# Find creators by keyword on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X

Search each platform's own user index by keyword and get back profiles with follower counts, bios and links, so your agent can shortlist creators instead of you scrolling. Each platform is served by its own providers; the comparison below is per platform, because an Instagram search and a YouTube search are different jobs, not alternatives.

## What's the best way to ask ChatGPT?

Setup line (paste into any agent): `set up treg — https://treg.to/llms.txt`

Then ask: "Using treg, find 20 TikTok creators posting about home espresso with between 50k and 500k followers. Show me the price first, then give me handles, follower counts and bios."

- **Name the platform** Each platform has its own index. "Creators" alone makes the agent guess.
- **Give a keyword, not a topic** These are keyword searches over profiles, not semantic search.
- **Ask for the fields you want** Follower count, bio and link come back; say so and you get a table.
- **Filter after, not during** Follower ranges are your filter on the results, not a search parameter.

## Why go through treg.to

- **One key, not 9 accounts** treg.to holds the provider keys. Neither you nor the agent sees them.
- **Price before the call** The provider's own rate, $0.000 markup, from a prepaid balance.
- **No subscription, no seats** Charged per call. $1.00 free per new team, no card to start.
- **Your own keys are free** Already pay Hunter? Register it and those calls are never metered.
- **Switch by changing a word** Another provider is a different word in the prompt, not a new integration.
- **Nothing to integrate** No SDK, no OAuth dance per vendor, no seats.

## Behind the scenes: what ChatGPT sees before it calls

treg.to does not choose for you. It hands ChatGPT this comparison and it picks, or you tell it how.

### Which is cheapest?

- Cheapest per found: TikHub at $0.001 (`tikhub.x.tiktok-app-v3-fetch-user-search-result`)
- Cheapest per call: ScrapeCreators at $0.00188 (`scrapecreators.x.v1-instagram-search-profiles`)
- Cheapest per result: X (Twitter) at $0.01 (`x.x.search-users`)

Those units are not interchangeable: one call can return many results, so compare on the unit you will actually be billed in.

### Which is the most reliable?

- TikHub: 100% over 15 calls, 805ms median
- ScrapeCreators: 100% over 122 calls, 10.2s median

Measured on treg.to traffic; not a controlled benchmark.

### How do they compare?

#### Instagram

| Provider | Price | Accepts | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| ScrapeCreators | $0.00188 per call | query, cursor | 2026-07-28 |
| TikHub | $0.002 per found | keyword, query, rank_token | 2026-07-28 |

#### TikTok

| Provider | Price | Accepts | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| TikHub | $0.001 per found | keyword, offset, count, user_search_follower_count, user_search_profile_type, user_search_other_pref | 2026-07-28 |
| ScrapeCreators | $0.00188 per call | query, cursor, trim | unverified |
| Just One API | $0.0148 per found | keyword, cursor, searchId | 2026-07-28 |

#### X (Twitter)

| Provider | Price | Accepts | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| X (Twitter) | $0.01 per result | query, max_results, next_token | unverified |

#### YouTube

| Provider | Price | Accepts | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| TikHub | $0.001 per found | channel_id, search_query, language_code, country_code, continuation_token, keyword | 2026-07-28 |

Endpoints:

- `scrapecreators.x.v1-instagram-search-profiles`: treg call scrapecreators.x.v1-instagram-search-profiles --query query=fitness coach
- `tikhub.x.instagram-v2-search-users`: treg call tikhub.x.instagram-v2-search-users --query keyword=instagram
- `tikhub.x.instagram-v3-search-users`: treg call tikhub.x.instagram-v3-search-users --query query=justin
- `justoneapi.x.tiktok-search-user-v1`: treg call justoneapi.x.tiktok-search-user-v1 --query keyword=coffee --query cursor=0
- `scrapecreators.x.v1-tiktok-search-users`: treg call scrapecreators.x.v1-tiktok-search-users --query cursor=10
- `tikhub.x.tiktok-app-v3-fetch-user-search-result`: treg call tikhub.x.tiktok-app-v3-fetch-user-search-result --query keyword=Cat --query offset=0 --query count=5
- `tikhub.x.tiktok-web-fetch-search-user`: treg call tikhub.x.tiktok-web-fetch-search-user --query keyword=TikTok
- `tikhub.x.youtube-web-search-channel`: treg call tikhub.x.youtube-web-search-channel --query channel_id=UCXuqSBlHAE6Xw-yeJA0Tunw --query search_query=AMD
- `tikhub.x.youtube-web-v2-search-channels`: treg call tikhub.x.youtube-web-v2-search-channels --query keyword=Rick Astley
- `x.x.search-users`: treg call x.x.search-users

## What actually differs

- Follower ranges are not a search filter on any of these platforms. Providers return keyword matches and your agent filters them, so ask for more results than you need.
- A keyword search matches handles, display names and bios, not video or caption text. To find creators by what they posted, search posts or hashtags instead and take the authors.
- Coverage differs per platform, not per provider: TikTok and Instagram indexes are deep, X's user search is shallow, and YouTube's channel search is keyword-literal.

## What does a creator search API return?

A creator search endpoint queries a platform's own user directory for a keyword and returns matching profiles: handle, display name, follower count, bio, verification and profile link. It is the discovery half of influencer research. Engagement rates, contact details and audience demographics are separate jobs on separate endpoints.

## Questions

**Can I find creators by follower count?** Not directly. These endpoints search by keyword; ask your agent for a larger result set and let it filter on the follower counts that come back.

**Does this give me their email?** No. Contact details are a separate job. Some creator bios carry a business email, and the people enrichment endpoints can resolve a work address from a name and company.

**Which platform should I search?** The one your audience uses. The comparison below shows who serves each platform and what a search costs there; treg.to does not pick a platform for you.

**Is this the official API?** For most of these platforms it is a data provider reading the public index, not the platform's own API. Each row names the provider and links its documentation.

HTML version: https://treg.to/use-cases/social/find-creators-by-keyword