TikTok Photo Search API

Endpoint facts

Method

GET

API path

/tiktok/mobile/search/photos

Auth

apiKey

Credits

8 credits/request

Charged on

Successful 2xx responses only

Platform

TikTok

Execution

Managed browser rendering where the target needs it

Response schema

#/definitions/tiktokmobile.searchPhotosResponseDoc

How this endpoint behaves

Keyword search over photo posts — the mobile search screen's Photos tab. The route was captured from the running 47.4.3 app over mitmproxy (the Photos tab fires POST /aweme/v1/search/photo/) and then reproduced end-to-end with the device-backed signer, so the request body and the response shape are measured.

Read the envelope split. Like the video tab, the page lives in search_item_list: each row is {aweme_info, search_aweme_info}, and photo posts carry their carousel in aweme_info.image_post_info.images (1-8 images measured per row). aweme_list is present but empty; that is the normal successful shape on this build, not "no results". feedback_type is the tab discriminator (measured "photo_tab").

Requires device-backed request signing. This route validates signature values, so the deployment must have the device-backed signer configured (TIKTOK_MOBILE_SIGNER_URL). Without it the endpoint fails closed with a typed error instead of returning an empty page.

Query parameters:

• keyword: required. The search keyword. Example: lofi.
• count: optional. Rows per page; defaults to the app's 10. Bounded at 50.
• offset: optional. Forwarded as the app's row offset (the app sends 0). First-page-only in guest mode: see the caveat below.
• sort_type: optional. The app's filter-sheet sort order: 0 = Relevance (default), 1 = Like count, 3 = Date posted. 2 is rejected (the app never sends it).
• publish_time: optional. The app's Date-posted window in days: 0 = All time (default), 1 = Past 24 hours, 7 = This week, 30 = This month, 90 = Last 3 months, 180 = Last 6 months.
• search_source: optional. Forwarded as the app forwards it; defaults to the app's tab_search value.

The app's captured body is a form POST carrying keyword, count, offset, search_source, query_correct_type=1, is_filter_search, sort_type and publish_time; this endpoint sends that same body. is_filter_search becomes 1 whenever sort_type or publish_time is non-zero.

Notable response behavior:

• Rows are opaque ([]any), so a richer photo post never loses fields to an incomplete schema.
• The envelope also carries cursor, has_more, feedback_type, response_cropped (measured 1), extra, log_pb, backtrace, status_code and status_msg.
• Paging caveat. The first page answers has_more: 1, but offset=10 returned a 1,218 B empty page (cursor: 20, has_more: 0). Treat this as a first-page-only route in guest mode until a live capture shows the real page token.

Measured 2026-10-21 with the device-backed signer (aggr16-normal.tiktokv.us edge / api16-normal-useast5.tiktokv.us origin):

• keyword=lofi&count=10 → 201,415 B, 10 rows, feedback_type: "photo_tab", cursor: 10, has_more: 1.
• keyword=lofi&count=30 → 709,255 B, 29 rows (the page size is honoured; one row was dropped upstream), cursor: 30.
• keyword=ラーメン&count=5 → 159,322 B, 5 rows; the first row is an 8-image carousel.
• offset=10 → the empty page described above.

Example request:

GET /api/v1/tiktok/mobile/search/photos?keyword=lofi&count=10

Example response (truncated):

{
  "code": 200,
  "msg": "OK",
  "data": {
    "search_item_list": [
      {
        "aweme_info": {
          "aweme_id": "7516855864041540878",
          "desc": "#fyp #foryoupage #quran #lofi",
          "image_post_info": {
            "images": [
              {"display_image": {"url_list": ["https://p16-sign.example/...jpeg"]}}
            ]
          }
        },
        "search_aweme_info": {"has_creation_intention": false}
      }
    ],
    "aweme_list": [],
    "cursor": 10,
    "has_more": 1,
    "feedback_type": "photo_tab",
    "response_cropped": 1,
    "status_code": 0
  }
}

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