TikTok Research API rate limit: max_count 100 vs Sume's 24

On the TikTok Research API Query Videos page, max_count defaults to 20 and tops out at 100 videos per response. Sume's tiktok_search_keyword route is a different surface: it returns at most 24 items and reads at most 3 feed pages per call, with no application step on the Sume side.

TikTok facts are from its Query Videos page (updated September 1, 2026); Sume facts from the OpenAPI document served with the API reference. Both read 2026-09-30.

What does the Research API cap per call?

The page defines max_count as the number of videos in the response: default 20, max 100. It also supports query operators (EQ, IN, GT, GTE, LT, LTE) over fields such as create_date, username and hashtag_name. The page itself does not state a request rate limit. A secondary search summary mentioned 1,000 requests and 100,000 records per day, but I did not confirm that on TikTok's page, so check TikTok's rate-limit documentation for your access.

What does Sume cap per call?

What if I need more than 24 results?

Page with cursor (an integer on this route) across calls, and narrow with date_posted or region so each call returns something distinct. The route is bounded by design: the description says "At most 24 returned items and 3 feed pages." If you need 100 research records in one response, that is the Research API's access path, not Sume's.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/scrapecreators/tiktok_search_keyword \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"ugc skincare","limit":24,"max_pages":3}'

What happens on a slow call?

Sync waits up to 30 seconds by default. A 202 means continue with jobs_wait then jobs_result using the request_id. The route is public data only: no login, stories, DMs, private accounts or automatic import, and it returns media candidates, not Sume-hosted media. Over MCP the same read is crawl_find with platform: "tiktok" and kind: "videos"; see MCP tools and gates. For trend ranking use the trending videos search API instead.