# TikTok API pricing in 2026: Research API, Display API, and limits

TikTok publishes no fee for its APIs. The limit is access: the Research API is for approved academic and non-profit researchers, and the Display API reads only the user who logs in. Here are the quotas and the rules.

Checked October 2026. Public pricing pages. No affiliate links.

TikTok does not publish a price for any of its developer APIs. Each API has rules about who can use it and what data it returns.

No official TikTok API lets a company read the public profiles and videos of any account for commercial use. The Research API reads public data but bans commercial use. The Display API reads only the account that logs in.

## At a glance

| Criteria | TikTok APIs | Openhandle |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | No published fee | 100 free requests, no card |
| Coverage | Research API: public data, research only. Display API: the logged-in user only | 43 Instagram, 28 TikTok, and 15 X endpoints. More platforms and data added by demand |
| Rate limits | Research API: 1,000 requests and 100,000 records a day | 10 per second per key. Higher on request |
| Time to first call | Research API: an application, typically reviewed within 4 weeks | Seconds. No approval wait |

## The official APIs

| API | What it reads | Who can use it |
|---|---|---|
| Research API | Public videos, profiles, comments, followers | Approved academic and non-profit researchers |
| Display API | The logged-in user’s profile and public videos | Any registered app |
| Commercial Content API | Ads and other paid content shown in the EU | Approved applicants |
| Content Posting API | Nothing. It posts videos | Apps that pass an audit to post publicly |
| Data Portability API | A user’s own data, at their request | EEA and UK users |

## Research API quotas

- **Requests.** 1,000 requests a day, with up to 100 records each.
- **Records.** Up to 100,000 records a day.
- **Followers and following.** Up to 2 million records a day across 20,000 calls.
- **Reset.** Quotas reset at midnight UTC. TikTok raises them case by case.
- **Time window.** One video query covers 30 days at most.
- **Freshness.** New videos can take up to 48 hours to appear. Statistics can take up to 10 days to update.

## Who gets Research API access

- **Academics.** Researchers at universities in the US, EEA, UK, Canada, or Switzerland.
- **Non-profits.** Independent research groups, in a beta for select regions.
- **DSA vetted researchers.** Researchers with vetted status from an EU Digital Services Coordinator.
- **Not eligible.** Creators, advertisers, and commercial users. Applicants must be independent of commercial interests and need an ethics review.

Approved researchers must refresh data at least every 30 days, delete data that is no longer on TikTok, and send TikTok each publication 7 days before it comes out. Commercial use is banned. For more, see [how to get Research API access as a non-academic](/questions/how-do-i-get-tiktok-research-api-access-as-a-non-academic).

## Display API limits

- **Scope.** The profile and public videos of the user who logs in to your app. Nobody else.
- **Page size.** Up to 20 videos per page.
- **Rate limit.** 600 requests per minute on each endpoint.

## What it adds up to

If you are an approved researcher, TikTok’s data costs nothing. If you build a product that needs public creators, videos, hashtags, or sounds, there is no official API for that. That is why companies turn to third-party APIs. See [does TikTok have a public API?](/questions/does-tiktok-have-a-public-api) for the short answer.

## Another option for public data

Openhandle reads public TikTok profiles, videos, comments, followers, hashtags, sounds, and search with one API key. $0.0025 per request, down to $0.002 at volume. 30-day cache hits are free. Live requests return the data as it is when you call.

## Verdicts

- **The TikTok Research API fits.** if you are an eligible academic or non-profit researcher and can wait for review.
- **The Display API fits.** if your users log in with TikTok and you only need their own profile and videos.
- **Openhandle fits.** if you need public TikTok data for a product, at one price per request.

## How we checked

We read TikTok’s developer product pages, Research API FAQ and specs, Research API terms, Display API docs, and changelog at developers.tiktok.com on October 25, 2026. TikTok publishes no fee page. If something is out of date, tell us and we fix it.