Answers
Can I get the play count of Douyin videos through an API?
Short answer
Not for other people's videos: Douyin does not publish play counts publicly, so okdata returns metrics.views as null and says why in meta.unavailable. What you can get is likes, comments, shares and saves, for $0.002 per video or $0.02 per search page of about 20; real plays live in the owner's creator tools and in Xingtu for advertisers.
This is one of the most asked questions about Douyin data, and the honest answer saves everyone time: for videos you do not own, the play count is not public. Douyin shows likes, comments, shares and saves under a video, but not plays. Tools that report plays for any video you name are usually estimating them, so check how a number was produced before you put it in a report.
What the API gives you instead
Douyin video detail, video search and account videos all return:
metrics.likes,metrics.comments,metrics.shares,metrics.favorites(saves);metrics.views: null, withmeta.unavailablestating"metrics.views": "platform", meaning the platform hides it.
In the rare case Douyin does return a real play count for a video, it is filled in; otherwise it stays null rather than showing a misleading 0.
Comparing videos without plays
Engagement is still a solid signal. Common proxies:
- Likes per follower of the author: likes divided by followers from account profile.
- Save and share ratios: saves ÷ likes and shares ÷ likes show content people want to keep or pass on.
- Comment rate: comments ÷ likes flags controversial or question-heavy videos.
| Job | Calls | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Engagement for 200 videos by ID | 200 | $0.40 |
| 200 videos found by keyword search | 10 search pages | $0.20 |
| Plus 50 authors' follower counts | 50 | $0.10 |
Example
curl -G "https://api.okdata.online/v1/douyin/videos/get" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $OKDATA_API_KEY" \
--data-urlencode 'id=7301234567890123456' \
--data-urlencode 'fields=id,metrics'
Check meta.unavailable in the response: it lists every field that came back null and why.
Where real play counts are
- Your own videos: Douyin's creator center, and the Douyin open platform for accounts that authorize your app.
- Creators you hire: Xingtu (巨量星图), Douyin's creator marketplace, shows plays, completion rates and audience data to advertisers.
- Third-party estimates: some analytics services model plays from engagement. Treat them as estimates.
For comparing content across many accounts, engagement ratios from public data are the fair, repeatable measure. See competitor monitoring.
Updated