Glossary · API basics
What is a unified social media API?
Short answer
A unified social media API is a single API that reaches many platforms, such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Reddit, through one key, one request style and one response envelope. You integrate once instead of once per platform.
Many platforms
Each with its own sign-up, auth, limits and formats.
One key
One API key and one bill.
x-api-keyOne request style
The same URL pattern and parameters everywhere.
/v1/{platform}/{endpoint}One envelope
Data, cost and request ID in the same place every time.
successdatacredits_usedrequest_id
01
The problem it solves
Each platform that offers an API has its own sign-up and review process, authentication, rate limits, pagination style, error format and field names. Many public data points have no official API at all.
Building on five platforms directly means five integrations to build and maintain, five sets of credentials, and five places where a change can break your product. A unified API moves that work to one provider.
02
What actually gets unified
- 01
Access
One API key and one bill instead of an account per platform.
- 02
Requests
The same URL pattern, parameters style and authentication header everywhere.
- 03
The envelope
Every response wrapped the same way, with the data, cost, request ID and cache status in the same place.
- 04
Errors and paging
One error format and one cursor pattern.
- 05
Shared fields
Where platforms measure the same thing, such as followers or views, the field names match.
03
What stays platform-specific
Platforms do not measure things the same way. A Reddit score is upvotes minus downvotes, not likes. A YouTube view and a TikTok play are counted differently. Some platforms hide counts entirely. A good unified API keeps those differences visible instead of forcing everything into one generic "post" shape that loses detail.
So expect shared fields where the meaning truly matches, and platform-specific fields kept intact next to them.
04
When a unified API makes sense
You need data from three or more platforms
- Better fit
- A unified API
You publish or manage posts on your own accounts
- Better fit
- The platform’s official API
You need public data a platform’s own API does not offer
- Better fit
- A data API that reads public pages
An AI agent needs social data as a tool
- Better fit
- A unified API with an MCP server
In Monocrawl
One envelope in Monocrawl
One key for social, search, commerce and web data.
Every Monocrawl call follows /v1/{platform}/{endpoint} with an x-api-key header, and every response uses the same envelope: success, data, credits_used, credits_remaining, request_id and cached.
{
"success": true,
"platform": "tiktok",
"endpoint": "profile",
"data": { "…": "platform data, shared fields named the same" },
"credits_used": 1,
"credits_remaining": 4211,
"request_id": "req_…",
"cached": false
}Shared fields use the same names where they mean the same thing. Platform-specific data is kept intact, and the metric semantics page spells out where a number means something different from platform to platform.
Questions
Common questions
Is a unified API slower than calling a platform directly?
It adds a small hop, but it often saves time overall through caching and by handling retries and paging for you.
Does a unified API replace official platform APIs?
For reading public data, often yes. For posting, messaging or managing your own accounts, you still need the platform’s own API and permissions.
Are fields exactly the same on every platform?
Only where the meaning matches. Treat platform-specific fields as platform-specific.
Try it on real data
One key for public data.
Social, search and web.
Start with 150 free credits. No card required.