Do I need a TikTok developer account?

No. There is no TikTok app, OAuth flow or app review. One InsightSocial API key works for this endpoint and every other platform, and your first 10 calls priced at 100 credits or less are free.

How do I get every result, not just the first page?

This endpoint pages. Each response carries pagination.next_cursor and pagination.has_more. Send next_cursor back unchanged as the cursor parameter and stop when has_more is false. Every page is a separate call and is charged as one.

What happens if the account is private or nothing is found?

You get an error or an empty result, and it costs 0 credits. The API reads public TikTok data only, so private accounts and deleted content come back as not found rather than as partial data.

Can I call the TikTok Search Users API from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor?

Yes. Add the hosted MCP server at https://api.insightsocial.app/mcp to your AI app and sign in. The assistant finds this endpoint by name, shows its price and calls it with your credits.

GET /v1/tiktok/search/users

TikTok Search Users API

Returns TikTok accounts for a search term with username, name, avatar, followers, verification. include=profile adds bio, region, link and category.

Get a free API key Full API reference

10–1,310 credits, metered · cursor pagination · failed calls free · 10 free calls to start

curl "https://api.insightsocial.app/v1/tiktok/search/users?query=cooking" \
-H "x-api-key: $INSIGHTSOCIAL_API_KEY"

200 OKJSON

{
"success": true,
"platform": "tiktok",
"endpoint": "/v1/tiktok/search/users",
"schema_version": "2",
"data": {
"items": [
{
"author": {
"id": "<string>",
"username": "<string | null>",
"display_name": "<string | null>",
"avatar_url": "<string | null>",
"bio": "<string | null>",
"verified": "<boolean | null>",
"followers": "<integer | null>",
"followers_approximate": "<boolean | null>",
"following": "<integer | null>",
"posts_count": "<integer | null>",
"likes_count": "<integer | null>",
"url": "<string | null>",
"location": "<string | null>",
"external_url": "<string | null>",
"private": "<boolean | null>",
"joined_at": "<string | null>",
"last_post_at": "<string | null>",
"ext": "<object | null>"
}
}
],
"total": "<integer | null>",
"truncated": "<boolean | null>"
},
"pagination": {
"next_cursor": "<string | null>",
"has_more": "<boolean>"
},
"unavailable": [],
"credits_used": "<integer>"
}

When to use it

Use it to find accounts by name or topic. Add country=KR (or US, DE, …) when you need creators in one country. The video searches, search and search/top, give you posts rather than accounts.

Parameters

Query parameters for GET /v1/tiktok/search/users. Send your key in the x-api-key header.

Name	Required	Description
query	Yes	Search keyword or phrase to find TikTok users
cursor	No	Cursor to get more users. Get 'cursor' from previous response.
trim	No	Accepted for compatibility; the response is already the canonical shape, so this flag has no effect.
include	No	Set to profile (one token only) to fill author.bio, author.location (the ISO region), external_url and author.ext.business_category on every row in this one call.
limit	No	Take the top N rows of the page (1 to 30) after the search has run. On the global page it is not a page size: next_cursor still advances past the full page, so rows beyond N on this page are not returned by the next page.
country	No	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 account region to filter by (KR, US, DE, …). Omit it for the global default page. A code this endpoint does not accept is a free 400.

Response fields

The same unified schema every platform returns, so code written for TikTok works on the other eight. A field the platform did not provide is null and listed in unavailable.

Field	Type	Notes
id	string	An identifier, always a string. Never parse it as a number: several platforms use ids above 2^53.
username	string \| null
display_name	string \| null
avatar_url	string \| null
bio	string \| null
verified	boolean \| null
followers	integer \| null	A count. null when the platform does not expose it; 0 only when it is really zero.
followers_approximate	boolean \| null
following	integer \| null	A count. null when the platform does not expose it; 0 only when it is really zero.
posts_count	integer \| null	A count. null when the platform does not expose it; 0 only when it is really zero.
likes_count	integer \| null	A count. null when the platform does not expose it; 0 only when it is really zero.
url	string \| null
location	string \| null
external_url	string \| null
private	boolean \| null
joined_at	string \| null	ISO-8601 timestamp in UTC, ending in Z.
last_post_at	string \| null	ISO-8601 timestamp in UTC, ending in Z.
ext	object \| null	Platform-specific fields, snake_case.

Every field, error and example is in the TikTok Search Users API reference.

How much does the TikTok Search Users API cost?

Metered: 10–1,310 credits a call. The ceiling is reserved when the call starts and you are charged what it actually read.

Failed calls are free
A call that errors or finds nothing costs 0 credits.
Know the price first
Add dry_run=1 and the response quotes the call without making it. Nothing is charged.
One balance
API calls and Chrome extension exports share the same credits, on the free plan too.

See plans and credit packs How credits work