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Export TikTok comments to CSV without the official API

#tiktok #python #api #datascience

TikTok has no "download comments" button, and its Research API is limited to approved academic researchers. Yet
comments are what marketers, agencies and analysts want most: picking a giveaway winner, reading the reaction to a
campaign, collecting text for sentiment analysis. Here is the shortest route I know from a video link to a
spreadsheet.

One command 

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/clearfetch~tiktok-comments-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN&format=csv" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"urls": ["https://www.tiktok.com/@tiktok/video/7106594312292453675"], "maxCommentsPerVideo": 500}' \
  -o comments.csv
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format=xlsx gives you an Excel file instead, and &fields=createdAt,likes,text keeps only the columns you name.
The first rows of a real run with those three fields:

"createdAt","likes","text"
"2022-08-05T18:01:11.000Z","3","Tiktok and Minecraft??"
"2022-06-07T21:03:06.000Z","156","15?"
"2022-06-22T22:36:33.000Z","190","j thought it was 16 because of the emoji😳"
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The token comes with a free Apify account. From Python it is the same call through the client:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("clearfetch/tiktok-comments-scraper").call(run_input={
    "urls": ["https://www.tiktok.com/@tiktok/video/7106594312292453675"],
    "maxCommentsPerVideo": 500,
    "includeReplies": True,
})
for c in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(c["createdAt"], c["likes"], c["text"])
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What each row holds

The comment text and time, its likes and reply count, whether it is a reply and to which comment, whether the
creator pinned or liked it, its language, the mentions and hashtags in it, a purchase-intent flag TikTok sets on some
comments, and the author's username, display name and profile link. Several video links go in one run, each row
tagged with its video.

Watching a video for new comments

Turn on onlyNew and schedule the run daily. The first run returns everything; every later run writes, and charges
for, only comments posted after the newest one already delivered for that video. TikTok orders comments by
popularity rather than date, so a new comment can sit anywhere in the list: let monitoring runs read all comments
("maxCommentsPerVideo": 0).

Things worth knowing

  • You will get fewer comments than the number under the video. That count includes replies and comments TikTok hides from everyone: filtered, deleted or restricted.
  • Repeats are dropped. TikTok's ranking shifts while you page through, so the same comment can come back on a later page; those are removed before they reach your file, and not charged.
  • Speed. About 100 comments a second on Apify's default settings: 20,000 comments in roughly four minutes.
  • Price. $0.40 per 1,000 comments, 10-30% less on paid Apify plans. No login, no cookies, no proxy needed.

  • Personal data. Comments are public, but usernames are personal data under laws such as the GDPR, so have a
    lawful reason to process them and store them appropriately.

  • Run it: apify.com/clearfetch/tiktok-comments-scraper

  • Examples (CSV export, scheduled monitoring): github.com/clearfetch/tiktok-comments-scraper

  • Ready-made pages:
    pick a TikTok giveaway winner from the comments,
    collect TikTok comments for sentiment analysis

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