- "side hustle apps" was the most searched side hustle phrase in our TikTok pull, with 366,636 searches in the 7 days to 19 September 2026.
- "side hustle ideas" got 193,703 searches against 1,866 videos, while "side hustle for moms" got 140,357 against 7,812: about 18 searches per video, the crowded end.
- Two typed searches had no videos at all: "print on demand printify" (156,353) and "how to sell invitations on etsy" (91,027).
- Judge searches per video, not raw searches: "commerical cleaning business" had 587, "selling digital product" 67.
- Search data shows demand, not income. Check tax and licence rules for your state before you start.
In the 7 days to 19 September 2026, the most searched side hustle idea in TikTok's search data was gig and side hustle apps: "side hustle apps" got 366,636 searches worldwide, ahead of "what is dropshipping" (344,303), "Freelancing" (301,690) and "faceless youtube channels" (300,390). The phrase "side hustle ideas" itself got 193,703 searches, with 1,866 videos matched to it.
Below are 17 side hustle ideas, each tied to the exact words people typed into TikTok search, with two numbers: how many searches the phrase got in those seven days, and how many videos TikTok matched to it. Together they show how many people want an idea and how crowded the advice already is. Two of the searches had no videos at all.
These figures are from 19 September 2026. Re-run them for this week.
How do you read the two numbers?
- 7-day searches is TikTok's own "Search popularity" figure for a phrase: searches worldwide over seven days, here the seven days to 19 September 2026. It is weekly, so it is not comparable to a monthly Google volume. The search volume guide covers the difference.
- Videos is how many videos TikTok has matched to that search. A zero is TikTok's content-gap signal, explained in the content gap guide.
- Searches per video is the first number divided by the second. High means lots of people asking and few videos answering.
Every phrase on this page is a typed search: the words people put in the search bar, sometimes with their spelling mistakes. TikTok also returns broad topic groups with much bigger figures, and we left those out of every table and chart (more on that in the method section).
A thousand videos about a hustle means the advice is crowded. It says nothing about whether your town has enough cleaners. Treat the video count as how hard it will be to get found on TikTok, not how hard the business is.
17 side hustle ideas, ranked by TikTok searches
Each idea is listed under its most searched typed phrase. The groups are about what you need before your first customer, not about cost, which depends on where you live.
Start with a phone and spare time
| Side hustle | Typed search | 7-day searches | Videos | Searches per video | What the data says |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gig and side hustle apps | side hustle apps | 366,636 | 1,084 | 338 | Daily readings went from 135,513 on the first day to 366,636 on the last. Read the comments for which apps people say still pay. |
| Freelancing | Freelancing | 301,690 | 1,526 | 198 | Its first daily reading was 970,991, then it settled. "Freelancers" (45,704 searches, 3,452 videos) is the most crowded side hustle phrase we found. |
| Faceless YouTube | faceless youtube channels | 300,390 | 921 | 326 | "how to make a faceless youtube channel" adds 61,769 searches with 526 videos. |
| House sitting | House sitting | 285,285 | 796 | 358 | The second-highest searches per video on this page. Trust is the product, and reviews build it. |
| Virtual assistant | Virtual Assistant Jobs | 260,721 | 1,229 | 212 | Steady: every daily reading sat between 163,151 and 260,721. The word "jobs" says these are people looking for work, not clients. |
| UGC creator | what is ugc creator | 214,264 | 894 | 240 | The top search is a definition. "new ugc creators" (123,837) and "best ugc creator" (66,406) follow. |
| Digital products | selling digital product | 189,718 | 2,833 | 67 | The most crowded top search in this group. "digital products etsy" adds 121,612 searches with 1,088 videos. |
Needs equipment, stock or a shop
| Side hustle | Typed search | 7-day searches | Videos | Searches per video | What the data says |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dropshipping | what is dropshipping | 344,303 | 1,081 | 319 | Eight dropshipping searches had 1,793,808 searches between them. The top one is a beginner question, so the buyers are beginners. |
| Cleaning | commerical cleaning business (sic, as typed) | 284,657 | 485 | 587 | The highest searches per video here. Plain "Cleaning business" has 203,820 searches but 5,063 videos; "solo cleaning business" has 154,053 and 762. |
| Pressure washing | pressure washer business | 274,772 | 985 | 279 | Wording matters: "Pressure Washing Business" got 81,508. The "washer" version had more than three times the searches. |
| Print on demand | Print on demand | 265,926 | 1,122 | 237 | "print on demand printify" got 156,353 searches and 0 videos. See the gap section below. |
| Sports cards | selling sports cards | 238,576 | 1,511 | 158 | TikTok listed it in its content-gap channel on 19 September despite 1,511 videos. |
| Home bakery | home bakery business | 177,711 | 1,246 | 143 | Well covered. Home food rules differ by state, which matters more than any video. |
| Selling on Etsy | how to sell invitations on etsy | 91,027 | 0 | n/a | Small and specific, with no videos matched at all. |
Needs a skill or a licence
Slower to start, harder for the next person to copy. Registering the business is the quick part, and the SBA guide to business structures covers it. The licence or the skill takes longer.
| Side hustle | Typed search | 7-day searches | Videos | Searches per video | What the data says |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notary public | Notary | 280,171 | 1,140 | 246 | Four notary searches had 617,383 between them, including "what does a notary do" (152,154) and "notary salary" (63,919). Each state sets its own rules. |
| Online tutoring | online tutoring | 223,377 | 2,098 | 106 | The most videos of any top search in this group. |
| Bookkeeping | BookKeeping | 183,944 | 1,063 | 173 | "what is bookkeeping" adds 156,115 searches with only 594 videos. |
Data: TikTok Creator Search Insights, typed searches only, worldwide, 7 days to 19 September 2026. Download the 45 typed searches (with the excluded topic groups listed separately), or open the raw pulls: seeds 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, content gaps.
Check house sitting, notary and print on demand on TokConnect
Which side hustle searches have the fewest videos?
Two typed searches had no videos matched on 19 September 2026: "print on demand printify" (156,353 searches) and "how to sell invitations on etsy" (91,027). People are asking in those exact words and TikTok has nothing to show them, so a clear video that uses the same words has little to compete with. The content gap finder runs the same check for any topic.
The printify search is jumpy. Its daily readings went 0, 76,876, 0, 91,572, 0, 0, then 156,353, so treat it as a phrase that is newly appearing rather than a steady one.
Below zero, the next best signal is searches per video. the cleaning business search leads at 587, then "House sitting" at 358 and "side hustle apps" at 338. At the other end, "selling digital product" has 67 and "online tutoring" 106: plenty of people search them, but plenty of videos already answer.
If you would rather build than film, the same rows are a list of things people search for and do not find: a Printify walkthrough, an invitation-shop course, a client-finding tool for commercial cleaners. That is the move described in how to validate a startup idea.
How did the general side hustle searches move?
Four broad searches show how people look for ideas before they pick one. "side hustle apps" ended the week highest at 366,636, up from a first reading of 135,513. "side hustle ideas" did the opposite: its first daily reading was 672,363 and its last 193,703.
"side hustle for moms" is the crowded one. It had 140,357 searches against 7,812 videos, about 18 searches per video, so a new video there competes with thousands. "real side hustles" sat between 108,689 and 273,872 all week.
How do you check a side hustle before you start it?
Four things to look at, in this order, before you spend a weekend on any of the ideas above.
- The ratio, not the number. Divide searches by videos. The cleaning business search at 587 searches per video is open; "Freelancers" at 13 is not.
- The exact words. "pressure washer business" had more than three times the searches of "Pressure Washing Business". Use the version people type in your title and caption.
- The comments under the top video. They tell you what people tried, what it cost and why they quit. That is your competitor and pricing research in one scroll.
- Your own market. These figures are worldwide. A hustle with hundreds of thousands of searches can still have four customers in your town.
Then the paperwork. In the US you have to file a tax return if your net earnings from self-employment were $400 or more, per the IRS Self-Employed Individuals Tax Center, and the self-employment tax rate is 15.3% (12.4% Social Security plus 2.9% Medicare). The IRS starting a business page covers the rest.
For licensed hustles, check your state first. Notary requirements differ by state. California, for example, asks that you be 18 or older, a legal California resident, complete an approved course, pass a written exam and clear a background check, per the California Secretary of State.
Swap in the five side hustles you are weighing, then run it:
Using TokConnect, search TikTok topics for these side hustles: house sitting, notary, print on demand, commercial cleaning and online tutoring. Keep only phrases people type, not topic groups. For each, give me the 7-day searches, the video count and searches per video, sorted with the least crowded first. Flag any search with 0 videos, find the most-liked video for the top one, and pull 30 comments telling me what people complain about and what they say it costs to start.
If none of the 17 fit, work from the niche level instead: the niches guide ranks whole categories, and the TikTok keyword planner guide shows how to find the exact phrases for one idea.
More ideas backed by search data: startup ideas, app ideas and SaaS ideas, each ranked the same way from TikTok search counts.
What do these numbers not tell you?
Search interest is not income. Nothing on this page measures what any side hustle earns, and we have not guessed at it.
The numbers also miss local supply. TikTok can tell you that commercial cleaning is thin on videos. It cannot tell you that three firms already clean every office on your street.
What the data does well is kill ideas fast. A few minutes of searching tells you whether anyone is looking, in which words, and how many videos already answer them. Spend the time you save on the part no dataset covers: finding the first person willing to pay you.
How we got these numbers
On 19 September 2026 we ran 23 searches through TikTok's Creator Search Insights data with TokConnect's topic search, one per seed (side hustle, freelance, print on demand, notary business, dropshipping and others), plus 4 pages of TikTok's content-gap channel with trending topics. That returned 379 unique records. We have not re-pulled since, so every figure is dated to the 7 days to 19 September 2026 and will have moved.
TikTok returns two kinds of record. Typed searches are phrases people enter. Topic labels are groups TikTok generates that pool many searches, and our house rule flags a record as a label if its 7-day figure is 5,000,000 or more, or 1,000,000 or more with a first daily reading under 5% of its last, or it sits in TikTok's Featured Content category, or its wording describes a group rather than a search.
263 records were labels and none of them appear in the tables, charts or key figures here. We kept 45 typed searches about side hustles; the rest were typed searches on unrelated subjects from the content-gap channel.
TikTok's topic groups, kept separate. For six seeds (make money online, reselling, vending machine business, dog walking business, lawn care business and notion templates) TikTok returned only topic groups, figures that pool many related searches. That is why vending machines, dog walking, lawn care, reselling and voice acting, which appear on many side hustle lists, are not ranked here. Their group figures are in the raw snapshots, and they are not comparable with the typed searches above.
"Searches" is TikTok's search popularity: searches over seven days, worldwide unless a country is chosen. "Videos" is the number of videos TikTok matches to the search. Daily readings are the seven points behind each search's chart. You can check any single phrase yourself in Creator Search Insights, in the TikTok app or at tiktok.com/csi with a login, one at a time and without an export (TikTok Help Center). Data: typed searches and exclusions, plus the raw pulls linked under the tables.
Key statistics
"side hustle apps" was the most searched side hustle phrase in our TikTok pull, with 366,636 searches worldwide in the 7 days to 19 September 2026 and 1,084 videos matched.
"side hustle ideas" got 193,703 TikTok searches worldwide in the 7 days to 19 September 2026, with 1,866 videos matched.
"print on demand printify" got 156,353 TikTok searches in the 7 days to 19 September 2026 and had 0 videos matched.
All 5 statistics
Eight typed dropshipping searches on TikTok, led by "what is dropshipping" (344,303), had 1,793,808 searches between them in the 7 days to 19 September 2026.
"commerical cleaning business", spelled as people typed it, had 587 TikTok searches per matched video (284,657 searches, 485 videos) in the 7 days to 19 September 2026, the most of any side hustle search with videos.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best side hustle to start?
Search data cannot rank profit, so treat anyone who ranks side hustles by income from a blog post with caution. What it shows is demand: in the 7 days to 19 September 2026 the most searched side hustle phrases on TikTok were "side hustle apps" (366,636), "what is dropshipping" (344,303), "Freelancing" (301,690) and "faceless youtube channels" (300,390). Pick from the ones that fit your skills, then check your local market.
What side hustle can I start with no money?
The ideas that need only a phone and time include freelancing ("Freelancing", 301,690 TikTok searches in the 7 days to 19 September 2026), house sitting (285,285), virtual assistant work ("Virtual Assistant Jobs", 260,721) and UGC ("what is ugc creator", 214,264). House sitting had the most searches per video of these, 358, so a new video about it has fewer to compete with.
Which side hustles are least saturated on TikTok?
Divide searches by videos. On 19 September 2026 the highest ratios were "commerical cleaning business" (587 searches per video), "House sitting" (358) and "side hustle apps" (338). Two searches had no videos at all: "print on demand printify" and "how to sell invitations on etsy". How the content-gap signal works.
Do I have to pay tax on side hustle income?
In the US, yes once it adds up: you must file a tax return if your net earnings from self-employment were $400 or more, and the self-employment tax rate is 15.3% (12.4% Social Security plus 2.9% Medicare), per the IRS. Other countries have their own thresholds, so check your tax authority.
How do I become a notary as a side hustle?
Each US state sets its own notary rules. California, for example, asks that you be 18 or older, a legal California resident, complete an approved course, pass a written exam and clear a background check, per the California Secretary of State. On TikTok, four notary searches had 617,383 searches between them in the 7 days to 19 September 2026.
Where do these search numbers come from?
They are TikTok's own figures from Creator Search Insights, the tool in the TikTok app and on desktop at tiktok.com/csi (login required). Search popularity is the number of searches over seven days, worldwide unless a country is selected. Neither version offers an export, so the raw data behind this page, from 19 September 2026, is published alongside it.
Sources and data
- Creator Search Insights (TikTok Help Center)
- Get inspired with Creator Search Insights (TikTok Newsroom, March 2024)
- Self-Employed Individuals Tax Center (IRS, 5 October 2026)
- Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes) (IRS, 5 October 2026)
- Starting a Business (IRS)
- Choose a business structure (U.S. Small Business Administration)
- Notary public (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School)
- Notary Public Qualifications (California Secretary of State, 5 October 2026)
- FLPC Releases Updated Fifty-State Table of Cottage Food and Home Kitchen Laws (Harvard Law School Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, April 2022)
