"Raw milk guy" had 178,117 TikTok searches in one week, and no video answered it. That is a number your editor will run, with a date on it. TokConnect gives you TikTok's own search counts, daily readings, hashtag totals and public comments for any story, each one dated and sourced.
Pulled 19 September 2026 through TokConnect.
What people search about the story
Five raw-milk searches had no video matched that week. "raw milk and eggs" went from 0 to 33,996 in seven days. A zero in the videos column is often the earliest signal you will get.
The searches
A raw-milk story is going round. What do people type into TikTok search about it?
| Typed search | 7-day searches | First to last day | Videos |
|---|---|---|---|
| raw chocolate milk | 273,972 | 229,976 to 273,972 | 0 |
| Raw milk guy | 178,117 | 65,406 to 178,117 | 0 |
| Drinking raw milk | 167,216 | 298,929 to 167,216 | 0 |
| Recipes With Raw Milk | 154,346 | 241,972 to 154,346 | 0 |
| raw milk and eggs | 33,996 | 0 to 33,996 | 0 |
Everything on this page also works inside ChatGPT and Claude.
Is it actually new?
"Raw milk guy" peaked at 339,563 searches in a 7-day window, read on 26 July, and has run all summer. On 18 September it read 178,116, inside its normal range. That is a story about staying power, not a spike.
Which framing is winning
#rawmilk has 1,440,044,022 lifetime views across 56,140 videos. The skeptical tag, #rawmilkconspiracy, has 15 videos. That contrast is a paragraph. Get the hashtag totals for your own story.
| Hashtag | Views | Videos |
|---|---|---|
| #rawmilk | 1,440,044,022 | 56,140 |
| #rawmilkrevolution | 40,352,063 | 3,012 |
| #rawmilktruth | 6,097,807 | 119 |
| #rawmilkheals | 5,023,608 | 275 |
| #rawmilkbenefits | 4,096,795 | 355 |
| #rawmilkconspiracy | 9,287 | 15 |
Lifetime totals per tag, 19 September 2026. Data.
Quoting the numbers
Want the public comments under a video? Open them free. Search counts are TikTok's own figures, passed through untouched. How to cite them, and what they cost, is in the questions below.
Data desk? Pull the same table by API on any paid plan: get an API key.
TokConnect returns searches, daily readings, hashtags, videos and comments, each dated. Free to start, no card, no application.
How we got these numbers
We pulled TikTok's search counts, daily search readings and hashtag totals for raw milk through TokConnect on 19 September 2026. Method: how we research. Data: raw-milk searches, hashtags.
More on TikTok trends for journalists
- What is trending on TikTok, refreshed weekly, dated and free to cite.
- Most searched topics on TikTok gives a term's scale against everything else that week.
- How TikTok search works, for when you have to describe it in copy.
- TikTok as a search engine: 25 statistics, a sourced list for the setup paragraph.
Key statistics
"Raw milk guy" was searched 178,117 times on TikTok in the 7 days to 19 September 2026, and its 7-day search count peaked at 339,563, read on 26 July 2026.
On 19 September 2026, the #rawmilk hashtag held 56,140 TikTok videos with 1,440,044,022 lifetime views, while #rawmilkconspiracy held 15 videos.
Meta shut down CrowdTangle on 14 August 2024; its replacement, the Meta Content Library, covers Facebook and Instagram for approved researchers only.
Questions journalists and newsrooms ask
What can journalists use to research TikTok trends?
Google Trends covers Google and YouTube search, and TikTok's Creative Center shows trending hashtags and sounds for advertisers. For a TikTok figure you can cite, TokConnect returns TikTok's own search counts, daily search readings, hashtag totals and public comments, each dated. Start free, no card, and no application.
How should I cite a TikTok search figure in a story?
The way you cite Google Trends: name the source and the date, for example "TikTok Creator Search Insights, via TokConnect, 19 September 2026". Search counts cover the last seven days, global unless a country is set, so say the window. Keep the raw file from the day for the fact-checker.
Can journalists get access to TikTok's Research API?
Not usually. It is limited to qualifying academic institutions in the US, EEA, UK and Switzerland, EU-registered non-profits, and Brazilian researchers studying youth safety, with an application and a review of about four weeks. Commercial users are not eligible. The eligibility rules are here.
Is there a CrowdTangle for TikTok?
Not from TikTok. Meta closed CrowdTangle on 14 August 2024, and the Meta Content Library that replaced it covers Facebook and Instagram only. For TikTok, reporters can use TokConnect with no application: TikTok's own search counts, daily search readings, hashtag totals, public videos and comments, each dated.
Do I need to pay to quote your numbers?
No. The trends pages are dated, sourced and free to read, link and quote. Free comes with 50 credits, about 16 research-agent answers. You only need an account if you want to run your own beat queries and keep the raw files.
Is that TikTok's number or your estimate?
TikTok's. Search counts are the figures TikTok shows creators in its own tool, passed through untouched.
Is TikTok's trending list a reliable source for a story?
Use it as a lead. In TikTok's trending feed for food, all 20 records on one September day were topic groups that pool many searches, not phrases anyone typed. Quote typed searches instead, such as "Raw milk guy" with 178,117 searches in the 7 days to 19 September 2026, and give the date.
