TikTok Scraper: How to Scrape Data From TikTok in 2024

TikTok has become one of the world’s  most popular social media platforms, with over 1 billion monthly active users.¹ TikTok’s massive user base and extensive content have made it the hottest social media platform for businesses.

However, accessing this data through web scraping may be challenging due to TikTok’s anti-scraping measures, such as rate limits and IP blocking. While TikTok’s APIs can provide access to some data, they are limited in their scope. TikTok web scrapers allow for large-scale data extraction from TikTok’s public-facing web pages.

In this article, we will discuss how to scrape TikTok using best practices for ethical and legal scraping and the benefits and limitations of TikTok scraping. We will also cover the top 5 TikTok scrapers and other tools to extract data from TikTok accounts.

4 Methods to extract data from TikTok

1. Top 5 TikTok Scrapers for scraping TikTok data

Here is a list of some popular TikTok scrapers for extracting data from TikTok:

Transparency statement: The vendors with links are AIMultiple’s sponsors.

2. Python TikTok Scraper: Scrape TikTok using Python

Python is the most commonly used programming language of 2022 (Figure 4). It is a high-level language and  easier to understand than other languages for a less experienced coder.

Python provides third-party libraries such as BeautifulSoup and Scrapy specifically for web scraping and crawling. You can build your web crawler using a web scraping library to interact with TikTok’s API and collect data. Here’s a quick rundown of how to scrape TikTok data with Python:

1. Install virtualenv: First, you need to create your venv. You can do this by running the “pip install virtualenv” command.

2. Install required libraries: After installing virtualenv, you must install the dependencies to your venv. You can install the required libraries for your data scraping project using pip. For example, if you want to use the Requests or Selenium libraries, you can install them by running the following commands:
   • pip install requests
   • pip install beautifulsoup4
3. Scrape data: You can start TikTok data collection using Python scripts or libraries.

Figure 4:  Show the popularity of programming languages in 2022

3. TikTok API for data collection

TikTok API provides access to data for data collection, including user profiles and  hashtags. To use TikTok API for data collection, you must obtain an access token by creating a developer account on the TikTok Developer Platform. After receiving an access token, you can make API requests to collect data using programming languages such as Python.

Benefits of using TikTok API

• Provides a more secure and authorized way to access TikTok data, as long as it’s used in line with TikTok’s rules and policies for collecting data.
• Can easily be integrated with other technologies and tools, such as databases and machine learning libraries.

Limitations of using TikTok API

• To collect data with the TikTok API, you need technical knowledge and an understanding of API authentication.
• TikTok API has a rate limit on how many requests you can send in a given timeframe (Figure 5). 

Figure 5: Rate Limits on TikTok API calls

4. Ready-to-use datasets

Datasets are collecting data that have been already extracted, cleaned and organized. Ready-to-use datasets can save significant time, as they have already been collected and organized. Additionally, using ready-to-use datasets may help avoid legal and ethical issues regarding web scraping, such as violating website terms of service or copyright infringement.

Sponsored

Bright Data’s TikTok dataset includes different data points, including verified profiles, followers, likes, and more (Figure 6). Depending on your needs, you could:

• Purchase the complete dataset
• Create a customized subset of the existing TikTok dataset
• Request your own dataset

Figure 6: An example of Bright Data’s TikTok Dataset

What is TikTok scraping?

TikTok scraping is the process of extracting publicly available data from TikTok (Figure 1). While TikTok data scraping can involve manual and automated activities, it is most commonly referred  to automated processes. These practices are carried out by a web crawler or custom scripts that interact with TikTok’s APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).

The data can include various types of information, such as user profiles, videos, comments, likes, and search hashtags. Here are some examples of TikTok data:

1. User profiles: Include information about TikTok users, such as their profile name, bio, and follower count.
2. Demographics: Data related to the characteristics of TikTok users, such as age, gender, location, and interests.
3. Videos: TikTok users’ short-form videos, including captions, likes, comments, shares, and views.
4. Hashtags: Keywords or phrases used to categorize TikTok content. Comments: Text responses to TikTok videos submitted by users, including the text, timestamp, and number of likes.
5. Engagement metrics: Information about how users interact with TikTok content, such as likes, comments, shares, and views.
6. Trends: Information about popular topics, themes, or styles on TikTok.

Figure 1: Shows output of a publicly available profile scraped from TikTok.

How to collect data from TikTok: Step-by-step guide

1. Determine which data to scrape: Identify your goal for scraping TikTok. Do you want to extract TikTok data for sales, marketing analysis, or another purpose?
   • 1.1 Identify the data format: Determine which TikTok data, such as user profile data, video data, comments, or hashtags, you intend to scrape.
   • 1.2 Determine the scope of scraping: Identify the data size you want to scrape.
2. Choose your data collection method: Select a scraping technique corresponding to your technical expertise, such as  scraping API or a scraper. For instance, you can utilize a TikTok scraper or develop a script that interacts with TikTok’s APIs.
   • 2.1 Create your scraping script: If you intend to scrape TikTok with a custom script, develop a script that interacts with the TikTok website or API to extract the desired data.
   • 2.2 Web scraper configuration: If you plan to use a social media scraping tool, choose and configure the tool to extract the desired TikTok data.
   • 2.3 Gain access to TikTok API: If you intend to use the official TikTok API for your data collection project, you must:
     • Create a TikTok developer account 
     • Apply for API access.

After you’ve been approved, you can use the API to access publicly available TikTok data.

3. Analyze the scraped data: Once you have scraped data from TikTok, you need to analyze the scraped data to gain insights into user behavior and trends on TikTok. Here are some common techniques for analyzing scraped TikTok data:
   • 3.1 Data cleaning: Remove any irrelevant or redundant information from the scraped data.
   • 3.2 Text analysis: If the scraped data includes text, use natural language processing techniques to assess sentiment and topics.
   • 3.3 External data comparison: Compare the scraped data to external data sources.

Is it legal to scrape TikTok?

Scraping publicly available data on the web, including TikTok, is legal as long as it complies with applicable laws and regulations, such as data protection and privacy laws. However, the legality of scraping data also depends on factors such as:

• The purpose of the data collection
• Including Personally identifiable information (PII)

See our guide on the legality of web scraping and web scraping ethics for more information.

Best practices for legal and ethical TikTok scraping

Here are some best practices for legal and ethical TikTok data scraping:

1. Respect website terms of service: Before scraping any data from TikTok, it is critical to review the platform’s terms of service. 
2. Respect the ‘robots.txt’ file: Besides commercial terms of use, websites have a robot.txt file containing information about the scraped website’s permissions. Enter https://www.example.com/robots.txt to view a website’s instructions for web crawlers (see Figure 2). 

Figure 2: TikTok’s robots.txt’ file

3. Monitor scraping activity: Scrape only the data you need and ensure it does not exceed reasonable limits. 
4. Comply with data protection laws: Do not collect personally identifiable information. Comply with data protection regulations around PII, the major ones being GDPR in the EU and CCPA in California.

Technical challenges and limitations of TikTok scraping

1. TikTok’s rate limit on API Requests: TikTok’s API restricts the number of requests that can be made within a given period and slows down the scraping process. The rate limits are intended to prevent excessive or abusive API use and keep the service responsive for all users. 

If your API requests exceed the TikTok API rate limit, you may be temporarily or permanently banned from accessing the API. Therefore, it’s important to monitor your API usage to avoid being blocked by the platform.

Solution: Backoff strategies such as throttling, caching, and prioritizing requests can be used to manage data collection and avoid exceeding API rate limits.

2. Anti-scraping technologies: Websites, including social media platforms, employ anti-scraping measures such as CAPTCHAs, IP blocking, and user agent blocking to prevent automated web scraping activities. Here are some common strategies for handling anti-scraping techniques:

Solution:

• Rotating proxies/IP rotation: Rotating proxies enable users to change their IP addresses constantly (Figure 7). For example, when you frequently make a connection request to the same website, your current IP address will be automatically rotated for each request. Residential proxy servers are one type of rotating proxy server. 

You can utilize a residential proxy server if your primary concern is security. Residential proxies offer a greater level of anonymity since their IP address is provided by the ISP (Internet Service Provider).

We listed the top 10 residential proxy providers by their features and performance to help you choose the right residential proxy service.

Figure 7:  An overview of the shared proxies work flow

• CAPTCHA-solving services: Anti-captcha services analyze CAPTCHA challenges and solve them automatically using machine learning algorithms. There are many paid and free third-party services that can handle CAPTCHAs. It is important to ensure that the CAPTCHA-solving service you use is in accordance with TikTok’s terms of service. 

• Headless browsers: Headless browsers can imitate human behavior by navigating websites and executing JavaScript while avoiding detection by user agent blocking or JavaScript detection.

3. Changes to the API: TikTok may change its API, including API endpoint changes or API response changes, which can affect the code used for scraping.

Solution: It’s important to monitor API documentation and update scraping scripts as needed to keep up with API changes.

More on social media scraping

• Social Media Scraping: Tools, How-to & Case Studies in 2023
• Facebook Scraper: How to Scrape Facebook in 2023
• How to Scrape Instagram and 6 Best Instagram Scrapers in 2023 

For guidance to choose the right tool, check out data-driven list of web scrapers, and reach out to us:

External links

• 1. Geyser, W. (February 14th, 2023). “Top 64 TikTok Stats You Need to Know in 2023“. Influencer MarketingHub.
• 2. GitHub
• 3. TikTok for developers