# Douyin Search API (https://www.socialcrawl.dev/platforms/douyin/search)

> Returns Douyin videos matching a keyword: caption, creator, likes, comments, shares, saves, hashtags, music, cover image and duration. Chinese, English and mixed queries all work. Douyin does not publish view counts outside its own app, so post.engagement.views is always null on every Douyin endpoint. For creators rather than videos call GET /v1/douyin/search/users.

TL;DR: `GET /v1/douyin/search` costs 5 credits per row RETURNED. The call holds `limit x 5` up front - the default limit of 10 holds 50 and the 25 maximum holds 125 - and settles down to the rows actually delivered, so a narrow query that returns 3 videos costs 15 credits however high `limit` was set and returns SocialCrawl's unified JSON schema. Single x-api-key auth, 100 free credits on signup.

## Parameters

| Parameter | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `query` | yes | Search keywords, for example 美食 or coffee. |
| `limit` | no | Rows to return, 1 to 25. Default 10. Each row costs 5 credits and you are charged only for rows returned. |
| `sort` | no | Result ordering: relevance, most_liked, or latest. Default relevance. (relevance \| most_liked \| latest) |
| `published` | no | Recency window: all, day, week, or half_year. Default all. (all \| day \| week \| half_year) |
| `duration` | no | Length filter: all, under_1m, one_to_five_m, or over_5m. Default all. (all \| under_1m \| one_to_five_m \| over_5m) |
| `since` | no | Only rows published on or after this date: YYYY-MM-DD (midnight UTC) or an ISO 8601 timestamp. Rows older than it are left off each page. This list is not in date order, so the walk does not stop at the date: keep following `next_cursor`, and each page costs what a page costs even when every row on it is filtered out. A row with no date is kept. `published_after`, `start_date`, `from_date`, `publish_time` (`yesterday`, `this-week`, `this-month`, `last-3-months`, `last-6-months`) and `max_age_days` are accepted and applied as `since`. |
| `until` | no | Only rows published on or before this date: YYYY-MM-DD (that whole UTC day is included) or an ISO 8601 timestamp. Newer rows are left off each page and the walk does not stop, so older pages follow. A row with no date is kept. `published_before`, `end_date` and `to_date` are accepted and applied as `until`. |

## Code example

```bash
curl -G "https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/douyin/search" \
  --data-urlencode "query=美食" \
  -H "x-api-key: sc_YOUR_API_KEY"
```

## FAQ

### Can I search Douyin in English?

Yes, though Chinese queries surface far more relevant native content. Douyin is a mainland-China network and most captions and hashtags are written in Chinese, so a Chinese keyword returns a much deeper result set.

### Can I sort or filter Douyin search results?

Yes. Sort by relevance, most liked or latest, and narrow by publish window (day, week, half year) or by video length. The filters are applied by Douyin itself, not after the fact.

### How many results can one Douyin search return?

Up to 25 rows per call, and limit is a ceiling instead of a quota. You are billed only for rows actually returned, so a narrow query costs less, and a slow moment upstream can hand back a shorter page for the same reason.

### Does Douyin search ever return nothing?

In practice, no. Douyin falls back to loosely related videos rather than reporting no match, so a nonsense query still returns rows. Check the captions rather than assuming an empty list means no coverage.

### Do search results include view counts?

No. Douyin publishes no play counts outside its own app, so views is null on every row. Likes, comments, shares and saves are real numbers you can rank and track on.

See the full Douyin API: https://www.socialcrawl.dev/platforms/douyin

## Pricing

- Standard endpoints: 1 credit per call
- Advanced endpoints: 5 credits per call
- Premium endpoints: 10 credits per call
- 100 free credits on signup, no credit card required. Cached responses cost 0 credits. Credit packs never expire.
- Full pricing: https://www.socialcrawl.dev/pricing

## Explore with AI

Questions this API answers, phrased for an AI assistant:

- how to search Douyin videos by keyword with an API
- can I search Douyin in Chinese and English