# Why your TikTok user run cost three queries

TikTok User Scraper charges $0.005 for the profile URL and $0.005 again for each list you ask for. Both list toggles default to on, so a run you did not configure fires three queries per profile and returns two lists, one of which you probably did not want.

[![apidojo](/blog/authors/apidojo.png)**Apidojo** *15+ years of experience in data retrieval.*](/blog/authors/apidojo/)

**29 September 2026** Published

**2 min** Read

![Cover card reading "Why your TikTok user run cost three queries"](/blog/covers/tiktok-user-defaults.png)

-   The profile URL, the follower list and the following list are three separate $0.005 charges.
-   getFollowers and getFollowing are both true unless you say otherwise.
-   You cannot turn both off. The listing forbids single-account lookups outright.
-   Roughly ten users come free with each list query, which makes shallow sampling very cheap.

## Three charges hiding behind one run

TikTok User Scraper bills four events, and three of them can fire on a single profile:

| Event | Price | Included |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Profile URL query | $0.005 | The account itself |
| Follower query | $0.005 | About 10 users |
| Following query | $0.005 | About 10 users |
| Each user after | $0.0005 |  |

The part that surprises people is that `getFollowers` and `getFollowing` both default to **true**. Submit a profile URL and nothing else, and you have bought all three.

Across a hundred profiles that default is fifty cents in query fees you did not intend, plus every user the unwanted list returns at $0.0005 each. On accounts with large followings, the second half is much the larger number.

## Say both out loud, every time

The habit worth building is never relying on the default:

```
def audience(urls, followers=True, following=False, cap=1000):
    # Always state both. They default to True, and each is its own $0.005.
    return client.actor("apidojo/tiktok-user-scraper").call(run_input={
        "startUrls": urls,
        "getFollowers": followers,
        "getFollowing": following,
        "maxItems": cap,
    })
```

Two extra lines, and the bill becomes something you chose.

## You cannot turn both off

There is a floor. The listing states plainly that you must not disable both toggles in order to fetch a single user, and that every run must return at least ten users. Single-item queries are not permitted.

That tells you what the actor is for. It walks lists. It is not a lookup tool, and if you want one account’s follower count and bio, TikTok Profile Scraper is the right product and a much cheaper one.

## The shape that makes the pricing work for you

Because each list query carries roughly ten free users, a shallow pass is almost entirely query fees:

-   **20 profiles, followers only, capped at 10 users each**: 20 × $0.01 = $0.20, and no item charges at all
-   **1 profile, followers, 1,000 users**: $0.01 + 990 × $0.0005 = $0.51

Two hundred users across twenty audiences for twenty cents is the cheapest way to decide which audience deserves the deep pull. Sample wide, then go deep once, rather than guessing and paying for depth on the wrong account.

## One thing the output will not tell you

Followers and following arrive in the same dataset with the same shape, and nothing on a row says which list it came from. If you need that distinction, run the two directions as separate jobs with one toggle each. The query fees are identical either way, and you get labelled data instead of a merged pile.

## The scrapers behind this

-   [TikTok User Scraper Users, followers and following lists by username or URL $0.005 / query + $0.50 / 1K users](/scrapers/tiktok-user-scraper/)
-   [TikTok Profile Scraper Creator profiles with full video history and engagement; 425 posts/sec $0.30 / 1K posts](/scrapers/tiktok-profile-scraper/)

## Questions people ask

### Why did a single TikTok profile cost $0.015?

Because three queries fired. The profile URL is $0.005, the follower query is another $0.005 and the following query is a third, and the two list toggles are on unless you set them to false. Turning off the list you do not need removes a third of the fixed cost.

### Can I use TikTok User Scraper to look up one account?

No. The listing states that you must not disable both getFollowers and getFollowing to fetch a single user, and that every run must return at least ten users. If one account's stats is what you want, TikTok Profile Scraper is the actor for that.

### What is the cheapest way to sample many audiences?

Take only the free page. Each list query carries about ten users at no item cost, so twenty profiles capped at ten users each is twenty cents in query fees and nothing in items.

1.  [TikTok User Scraper, pricing and usage rules](https://apify.com/apidojo/tiktok-user-scraper) apify.com

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## [Apidojo](/blog/authors/apidojo/)

15+ years of experience in data retrieval.

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-   🏯 15+ years of experience in data retrieval.
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-   [apidojo.io](https://apidojo.io)

## More in this cluster

-   [TikTok scraping guides Pulling posts, comments, sounds and places from TikTok: which door each scraper goes in by, what a run costs, and what the output does not contain.](/blog/tiktok/)
-   [TikTok date windows that return nothing, and why TikTok Profile Scraper's since and until mean the opposite of what almost everyone assumes. Swap them and the run returns an empty dataset.](/blog/tiktok/tiktok-since-until/)
-   [Why geotagged TikTok posts arrive without a geotag TikTok Location Scraper returns posts filed under a place, and not one field in the output names that place. Here is how to keep the provenance.](/blog/tiktok/tiktok-location-provenance/)