What TikTok creator_info max_video_post_duration_sec Tells You Before Posting

What does TikTok creator_info max_video_post_duration_sec return?

The field TikTok creator_info max_video_post_duration_sec returns the longest video, in seconds, that this one creator is permitted to publish. TikTok's own wording leaves no room for a global constant:

"The longest video duration in seconds that the TikTok creator can post. Different users have different maximum video-duration privileges. Developers should use this field to stop video posts that are too long. IGNORE if your client only sends photo media through this API."

It arrives from a single endpoint that takes no request body at all:

The access token identifies the creator, so the call is a lookup rather than a query. TikTok describes the endpoint's purpose in the same breath as the screen it is meant to draw: "When rendering the Export to TikTok page, your app must invoke the API and use the latest creator information returned to display the account's available privacy level options and video/photo interaction settings."

What else comes back from the creator info endpoint?

Eight fields, and every one of them exists to change what your posting screen shows:

The avatar TTL of two hours is easy to miss and produces broken images on any screen that caches the URL for a session. The two disabled flags fold two separate causes into one boolean: a private account and an explicit "No one" setting both return true, and the response gives you no way to tell which.

Why does the maximum video duration vary per creator?

Because TikTok grants duration privileges per account rather than per platform. The Media Transfer Guide is the only page that names numbers:

"All TikTok creators can post 3-minute videos, while some have access to post 5-minute or 10-minute videos. The longest video a developer can send via the initialize Upload Video endpoint is 10 minutes. TikTok users may trim developer-sent videos inside the TikTok app to fit their accounts' actual maximum publish durations."

That gives a documented floor of 180 seconds and a documented ceiling of 600. TikTok's own sample response then returns neither:

"max_video_post_duration_sec": 300

Three hundred seconds is the middle tier, five minutes. The sample is consistent with the tiers, but nothing in the reference states that the field is restricted to 180, 300 and 600. It is typed int32 with no enum, so a client that switches on three hardcoded values is betting on an undocumented assumption. Compare the response against the video you hold, never against a constant.

TikTok's consumer help centre does not close the gap either. Its "Making a post" article tells creators to "Select a maximum length for your video" and publishes no figure anywhere on the page, which is why the in-app story around how long a TikTok video can be and the API story keep drifting apart. For an integration, the API field is the only number that is actually authoritative, and it is authoritative only for the account whose token you used.

Which privacy level options come back with it?

privacy_level_options returns a different list depending on whether the account is public or private, and TikTok spells out both:

The two lists share only MUTUAL_FOLLOW_FRIENDS and SELF_ONLY. PUBLIC_TO_EVERYONE never appears for a private account, and FOLLOWER_OF_CREATOR never appears for a public one. The Direct Post reference lists all four values in the privacy_level enum without that split, so reading the enum instead of the response is how integrations end up sending a value the account cannot use.

The penalty for that is specific. privacy_level_option_mismatch comes back at init, and TikTok attaches a warning to it: "All clients are required to correctly display the creator account's privacy level options and honor the users' choice. Occurances of this error for product-use applications suggest violations to TikTok's product-use guidance."

The UX rules are equally prescriptive. TikTok requires that "Users must manually select the privacy status from a dropdown and there should be no default value", that disabled interactions be greyed out, and that none of the comment, Duet or Stitch toggles start checked. On duration, the same guidelines say "API clients must check if the duration of the to-be-posted video follows the max_video_post_duration_sec returned in the creator_info API." Getting a value back is not compliance. Blocking the post is.

Unaudited clients get a shorter list still. TikTok restricts them to SELF_ONLY viewership and to "up to 5 users to post in a 24 hour window", with every one of those accounts private at the time of posting.

What TikTok leaves unresolved

Three gaps deserve to be on a checklist rather than discovered in production.

The scope does not match the flow. Query Creator Info requires the video.publish scope. The Upload endpoint at /v2/post/publish/inbox/video/init/ requires video.upload. A client that only ever drops drafts into the creator's inbox therefore holds a token that cannot call the endpoint whose value TikTok instructs it to honour. TikTok never addresses the conflict; the trimming sentence in the Media Transfer Guide is the closest thing to a resolution, since an over-length inbox upload lands with the creator to trim rather than being rejected outright.

A refusal can arrive as HTTP 200. The creator info error table lists spam_risk_too_many_posts, spam_risk_user_banned_from_posting and reached_active_user_cap under the HTTP status "200 (intentional)". A client that only branches on status codes reads that as success and shows a posting screen that cannot post. TikTok's guidance is to stop: "When the creator_info API returns that the creator can not make more posts at this moment, API Clients must stop the current publishing attempt and prompt users to try again later."

The posting cap is described, not published. TikTok writes that "There is a limit on the number of posts that can be made to a creator account in a 24-hour window via Direct Post API. The upper limit may vary among creators (typically around 15 posts per day/ creator account) and is shared across all API Clients using Direct Post." No field returns that number, and "typically around" is as precise as TikTok gets, which is a softer statement than the flat figure behind the Instagram content publishing limit.

There is no documented minimum. The API reference publishes a maximum duration per creator and nothing on the low end. A too-short video surfaces only after the fact, as the duration_check_failed fail reason from /v2/post/publish/status/fetch/, described as "Video does not meet our duration restrictions."

Treat the creator info call as part of every publish, not part of onboarding. The privacy options, the interaction flags and the duration limit all change when the creator changes a setting, which is exactly why any tool that schedules TikTok posts needs to requery at publish time rather than reuse what it stored last week. The caption you attach is governed separately, by the 2200 UTF-16 rune ceiling covered in the TikTok caption character limit.

Frequently asked questions

Does max_video_post_duration_sec ever return something other than 180, 300 or 600?

TikTok does not promise those three values. The field is an int32, the reference publishes no enum, and only the Media Transfer Guide mentions 3, 5 and 10 minute privileges. Compare your video against the number returned rather than against a hardcoded set.

What happens if I post a video longer than the returned limit?

Through Direct Post the job fails with the duration_check_failed fail reason. Through the Upload endpoint TikTok states that "TikTok users may trim developer-sent videos inside the TikTok app to fit their accounts' actual maximum publish durations", so the creator resolves it during the editing flow.

Can a photo-only integration ignore this field?

Yes, and TikTok says so directly. max_video_post_duration_sec, duet_disabled and stitch_disabled are all marked "IGNORE if your client only sends photo media through this API."

How often can I call the creator info endpoint?

Twenty times per minute per user access token. That is the highest published ceiling of the posting endpoints, which sit at 6 requests per minute for init calls and 30 for status polling.

Why is duet_disabled true when the creator never turned Duet off?

Because a private account sets the same flag. TikTok returns true if "the creator account is private or they set the Duet interaction to "No one" in their privacy setting", and the response gives no way to distinguish the two causes.

Does the endpoint tell me whether the account is public or private?

Not as a field, but privacy_level_options gives it away. A list containing PUBLIC_TO_EVERYONE belongs to a public account, and one containing FOLLOWER_OF_CREATOR belongs to a private one, since the two values never appear together.

Do I need to query creator info before every post, or just once during onboarding?

Every publish, not onboarding. The privacy options, the interaction flags and the duration limit all change when the creator adjusts a setting, so a value fetched last week can already be stale. Tools that schedule TikTok posts in advance need to requery at publish time rather than reuse a stored response.

What happens if my app lets a creator pick a privacy level outside privacy_level_options?

TikTok returns the privacy_level_option_mismatch error at init. For product-use applications, TikTok treats repeated occurrences of that error as a sign the app is violating its product-use guidance, since clients are required to display only the account's actual privacy level options.

What extra limits apply to a TikTok app that has not passed audit yet?

TikTok restricts unaudited clients to the SELF_ONLY privacy level and to posting for up to 5 users in a 24-hour window. Every one of those accounts must be private at the time of posting.

Does TikTok publish an exact number for the daily posting cap per creator account?

TikTok never publishes an exact number. It describes a limit shared across all API clients that is "typically around 15 posts per day/creator account" and can vary by creator, with no field in any response that returns the figure.