To request a sample on TikTok Shop, open Creator Center, find the product in the Product Marketplace with the Free Sample filter on, or in your Collab Invites, tap Get Sample on the product page and send the request to the seller with your size and shipping details. In the US, TikTok Shop's guide to free and refundable samples says free samples are open to creators with TikTok Shop sales in the last 120 days, still need the seller's approval, and must be featured in a post within 14 days of arriving.
This guide covers the sample workflow once you are an affiliate: who can request, how the free sample limit moves, what sellers see, the posting rules and what to do when something goes wrong. Joining the program, and a side-by-side of free and refundable samples, are in our guide to becoming a TikTok Shop affiliate. Commission rates and settlement are in our TikTok Shop commission guide. The rules below come from the US TikTok Shop Academy unless a UK difference is noted.
Eligibility checklist before you request
- You are an approved TikTok Shop creator. In the US, TikTok Shop's page on becoming a Shop creator requires you to be at least 18, based in the US, past 1,000 followers for affiliate access and through creator identity verification.
- For a US free sample, you have generated TikTok Shop sales within the last 120 days, as the US samples guide requires. Without recent sales, a Refundable Sample is the route it offers instead.
- Your free sample limit has room. Check Creator Center, then Manage Samples, then Free sample limit, and look at Samples available to request.
- You have no open request or refundable order for the same product, because the guide says one blocks the other.
- You meet the seller's own thresholds. Sellers can hide sample products from creators below the bar they set, so a missing Get Sample button can simply mean you are filtered out.
- Your posting record is healthy. The guide says a low posting rate removes access to free samples for a while, until it recovers.
- In the UK, the UK creator's guide to samples says any TikTok Shop creator with 1,000 or more followers can apply, with up to five ongoing seller sample applications at a time unless a dedicated creator manager adjusts that.
How the US free sample limit works
The US samples guide, dated 24 September 2026, ties your limit to two numbers. Your creator level, updated monthly, sets the size of the limit. Your sample score, updated daily from your free sample activity over the past 30 days, sets how much of that limit you can actually use. The guide then explains what moves it:
- Each free sample request through the Product Marketplace, Collab Invites or an agency collab takes one off the limit.
- Samples you get with a coupon do not count against it.
- You get one back when you meet the posting criteria, when the seller rejects the request or fails to ship in time, when you cancel before it ships, or when you report a problem and no post is needed.
- An overdue sample keeps using your limit until you post for it. The guide singles this out as the biggest change.
Manage Samples shows the working in two tabs which, according to the samples guide, cover the last 90 days. Using limit lists requests that are Pending approval, Post criteria to be met, In transit or Overdue. Limit restored lists those marked Post criteria met, Canceled, Seller didn't ship in time or No need to post.
Treat older advice with care. A TikTok Shop blog post from January 2024 set fixed request caps by monthly sales, and many third-party guides still quote it. The September 2026 guide replaces that system with creator level and sample score, so the newer page is the one to follow.
What sellers see when you ask
Seller-side Academy pages explain approvals that can otherwise feel random:
- Sellers can approve, reject or simply ignore any request, according to the samples guide.
- The US article on sample auto-approval automations lets sellers approve requests automatically when a creator meets rules such as sales over the last 30 days, estimated posting rate or creator category. Requests that miss any rule fall back to manual review.
- The same article says creators who meet a seller's rules see a 100% approval tag when they apply, which is a useful signal about where to send requests.
- In auto-approved free sample campaigns, TikTok Shop selects eligible creators based on content quality and performance, and their requests go through without seller review. The posting duty afterwards is the same.
- The Sample Integrity Policy says sellers can see whether your sample posting rate is OK, Good or Better, while creators cannot see their own rate.
The practical upshot is that a reliable posting record does more for approvals than sending more requests.
Requesting a sample, step by step
- In Creator Center, open the Product Marketplace and switch on the Free Sample filter, or open Collab Invites.
- Open the product. If samples are on offer, a Get Sample button appears on the details page.
- Check Samples available to request so you know how much of your limit is free.
- Tap Request from seller, pick the size or variation, and confirm your contact and shipping details.
- Wait for the seller. If you change your mind before it ships, use Withdraw Request on the Request Details page.
- For several shades, sizes or flavours of one product, use Multi-SKU Sampling, remembering that the guide requires unique content for every SKU you receive.
- If a request fails, the samples guide says you can try again immediately after withdrawing one yourself, or 30 days after it is disapproved, expires or is cancelled, using Get It Again in the Sample Order tab.
The guide also limits you to one of a particular item from a single seller. You can ask the same seller for different products, or ask different sellers for similar ones.
Posting deadlines and what counts, US and UK
| Rule | United States | United Kingdom |
|---|---|---|
| Deadline for a free sample | Post within 14 days of receiving it (US samples guide) | Post within 14 days of delivery (UK samples guide) |
| A video that counts | A public short video with the product link that stays up for at least 3 days (US guide) | A video posted inside the window and kept online for at least 3 days, so fulfilment lands by day 17 at the latest (UK guide) |
| A LIVE that counts | At least 10 minutes with the sample product pinned (US guide) | A LIVE that drives at least one sale; otherwise post a qualifying video (UK guide) |
| Reminders | 3 days and 1 day before the 14-day window closes (US guide) | 3 days and 1 day before your posting window expires (UK guide) |
| Extra time | One 7-day extension per sample under the Sample Integrity Policy | Not described in the UK guide; check Manage Samples |
Missing deadlines has a cost on both sides of the Atlantic. The US guide warns that repeatedly missing the timelines can mean fewer sample opportunities or removal from the program, and the Sample Integrity Policy says your fulfilment rate drops when you receive a sample and do not post, which sellers can use to reject later requests.
A free sample is also a perk, so TikTok's guidelines treat the post as commercial content that needs the disclosure setting; our disclosure settings guide explains which toggle fits. Commercial posts need cleared audio too, covered in our Commercial Music Library guide, and shoppable videos must follow the rules in our TikTok Shop content guidelines guide.
Sample tracker template
Manage Samples shows status, but it will not remind you why you asked for something or which video fulfilled it. A spreadsheet with these columns covers the gaps:
| Column | What to record | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| Product and SKU | Product name, variant and seller | Each SKU from Multi-SKU Sampling needs its own video |
| Where it came from | Marketplace, Collab Invite, agency collab, campaign or coupon | Coupon samples leave your free sample limit untouched |
| Request date and outcome | When you asked, and whether it was approved, declined, withdrawn or expired | A decline starts the wait before you can ask again |
| Received date | The day the parcel arrived | The posting window counts from delivery |
| Post due | The deadline, and a note if you used the extension | Only one extension is allowed per sample |
| Posted link | The URL of the video, or the date of the LIVE | Your proof if fulfilment is ever questioned |
| Criteria met | Whether Manage Samples shows Post criteria met and your limit restored | Confirms the system counted the post, not just that you made it |
When a sample arrives broken or you cannot post in time
The Sample Integrity Policy gives you two one-off tools, both on the sample order details page in Manage Samples. Unable to post within 14 days adds 7 days, once per sample, and can be used at any point before the original window ends; the policy says sellers are not notified when you take it. Something wrong with this sample lets you appeal the duty to post when an item arrives defective or unsatisfactory, again once per sample. The samples guide adds that reporting a problem through Get help on the order restores your limit.
If the extension runs out, the sample becomes overdue. You can still post, and posting is the only way to free up the limit it holds, but the policy warns your fulfilment rate may already have taken the hit.
Limitations of this guide
This guide is based on US TikTok Shop Academy pages dated between January and September 2026 and the UK creator guide dated 29 July 2026, read on 1 October 2026. Other markets have their own Academy pages and rules, TikTok Shop changes limits and eligibility often, and the seller tools described here come from seller-facing pages, so your Creator Center may show them differently. Nothing here predicts whether a seller will approve you. Free products can count as income for tax in some countries, so check with a registered tax agent or accountant where you live before assuming a sample is tax-free.