Trends and tracking
Research trending hashtags on TikTok
By Jackson Gathondu. Published 1 November 2026. Updated .
A list of trending hashtags on TikTok tells you which tags have the most views across the whole app. It does not tell you which tags your niche uses, or which ones the best Videos in your niche share. For that you need to start from the Videos.
This guide shows two ways to do it with your Assistant. A Research collects the best recent Videos for a niche and lists the Hashtags they carry. A Hashtag lookup reads one tag and measures the Videos on it. Both read real Videos, and every number they give is measured over a sample of those Videos.
What a trending Hashtag means for your niche
Broad tags like fyp sit on Videos in every niche, so they rank high on any app-wide list and tell you little. The tags worth your time are the ones that keep appearing on the Videos that do well in your niche, and the ones whose views are rising.
A Research answers the first question. It finds the top recent Videos for a niche, drops the off-topic ones, and counts how many of the remaining Videos carry each Hashtag. A Hashtag lookup answers the second. It reads one tag, measures views and engagement across the Videos on it, and compares the result with the previous lookup of the same tag.
The trending Hashtags list shows the tags pulling the most views across the Videos we have sampled lately. Use it to spot big tags, then use the steps below to see which of them belong to your niche.
Two ways to research Hashtags
| Method | What it reads | What it answers | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Research, then its Hashtag list | Up to 50 top recent Videos for your niche by default, judged on topic and analysed | Which Hashtags the niche's best Videos share, by Video count or by views | 1,036 credits for the Research; reading its Hashtags is free |
| Hashtag lookup | One page of Videos TikTok shows on the tag | Median and top views, total views and engagement on the sample, top Videos, and the change since the last lookup | 3 credits |
| Hashtag Videos | The next page of Videos on the tag | More Videos to read hooks and formats from | 3 credits per page |
| Hashtag Tracker | One page of Videos on the tag, once a day | A Change Report when sampled median views move 25% either way or a new Video enters the top 10 | 3 credits per daily cycle |
Data limits
Data limits for Hashtag research
- Hashtag lookups and Hashtag Trackers work on TikTok and Instagram only. YouTube and Facebook have no Hashtag data.
- Hashtag numbers are sample-based. A lookup measures one page of Videos on the tag, not every Video that ever used it, and it returns no total Video count for the tag. Every view, like and engagement number is for that sample.
- The Videos TikTok shows on a tag are its most popular ones, not its newest. A tag's sample can include Videos that are years old.
- The first lookup of a tag has no trend. The change is filled in when the same tag is looked up again later.
- A Research's Hashtag list counts only the Videos that Research kept. A tag that is big on TikTok but rare in your niche's top Videos will rank low there.
- Instagram keyword search is best effort, so an Instagram Research may keep fewer Videos and list fewer Hashtags.
How to research Hashtags with your Assistant
You do this in plain language in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any Assistant connected to ShortsIntel. The Assistant uses the research, get_research and get_hashtag_or_sound tools for you, and can quote each price before it runs.
Describe the niche
Tell the Assistant what you sell and who it is for, for example "skincare products for Gen Z". A Research turns that into search keywords and collects the top recent TikTok Videos for it.
Read the Research's Hashtags
Ask for the Hashtags the Research found. They come back ordered by how many of its Videos carry each tag, with the total views of those Videos. Ask for them ordered by views to see which tags sit on the biggest Videos.
Drop the broad tags
Remove tags like fyp that appear in every niche. The tags that remain are the ones specific to your niche.
Look up the tags you might use
Ask the Assistant to look up each remaining tag. It returns median and top views across the sampled Videos on the tag, engagement, and the top Videos on it.
Read the top Videos
Open the top Videos on a tag, or ask for their hooks and formats. A tag is only useful if the Videos on it look like the Videos you plan to make.
Track the ones that matter
Ask the Assistant to track the three to five tags you settle on. Each Hashtag Tracker checks its tag daily and writes a Change Report when the sampled views move.
Sample output from the house account
Two real reads from our own account, trimmed for length. The first is the Hashtag list of a TikTok Research on skincare for Gen Z, which kept 50 Videos. The second is a lookup of the skincaretips Hashtag. Views are for the sampled Videos only.
TikTok, via REST API
Which Hashtags do the top Videos in my skincare Research share?
{
"items": [
{ "value": "skincare", "platforms": ["tiktok"], "video_count": 18, "total_views": 12382792 },
{ "value": "glassskin", "platforms": ["tiktok"], "video_count": 14, "total_views": 13409111 },
{ "value": "skincareroutine", "platforms": ["tiktok"], "video_count": 7, "total_views": 6921582 },
{ "value": "skincareproducts", "platforms": ["tiktok"], "video_count": 5, "total_views": 16274771 },
{ "value": "fyp", "platforms": ["tiktok"], "video_count": 5, "total_views": 7260376 },
{ "value": "skincaretips", "platforms": ["tiktok"], "video_count": 5, "total_views": 4457035 },
{ "value": "koreanskincare", "platforms": ["tiktok"], "video_count": 5, "total_views": 2288555 },
{ "value": "aesthetic", "platforms": ["tiktok"], "video_count": 5, "total_views": 1097291 },
{ "value": "acne", "platforms": ["tiktok"], "video_count": 4, "total_views": 18732762 },
{ "value": "pimplepatch", "platforms": ["tiktok"], "video_count": 4, "total_views": 14523542 }
// video_ids left out; 116 more Hashtags
],
"total": 126,
"as_of": "run"
}TikTok, via REST API
Look up #skincaretips on TikTok. How do the Videos on it perform?
{
"tag": "skincaretips",
"platform": "tiktok",
"stats": {
"sampled_videos": 24,
"views_median": 681950,
"views_max": 20200000,
"views_total": 48052423,
"likes_total": 3433374,
"comments_total": 28964,
"engagement_rate": 0.1121
},
"trend": { "since": null, "direction": null, "change_ratio": null },
"top_videos": [
{
"creator": { "handle": "vanilla_swirlxx", "follower_count": 1400000 },
"posted_at": "2024-04-01",
"hashtags": ["skincareroutine", "nighttimeskincare", "affordableskincare"],
"snapshot": { "views": 20200000, "likes": 1300000, "saves": 702013, "shares": 103600 }
},
{
"creator": { "handle": "mysistersskin", "follower_count": 503800 },
"posted_at": "2026-01-12",
"hashtags": ["skincareroutine", "antiagingskincare", "glowingskin", "finelinesandwrinkles", "creatorsearchinsights"],
"snapshot": { "views": 6300000, "likes": 374400, "saves": 197321, "shares": 32200 }
}
// 8 more top Videos
]
}How to read it
In the skincare Research, skincare and glassskin are the two tags most of the top Videos share: 18 and 14 of 50. fyp is on 5 of them, the same as skincaretips, so it tells you nothing about the niche. acne and pimplepatch sit on only 4 Videos each but carry more views than any other tag. Those Videos were among the biggest in the Research, and both tags point at the same topic, which makes them worth a closer look.
The skincaretips lookup measured 24 Videos on the tag. Their median is about 682K views, and the top Video has 20.2M. That top Video was posted in April 2024, which shows the sample is TikTok's most popular Videos on the tag, not its newest. Because this was the first lookup of the tag, trend is empty. A second lookup, or a Hashtag Tracker, fills it in.
Top Hashtags in three TikTok niches
The five Hashtags carried by the most Videos in three of our TikTok Research Runs, read on November 1, 2026. Each Research kept 50 Videos, and views are the total across the Videos carrying the tag.
| Niche | Hashtag | Videos carrying it | Views on those Videos |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skincare | skincare | 18 of 50 | 12,382,792 |
| Skincare | glassskin | 14 of 50 | 13,409,111 |
| Skincare | skincareroutine | 7 of 50 | 6,921,582 |
| Skincare | skincareproducts | 5 of 50 | 16,274,771 |
| Skincare | fyp | 5 of 50 | 7,260,376 |
| Supplements | fyp | 11 of 50 | 4,729,216 |
| Supplements | gym | 9 of 50 | 870,506 |
| Supplements | protein | 7 of 50 | 5,513,517 |
| Supplements | gymtok | 6 of 50 | 1,430,876 |
| Supplements | preworkout | 6 of 50 | 1,231,500 |
| Pet products | dogmom | 10 of 50 | 25,527,108 |
| Pet products | dog | 9 of 50 | 2,630,219 |
| Pet products | doglovers | 5 of 50 | 5,433,781 |
| Pet products | fyp | 5 of 50 | 1,508,981 |
| Pet products | dogtok | 5 of 50 | 623,173 |
What the three niches show
fyp shows up in all three lists, and in the supplements Research it is the most common tag. Leave it out when you pick tags for a niche.
Video count and views can point in different directions. In the supplements Research, gym is on 9 Videos with under 1M views between them, while protein is on 7 Videos with 5.5M. In pet products, dogmom is on 10 Videos with 25.5M views, almost ten times the views on dog. When the two orders disagree, look at the Videos behind the tag before you choose it.
Questions to ask your Assistant
Paste these into any connected Assistant and swap in your own niche.
- Run a Research on TikTok Videos about (your niche) and list the Hashtags the top Videos share. Quote the price first.
- From that Research, list the Hashtags ordered by views, and leave out tags like fyp that every niche uses.
- Look up these Hashtags on TikTok and compare their median views and engagement: (paste tags)
- Show me the top Videos on #(tag) and describe their hooks and formats.
- Track these three Hashtags daily and tell me when one of them starts rising.
Live Hashtag data and docs
Questions
- How do I find trending hashtags on TikTok for my niche?
- Start from your niche's top Videos. Run a Research on your niche, read the Hashtags its top Videos share, drop broad tags like fyp, and look up the rest to see the views on the Videos behind each one.
- Are the Hashtag numbers for every Video on TikTok?
- No. A lookup returns no total Video count for a tag, so every number is measured over a sample: one page of Videos on the tag for a lookup, or the Videos a Research kept for its Hashtag list. Each number is labelled as sampled.
- Why does a Hashtag lookup show old Videos?
- TikTok shows a tag's most popular Videos first, not its newest. A Research is the better way to see which tags recent top Videos use.
- Which Platforms have Hashtag data?
- TikTok and Instagram. YouTube and Facebook have no Hashtag lookups or Hashtag Trackers.
- How much does Hashtag research cost?
- A Hashtag lookup costs 3 credits, and each further page of its Videos costs 3 credits. A Research costs 1,036 credits for up to 50 analysed Videos, and reading its Hashtags afterwards is free. A Hashtag Tracker costs 3 credits per daily cycle. New accounts get 1,000 credits free, valid for 90 days. A Run that fails costs nothing, and a partial one is charged only for what finished.
- How do I know if a Hashtag is rising?
- Look it up again later, or track it. The second lookup compares the sampled views with the first, and a Hashtag Tracker writes a Change Report when sampled median views move 25% either way or a new Video enters the top 10.
Try it in your Assistant
Connect ShortsIntel to the Assistant you already use and ask the question this guide answers, or try the calls in the Playground first.