TikTok's built-in analytics dashboard gives creators a surface-level view of video performance, but it limits data to 60 days and offers no way to automate reporting. The TikTok Analytics API unlocks programmatic access to your creator data — views, engagement, audience breakdowns, and video-level metrics — so you can build dashboards, track trends over months, and make data-driven content decisions at scale.
This guide covers the official TikTok API options available to creators, the third-party tools that simplify data access, and practical workflows for exporting, tracking, and automating your analytics.
Understanding the TikTok API Landscape for Creators
TikTok offers multiple API products, and each serves a different purpose. The Content Posting API lets apps publish videos. The Login Kit handles authentication. The one creators care most about is the TikTok API for Business and the newer Research API, both of which expose analytics data.
The Business API requires a registered developer app and approval from TikTok. Individual creators typically access it through authorized third-party platforms rather than building direct integrations. TikTok's Research API, launched in 2023 and expanded in 2024-2025, provides access to public data for academic and commercial research — but it does not expose private creator analytics like follower demographics or revenue data.
For most creators, the practical path to API-level analytics looks like this:
- TikTok Creator Tools (in-app): Free, limited to 60 days of data, no export functionality.
- TikTok Business Center API: Requires developer approval, returns video stats, audience data, and engagement metrics for connected accounts.
- Third-party analytics platforms: Use authorized API access to pull your data into dashboards with extended history and export options.
- Manual data export + spreadsheets: The low-tech fallback — screenshot or manually log metrics weekly.
The API returns data in JSON format and includes metrics like video views, likes, comments, shares, average watch time, traffic source breakdown, and audience territory data. Rate limits apply: most approved apps can make 100-1,000 requests per day depending on their access tier.
How the TikTok Data API Works for Creator Accounts
Accessing TikTok analytics programmatically requires OAuth 2.0 authentication. The creator grants permission to a registered app, which then receives an access token. That token lets the app query endpoints for account-level and video-level data.
The key endpoints for creator analytics include:
| Endpoint | Data Returned | Refresh Rate |
|---|---|---|
/user/info/ | Follower count, profile views, bio | Real-time |
/video/list/ | All published videos with basic stats | Near real-time |
/video/query/ | Detailed stats for specific videos | Updated every 24h |
/research/video/query/ | Public video metrics (Research API) | Updated every 48h |
Video-level metrics returned by the API include total views, likes, comments, shares, average watch time, total watch time, and traffic sources. Account-level data includes follower growth, profile views, and audience demographics (age, gender, top territories).
One limitation: TikTok's API does not expose Creator Fund or Creativity Program earnings. Revenue data stays locked inside the TikTok app. Creators who want to correlate earnings with performance metrics need to manually log their payouts or use screenshots.
The API also enforces data freshness constraints. Video analytics may lag 24-48 hours behind real-time. Audience demographic data updates weekly. Creators building real-time dashboards should expect this delay and design their reporting accordingly.
Third-Party Tools That Access TikTok Analytics
Several third-party platforms have built TikTok API integrations that save creators from needing developer credentials. These tools handle authentication, data storage, and visualization.
Pentos provides historical TikTok analytics beyond the 60-day in-app limit. It tracks video performance over time, benchmarks engagement rates against industry averages, and exports data to CSV. Plans start around $25/month for individual creators.
Analisa.io focuses on profile analytics and competitor tracking. It pulls public data for any TikTok account (not just your own) and generates reports on posting patterns, engagement trends, and hashtag performance. Pricing ranges from free (limited) to $199/month for agencies.
Socialinsider aggregates TikTok data alongside Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook metrics. Creators managing multiple platforms can compare performance in a single dashboard. It costs $99-$199/month depending on the number of connected profiles.
Sprout Social and Hootsuite both added TikTok analytics integrations in 2024-2025. These enterprise-grade tools pull video stats, audience data, and engagement metrics through the official API. Pricing starts at $99/month (Sprout) and $49/month (Hootsuite), but TikTok analytics features may require higher-tier plans.
For creators who want free options, TikTok's own Creator Tools remain the baseline. You can also use the engagement rate calculator to manually compute metrics that TikTok's dashboard does not display directly.
Exporting Your TikTok Data
TikTok does not offer a native "Export to CSV" button inside the app. Creators who want their data in spreadsheets have three options.
Option 1: Third-party tool export. Platforms like Pentos, Socialinsider, and Sprout Social include CSV and PDF export. This is the easiest method if you already pay for one of these tools.
Option 2: Custom API integration. If you have developer access (or a developer on your team), you can write a script that queries the TikTok API on a schedule, parses the JSON response, and writes it to a Google Sheet or database. A basic Python script using the requests library can pull video stats and append them to a CSV file in under 50 lines of code.
Option 3: Manual logging. Many creators maintain a spreadsheet where they record key metrics weekly. This takes 10-15 minutes per week but creates a permanent data archive. Track at minimum: video title, post date, 24-hour views, 7-day views, likes, comments, shares, and completion rate.
Manual logging sounds tedious, but it forces you to review every video's performance — which often reveals patterns that dashboards miss. Pair this with the TikTok analytics guide for a framework on which metrics to prioritize.
Metrics Tracking and Automation Workflows
Automated metrics tracking eliminates the weekly data entry chore and ensures you never lose historical data. The most common automation workflows use one of three approaches.
Zapier or Make (Integromat) integrations. These no-code platforms connect TikTok (via third-party apps) to Google Sheets, Notion, Airtable, or Slack. A typical workflow triggers daily, pulls your latest video stats, and appends a row to a spreadsheet. Zapier's TikTok integration is limited, but combined with tools like Pentos or Socialinsider, it covers most use cases.
Google Apps Script + API. Creators with basic coding skills can write a Google Apps Script that runs on a timer (daily or weekly), calls the TikTok API, and writes data directly to a Google Sheet. This costs nothing beyond the time to set it up.
n8n or custom cron jobs. For technically advanced creators, self-hosted automation tools like n8n provide full control over data pipelines. A cron job running a Python script every 6 hours can pull fresh data, calculate derived metrics (like engagement rate or estimated earnings), and push alerts to Slack or Discord when a video crosses a threshold.
The most useful automated metrics to track over time include:
- Views per video at 1h, 24h, 48h, and 7d — reveals how TikTok's algorithm distributes your content over time
- Completion rate trends — available in the completion rate by video length data section
- Follower growth rate per week — smooths out daily noise
- Engagement rate per video — likes + comments + shares divided by views
- Traffic source mix — For You page vs. Following vs. Search vs. Profile
TikTok Analytics API Data and Rate Limits
The TikTok API enforces strict rate limits that affect how much data you can pull and how often. Understanding these limits prevents your integration from breaking.
| Access Tier | Daily Request Limit | Data Retention | Approval Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic (Sandbox) | 100 requests/day | 30 days | Instant |
| Standard | 1,000 requests/day | 60 days | 2-4 weeks |
| Advanced | 10,000 requests/day | 365 days | 4-8 weeks |
| Research API | 1,000 requests/day | Public data only | 2-6 weeks |
Each API call returns up to 20 videos by default (configurable up to 100). A creator with 500 published videos needs at minimum 5 API calls to pull stats for their entire catalog — well within daily limits for any tier above Sandbox.
Response times average 200-500ms per request. Bulk queries (requesting stats for multiple videos in one call) reduce total requests and improve efficiency. The API returns data in UTC timezone, so creators should account for timezone offsets when correlating post times with performance.
Error handling matters. TikTok returns HTTP 429 (Too Many Requests) when you hit rate limits, and HTTP 401 when tokens expire. Access tokens last 24 hours by default, so automated scripts need to implement token refresh logic using the refresh token (which lasts 365 days).
Improving Your Analytics Workflow
Raw data means nothing without a framework for acting on it. Creators who get the most from API-level analytics follow a structured review process.
Weekly review (15 minutes). Pull the past 7 days of video data. Identify your top performer and worst performer. Note what differed — hook, topic, length, posting time. Check your video performance metrics against your 30-day averages.
Monthly deep dive (1 hour). Analyze trends across 30 days. Has your average completion rate improved? Are certain content categories consistently outperforming others? Compare your engagement rate by niche to see where you stand relative to benchmarks.
Quarterly strategy adjustment. Use 90 days of data to identify your top 10% of content. Reverse-engineer what those videos share in common. Adjust your content pillars based on what the data shows, not what you assume your audience wants.
The creators who grow fastest on TikTok treat analytics as a feedback loop, not a report card. Every data point should connect to a specific action — post more of what works, stop doing what does not, and test new variables systematically.
For a complete framework on understanding TikTok's metrics and what they mean for growth, read the full TikTok analytics guide. Creators interested in understanding how TikTok decides which content to distribute should also review the algorithm explainer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can individual creators access the TikTok API directly?
Individual creators can apply for API access through the TikTok Developer Portal, but approval is not guaranteed and requires a registered app with a clear use case. Most creators find it easier to use third-party platforms that already have authorized API access, such as Pentos, Socialinsider, or Sprout Social. These tools handle authentication and data retrieval without requiring any coding.
Does the TikTok API show Creator Fund or Creativity Program earnings?
No. TikTok does not expose revenue data through any public API endpoint. Earnings from the Creator Fund, Creativity Program, or LIVE gifts remain visible only inside the TikTok app. Creators who want to correlate earnings with video performance need to manually record payout data and match it against API-pulled metrics.
How far back can I access historical TikTok analytics?
TikTok's in-app analytics display only 60 days of history. Through the API, data retention depends on your access tier — ranging from 30 days (Sandbox) to 365 days (Advanced tier). Third-party tools like Pentos begin storing your data from the day you connect your account, so the sooner you connect, the more history you accumulate.
Is the TikTok Research API useful for creators?
The Research API provides access to public video data — views, likes, shares, and comments — for any public TikTok video. It does not provide private metrics like completion rate, audience demographics, or traffic sources for your own account. Creators can use it for competitor analysis and trend research, but not as a replacement for the Business API's private analytics.
Related Resources
- TikTok Analytics Guide — Complete framework for understanding and acting on your TikTok metrics
- Engagement Rate Calculator — Compute your engagement rate and compare it against niche benchmarks
- Video Performance Calculator — Analyze individual video metrics against your historical averages
- TikTok Algorithm Explained — Understand how TikTok distributes content to inform your analytics strategy