TikTok Hashtags in 2025: How to Find and Use Them for Growth
Hashtags are more than just a trendy addition to your TikTok captions. They organize videos, connect communities, and help the algorithm understand what your content is about. The real challenge is figuring out which ones are worth using for your audience.
Hashtags have been part of social media since 2007, grouping conversations and making it easier to follow trending topics. Even though some say hashtags are outdated, they’re still one of the simplest ways to increase visibility and keep your TikTok presence consistent.
In this article, we’ll break down how hashtags work on TikTok, share practical tips for choosing the right ones, explore tools that can help, and highlight trending hashtags to keep an eye on.
How Hashtags Work on TikTok
On TikTok, hashtags do two things:
- They tell the algorithm what your video is about.
- They make your content searchable for people browsing or looking up those tags.
When you include hashtags in your caption, TikTok learns what the video covers and connects it with viewers who are more likely to care. Hashtags also tie your post to ongoing trends, challenges, and niche groups, giving you more chances to land on the For You Page (FYP).
A thoughtful mix of trending and niche hashtags increases your chances of getting discovered.
Do Hashtags Still Work on TikTok?
Yes, hashtags still work on TikTok.
Think of hashtags like search terms. They help organize and rank videos so the right audience can find them. With nearly 2 billion people using TikTok every month, using hashtags that match your niche can bring in more relevant views and followers.
Why Use Hashtags on TikTok?
If you spend time on TikTok, you probably already know that hashtags are a big part of the experience. They help organize content, connect users, and make sure videos reach the right audience.
Many of the platform’s most viral videos come from challenges, which are shared with a hashtag. When someone searches for that hashtag, they can see all the users who have joined in.
For example: #ImitaElEmoji, #TurnAroundChallenge, or #LaxedChallenge.
TikTok also has a hashtag search feature where you can check how many views a hashtag has. This helps you see which ones are trending or getting attention.
Hashtags on TikTok work much like they do on Instagram. They allow you to:
- Organize content by topic or category
- Help users discover videos on a specific subject
- Increase the visibility of your content
What Are the Benefits of TikTok Hashtags?
Hashtags offer several advantages, but the biggest is that they help your content reach people who are interested in what you’re sharing. Adding the right hashtags can boost visibility, attract the right audience, and help you grow a community around your content.
Increase Your Reach
Using hashtags gives your videos a wider audience. TikTok shows your content to users randomly, but hashtags also help the algorithm connect your video with people searching for that topic.
If your video ties into a trending theme, you could appear on the trending page, which increases your chances of being seen by a larger audience.
Build a Community
Brands often create their own hashtags to bring people together. At Metricool, for example, we use #Metricool and #Metricoolers. Anyone who uses these tags is linked to our tool and becomes part of the community.
Levis created a hashtag that went viral, and anyone using it became part of their community. Hashtags make it easy to gather people around a topic, event, or brand.
Discover Trends
Hashtags also show what’s trending and popular at the moment. Monitoring them can give you ideas for content that connects with current trends.
For example, #LearnWithTikTok has been trending for a long time. Companies across industries like marketing, pharmacy, and psychology have used this hashtag to share educational content and reach more viewers.
How Many Hashtags Should You Use on TikTok?
There’s no fixed rule for how many hashtags to use on TikTok, but 3 to 5 hashtags per post usually works well. Focus on using hashtags that match your content instead of trying to squeeze in as many as possible. A few well-chosen ones often perform better than a long list of random tags.
Tips & Best Practices for Choosing the Right Hashtags
Picking the right hashtags can make a big difference in how your content reaches new audiences. Here are some practical tips to help your videos get discovered.
Mix broad and Niche Hashtags
Use a couple of widely popular tags like #fyp or #viral to reach a large audience, but pair them with more specific hashtags that relate directly to your content. This combination helps your video appear in both general and targeted searches.
Source: TikTok Creative Center
Use Relevant Hashtags
TikTok is a space for discovery, inspiration, and connection. While brand-related hashtags can increase brand awareness, adding non-branded hashtags can help boost engagement and authentic connection. Avoid using tags that don’t match your video. Misleading hashtags can confuse the algorithm and frustrate viewers, which can hurt engagement. For example, #naturelovers can connect your brand with users who have the same adoration for nature and the outdoors.
Source: TikTok Creative Center
Identify Industry Competitors
Industry-specific hashtags can reveal top industry competitors and other businesses using the same hashtags. When gathering brand-related hashtags, search the platform for which content ranks among the first results. Then, do a competitor analysis to analyze the brand’s strategies, results, and content to benchmark your TikTok performance against competitors.
Not only does this reveal how your brand ranks among competitors, but, it uncovers content opportunities and ideas for your strategy.
Optimize Hashtags for SEO
As mentioned above, TikTok is a leading search engine that relies on algorithms to rank relevant content. Hashtags can be compared to keywords, terms that order content based on search intents. Understanding what your audience is looking for is key to building your TikTok hashtag strategy.
Consider the main topics that describe your brands’ products and services. Then, perform keyword research to analyze trending hashtags related to your niche.
- Search the platform by relevant topics to analyze which content ranks amongst the first positions, and which pain points, solutions, or resources these videos address.
- Analyze your TikTok video performance to understand which content has achieved the best results. This can help uncover relevant hashtags to add to future videos.
- Use a keyword tool, like Keyword Tool or Semrush to view hashtag search volumes, trends, CPC, and competition.
- Search TikTok’s Creative Center to find trending hashtags and content by industry.
Leverage trending moments
We know trends are a massive part of TikTok’s fast-paced environment. Jumping on these trending moments can leverage your video views, reach, and engagement. Take advantage of TikTok’s search tool or the Creative Center to see what hashtags are currently trending. You can also observe what top creators and competitors are using. Staying on top of trends can give your content a visibility boost.
Go Beyond Generic Tags:
Very popular, generic hashtags are often overcrowded. While they might bring some views, they usually don’t lead to meaningful engagement. Focus on hashtags that connect with your niche audience.
Create Branded Hashtags
If you want people to participate in a campaign or share user-generated content, branded hashtags are essential. They help track contributions and build a sense of community around your brand.
Aim for Balance:
A strong hashtag strategy combines three types of tags:
- Branded hashtags: These connect your content directly to your brand, campaign, or product. They help track engagement and encourage user participation.
Examples: #MetricoolTips, #MetricoolSocial, #MetricoolChallenge - Content hashtags: These describe the topic, theme, or format of your video, making it easier for users interested in that type of content to find you.
Examples: #SocialMediaMarketing, #ContentStrategy, #MarketingTips, #SocialMediaTools - Audience hashtags: These target the communities or interests of the viewers you want to reach. They help connect your content with people who are most likely to engage.
Examples: #SocialMediaManagers, #SmallBusinessOwners, #DigitalMarketingCommunity, #ContentCreators
Using this approach ensures your videos are discoverable by the right people, encourages interaction, and increases the chance of appearing on TikTok’s For You page.
TikTok Hashtag Tools
Instead of simply adding “trending” hashtags to your captions or video descriptions, using keywords that match your target audience’s search intents can be more effective for your long-term strategy.
To help build your TikTok hashtag list, here are a few tools and tips to drive your marketing strategies and content planning:
TikTok Creative Center & Search Insights
The first way to gain inspiration is from TikTok’s free marketing and creator tool, TikTok’s Creative Center. The Creative Center highlights trending hashtags, top ads, and popular creators. You can filter by category, region, or time period, then dive deeper into analytics like audience insights and related videos.
Source: TikTok Creative Center
Here’s how to use it:
- Explore Creator Insights to find keyword analytics. You can see search volume, trends over time, and competition levels for specific topics.
- Filter your search by industry, region, period, or new hashtags.
- Check analytics for each hashtag by clicking “See analytics.” This shows interest over time, audience insights, related videos, and regional popularity.
Source: TikTok Creative Center
TikTok’s Creator Insights also provides keyword and topic analytics to find content opportunities for your audience. It gives you keyword analytics, such as search volume and trend changes, to understand the popularity and competition of specific search intents. Not only can you analyze suggested and trending keywords, but you can analyze search views and rankings based on your content.
Metricool’s TikTok Hashtag Generator
Metricool is a social media management platform that helps creators, marketers, and brands manage multiple channels in one place. Among its features is a TikTok Hashtag Generator, designed to simplify hashtag research.
Here’s how it works:
- Open Metricool Planner and create a TikTok post.
- Add your caption and click “Search for popular hashtags.”
- Enter a keyword related to your content.
- Browse the suggested hashtags and see total usage to understand their reach.
- Add the best-fitting tags directly to your post.
Using Metricool, you can schedule posts, auto-publish across networks, and organize your content calendar with your content pillars in mind. This helps keep your posting consistent and ensures your hashtags reach the right audience.
TikTok Analytics
Analyzing performance is vital to refining your hashtag strategy. TikTok’s native analytics provide insights into:
- Video performance and engagement
- Audience demographics and behaviors
- Live stream performance
Metricool takes this further by letting you analyze all your social media channels in one dashboard, including TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Threads, Twitch, and Google Business Profile. This allows you to see how your TikTok efforts compare and measure overall impact.
When reviewing your TikTok performance, focus on:
- Community growth: follower balance, number of published videos
- Audience demographics: who is watching your content
- Content engagement: likes, comments, shares, impressions, reach, and views
- Video performance: impression sources, average watch time, and video duration
- Top-performing posts: identify posts that did well and see which hashtags contributed to their success
Click “View” on top-performing posts to navigate directly to the video. This makes it easy to track which hashtags consistently drive engagement and gather a list of tags to reuse in future content.
