Douyin data APIs: official vs third-party vs open-source (2026)
okdata reads public Douyin data with one API key and no Douyin account: video search costs $0.02 a page and video comments $0.002 a page of about 20, with video detail, play counts, replies, profiles and user posts alongside, and failed calls are free. The other routes fall into four kinds: the Douyin Open Platform, which reads only accounts that authorised your app (its keyword video search must be enabled separately and returns no comments); third-party data services, billed per call, whose coverage, unit prices and billing rules differ; open-source crawlers, free but you maintain the logins, signatures and proxies; and subscription dashboards, sold monthly or yearly for marketers who do not code.
Updated · Other options checked on
The first question about Douyin data is usually whether there is an official API. There is, but it serves accounts that authorise your app. To read competitors, creators and keyword results, most teams end up with a third-party data service, an open-source crawler or a subscription dashboard. First what okdata returns and what it costs, then the four kinds of option side by side.
What okdata returns and what it costs
okdata is a per-call data API: 17 platforms and 214 endpoints behind one key, with no Douyin account needed. For Douyin:
- Video search: public videos by keyword, $0.02 a page.
- Video comments: about 20 comments a page for $0.002, each with likes, reply count, time and IP location; about $0.10 per 1,000.
- Comment replies: the replies under a top-level comment, $0.002 a page.
- User posts at $0.002 a page and profiles at $0.002 a call.
- Video detail at $0.002 and play counts at $0.002 a call.
There are also account search, hot search, hashtag videos, Ocean Engine index and Xingtu creator endpoints, each priced on its page. A successful call takes its listed price and a failed call takes nothing; how an empty answer and "not found" are billed is set per endpoint and explained in billing. New accounts get $0.10 of trial credit, and top-ups start at USD 10 by card, Alipay or WeChat Pay. Every platform answers in the same shape, and the same key works for AI agents through the MCP server.
The comparison
The Douyin Open Platform row comes from its own documentation, read on 2026-11-12. The other rows describe what each kind of option has in common; for any one service, its own docs and pricing page are what count.
| Option | Data | Cost | Login or cookie | Risk and upkeep | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Douyin Open Platform (official) | Authorised users' profiles, basic data on their own uploads, follower data; with the "Douyin video search" capability, keyword search of public videos returning only title, cover, author and likes | Per-endpoint prices not stated | App review; most endpoints need user OAuth, search uses the app token | Most compliant; the OpenAPI list no longer has video-list or comment-list endpoints; the rules forbid building data services on user data | Tools for your own or clients' accounts |
| Third-party data services | Public videos, comments and replies, profiles and posts, search results; coverage varies | Per call or per item; unit prices, minimum top-ups and whether failed or empty calls are charged differ, and some prices appear only after sign-up | An API key; a few creator endpoints may need your own cookie | No crawler to maintain; depends on the service's reliability and billing rules | Other people's public data in code or an AI agent |
| okdata | Video search and detail, play counts, comments and replies with IP location, profiles and posts, account search, hot search, hashtag videos, Ocean Engine index and Xingtu creator data | Comments $0.002 a page, search $0.02 a page; $0.10 trial, top-ups from USD 10 by card, Alipay or WeChat Pay | A key, no Douyin account | Failed calls free; read-only | Public data in code or an AI agent |
| Open-source crawlers | Keyword search, given videos, comments and replies, creator pages; most cover other platforms too | Free; your machine and proxies | Most log in by QR code, phone or cookie; some use guest identities but then get no search results | You fix broken logins and signatures; some licences forbid commercial use; logged-in accounts can be restricted | Learning, research, small one-off jobs |
| Subscription dashboards | Rankings, creators, live commerce and video data in a web dashboard with exports | Monthly or yearly membership; higher plans show more | A dashboard account | Data mostly stays in the dashboard; an API, where offered, is arranged separately | Marketers who do not code |
The official platform
Most Douyin Open Platform endpoints act for a user who has logged in and authorised your app, and read that user's own things: profile, uploaded videos, follower data. "Query video basic info" can only look up videos uploaded by the access token's user; "fans' hot comments" returns data only for accounts above 3,000 followers.
Of the endpoints we found, the one that reads unauthorised public content is video search: it uses the app's client token, needs the "Douyin video vertical search" capability and a quota, and returns video ID, title, cover, nickname, avatar, like count and link, with no comments.
Two things to know first:
- The OpenAPI list we read on 2026-11-12 no longer includes video-list or comment-list endpoints, and the old comment-management pages show "page not found".
- The usage rules forbid using personal data to build "data-service apps", for back-office statistical analysis, or to provide services that obtain user behaviour data such as likes, comments and shares.
The official route suits publishing, management and reporting for accounts you manage, not competitor or keyword research. More in can the Douyin Open Platform read other people's videos and comments.
Third-party data services
These turn public Douyin data into HTTP endpoints behind one key: no Douyin account and no crawler to maintain. They differ on a handful of points worth checking one by one:
- Coverage: whether the endpoints you need exist, such as comment replies, play counts, account search or hashtag videos. "Supports Douyin" is not enough; read the endpoint list.
- Billing unit: per call, per page or per item, and how many items a page holds. With per-page billing, the page size sets what 1,000 comments cost.
- Failures and empty results: whether timeouts, platform errors and bad parameters are charged, and whether a successful but empty answer is.
- Public prices: some pricing pages list every endpoint; others show prices only after sign-up or through sales.
- Login: most endpoints need only the key; a few creator back-office endpoints may ask for your own cookie, which puts the account risk back on you.
- Top-ups and payment: the minimum top-up, whether Alipay or WeChat Pay work, and whether the balance expires.
okdata's answers are in the section above and in billing: per page or per call, every price public on its endpoint page, failed calls free, and no cookie of yours needed.
Open-source crawlers
Open-source crawlers usually keep a logged-in session with browser automation such as Playwright. For Douyin they typically offer keyword search, given videos, comments and second-level replies and creator pages, and many cover Xiaohongshu, Kuaishou and other platforms too. Some projects do not use your cookie and mint guest identities instead; the catch is that Douyin gives guests no search results or hashtag posts, so these read only by video link or account.
They are free, but you supply the servers and proxies, and someone has to fix them whenever signatures or pages change. Running them on a logged-in account risks that account being restricted. Read the licence too: some projects allow only non-commercial learning and research and forbid large-scale crawling, and some repositories have no licence file at all. The Douyin Open Platform's developer agreement also calls reading platform data with spiders or bots "illegal acquisition", which matters for commercial projects; see scraping vs a data API.
Subscription dashboards
Dashboards sell memberships: rankings, creators, live commerce and video data in a web interface, with exports to Excel by plan. They are priced monthly or yearly, and higher plans show more data and allow more exports. Their strength is ready-made analysis and rankings, which suits marketers who do not code. Their limit is that the data mostly stays in the dashboard: getting it into your own system or an AI agent usually means asking about an API separately, if one is offered at all.
How to choose
- Tools for your own or clients' accounts (publishing, replying to your own comments, your own stats): the Douyin Open Platform.
- Public videos and comments of others, in code or an agent: a third-party data service. Compare three things first: unit price and page size, whether failed and empty calls are charged, and whether prices are public.
- Learning or one-off research, accepting account risk: an open-source crawler, after checking that its licence allows your use.
- Marketers browsing rankings and creators without code: a subscription dashboard.
What okdata does not do
- It cannot post videos, comment, like or send messages; it reads public data only.
- It has no back-office data such as completion rate, revenue or your own videos' traffic sources.
- Comments come in the platform's hottest-first order only, not by time; deleted and folded comments are missing.
- It has no real-time live-room data.
Try it
Sign up for $0.10 of trial credit, no card needed. Search videos, then fetch comments:
curl -G "https://api.okdata.online/v1/douyin/videos/search" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $OKDATA_API_KEY" \
--data-urlencode 'query=camping gear'
curl -G "https://api.okdata.online/v1/douyin/videos/comments/list" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $OKDATA_API_KEY" \
--data-urlencode 'id=7301234567890123456'
The full workflow with Python is in export Douyin video comments, and comment collection is compared on its own in how to collect Douyin comments.
Questions
Does Douyin have an official API for other people's comments?
No. The official platform is built on user authorisation and reads the authorising account's own data. The OpenAPI list we read on 2026-11-12 has no comment-list endpoint, and video search, the one endpoint that reads unauthorised content, returns no comments. Comments on other people's videos come from third-party data services or crawlers.
What does a Douyin data API cost?
On okdata, comments cost $0.002 a page (about $0.10 per 1,000), video search $0.02 a page and profiles $0.002 a call. Prices across third-party data services vary widely, and some are shown only after sign-up; compare the total for one job, such as 10,000 comments, and add the rules for failed and empty calls. The official platform's docs do not state per-endpoint prices, and dashboards charge a membership fee.
Can I get Douyin data without logging in?
Yes. Third-party data services need only the service's key, and some open-source projects use guest identities, though without search results. Most open-source crawlers log in.
Can I get a Douyin video's play count?
Most public Douyin responses omit it. okdata's play count endpoint returns current plays, likes and shares by video ID or link for $0.002.
Is using a third-party API compliant?
Public data is still covered by the platform's terms and by the Personal Information Protection Law. Collecting only the fields you need, dropping commenter identities and not reselling raw data lowers the risk considerably. General background is in is collecting public social data legal; for a specific project, ask a lawyer.