How many people actually read TikTok comments?

5 min read · Updated October 19, 2026

TikTok does not publish how many people open the comment section of a video. What exists is public data on how many people comment, and a long-standing rule of thumb about how many people read for each one who writes.

Writers: about 0.3 comments per 100 views

Socialinsider's 2025 data on 2 million TikTok videos shows accounts with 100,000 to 1 million followers averaging about 34,900 views and 100 comments per post (Socialinsider). That works out to roughly 0.29 comments per 100 views. One analysis cautions that this is a ratio of two averages, not what a typical video records (TTS Vibes). Other guides describe 0.5% to 1% as an average comment-to-view ratio.

Readers: many more than writers

Online communities follow a pattern Jakob Nielsen described as participation inequality: roughly 90% of users only read, 9% contribute occasionally and 1% create most of the content (Nielsen Norman Group). He notes that it varies by platform, but the direction is consistent: for every person who comments, many more read.

What that means for one comment

If a video gets 10,000 views and a small share of viewers open the comments, a comment near the top can reach hundreds of people, not thousands. Our own planning figure is about 120 people per comment, built on an assumption that about 8% of viewers open the comments and about 15% of those see a given comment. These two shares are our estimates, not published numbers, and real results vary by video.

Why that is still worth something

The audience is small but specific: people who chose to read a thread about your topic. Compared with paid reach (a typical TikTok ad costs around $8 per 1,000 impressions), a comment costs little per person and arrives as a recommendation, not an ad. See comments versus ads for the cost comparison.

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