How can I get a TikTok account's follower count through an API?

Q: How can I get a TikTok account's follower count through an API?

Call TikTok account profile (/v1/tiktok/users/get) with the handle. It returns followers, following, total likes, video count, bio and verification for $0.002 a profile, and the creator does not have to log in to anything. Refreshing 200 accounts once a week for a month is 800 calls, $1.60.

You keep a sheet of 200 TikTok creators you might work with, and the follower column is three months stale. TikTok's official route to a follower count needs each creator to sign in to your app and grant a stats scope, which is fine for creators who use your product and useless for a prospect list. For public accounts, the handle is enough.

What one call returns

TikTok account profile takes username, with or without the @.

Field	Meaning
`followers`	Follower count
`following`	Accounts it follows
`likes`	Total likes across all its videos
`posts`	Number of videos
`bio`, `verified`, `avatar_url`, `url`	Profile details

With view=full you also get the numeric user ID and the verification reason under ext.

Cost

Job	Calls	Cost
One account	1	$0.002
200 accounts, once	200	$0.40
200 accounts, weekly for 4 weeks	800	$1.60

Try it

curl -s -G "https://api.okdata.online/v1/tiktok/users/get" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OKDATA_API_KEY" \
  -d username=khaby.lame \
  -d fields=username,name,followers,following,likes,posts,verified

For the weekly refresh, loop over the handles in your sheet, write followers, likes and posts with the date, and compare against last week. A creator whose followers jump while likes stay flat is worth a closer look.

Gotchas

Use the handle from the profile URL (tiktok.com/@handle), not the display name. If a creator renames their handle, the old one returns not_found, which is not charged.
Follower counts inside video and comment objects are empty on purpose; only this endpoint carries them.
There is no list of who follows an account and no follower history. Store your own snapshots if you need growth.
Keys are rate limited. In big loops, read the X-RateLimit-Remaining header, and on a 429 wait for the seconds in Retry-After; rejected calls cost nothing.

Other routes

TikTok Display API: the right choice when creators connect their own accounts to your product. It needs their consent per account, and in exchange you get data straight from TikTok.
TikTok Research API: free with date and region filters, for approved non-profit academic researchers only.
By hand: for five accounts, open the profiles.

Finding new creators rather than refreshing known ones is a different job; creator discovery shows how search and profiles combine.