TikTok's official API reports each public video's views, likes, comments and shares, and each account's followers and totals. It doesn't report reach, watch time or who watched. Here's what that means for a TikTok report.
Publishing to TikTok through its official API is well documented. Reading back how a post did is where people get confused, because TikTok's figures come through a different API, with a much narrower view than the one creators see in TikTok Studio.
What the API reports
When an account is connected with the right permissions, TikTok's Display API returns two sets of figures.
| Level | Figures | Permission |
|---|---|---|
| Account | Followers, following, total likes, number of videos | user.info.stats |
| Each public video | Views, likes, comments, shares | video.list |
These are lifetime totals, read at the moment you ask. Read them once a day and you can draw how a video's views grew; read them once and you have one number.
What it doesn't report
Nothing in these APIs returns reach, watch time, average view duration, completion rate, traffic sources or audience demographics. Creators see those in TikTok Studio. A tool acting on the creator's behalf through these APIs can't read them.
Two smaller gaps catch people out:
- Only public videos are listed. A video set to friends or private isn't returned, so no tool reading this API can report on it.
- Saves aren't included. The video data has views, likes, comments and shares, but no save count.
Why not read TikTok's web pages instead
Some tools fill the gaps by reading TikTok's public pages. TikTok's developer terms don't allow collecting its data by automated means outside its API, and a page reader breaks whenever TikTok changes its pages.
FlashPosts reads TikTok's figures only through TikTok's API, with the permission the account owner grants when connecting.
Putting TikTok next to Facebook and Instagram
Meta reports reach for each post. TikTok, through these APIs, reports views. They aren't the same measure, so a combined report needs three rules.
- Compare views with views. Meta's post views and TikTok's video views both count plays or displays, not people. They can share a column if it's labelled as views.
- Leave TikTok's reach empty and say why. A blank cell reads as zero, and zero says the post reached nobody. "Not reported by TikTok" says what's actually true.
- Compare rates within TikTok. Likes per thousand views is a good way to compare one TikTok video with another. Setting it beside an Instagram rate mixes two different measures.
FlashPosts collects these figures for each connected TikTok account and labels what TikTok doesn't report. See how FlashPosts works with TikTok, and what Meta reports now for the other half of the picture.
Frequently asked questions
Can scheduling tools see TikTok watch time?
Not through TikTok's Display API, which is what most scheduling tools use. Watch time, completion rate and traffic sources are shown to the creator in TikTok Studio.
Does TikTok's API report views for each video?
Yes. The video list returns view, like, comment and share counts for each public video, as lifetime totals at the moment of the request.
Why are some of my TikTok videos missing from a report?
TikTok's API lists public videos only. Videos visible to friends or only to you aren't returned, so no tool reading the API can report on them.