TikTok Comments Scraper: the thread under the video

One URL field, one switch behind it

There is only one way in: the URL of a post. Everything else about a run is decided by whether replies are being collected and where the ceiling sits.

• startUrls

  $0.0003per comment

  No per-post fee

  A video or photo post link. Profile and hashtag URLs are not accepted here, those are other actors.

  https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/7050551461734042926

• Multiplies the bill without changing the price

  includeReplies

  same ratemore rows

  Rows, not a new fee

  Off by default. On, the run walks the reply threads under each top-level comment as well.

  includeReplies: true

• maxItems

  ÷ $0.0003budget to cap

  Counts replies too

  The ceiling across the whole run, shared between every post in it. Comments and replies both count against it.

  5000

• customMapFunction

  freeno charge

  Transform, never filter

  Reshapes each row on the way out. For transformation only, the listing blocks accounts that use it to filter.

  (o) => ({ user: o.user.username, text: o.text })

Nothing is billed per post, so a run over one video and a run over fifty cost the same for the same number of comments. The variable that moves the total is the switch.

Top level only, the full thread, or a qualifying pass

Three runs worth setting up differently. The first two differ by one boolean; the third changes what you do with the output rather than how you ask for it.

{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/7050551461734042926"
  ],
  "includeReplies": false,
  "maxItems": 1000
}

{
  "id": "7277992603752203013",
  "text": "TE AMO MI NIÑA💚💚💚💚💚💚🙌🌷",
  "createdAt": "2023-09-12T17:28:42.000Z",
  "likeCount": 0,
  "replyCount": 0,
  "commentLanguage": "es",
  "isAuthorLiked": false,
  "awemeId": "7050551461734042926"
}

{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/7050551461734042926"
  ],
  "includeReplies": true,
  "maxItems": 4000
}

{
  "parentId": "42517992603752202618",
  "id": "7277992603752203013",
  "replyCount": 0,
  "isAuthorLiked": false
}

{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/7050551461734042926"
  ],
  "maxItems": 5000
}

{
  "user": {
    "username": "21billie_eilish",
    "displayName": "¡★!",
    "url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@21billie_eilish",
    "bio": "Billiestan for ever¡★!",
    "region": "CO",
    "language": "es",
    "hasEmail": false,
    "hasPhone": false
  }
}

A comment, and the person who left it

Two blocks per row. The comment side is compact; the commenter side is not, and it is what separates this output from a generic comment dump.

• 5

  The comment

  Always present

  • id
  • text
  • createdAt, ISO 8601
  • commentLanguage
  • awemeId, the post it sits under

• 3

  Engagement

  Small on purpose

  • likeCount
  • replyCount
  • isAuthorLiked, the creator hearted it

• 1

  Thread position

  parentId

  • Absent or empty on a top-level comment
  • Names the comment a reply answers

• 11

  The commenter

  user, on every row

  • username, displayName, id
  • url
  • bio
  • region, language
  • hasEmail, hasPhone
  • avatarUrl, coverImage

Two language fields sit side by side and are not the same thing: commentLanguage is what this comment was written in, user.language is what the account is set to. A mismatch is often the most interesting row in a sentiment pull.

What a run needs to go well

Four conditions from the listing’s usage note and troubleshooting, plus one thing its own FAQ is honest enough to flag.

• 01

  Each URL should return at least ten comments

  The listing sets this as a usage rule, not advice: very low-engagement posts create a negative margin and may be blocked. Pick targets by comment count, not by views.

• 02

  Post URLs only

  startUrls takes video and photo post links. A profile URL or a hashtag page belongs to a different actor in the family and will not produce comments here.

• 03

  Replies are not guaranteed

  The listing’s FAQ states plainly that replies sometimes fail to come through when includeReplies is on, and asks you to verify against your own use case. Measure before you budget.

• 04

  The ceiling is shared and counts replies

  maxItems limits the run as a whole across every URL, and a reply consumes one of those rows exactly as a comment does. Turning the switch on halves your effective comment depth unless you raise it.

• 05

  Large batches can outrun the log

  If output stops partway, the listing points at a "logging is too fast, some lines were skipped" message and prescribes smaller batches rather than a retry.

Free accounts are in demo mode: 5 runs a month, 10 items each, no charge.

What the switch costs you

The rate never moves: every row is $0.0003, whether it is a comment or a reply. So the only question that matters for a budget is how many rows a thread produces, and that is the number worth measuring on a small run first.

The last row is the point: a hundred thousand rows costs $30 regardless of how they split between comments and replies. The switch changes how fast you get there, not the price of arriving.

Who reads comments for a living?

The listing points at brand monitoring, sentiment work, lead generation and competitor research. The commenter block is what decides which of those this actor is actually best at, a bio and a region on every row is a qualifying tool, not a mood ring.

• Lead generation

  Top level, then filter on the user block

  Pull the commenters on a niche video and keep the ones whose bio and contact flags say they are running a business

  $1.50 per 5,000 comments

• Brand monitoring

  Top level, across a campaign’s posts

  Read the reaction to a launch with isAuthorLiked showing which replies the brand itself endorsed

  $0.30 per 1,000

• Sentiment analysis

  Full threads

  Build labelled corpora where commentLanguage lets you split the set before it reaches a model

  $1.20 per 1,000 with 3 replies each

• Competitor research

  Top level, on a rival’s posts

  Find the complaints an audience will make in public but never in a survey

  $0.03 per 100-comment probe

• Community teams

  Full threads, scheduled

  Catch unanswered questions by looking for top-level comments with a replyCount of zero

  $9.00 per 30,000 rows

Wiring it up

The actor is apidojo/tiktok-comments-scraper. The one thing worth writing carefully is the reply check: the listing says threads may come back short, so measure the ratio on a small run and size the ceiling from what you actually got.

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
ACTOR = "apidojo/tiktok-comments-scraper"

def comments(urls, with_replies=False, cap=1000):
    run = client.actor(ACTOR).call(run_input={
        "startUrls": urls,
        "includeReplies": with_replies,
        "maxItems": cap,
    })
    return list(client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items())

rows = comments(["https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/7050551461734042926"],
                with_replies=True, cap=2000)

# The listing warns replies may not always arrive. Check, do not assume.
replies = [r for r in rows if r.get("parentId")]
print(f"{len(replies)} replies in {len(rows)} rows")

# Contact flags are booleans: use them to narrow, not to contact.
leads = [r for r in rows if r["user"]["hasEmail"] and r["user"]["bio"]]
for r in leads:
    print(r["user"]["username"], r["user"]["region"], r["user"]["bio"][:40])

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });

const run = await client.actor('apidojo/tiktok-comments-scraper').call({
  startUrls: ['https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/7050551461734042926'],
  includeReplies: true,
  maxItems: 4000,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

// parentId is the whole threading model: absent means top level.
const threads = Object.groupBy(items.filter((c) => c.parentId), (c) => c.parentId);
const unanswered = items.filter((c) => !c.parentId && c.replyCount === 0);

console.log(Object.keys(threads).length, 'threads,', unanswered.length, 'unanswered');

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apidojo~tiktok-comments-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"startUrls":["https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/7050551461734042926"],"includeReplies":false,"maxItems":1000}'

JSON, CSV or Excel from the Storage tab, or read straight off the API. The Console preview shows a subset of fields, the full commenter block is in the download.

TikTok Comments Scraper FAQ

Where TikTok Comments Scraper fits