TikTok Live glossary
Every term you'll meet inside a TikTok Live, defined in plain English with the numbers that matter — like diamonds ($0.005 each to the creator) and coins (~$0.01 each to viewers).
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TikTok Diamonds
The creator-side currency earned from live gifts. 1 diamond = $0.005 USD at payout — TikTok's ~50% platform cut is already baked into that rate, so $0.005 is take-home, not viewer spend.
TikTok Coins
The viewer-side currency. Viewers buy coins with real money and spend them on gifts during live streams.
TikTok Live Gifts
Animated tokens viewers send to creators during live streams, ranging from a 1-coin Rose to the 44,999-coin TikTok Universe.
TikTok Live Ranking
TikTok's real-time leaderboard of creators and viewers ranked by gift/diamond volume within a region or globally.
TikTok Live PK (Player Kill)
A head-to-head live battle where two creators go live together and compete for gift volume from their combined audiences for a fixed window.
TikTok Live Moderator
A viewer granted chat-management permissions by the creator. Can delete comments, timeout/ban users, and pin messages during a live.
Going Live on TikTok
The act of starting a live broadcast. Requires 1,000+ followers and being 18+; kicks off a public WebSocket stream with viewers, gifts, and chat.
TikTok Live Battle Mode
An umbrella term for TikTok's head-to-head live formats, including PK and Multi-Guest battles. Two or more creators compete on gift volume.
TikTok Universe Gift
TikTok's most expensive animated gift at 44,999 coins. Costs the viewer roughly $450 and nets the creator ~$225 after TikTok's platform cut. Triggers a 10-second full-screen animation and a Universe badge on the sender.
TikTok Live Subscription
A monthly recurring fee ($4.99) a viewer pays a specific creator for subscriber-only perks: custom emotes, a sub badge, and access to subscriber-only lives.
Follower-Only Chat (TikTok Live)
A chat mode that restricts messages to accounts following the creator for at least a set duration (e.g. 3 days). Cuts spam and drive-by trolls.
TikTok For You Page (FYP)
TikTok's algorithmic home feed. For live monitoring, FYP-driven lives get surge traffic — viewer counts can jump 10× in seconds when a live gets pushed.
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