Collectors · Social & communities

TikTok video scraper API in Python

Per-video TikTok metrics — views, likes, comments, shares, saves. One POST from Python with videos, rows back as JSON with 39 fields, $0.004 per delivered video. No proxies or parsers to maintain.

Get an API key See the collector

A Python requests snippet that posts videos to the tiktok_video collector, a line-drawn page titled TikTok video, and a white card with the fields description, created_at, author, views and likes, at $0.004 per video ($4.00 per 1,000). — A Python requests call to the tiktok_video collector returns one dict per video, at $0.004 each.

First call

Install, call, read the rows.

pip install requests

The only dependency.

import os, requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/tiktok_video/run",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
        "videos": ["https://www.tiktok.com/@nasa/video/7668779420412284191"],
        "max_results": 5,
    },
    timeout=120,
)
r.raise_for_status()
run = r.json()["payload"]
print(run["count"], "rows,", run["cost"]["usd"], "USD")
for row in run["results"]:
    print(row.get("video_id"), row.get("url"), row.get("description"), row.get("created_at"))

Python: one TikTok video run (Un video), printing video_id, url, description, created_at

The key comes from an environment variable, never from the code. The run answers in the same request when it finishes in time; payload.results holds the rows and payload.cost what they cost.

Request parameters

What the collector takes.

Input of the TikTok video collector
Parameter	Type	Required	Meaning
`videos`	array	yes	Video URLs (https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/123…) or numeric ids.
`country`	string	no	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code — proxy exit geo and Google locale (gl). Omit for the default pool.
`max_results`	integer	no (default 10)	How many videos to deliver at most (1–50). You pay only for delivered videos.

Response fields

39 fields per video.

Fields of each row (video)
Field	Type	What it holds
`rank`	integer	1-based delivery order.
`video_id`	string	TikTok video id.
`url`	string	Video URL.
`description`	string, nullable	Caption.
`created_at`	string, nullable	Publish time (ISO 8601).
`author`	string, nullable	Author handle.
`author_name`	string, nullable	Author display name.
`author_id`	string, nullable	Author id.
`author_verified`	boolean	Author verified badge.
`author_followers`	integer, nullable	Author follower count.
`views`	integer, nullable	Play count.
`likes`	integer, nullable	Like count.
`comments`	integer, nullable	Comment count.
`shares`	integer, nullable	Share count.
`saves`	integer, nullable	Save/collect count.
`duration_seconds`	integer, nullable	Duration in seconds.
`music`	string, nullable	Music title.
`music_author`	string, nullable	Music author.
`hashtags`	string[]	Hashtags in the caption.
`cover`	string, nullable	Cover image URL.
`mentions`	string[]	Accounts mentioned in the caption.
`reposts`	integer, nullable	Repost count.
`author_following`	integer, nullable	Accounts the author follows.
`author_likes`	integer, nullable	Total likes on the author's videos.
`author_videos`	integer, nullable	Videos published by the author.
`author_signature`	string, nullable	Author bio.
`music_id`	string, nullable	TikTok sound id.
`music_original`	boolean, nullable	True when the sound is the author's original.
`location_created`	string, nullable	Country the video was posted from.
`language`	string, nullable	Caption language.
`width`	integer, nullable	Video width (px).
`height`	integer, nullable	Video height (px).
`is_ad`	boolean	Marked as an ad.
`ai_generated`	boolean	Labelled AI-generated by TikTok.
`duet_enabled`	boolean, nullable	Duets allowed.
`stitch_enabled`	boolean, nullable	Stitches allowed.
`is_photo_post`	boolean	Photo carousel rather than a video.
`subtitle_languages`	string[]	Subtitle languages available.
`related_searches`	string[]	Searches TikTok suggests next to the video.

Add ?format=csv to the runs endpoint to get the same rows as CSV.

Long runs

Run in the background, then poll.

A run that needs more time can go to the background: send "async": true, get 202 with the run id, and poll the runs endpoint until the status is done. Reading a run is free.

import os, time, requests

H = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"}
r = requests.post("https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/tiktok_video/run", headers=H,
                  json={**{"videos":["https://www.tiktok.com/@nasa/video/7668779420412284191"],"max_results":5}, "async": True}, timeout=30)
run_id = r.json()["payload"]["run_id"]
while True:
    run = requests.get(f"https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/runs/{run_id}", headers=H, timeout=30).json()["payload"]
    if run["status"] in ("done", "failed"):
        break
    time.sleep(5)
print(run["status"], run["count"])

Python: background run and polling

Errors

What can come back, and what is billed.

Collector run errors
Status	Meaning	Billed
`400`	The input does not match the collector (`payload.errors`)	No
`401`	Missing or wrong API key	No
`402`	Balance and free credit do not cover the run: top up	No
`422`	The input can never resolve; retrying the same input cannot help	No
`424`	The run failed at the source (blocked, timed out, layout changed); safe to retry	No
`429`	Rate limit or a per-account brake; wait for `Retry-After`	No

Only delivered rows are billed: a run that delivers nothing costs nothing.

Price

$0.004 per delivered video.

What TikTok video rows cost at list price
Rows	Cost
1	$0.004
1,000	$4.00
10,000	$40.00

Up to 50 videos per run; split larger jobs into several runs. The $2 free credit every month covers about 500 videos. No subscription; paid tiers lower the unit price. All collector prices: collector pricing.

Before you run it

Questions developers ask

Is there a free TikTok video API?

Every account gets $2 of free usage each month, about 500 videos of this collector at $0.004 each, with no card.

Do I have to handle proxies, retries or blocks?

No. The collector runs on our network and handles them; a run blocked at the source returns 424 and is not billed.

How many rows can one run return?

Up to 50 videos per run (the max_results input, where the collector has one).

Can an AI agent run it?

Yes: the MCP server exposes it as the run_collector tool, with the same input and price. See the MCP server.

Run it on the free credit.

Create an API key, export it as QD_API_KEY and run the example. $0.004 per delivered video, no subscription.

Get an API key TikTok video scraper API