TikTok Upload Video: 5 pending shares per 24 hours explained

TikTok's Upload Video endpoint, which sends a draft to the creator's inbox, allows at most 5 pending shares within any 24-hour period. If you queue ten Sume-made clips for one creator, only five can sit unfinished in that window, and each one needs the creator to tap the inbox notification and finish the post inside TikTok.

This differs from Direct Post, which publishes without the inbox step but needs the video.publish scope and, until your client is audited, restricts everything to private viewing.

What is the inbox flow and what limits apply?

Per TikTok's Upload Video reference, the endpoint is /v2/post/publish/inbox/video/init/, it needs the video.upload scope, and the transfer is either FILE_UPLOAD or PULL_FROM_URL. The rate limit is 6 requests per minute per user access token, a FILE_UPLOAD upload URL stays valid for one hour, and PULL_FROM_URL needs a verified domain.

The page also says users must click the inbox notification to continue the editing flow in TikTok and complete the post. That step cannot be automated from your side.

How should you batch Sume output around the cap?

Generation and delivery are separate. Sume can produce many clips at once: Bulk runs queue up to 100 runs of one Format with a concurrency window, and each child run has its own receipt. TikTok's cap only governs what you push into one creator's inbox.

So keep the rendered files in your own store, and release at most five a day per creator.

from collections import deque

BATCH = deque(["https://media.sume.com/a.mp4", "https://media.sume.com/b.mp4"])
MAX_PENDING = 5  # TikTok Upload Video cap per 24 h

def next_batch(pending_now: int) -> list[str]:
    room = max(0, MAX_PENDING - pending_now)
    out = []
    while BATCH and len(out) < room:
        out.append(BATCH.popleft())
    return out

print(next_batch(pending_now=3))

What does Sume not do?

Sume does not call TikTok, does not hold your creator tokens, and cannot tell how many shares are pending on a TikTok account. Your own app tracks that count. Sume's part ends at a durable media.sume.com URL and, optionally, a signed run webhook, described in Runs and results.