TikTok trending this week: a small shop's research call

A small shop can check what is moving on TikTok before it shoots by calling POST /v1/trending-videos/search with a query for its niche and window: "this-week". Sume returns ranked public video metadata: watch URLs, thumbnails, author handles, metrics and relevance scores. It is research, not generation.

Each accepted call reserves and captures $0.10 of Sume usage, per the docs, and you can confirm the live price in GET /v1/catalog.

What the call is and is not

The endpoint searches TikTok only at this time, and it returns metadata. It does not return downloadable video files, so you cannot use it to copy someone's clip. Sume's docs say the MVP does not download or mirror videos, and that values of download above zero return an unsupported warning.

That boundary is helpful. It keeps the task honest: you learn the format, the hook and the pacing of what is working, then you make your own.

The fields that matter

In production the query is required: a brand, product, creator or keyword up to 200 characters. window accepts yesterday, this-week, this-month, last-3-months, last-6-months and all-time. limit runs from 1 to 50 with a default of 10, and region takes a two-letter country code. A browse with no query exists only where the rebuild flag is on, and Sume lists it as on for the dev environment, with production keeping the older contract.

Ask for a summary_mode of metadata if you want lightweight summaries at the same price. transcript currently returns metadata plus an unsupported warning.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/trending-videos/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "platform": "tiktok",
    "query": "handmade candles",
    "window": "this-week",
    "region": "US",
    "limit": 10,
    "summary_mode": "metadata"
  }'

Turn research into a brief

Read the top ten: how long, what the first second shows, whether there is a voice, what the caption says. A roundup of this month's AI video trends puts the practical range for short clips at 5 to 30 seconds (AI Video Generation Trends, read 2026-10-07), so note which results fall in that range.

Then write your own script and make your own clip, for example with Sume's avatar talking-video route or a video model. Do not reuse a creator's footage, voice or likeness.

Limits to remember

Metrics are a snapshot, and a trend that peaked on Monday can be over by the time your clip is posted. Treat this week's list as a signal about format, not a promise of reach.