To go LIVE on TikTok, open the app, tap the Add post + button, swipe to LIVE, add a title, adjust your LIVE settings and tap Go LIVE. TikTok's What is TikTok LIVE? help page says hosts must be at least 18 years old and have 1,000 followers, a follower figure it says may vary across regions, and its age requirements page warns that TikTok may ask you to confirm your age before you start.
The tapping part is short. The rules behind it are spread across a help centre, a safety guide, Creator Academy articles and the Community Guidelines, and those documents do not always use the same wording. This guide collects the requirements, marks where TikTok's own pages disagree, explains the settings worth changing before a first stream, and finishes with a readiness checklist and a run sheet you can follow on the day.
Who can go LIVE, and which rules change by region
TikTok gates hosting on age, audience size and account standing. Each row below is quoted from a TikTok page, with the wording difference noted where two pages describe the same rule differently.
| Rule | What TikTok says | Region or wording note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Host age | At least 18 to go LIVE | The Creator Academy wording is 18 or the age of majority in your country, which can be higher in some places | Creator Academy: Going LIVE! |
| Gifts | At least 18 to send or receive Gifts during a LIVE | The minimum is 19 in South Korea | What is TikTok LIVE? |
| Followers | 1,000 followers to go LIVE | The help page says this may vary across regions, and the safety guide only says a certain number that may vary by market | LIVE Safety Guide |
| Age check | TikTok may ask you to confirm your age before you go LIVE | Whether you are asked, and which methods appear, depends on your location and whether you confirmed before | Age requirements for LIVE |
| Features at the start | New hosts may not have every LIVE feature at first | Access widens over time if you follow the safety policies | LIVE Safety Guide |
| Availability | LIVE and Gift features are not available everywhere | Check the app in the country you actually stream from | What is TikTok LIVE? |
| Standing | A session that breaks policy may be stopped and the host temporarily restricted from going LIVE; repeated or serious violations can lead to an account ban | Applies to every LIVE creator, including content shared by guests | Community Guidelines: Accounts and Features |
In the United States the app is now operated by TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC under its own US Terms of Service, last updated 15 July 2026, so a US account is bound by the US versions of the policies those terms list. The help pages quoted in this guide were read from outside the US. If a US page and a global page say different things, follow the one that applies to the country your account is registered in.
Confirming your age before the first stream
The age check is the step most likely to stop a planned first LIVE. TikTok's age requirements page lists four outcomes: if TikTok confirms you are over 18 you can go LIVE, if it cannot confirm your age you cannot go LIVE, if it confirms you are under 18 you lose access to LIVE, and if it confirms you are under 13 the account is removed.
The methods depend on where you are. The same page describes a government ID with selfies taken from different angles, a selfie with ID processed by a partner called Incode, a temporary credit card authorisation that is refunded, and facial age estimation from a real-time selfie. For the Incode route, the page says you have 15 minutes to finish and must wait 15 minutes to retry if you exit early, and that Incode keeps what you submit until you ask it to delete the data.
TikTok says it starts deleting the submitted material once the process ends, but keeps a record of your date of birth, the method you used and the result for as long as the account exists. Two practical points follow. Do the check on a day you are not planning to stream, so a failed attempt does not collide with an announced start time. And pick the method you are most comfortable with from a privacy point of view, since the options differ in who holds your information afterwards.
Going LIVE from your phone, step by step
These are the steps from TikTok's help page, with the settings that matter added in context:
- Tap the Add post + button at the bottom of the app.
- Tap LIVE along the bottom; you may need to scroll across to find it.
- Add a title, choose your LIVE tools, and open Settings to set comments, moderators, Audience controls and LIVE Gifts before you start.
- Tap Go LIVE.
- To change tools or safety settings mid-stream, tap More at the bottom, then Settings.
- To finish, tap the End LIVE button at the top, then End now.
Streaming from a computer runs through different software and a separate access check, covered in the guide on going LIVE on TikTok from a PC.
Settings to change before you tap Go LIVE
A LIVE cannot be edited while it is happening, so the settings screen is your only real preparation tool. These are the ones TikTok documents:
- About me. The LIVE Safety Guide points to LIVE settings, then About me, to tell viewers what the stream is about and what your chat rules are.
- Audience controls. The moderation help page describes this as limiting the LIVE to viewers who are at least 18, a setting only the creator can change.
- Comment settings. TikTok's comments page says spam and potentially unkind comments are filtered by default, that you can block up to 500 keywords of up to 30 characters each, and that mute rules only catch the exact word you enter, not variations.
- LIVE Gifts. The toggle sits in Settings on the LIVE screen. How Gifts, Diamonds and rewards work is a separate topic, covered in the guide on making money on TikTok LIVE.
- Your background. The safety guide asks hosts to avoid showing an exact location, home address or employer, intentionally or by accident. The wider habits in the creator safety and privacy guide apply here too.
One setting decision affects reach. TikTok's LIVE Safety Guide says that if content identified during a LIVE is age-restricted, it will not be recommended to people aged 13 to 17, and hosts are notified. If you keep seeing restriction labels, the guide to TikTok LIVE recommendation restrictions explains how to read them and appeal.
Adding moderators and briefing them
You add moderators from Settings on the launch screen, and the LIVE Safety Guide says they must be friends or mutual followers. The documents disagree on the cap: the safety guide says up to 30 moderators per LIVE, while the Creator Academy Going LIVE! article says up to 20. Treat the limit your app shows as the binding one, and in practice you will want far fewer people than either figure.
Moderators can only use comment settings if you grant them comment permissions, and the moderation page notes they can moderate from a web browser without installing LIVE Studio or OBS. Before the stream, give each moderator a short brief:
- Which permissions you have granted them, so nobody assumes they can change filters they cannot reach.
- What gets a mute, what gets a block and what gets a report, with one example of each.
- Your blocked keyword list, so they know what is already filtered.
- What to do if a viewer posts someone's personal information: hide it first, then tell you.
- How they will signal you on camera without reading the issue aloud.
LIVE Center, replays and restriction notices
LIVE Center is where TikTok keeps your stream data. Its LIVE Center 101 article lists four headline numbers for your most recent stream: total views, new followers, Diamonds collected and the number of gifters. The LIVE Monetization Guidelines add that enforcement actions can be reviewed under Creator tools, then LIVE Center, then Rules and guidance, then Restrictions.
Replays are time-limited. TikTok's replay help page says recordings are available to view and download for 30 days, under Profile, the menu, TikTok Studio, LIVE and LIVE recordings, where you can also clip or delete them. If a stream contained a moment you may need later, such as a dispute with a guest or a mistaken restriction, download it inside that window.
LIVE readiness checklist
Work through this the day before a first stream:
- The LIVE option appears in the app, rather than an access prompt.
- Your age is already confirmed, or you know which method you will use.
- The account has no open violations or LIVE restrictions in LIVE Center.
- About me states the topic and two or three chat rules in plain words.
- Audience controls are set to match the content you plan to show.
- Blocked keywords include names, handles and terms you never want in chat.
- Moderators are added, briefed and know their permissions.
- The background shows nothing that identifies your home, street or workplace.
- LIVE Gifts are on or off by deliberate choice, not by default.
- A short video is ready to post before the stream so followers see you are about to go LIVE.
- You have a planned ending, not just a planned start.
A first-LIVE run sheet built on TikTok's own tools
Each stage below uses a feature TikTok documents, so nothing depends on third-party add-ons.
| Stage | What to do | TikTok tool |
|---|---|---|
| Before | Post a short video that says when you are going LIVE and what you will cover | A normal post, which Creator Academy suggests so viewers can join from the For You feed |
| Setup | Write the title, confirm About me, check moderators and test your connection | LIVE screen and Settings |
| Opening | Say who you are, what the stream is for and how long you plan to stay | Pin a comment that repeats the topic |
| Middle | Answer questions by name, restate the topic for new arrivals and keep interacting | Comment replies and pins |
| If chat turns | Let moderators mute or block while you keep the stream on topic | Mute, block, report and filtered comment review |
| Closing | Thank viewers, say when the next LIVE is, then end properly | End LIVE, then End now |
| Afterwards | Note the headline numbers, check for restriction notices and save any clip worth keeping | LIVE Center and LIVE recordings |
On length, the Creator Academy article says that in TikTok's experience streams of 60 to 80 minutes tend to get more views than streams of 10 to 20 minutes, and that a host who is inactive and fails TikTok's verification will have the room closed. Read that as a reason to plan enough material to stay engaged, not as a target to sit through. If you also stream on a subscription platform, keep that flow separate; the OnlyFans livestream run sheet covers it.
Limits of this guide
This guide reflects TikTok's help centre, Safety Center, Creator Academy and Community Guidelines as they read on 1 October 2026, viewed from outside the United States. TikTok changes thresholds and feature names without much notice, regional rules differ, and the app on your phone can show limits that no public page mentions, as the two moderator caps show. When the app and an article disagree, the app is the better guide for your account.
Meeting every requirement does not assure LIVE access, a particular audience or any income, and nothing here is legal advice. If an age check, ban or restriction decision looks wrong, use TikTok's in-app appeal route first and keep screenshots of each notice.