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Error: {"code":"reached_active_user_cap"}

If you've encountered this error, don't worry. This is not an issue with your account, your content, or our platform's stability. It's a temporary limitation from the TikTok API.

This error means that the daily limit of active users allowed by TikTok for our application has been reached.

Workaround that works right now: post to your TikTok inbox

You don't have to wait. You can keep publishing today by switching the upload to post_mode=MEDIA_UPLOAD.

Instead of publishing directly, the content is sent to your TikTok inbox. You then open the TikTok app, where the upload is waiting, add the final touches and publish it yourself. This path is not affected by the daily active-user cap, and it works for both videos and photos.

How to use it: add the post_mode field set to MEDIA_UPLOAD to your upload request.

curl --location 'https://api.upload-post.com/api/upload' \
  --header 'Authorization: ApiKey YOUR_API_KEY' \
  --form 'user="your_profile"' \
  --form 'platform[]="tiktok"' \
  --form 'title="My caption"' \
  --form 'video=@"/path/to/video.mp4"' \
  --form 'post_mode="MEDIA_UPLOAD"'

For photos, send the same post_mode="MEDIA_UPLOAD" field to the photo upload endpoint.

What to expect with MEDIA_UPLOAD:

  • The post lands in your TikTok inbox / drafts — you must open the TikTok app to confirm and publish it.
  • In this mode TikTok does not allow setting the title, caption, privacy or other metadata via the API. You add all of that manually in the app before publishing.
  • See the full reference in the video and photo API docs.

What is a "Daily Active User"?​

In this context, a "daily active user" is anyone who uses our application to interact with the TikTok API on a given day. TikTok sets a cap on how many unique users can do this through a single application (like ours) within a 24-hour period.

What should you do?​

  • Your account and content are safe. This is not a penalty or a block on your account.
  • Keep posting today with post_mode=MEDIA_UPLOAD. This sends your content to your TikTok inbox so you can publish it from the app, bypassing the cap (see the workaround above).
  • Or wait and retry. The user cap is reset by TikTok every 24 hours, so waiting a few hours before posting directly again also works.
  • If the error persists for more than 24 hours, please try again the next day.

Why does this happen?​

To manage their platform's resources, TikTok imposes a daily usage quota on every application that connects to its API. Due to the rapid growth of our user community, we are sometimes hitting this maximum allowed number of daily users.

What are we doing about it?​

We are actively working on a solution. We are in direct communication with TikTok's developer support team to request an increase in our daily user quota.

Unfortunately, the timeline for this increase is determined by TikTok, and we cannot expedite their internal review process. We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve this for good.

Thank you for your understanding. We are committed to providing a reliable service and are doing everything we can to support our growing community.