How to Use Hashtags on TikTok (and How Many to Add)

You can add up to 5 hashtags to a TikTok post: TikTok introduced the cap in August 2025, with an in-app notice reading “Maximum 5 hashtags”. Type # in your caption, then the word, and pick from the suggestions. Use 3 to 5 specific hashtags that describe what’s actually in the video, rather than broad tags like #fyp that are attached to billions of posts.

Hashtags help TikTok and viewers place your video, but they’re one signal among many; captions, spoken words and on-screen text count too. This guide covers adding hashtags, choosing them and finding the right ones. Spotting trends is covered in how to find trends on TikTok. Hashtags work alongside sound, so trending sounds on TikTok is the next thing to check, and trending products on TikTok are usually found through the same tags.

How Many Hashtags Can You Use on TikTok?

TikTok allows a maximum of 5 hashtags per post. The limit appeared in August 2025 as an in-app warning, “Maximum 5 hashtags. Use accurate hashtags to get more views”, and TikTok didn’t publish a separate announcement (MediaPost, Search Engine Land). Guides that recommend 10, 20 or 30 hashtags predate the cap.

How Do You Add Hashtags to a TikTok?

You add hashtags in the caption on the posting screen. Listed below are the 4 steps.

1. Record or upload your video and tap Next.
2. Tap the caption box.
3. Type # and start the word; TikTok suggests matching hashtags with their view counts.
4. Pick a suggestion or finish typing, then add up to 4 more.

Hashtags count toward your caption’s character limit, so keep them short.

Which Hashtags Should You Use on TikTok?

Use a mix of specific hashtags: one or two for your exact niche, one for the content type, and one trending tag only when it truly fits. The table shows the mix with an example for a sourdough baking video.

Slot	Purpose	Example
Niche	Who the video is for	#sourdoughbaking
Topic	What the video shows	#breadrecipe
Format	The type of video	#bakingtutorial
Community	A group that gathers around it	#breadtok
Trend (optional)	A relevant trending tag	Only if it fits the video

Skip #fyp, #foryou and #viral: they’re on so many posts that they tell TikTok nothing about your video.

How Do You Find the Best Hashtags for a Video?

Find hashtags by searching your topic in TikTok, opening the hashtag results to compare view counts, and checking TikTok Creative Center’s hashtag ranking for what’s rising. A tag with very high views is crowded; a tag with almost none has no audience. The ones in between, specific to your niche and still active, are usually the best fit. The Creative Center steps are in how to find trends on TikTok.

Do Hashtags Still Matter on TikTok?

Hashtags still help, but less than they used to; TikTok also reads captions, speech and on-screen text to understand a video. Hashtags are most useful for joining a community, a challenge or a campaign. A clear caption with the words people search for does as much for discovery as the tags.

How Do You Block a Hashtag on TikTok?

To stop seeing videos with a hashtag, add it to your content filters, under Settings and privacy, then Content preferences. The steps are in how to block hashtags, sounds and keywords on TikTok.

How to Measure Hashtag Performance With Data

To compare hashtags properly, look at the videos behind them: how many are recent, how many views they get and who posts them. apidojo’s TikTok Scraper on Apify collects every video on a hashtag page, with its views, likes, shares, upload time and creator, so you can see which tags are active and which are crowded (Apify).

{
  "startUrls": ["https://www.tiktok.com/tag/sourdoughbaking"],
  "maxItems": 500
}

It costs $0.30 per 1,000 posts. The developer guide is how to scrape TikTok hashtag pages.