# Is it legal to collect public Xiaohongshu and Douyin data through a third-party API? (2026)

There is no one-line answer, and we will not give you a verdict: it turns on what is taken and how, whether it holds personal information, and what you do with it. This is not legal advice; for your own use, ask a lawyer. Below are the points to look at and what DataXAPI does. DataXAPI reads Xiaohongshu (RedNote) with 21 endpoints, from $0.0200 a call; a failed call is not charged.

Updated 2026-11-04

## What to look at

These are general points, for a conversation with your lawyer.

| Point | What it is about |
| --- | --- |
| What is taken, and how | Whether the content is public, and whether sign-in, access or payment limits are got around |
| Personal information | Public content can hold it. China's Personal Information Protection Law, article 27, allows handling information people made public themselves within a reasonable range, unless they clearly refuse, and asks for consent where it greatly affects them |
| What you do with it | Reading it for your own research differs from republishing it, reselling it, building a database or training a model on it |
| The platform's terms | Xiaohongshu's and Douyin's user agreements restrict scraping their content, and Douyin's also restricts commercial use without authorisation. Whether and how these reach you is a question for your lawyer |

## What DataXAPI does

It takes public data only: no private accounts, private messages or deleted content. It uses no account or cookie of yours, and our policy tells you not to submit platform passwords, cookies or private logins.

DataXAPI is not an official service of Xiaohongshu or Douyin, and a call that works is not the platform's permission. Our policy does not allow building files on individuals, tracking people, or reselling access as it is. Anyone whose rights are affected can send a complaint without an account. A call's result can be read again by its `request_id` for 24 hours.

## What stays with you

From our acceptable use policy: “Access to data does not by itself grant rights to redistribute, resell or train on the underlying content.” Take only what your use needs, and check the basis for that use yourself.

## Endpoints

- [Xiaohongshu note search](https://dataxapi.com/apis/xiaohongshu/notes/search/) ($0.0200 / a call): Search Xiaohongshu notes by terms: title, text, author, engagement counts, images, and a link that opens.
- [Douyin video search](https://dataxapi.com/apis/douyin/videos/search/) ($0.0200 / a call): Search Douyin videos by terms, a page at a time, sorted by relevance, newest or most liked and filtered by time posted: caption, author with follower count, engagement counts.

## Sources

What this page says of other services is from their own pages and documents, read on 2026-11-04. Prices and features change: check the source before you decide.

- [Xiaohongshu's user agreement](https://agree.xiaohongshu.com/h5/terms/ZXXY20220331001/-1)
- [Douyin's user agreement](https://www.douyin.com/agreements/?id=6773906068725565448)
- [Personal Information Protection Law of China](https://www.cac.gov.cn/2021-08/20/c_1631050028355286.htm)
- [DataXAPI's acceptable use policy](https://dataxapi.com/zh/acceptable-use/)

## More about Xiaohongshu (RedNote)

- [Xiaohongshu (RedNote) API](https://dataxapi.com/apis/xiaohongshu/)
- [Douyin API](https://dataxapi.com/apis/douyin/)
- [How do I export Xiaohongshu (RedNote) data?](https://dataxapi.com/answers/export-xiaohongshu-data/)
- [Can ChatGPT read Xiaohongshu (RedNote)?](https://dataxapi.com/answers/can-chatgpt-read-xiaohongshu/)
- [What is xsec_token on Xiaohongshu?](https://dataxapi.com/answers/xiaohongshu-xsec-token/)
- [What is a Xiaohongshu note ID, and what is an xhslink link?](https://dataxapi.com/answers/xiaohongshu-note-id-and-xhslink/)
- [What is CPE on Xiaohongshu PGY and on Douyin Xingtu?](https://dataxapi.com/answers/xiaohongshu-pgy-cpe-vs-xingtu-cpe/)
- [What is Xiaohongshu PGY?](https://dataxapi.com/answers/what-is-xiaohongshu-pgy/)
- [Which Xiaohongshu data API? The official platform, third-party APIs or your own scraper (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/best-xiaohongshu-data-api/)
- [Can Xiaohongshu's open platform read notes and comments? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/xiaohongshu-open-platform-api/)
- [xiaohongshu-mcp keeps losing its login: is there a Xiaohongshu MCP that needs no login? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/xiaohongshu-mcp-without-login/)
- [How do Claude Code, Cursor and Codex read Xiaohongshu without cookies? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/claude-code-cursor-codex-read-xiaohongshu/)
- [How do I add a Xiaohongshu or Douyin Skill to my AI? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/xiaohongshu-douyin-skill/)
- [How do I export all of a Xiaohongshu creator's notes to Excel? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/export-xiaohongshu-creator-notes-excel/)
- [How do I export Xiaohongshu comments in bulk to find what users complain about? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/export-xiaohongshu-comments-pain-points/)
- [How do I collect the numbers of many Xiaohongshu notes after a campaign? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/collect-xiaohongshu-note-metrics-after-campaign/)
- [How do I check Xiaohongshu note search rankings in bulk? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/xiaohongshu-search-rank-tracking/)
- [BettaFish has no data: how do I feed it public Xiaohongshu and Douyin data? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/bettafish-data-source/)
- [MediaCrawler gets blocked on Xiaohongshu with status 461: what do I switch to? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/mediacrawler-alternative/)
- [Do Chanmama, Qiangua and Newrank have APIs? What if I want the raw data? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/chanmama-qiangua-newrank-api/)
- [What does status 461 mean on Xiaohongshu? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/xiaohongshu-461-status-code/)
- [How do I get Xiaohongshu data into n8n? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/xiaohongshu-n8n/)
- [How do I sync Xiaohongshu note data to a Feishu Base? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/xiaohongshu-feishu-base/)
- [How do I connect Xiaohongshu data to Dify? (MCP, 2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/xiaohongshu-dify/)
- [When should I use DataXAPI, and when should I not? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/when-to-use-dataxapi/)
- [Will using a data API get my Xiaohongshu or Douyin account banned? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/will-data-api-get-my-account-banned/)
- [Are data APIs like DataXAPI compliant? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/is-dataxapi-compliant/)
- [Is DataXAPI's data reliable, and what if a call fails? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/is-dataxapi-reliable/)
- [Can DataXAPI issue an invoice, and how do I pay in US dollars? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/dataxapi-invoice-usd-payment/)
- [How do I collect hit topic ideas on Xiaohongshu in bulk? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/xiaohongshu-hit-topic-ideas/)
- [How do I research products to sell on Xiaohongshu: what sells and what buyers say? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/xiaohongshu-product-research/)
- [How do I spot complaints about my brand on Xiaohongshu at low cost? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/spot-xiaohongshu-brand-complaints/)
- [My Xiaohongshu scraper keeps getting blocked: what does keeping it up cost against paying per call? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/xiaohongshu-scraper-blocked-cost/)
- [How do I export Xiaohongshu PGY creators in bulk? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/export-xiaohongshu-pgy-creators/)
- [What are x-s and x-t on Xiaohongshu? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/xiaohongshu-x-s-x-t/)
- [What do Xiaohongshu error codes 300011, 300012 and 300013 mean? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/xiaohongshu-300011-300013-error-codes/)
- [How do I connect Xiaohongshu data to Coze (扣子)? (2026)](https://dataxapi.com/answers/xiaohongshu-coze/)
- [How to get Xiaohongshu (RedNote) note comments in bulk](https://dataxapi.com/guides/xiaohongshu-note-comments/)
- [How to look up Xiaohongshu (RedNote) PGY creator rates and audience](https://dataxapi.com/guides/xiaohongshu-pgy-creator-rates/)
- [How to search and export Xiaohongshu (RedNote) notes by keyword](https://dataxapi.com/guides/xiaohongshu-search-export-notes/)
- [How to get a keyword's search index and related keywords on Xiaohongshu PGY](https://dataxapi.com/guides/xiaohongshu-pgy-keywords/)

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Catalog revision bf04cdef3b75e745. [HTML version](https://dataxapi.com/answers/is-public-social-data-collection-legal/)