Post to TikTok from your browser

Why this page uses a server

Everywhere else on this site, your video stays on your device. Here it does not, and it is worth being straight about why.

The encoding still happens in your browser — the file is rebuilt on your device exactly as it is on the home page. But TikTok’s upload endpoint refuses requests made by a browser, so the finished file has to pass through our server on its way to them. We tested this rather than assumed it: a direct upload is blocked by TikTok’s own CORS policy.

Nothing is written to storage. The file is forwarded to TikTok as it arrives and is gone when the transfer ends. What is kept is the access TikTok grants us, so you do not have to reconnect every visit — described in full on the privacy page.

If you would rather nothing left your device, use the encoder on the home page and upload the file yourself. It is the same video, and no server is involved at any point.

Where the video ends up

In your TikTok notifications, not under Drafts. Open the app and look at the Inbox tab: there will be a notification saying a video is ready to post. Tap it and the editor opens with your video loaded, ready for a caption, sound and the usual choices.

This catches people out, because “upload to drafts” is how the feature is usually described — including by us until we watched where it actually landed.

It is not published automatically, and we could not publish it if we wanted to — the permission we ask for only allows sending a draft. That is deliberate: posting on your behalf would need a permission we would rather not hold.