TikTok
How the TikTok algorithm works
TikTok rewards watch-time and completion above everything. Hook in the first 1-2 seconds, shoot 9:16 vertical, ride a trending sound, and write a short caption. Links go in your bio, not the caption.
By Tayyab, Founder
Where these numbers come from. This is the number Content Drifter schedules and formats against. It is our editorial estimate from public reporting and our own publishing, not something the platform announced.
We never present an estimate as something a platform announced. Where we are the source, this page says so.
How the feed is assembled
The signals TikTok weighs when it decides who sees a post, strongest first. Weights are shown against a like, which is the unit everybody has an intuition for.
- Shares and reposts5x a like
- Comments4x a like
- Saves3x a like
- Likes1x a like
The first-hour cliff
The single most actionable fact on most networks, and the one almost nobody explains concretely.
60 min
When the outcome is effectively decided
40%
Of your median engagement. Below this, the post has stalled
shares, comments
Signals that matter most in that window
If a TikTok post has not reached 40% of your own median engagement by minute 60, it rarely recovers. That is why the window matters more than the day: a post published into a dead hour has already lost before anybody decides whether it was any good.
Best posting windows
Every hour of the week, as a multiple of a median TikTok hour. On Pro and above we rank your posting slots against this curve and your own posting history; on Free and Starter the queue uses our regional best-time table without the personalised ranking.
ThursdayStrongest
20:00 to 22:00 UTC
2.29x
vs a median hour
Tuesday
20:00 UTC
2.14x
vs a median hour
Wednesday
19:00 UTC
2.14x
vs a median hour
Friday
20:00 UTC
2.14x
vs a median hour
Times are UTC. Content Drifter schedules these in your own timezone.
Link policy
What TikTok does to a post carrying an outbound link, and where we put yours instead.
Not allowed
Links in the post body
No penalty
We model no reach cost for links here
in your profile bio
Where we place your link
Posting cadence and cooldowns
Posting more is not posting better. These are the ceilings the queue applies when it assigns slots, counted against your own calendar rather than UTC.
2h
Minimum gap between posts
4
Maximum posts per day
21
Maximum posts per week
Format mechanics
What TikTok accepts, and which formats carry a reach advantage over a plain post.
Reach by format
- Short video0%
- Photo mode-30%
Hard limits
- Ideal length
- 50 to 100 characters
- Platform limit (enforced)
- 2200 characters
- Hashtags for reach
- 3 ideal, 5 before it costs you, end of post
- Images per post
- 0
- Video
- up to 600s, 4096MB
- Image formats
Mix 1-2 broad tags with 1-2 niche tags. Stuffing 10+ hashtags dilutes classification and does not help reach.
How Content Drifter applies this to your TikTok posts
Each row pairs a number from this page with the thing the product does about it. This is the same record, not a marketing restatement of it.
TikTok engagement peaks around 20:00 to 22:00 UTC on Thursday, roughly 2.29x a median hour.
Add a post to the queue without picking a time and it takes the next open peak slot in your timezone, skipping slots already full. On Pro and above those slots are ranked against this curve and your own posting history.
Gold Slot schedulingTikTok rewards engagement in the first 60 minutes, and a post that starts flat rarely recovers.
On Agency plans with the boost engine switched on, we check the post at the 60 minute mark against your own median, so a stall is something you find out about while it can still be acted on.
The algorithm-aware enginePosting more than 4 times a day, or inside 2 hours of your last post, works against you on TikTok.
The queue honours that spacing when it assigns slots, counting posts you already published as well as ones you have queued, so a bulk import or a busy week cannot bunch your posts together.
The queueTikTok posts land best between 50 and 100 characters, against a platform limit of 2200.
The pre-publish check reads the post against these rules and tells you which one it breaks, rather than handing you a score.
Pre-publish performance read
Recent TikTok algorithm changes
Changes we have recorded and reviewed. Nothing appears here automatically.
We have not published a recorded change for TikTok since our last check. Our canary compares engagement across our whole user base against a 28-day baseline every day, and a shift is reviewed by a person before it appears here, because saying in public that TikTok changed something is a claim about somebody else’s product.
TikTok algorithm questions
What is the best time to post on TikTok?
Our strongest window is 20:00 to 22:00 UTC on Thursday, which runs about 2.29x a median hour, followed by 20:00 UTC on Tuesday. Those are UTC. Content Drifter converts them to your timezone and schedules into them for you, so the number you are reading is the one it acts on.
What does the TikTok algorithm reward most?
shares and reposts carry the most weight, about 5x a like in our model, then comments at 4x. TikTok rewards watch-time and completion above everything. Hook in the first 1-2 seconds, shoot 9:16 vertical, ride a trending sound, and write a short caption. Links go in your bio, not the caption.
Do links hurt reach on TikTok?
Not materially. We do not apply a reach penalty for links on TikTok, and we place them in your profile bio.
How often should I post on TikTok?
We cap at 4 posts a day and 21 a week, with at least 2 hours between posts. The queue applies these when it assigns slots, using your own calendar day rather than UTC, and counts what you have already published as well as what is queued.
How long should a TikTok post be?
Between 50 and 100 characters. TikTok allows up to 2200, which is what we stop you at. Hashtags work best at 3 and start costing you reach above 5, well below the 5 the platform permits.
Every network we publish to
The same page, rendered from the same kind of record, for each of the 9 networks.