"

The scheme has three stages, and it is worth understanding before you build any projections on it. The virtual items policy describes it: a viewer buys Coins, Coins are exchanged for Gifts, Gifts turn into Diamonds for the creator, and only Diamonds can be cashed out by the creator in US dollars.

The restrictions are on the same page: "Coins cannot be exchanged for cash, or legal tender"; Gifts cannot be exchanged back into Coins or money and cannot be refunded; Coins are forfeited when an account is terminated. On payout timing the platform writes plainly: "We do not guarantee fulfilment within a specific period of time". The minimum amount for cashing out Diamonds is not stated in this policy.

Other

The platform's help pages also list Creator Fund, TikTok One and advertising. The terms of these programmes sit behind help centre pages assembled by a script.

Tools and automation

What the official API offers

On its products page the platform lists: Login Kit (sign-in via TikTok), Share Kit (passing material into the TikTok app), the Content Posting API (publishing and drafts), the Display API (showing videos and a creator's profile in a third-party app), video embedding, the Research API and the Commercial Content API — both "available only to approved researchers" — and the Data Portability API, available only to users in the EEA and the UK.

The audit is the main constraint on scheduling

About the Content Posting API the platform writes: "All content posted by unaudited clients will be restricted to private viewing mode". The audit is taken after the integration has been tested, and the app must be approved for the video.publish scope. Publishing by link requires verification of a domain or URL prefix.

The practical meaning: a service that has not passed the audit publishes videos the audience will not see.

Requirements for the service's interface

A separate document sets out how a service must look when publishing (content sharing guidelines): show the name of the account the material will go to; do not preset a default privacy level; do not pre-enable the comment, duet and stitch settings; provide a toggle for marking commercial content; show a preview and obtain explicit consent; do not add non-removable watermarks or pre-filled text.

Reading data

The Display API works with the user.info.basic and video.list scopes: it returns the avatar, name and user identifiers, and for a video the title, description, duration, cover image and links. Cover image links stop working over time and have to be requested again.

The platform sets its call rate limit as a rolling one-minute window: 600 requests per minute each for the /v2/user/info/, /v2/video/query/ and /v2/video/list/ endpoints. Exceeding it returns a 429 with the rate_limit_exceeded code.

What matters is what the API does not have: access to the platform's music library. Trending sounds and native effects are unavailable to external services — two independent services confirm this, which explains why schedulers publish videos without "native" audio.

Third-party services

Buffer and Hootsuite claim TikTok support on their own pages — TikTok is named in the channel list of both.

Limits and rules

Different jurisdictions, different terms

The platform has not one terms of service but several regional editions (example), and the age requirements differ between them. The same goes for programmes: the rewards terms exist separately for the US and for the EEA, while the paid series terms come in a rest-of-world edition. Check which edition applies in your country.

Access to programmes depends on the country

All the terms we read require the creator to be a lawful resident of a country where the programme is available. The country lists are not given in the terms themselves — they are moved out into the help centre.

Collection limits

Three groups of platform pages are assembled by a script in the browser and return no text without it: the help centre support.tiktok.com, the "Creator Academy" tiktok.com/creator-academy and the community guidelines tiktok.com/community-guidelines.

Who it's for

TikTok makes sense if you are prepared to produce vertical video regularly and are counting on the recommendation feed rather than an accumulated follower base.

The platform suits those who work to thresholds: they are published and verifiable — 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in 30 days for the rewards programme, 100,000 followers for paid series, a 50-dollar payout threshold in both (programme terms, series terms).

It is a poor fit for business accounts counting on payouts from the platform: the rewards programme terms exclude non-personal accounts. And it is awkward for anyone building their workflow on external automation: without the audit, publications through the API are invisible to the audience, and trending sounds are unavailable to external services in principle.

Tools for this platform

The list is built from the tools' own facts: every line is a tool's statement that it supports the platform, with the source named. A tool missing from the list only means we have no such statement.

Scheduling and publishing:

Statistics and analytics:

Customer communication:

Automation:

Social listening:

Other tasks:

Verified data

The checked data this deep dive rests on.

Account and access

age requirements differ between editions of the terms: for the EEA, the UK and Switzerland — «The Services and the Platform are only for people 13 years old and over»; in the US edition people under 18 may use the service only with the consent of a parent or legal guardian

Separate editions also exist for India

source, checked 2026-07-28

the virtual items policy requires 18 and over to buy coins, send gifts, receive gifts with monetary value and cash out diamonds; selected users aged 16 and over may take part by selection (a history of quality publications, follower count)

source, checked 2026-07-28

a link in the bio is available at more than 1000 followers

source, checked 2026-07-27

What you can publish

Video. video through the Content Posting API: MP4 (recommended), WebM, MOV containers; H.264 (recommended), H.265, VP8, VP9 codecs; frame rate 23–60 FPS; resolution from 360 to 4096 pixels per side; weight «Maximum of 4GB»

source, checked 2026-07-28

«The longest video a developer can send via the initialize Upload Video endpoint is 10 minutes» — a limit of the API endpoint, not a statement about the maximum length of a video in the app

The distinction matters: this source says nothing about the length available when recording and uploading in the app

source, checked 2026-07-28

photo posts: WebP and JPEG formats, «Maximum 1080p», «Maximum of 20MB for each image»

source, checked 2026-07-28

Content

Yes, in three ways. C2PA: "we’re expanding auto-labeling to AIGC created on some other platforms by launching the ability to read Content Credentials, a technology from the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA)… TikTok is the first video sharing platform to put Content Credentials into practice". Its own credentials: "we’ll also start attaching Content Credentials to TikTok content, which will remain on content when downloaded". Invisible watermarks: "we’ll start adding invisible watermarks to AI-generated content made with TikTok tools like AI Editor Pro, and content uploaded with C2PA Content Credentials"; "“Invisible watermarks” add another layer of safeguards with a robust technological “watermark” that only we can read, making it harder for others to remove". The label shows the origin: "we enhanced our AIGC labels by adding more context around whether content was labeled due to our AI detection, creator labels, or TikTok AI tools"

On the invisible watermarks and the origin of the label — on the platform's second blog page: https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/more-ways-to-spot-shape-and-understand-ai-content. There the platform names a figure: more than 3 billion videos labelled as AI content

source, checked 2026-08-04

Required for realistic AI content. Word for word from the platform's blog: "The policy requires people to label AI-generated content that contains realistic images, audio or video, in order to help viewers contextualize the video and prevent the potential spread of misleading content"; "we label AIGC made with TikTok AI effects, and have required creators to label realistic AIGC for over a year"

The primary source of the requirement is the community guidelines, the "Integrity and authenticity" section at https://www.tiktok.com/community-guidelines/en/integrity-authenticity. It cannot be read: the robots.txt of the www.tiktok.com domain contains the groups "User-agent: ClaudeBot", "Claude-User", "Claude-SearchBot", "anthropic-ai" with "Disallow: /". The help page support.tiktok.com/en/using-tiktok/creating-videos/ai-generated-content answers 302 to the same closed domain. The word-for-word wording of the rule is therefore taken from the platform's own blog

source, checked 2026-08-04

A separate labelling tool at publication, plus improvised ways are permitted: "we're rolling out a new tool for creators to easily inform their community when they post AI-generated content. The new label… they can apply it to any content that has been completely generated or significantly edited by AI"; "Creators can now do this through the new label (or other types of disclosures, like a sticker or caption)". On coverage: "We also built a first-of-its-kind tool to make this easy to do, which over 37 million creators have used since last fall"

There is no step-by-step instruction ("where to click") in the platform's open sources: the help centre is closed by a redirect to www.tiktok.com, which is disallowed in robots.txt for Claude's agents. The wording "sticker or caption" — that is, a sticker or a caption — is named directly as an acceptable alternative to the tick box

source, checked 2026-08-04

"our policies firmly prohibit harmfully misleading AI-generated content—whether it's labeled or not"; "we… signed an industry pact this year to combat the use of deceptive AI in elections". Also: "We continue to refine our labeling approach as industry norms and expert guidance evolve, while maintaining firm policies against harmful AIGC"

It was not possible to obtain the list of prohibitions (voices of real people, faces, elections, medical claims) in open form: it is in the community guidelines on www.tiktok.com, closed to Claude's agents in robots.txt ("Disallow: /"). The wording "whether it’s labeled or not" is important: the label does not lift the prohibition

source, checked 2026-08-04

Promotion

Word for word: "Recommendations are based on a number of factors, including things like: User interactions such as the videos you like or share, accounts you follow, comments you post, and content you create. Video information, which might include details like captions, sounds, and hashtags. Device and account settings like your language preference, country setting, and device type. These factors are included to make sure the system is optimized for performance, but they receive lower weight in the recommendation system relative to other data points we measure since users don't actively express these as preferences." On the weight of the signals: "A strong indicator of interest, such as whether a user finishes watching a longer video from beginning to end, would receive greater weight than a weak indicator, such as whether the video's viewer and creator are both in the same country." It is stated directly what does NOT enter the calculation: "While a video is likely to receive more views if posted by an account that has more followers, by virtue of that account having built up a larger follower base, neither follower count nor whether the account has had previous high-performing videos are direct factors in the recommendation system" · the source is dated 2020-06-18

a post in the platform's own newsroom, "How TikTok recommends videos #ForYou", of 18 June 2020. The help centre support.tiktok.com redirects to www.tiktok.com, and that one is closed by robots.txt to Claude's agents

source, checked 2026-08-05

Word for word: "you can simply long-press on a video and tap "Not Interested" to indicate that you don't care for a particular video. You can also choose to hide videos from a given creator or made with a certain sound, or report a video that seems out of line with our guidelines. All these actions contribute to future recommendations in your For You feed." Refreshing the feed: "we're rolling out a way to refresh For You feed recommendations if they no longer feel like they're for you. When enabled, this feature allows someone to view content on their For You feed as if they just signed up for TikTok." A filter by hashtags: "people can choose to automatically filter out videos that use specific hashtags or phrases from their For You feeds, and say "not interested" to skip future videos from a particular creator or that use a particular sound"

the refreshing of the feed was announced on 16 March 2023; it is stipulated that it does not cancel settings and subscriptions already made

source, checked 2026-08-05

Reduced distribution is named by the words "ineligible for recommendation". Word for word: "Reviewed content found to depict things like graphic medical procedures or legal consumption of regulated goods, for example – which may be shocking if surfaced as a recommended video to a general audience that hasn't opted in to such content – may not be eligible for recommendation. Similarly, videos that have just been uploaded or are under review, and spam content such as videos seeking to artificially increase traffic, also may be ineligible for recommendation into anyone's For You feed." A list of the measures: "Making content that's not appropriate for a broad audience ineligible for recommendation into For You feeds"; "Minimizing recommendations of topics that could have a negative impact if viewed repeatedly"; "we work to carefully apply limits to some content that doesn't violate our policies, but may impact the viewing experience if viewed repeatedly, particularly when it comes to content with themes of sadness, extreme exercise or dieting, or that's sexually suggestive." On fact-checking: "content that is being fact checked, and reviewed content that can't be substantiated, will be ineligible for recommendation into For You feeds"

the second and the third groups of quotations are from https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/introducing-a-way-to-refresh-your-for-you-feed-on-tiktok-us; on fact-checking — from https://newsroom.tiktok.com/bringing-more-context-to-content-on-tiktok?lang=en

source, checked 2026-08-05

There is no separate document about ranking in the help centre — there is a post in the platform's own newsroom: "How TikTok recommends videos #ForYou" (https://newsroom.tiktok.com/how-tiktok-recommends-videos-for-you?lang=en, 18 June 2020) and a continuation, "Introducing a way to refresh your For You feed on TikTok" (https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/introducing-a-way-to-refresh-your-for-you-feed-on-tiktok-us, 16 March 2023). The help centre page "How TikTok recommends content" (https://support.tiktok.com/en/using-tiktok/exploring-videos/how-tiktok-recommends-content) exists, but redirects to www.tiktok.com/support/faq_detail, and that address is closed by robots.txt to Claude's agents

the robots.txt of www.tiktok.com directly lists ClaudeBot, Claude-User, Claude-SearchBot and anthropic-ai with "Disallow: /". The domains support.tiktok.com and newsroom.tiktok.com are open: in their "User-agent: *" group there are only Allow lines, not a single Disallow

source, checked 2026-08-05

The direct rule about unoriginal content lives in the community guidelines at www.tiktok.com/community-guidelines, and that address is closed by robots.txt to Claude's agents — it was not read. On the platform's open pages only a short statement is made: "We also don't recommend duplicated content, content you've already seen before, or any content that's considered spam"; and on the technology: "our proactive technology is driving down the amount of content that needs review, as it grows more sophisticated at catching things like spam accounts at sign-up, or duplicative content"

the second quotation is from https://newsroom.tiktok.com/evolving-our-approach-to-content-enforcement-us?lang=en. It was not possible to read the full rule about originality: the robots.txt of www.tiktok.com forbids Claude's agents the whole site

source, checked 2026-08-05

Hashtags are named as one of a video's signals and at the same time as a means for the viewer to control the feed. Word for word: "Video information, which might include details like captions, sounds, and hashtags"; "Your For You feed isn't only shaped by your engagement through the feed itself... as will exploring hashtags, sounds, effects, and trending topics on the Discover tab." From the viewer's side: "people can choose to automatically filter out videos that use specific hashtags or phrases from their For You feeds". Neither a number of hashtags nor a statement that hashtags increase distribution is present on the available official pages

no quantitative rules about hashtags were found on the platform's open pages; the help centre section about hashtags lies on www.tiktok.com and is closed by robots.txt

source, checked 2026-08-05

There is no direct "we do not disclose"; on the contrary, the platform stresses that it shows the workings of the system to selected people. Word for word: "Note: At the TikTok Transparency Center in Los Angeles, invited experts will have the opportunity to learn how our algorithm operates along with reviewing TikTok source code, which will be made available at the center for testing and evaluation." At the same time the list of signals itself is marked as incomplete: "Recommendations are based on a number of factors, including things like:". And: "Developing and maintaining TikTok's recommendation system is a continuous process as we work to refine accuracy, adjust models, and reassess the factors and weights"

the source code is promised not to everyone but to "invited experts" at the Transparency Center; the page of the Center itself lies on www.tiktok.com and is closed by robots.txt to Claude's agents

source, checked 2026-08-05

Advertising

the recommended daily ad group budget: 30 dollars for North America and EMEA, 20 dollars for the Asia-Pacific region. Bidding strategies are Lowest Cost and Cost Cap

This is the platform's RECOMMENDATION, not a minimum threshold: the page explicitly allows smaller budgets

source, checked 2026-07-28

Analytics

Display API, the fields of the Video object: id, create_time, cover_image_url, share_url, video_description, duration, height, width, title, embed_html, embed_link, like_count ("Number of likes for the video"), comment_count ("Number of comments on the video"), share_count ("Number of shares of the video"), view_count ("Number of views of the video")

this is the complete list of fields: four counters and metadata, and the platform gives an application nothing more

source, checked 2026-08-05

Research API, the fields returned: id, video_description, create_time, region_code, share_count, view_count, like_count, comment_count, music_id, hashtag_names, username, effect_ids, playlist_id, voice_to_text, is_stem_verified, favorites_count, video_duration, hashtag_info_list, sticker_info_list, effect_info_list, video_mention_list, video_label, video_tag

this is access for researchers, not for a creator: on the restrictions on the applicant see the account_type_required row

source, checked 2026-08-05

"Videos returned are for the given user's public TikTok video posts"; "It is possible that the API returns less videos than the max count due to reasons such as videos deleted/marked as private by users etc."

the second quotation is from the page https://developers.tiktok.com/doc/research-api-specs-query-videos/; private and deleted videos drop out silently, with no marker

source, checked 2026-08-05

Research API: "The end_date must be no more than 30 days after the start_date"

the window of a single request is 30 days; the maximum depth of the archive is not named in the documentation

source, checked 2026-08-05

Display API — the user's consent and the "video.list" and "user.info.basic" permissions. Research API — only "Academic institutions in the US, EEA, UK or Switzerland; or Not-for-profit and/or independent research institution, organization, association, or body in the EU", and also "Academic institutions or not-for-profit organizations based in Brazil and looking to study online youth safety"; the applicant is obliged to "Be independent from commercial interests and be able to conduct research on a not-for-profit or non-commercial basis"

the extended data is closed off not by the account type but by the type of organization: for a commercial user the Research API is out of reach in principle

source, checked 2026-08-05

The list of Display API fields contains neither viewer demographics, nor retention, nor the sources of impressions, nor the number of unique viewers — only like_count, comment_count, share_count, view_count

the conclusion is drawn from the complete documented list of fields; the platform publishes no separate stipulation that "these metrics are unavailable"

source, checked 2026-08-05

How the money works here

ways to earn declared in the help pages: Creator Rewards Program, TikTok Creator Fund (with a note about an update), Series (paid series), Video Gifts and Diamonds, TikTok One, advertising. Separate sections cover tax information for creators and commercial use of music

source, checked 2026-07-28

the Creator Rewards Program and the Creator Fund exist at the same time and differ: the help pages carry a separate article, «How is the Creator Rewards Program different from the TikTok Creator Fund?»

source, checked 2026-07-28

Who is admitted. Creator Rewards Program: «you have at least 10,000 authentic followers on the Platform»; «at least 100,000 authentic video views in total over the last 30 days prior to joining»; the account must not be Business Account; «Creator is a legal resident of a country where the Program is made available»

the EEA rules text does not name a minimum age; TikTok's help pages state 18, but support.tiktok.com and /creator-academy/ are closed to our crawler by robots.txt (User-agent: ClaudeBot Disallow: /)

source, checked 2026-08-04

When they pay. The commission becomes available and is paid out "on the 15th of each month" after fees and taxes are deducted; the actual receipt depends on the payment provider

monthly, on the 15th

source, checked 2026-08-04

How they pay. "PayPal, which, through Hyperwallet, is responsible for all aspects of the transaction processing"; the creator must maintain a valid Payment Account

the only method named is PayPal/Hyperwallet

source, checked 2026-08-04

Affiliate links are not banned, but they move a post into the Branded Content category: it covers the promotion of "A product or service for which you will receive a commission on any sales (for instance, via an affiliate link or promotional code)". Required: "the product or service you are promoting is sufficiently clear, without requiring viewers to access your profile page or any links" — the product must be named by voice and/or in the caption

a link on its own is not enough for disclosure

source, checked 2026-08-04

What must be disclosed. "When posting Branded Content, you must enable the commercial content disclosure toggle"; once it is enabled, "your content will be automatically labelled to indicate that it is Branded Content". In addition, the product or service must be named explicitly in words and/or in the caption text

the commercial content disclosure toggle plus an explicit mention in the video

source, checked 2026-08-04

the rewards programme terms: 18 years old or the age of majority where you live; «at least 10,000 authentic followers»; «at least 100,000 authentic total video views in the last 30 days»; a personal account (not a business, not an organization, not a politician); residence in a country where the programme is available

CLOSES the existing terms_details gap: the thresholds were found not in the help pages but in the legal terms

source, checked 2026-07-28

the payout threshold is a «minimum payment threshold of $50.00 USD»; payouts on the 15th of each month once the threshold is reached; settlement through a third-party payment service, and the account must be in the creator's own name

source, checked 2026-07-28

quality original material longer than a minute is rewarded; originality, watch duration and search value are taken into account. The news item is dated 18 March 2024

These are criteria for CALCULATING rewards, not for ranking in the feed

source, checked 2026-07-28

paid series: «at least 100,000 followers at the time of participation»; the account created at least 30 calendar days ago; at least one public post in the last 30 days; an account in good standing with no repeat violations. The payout threshold is 50 US dollars or the equivalent

The edition for countries outside the US and the EEA

source, checked 2026-07-28

the chain: the viewer buys Coins → Coins are exchanged for Gifts → Gifts become «Diamonds» for the creator → only Diamonds are cashed out in US dollars. «Coins cannot be exchanged for cash, or legal tender»; Gifts cannot be exchanged back or refunded

On timing the platform writes: «We do not guarantee fulfilment within a specific period of time». The minimum withdrawal amount is not stated

source, checked 2026-07-28

the Creator Fund section contains an article about confirming that you are 18+ — a sign of an age restriction on the programme; the exact wording of the requirement was not collected

source, checked 2026-07-28

Creator Rewards Program (per the program rules); Branded Content — advertising cooperation with brands, governed by the Branded Content Policy

only the /legal pages were read; the summary page with the list of all monetization programs is closed by robots.txt

source, checked 2026-08-04

the app store commission, the platform's service fee and the transaction costs of the transfer are deducted from the revenue; the size of the deductions is not named in the terms

The fact of the deductions is confirmed, their size is not

source, checked 2026-07-28

Payout minimum. Sources diverge: "$50.00 USD or its equivalent in local currency" — the minimum for a payout. The EEA version of the rules has a caveat: "The payable amount, even if lower than the minimum payment threshold, will be transferred to you as set out on the Balance dashboard"

the same document sets a threshold of USD 50 and at the same time allows a transfer of an amount below the threshold; the US version speaks of a "minimum payment threshold of $50.00 USD" without such a caveat

source, checked 2026-08-04

Limits and restrictions

chunked upload: a chunk of at least 5 MB and no more than 64 MB, the last one may reach 128 MB, from 1 to 1000 chunks in total; a file under 5 MB is sent as a single chunk

source, checked 2026-07-28

the call rate limit is counted over a rolling one-minute window: 600 requests per minute each for the /v2/user/info/, /v2/video/query/ and /v2/video/list/ endpoints. Exceeding it returns a 429 with the rate_limit_exceeded code

source, checked 2026-07-28

Word for word: for the endpoints /v2/user/info/, /v2/video/query/, /v2/video/list/ the limit is 600; "Request rate calculation is based on a one minute sliding window." For publication: "Each user access_token is limited to 6 requests per minute." For unaudited applications: "Unaudited API Clients can allow up to 5 users to post in a 24 hour window", and the content is restricted to SELF_ONLY visibility

The window is a moving minute. To whom the limit of 600 is tied (to the app's key or to the user) is not said in the document. The publication limit is 6 calls per minute per user access token (the page content-posting-api-reference-direct-post)

source, checked 2026-08-04

Word for word: "If the number of requests exceeds the threshold, new requests will be throttled and a response will be returned with HTTP status 429 and error code rate_limit_exceeded." When the daily publication limit is exhausted an error is returned saying that "The daily post cap from the API is reached for the current user"

The term for which the slowdown is switched on is not named — all that is said concerns the moving one-minute window. The rules of temporary blocks on an account lie in the help centre that is closed to us

source, checked 2026-08-04

For publication through programmatic access, word for word: "There is a limit on the number of posts that can be made to a creator account in a 24-hour window via Direct Post API. The upper limit may vary among creators (typically around 15 posts per day/ creator account)". There is no exact number — what is said is "typically around 15". For publication by hand in the application a daily limit is not announced

TikTok names the limit approximately and as variable ("may vary among creators"). Publication by hand: the help centre has been moved to www.tiktok.com/support, and www.tiktok.com contains in robots.txt a group with ClaudeBot, Claude-User, Claude-SearchBot, anthropic-ai and the line Disallow: / — the pages were not read

source, checked 2026-08-04

For programmatic access it is announced: "If your application needs higher limits, please contact us using our Support Page. We will review your request. If approved, rate limits will be increased." It was not possible to check the procedure for contesting account restrictions

An increase of the rate limit is by a request through the support page for developers. The contesting of a creator's blocks is described on www.tiktok.com/support, which is closed to Claude's agents by the robots.txt file (Disallow: / for ClaudeBot)

source, checked 2026-08-04

Restrictions

the terms of service prohibit «use automated scripts to collect information from or otherwise interact with the Services»

source, checked 2026-07-28

API access

Capabilities. publishing video and photos directly into users' accounts

source, checked 2026-07-27

AN AUDIT IS MANDATORY: all content published by unaudited clients is restricted to private viewing mode. The audit is taken after the integration has been tested

KEY RESTRICTION: before the audit, publishing through the API is pointless — the content is not visible to the audience

source, checked 2026-07-27

the app must be approved for the video.publish scope

source, checked 2026-07-27

uploading by URL requires domain verification

source, checked 2026-07-27

the API gives no access to the platform's music library: trending sounds and native effects are unavailable to ANY external service. Confirmed independently by two services (Buffer, Planable)

source, checked 2026-07-27

developer products: Login Kit, Share Kit, Content Posting API, Display API, video embedding, Research API and Commercial Content API («available only to approved researchers»), Data Portability API (only for users in the EEA and the UK)

source, checked 2026-07-28

the Display API works with the user.info.basic and video.list scopes: it returns the avatar, display name and user identifiers, and for a video the title, description, duration, cover image, embed link and link to the post. Cover image links stop working over time

source, checked 2026-07-28

a service publishing on a user's behalf must: show the name of the receiving account; not preset a default privacy level; not pre-enable the comment, duet and stitch settings; provide a toggle for marking commercial content; show a preview and obtain explicit consent; not add non-removable watermarks or pre-filled text

Explains why scheduler interfaces for TikTok all look the same

source, checked 2026-07-28

summary and extended analytics are not available through the API: services cite the limitations of the platform's API

source, checked 2026-07-27

Languages

the interface language of the home page: en

The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang

source, checked 2026-07-28

metrics

Video Views verbatim: «Number of times your video started to play. For each video impression, plays are counted separately and replays are excluded» — a view counts from the start of playback, with no minimum duration, and replays are excluded. Separately, 2-Second Video Views verbatim: «Number of times your video starts playing for at least 2 seconds in an impression session. Replays are excluded»; 6-Second Video Views also counts when a short clip is watched through in full and, verbatim, when it «received at least 1 engagement within the first 6 seconds»

The definitions come from the Ads Manager help centre (ads.tiktok.com — robots.txt: User-agent:* Allow:/). The organic help centre support.tiktok.com publishes no threshold: the articles in the business-and-creator section are allowed by robots.txt, but the text is loaded by scripts — there are no definitions in the HTML (338 KB). A contrast with YouTube Shorts: TikTok excludes replays, while YouTube has counted them since 2025

source, checked 2026-08-07

Verbatim: «The number of unique user accounts that were exposed to an ad impression at least once» — unique accounts (not people and not devices); the difference from impressions is that impressions count «every exposure, even if that unique user account has already been exposed before». In the basic help, verbatim: «Number of unique users who saw ads at least once». Reach is usually estimated (because of sampling), and exact figures come only in the Frequency Breakdown Report of Reach & Frequency campaigns

The deduplication period is not stated; uniqueness is counted at campaign level. The second quotation is from ads.tiktok.com/help/article/basic-data

source, checked 2026-08-07

There is no single «engagement» metric in the open definitions. Clicks (all) verbatim: «Number of clicks from ads, including social interactions» — the clicks include likes, shares, comments and follows. Paid likes verbatim: «Number of times an ad was liked during the ad impression». Separately, an «engaged view» is an ad view of 6+ seconds (Engaged View-through Attribution)

Read: basic-data, what-is-reach, video-play; the all-metrics glossary dropped the connection three times (socket hang up), and there are no definitions in the raw HTML. The platform publishes no engagement rate formula in the accessible articles

source, checked 2026-08-07

Catalogue section: all similar See also: catalogue index · region: China · scheduler comparison · find by situation · platform restrictions