How to Copy a TikTok Video Link / URL (Mobile + Desktop)
Copying a TikTok video link sounds like the simplest thing in the world, right up until you are standing in the app trying to find the right button, or you grabbed a link that turns out to point at your profile instead of the video. It is also the very first step in running a giveaway, because every comment picker needs the video URL to pull your entries.
This guide covers how to copy a TikTok video link on both mobile and desktop, how to get the link to your own video, the difference between the long and short link formats, and what to do when the link does not behave. By the end you will be able to grab the right URL every time and use it for whatever comes next.
What a TikTok video link actually is
Every public TikTok video has its own web address, the same way every page on the internet does. A full TikTok video URL usually looks like tiktok.com followed by the creator's username and a long string of numbers that identifies the specific video. That number is the video ID, and it is what tells any tool, picker, or browser exactly which video you mean.
You will also run into shorter links that start with vm.tiktok.com followed by a few characters. These are just shortened versions that TikTok generates when you share from the app, and they redirect to the full URL when opened. Both work for sharing, though the full link from the address bar is the most reliable one to use with other tools.
How to copy a TikTok video link on mobile
The mobile app is where most people copy links, and the steps are the same on iPhone and Android.
Open the TikTok app and go to the video you want. Tap the Share icon on the right side of the screen, the one shaped like a curved arrow. A row of sharing options slides up from the bottom. In that row, look for Copy Link, usually shown as a chain or link icon, and tap it. TikTok confirms with a small message that the link has been copied to your clipboard.
If you do not see the arrow for some reason, the same option lives behind the three-dots menu. Tap the three dots, then choose Copy Link from the list. Either route puts the link on your clipboard, ready to paste into a message, a notes app, or a giveaway tool.
That is the whole process on mobile. Two taps and the link is yours.
How to copy a TikTok video link on desktop
On a computer, you have two easy ways to do it, and one of them is even simpler than mobile.
The fastest method is the address bar. Open tiktok.com in your browser, click the video so it opens in full view, and then look at the address bar at the top of the browser. That is the full URL of the video. Click into the address bar to highlight the whole link, then copy it with Ctrl and C on Windows or Command and C on a Mac. Done.
The second method mirrors the app. With the video open, find the Share icon next to it, click it, and choose Copy Link from the options. Both approaches give you a working link, but copying from the address bar is the most direct and leaves no doubt that you grabbed the video itself rather than something else.
How to copy the link to your own video
When you are running a giveaway, the video is usually one you posted, so here is how to get to your own content quickly.
On mobile, tap the Profile icon in the bottom right to open your profile, tap the giveaway video to open it, then use the Share arrow and Copy Link exactly as above. On desktop, sign in at tiktok.com, click your profile icon in the top right, open your profile, click the video you want, and copy its URL from the address bar or the Share button.
The steps are identical to copying anyone else's video. The only difference is that you are navigating to your own profile first instead of finding the video on your feed or through search.
Long links, short links, and which to use
You may notice that the link you copied from the app looks different from the one in your browser's address bar. The app often hands you a shortened vm.tiktok.com link, while the address bar gives you the full tiktok.com link with the username and video ID spelled out.
For sharing with a friend, either is fine, because both lead to the same video. For feeding a video into another tool, such as a comment picker for a giveaway, the full link from the address bar is the safest choice, since it points directly and unambiguously at the video. If you only have a short link, opening it in a browser and then copying the full URL that it lands on is an easy way to convert it.
Common link problems and how to fix them
A few things trip people up when copying TikTok links, and they are all quick to solve.
If your pasted link opens your profile instead of the video, you copied the profile or share-profile link rather than the video link. Go back, open the specific video first, and use Copy Link from there.
If a tool says it cannot read the video, the most common cause is that the video or the account is private. Comments and details on private videos are not publicly accessible, so the link needs to point to a public post with comments enabled. Switching the post to public usually fixes it.
If the link looks incomplete or has extra text attached, you may have grabbed surrounding characters along with the URL. Paste it into a plain text field, trim it back to the clean tiktok.com address, and try again.
And if you copied a short vm.tiktok.com link that a particular tool will not accept, open it in a browser and copy the full expanded URL instead.
Using your TikTok link to run a giveaway
The most common reason creators search for how to copy a video link is to run a giveaway, because the link is what every comment picker needs to gather your entries.
Once you have the full URL on your clipboard, you paste it into a tool like TT Picker, and it pulls the comments from that exact video so you can draw a winner. No login or download is involved, just the link. From there you can filter the comments down to valid entries and select a winner at random. If you want to see that next step in detail, here is the walkthrough on picking a winner from TikTok comments online, and a fuller look at the whole giveaway and contest tool for context on what happens after you paste the link.
This is why getting the right link matters. Paste the wrong one and the tool pulls comments from a video that is not your giveaway. Paste the correct full URL and everything downstream just works.
Copying a link from a photo post or LIVE
TikTok is not only videos. Photo posts work the same way, with a Share arrow and a Copy Link option, and they have comments too, so you can run a giveaway from a photo post just as you would from a video.
LIVE streams are a little different, since a live broadcast is happening in real time rather than sitting at a fixed URL. For LIVE giveaways you generally interact during the stream itself rather than copying a link afterward, though any video you post about the giveaway can be linked and shared in the usual way.
How to copy the link to someone else's video
Sometimes the video you need is not your own, for example if you are running a collaborative giveaway with another creator or referencing someone else's post. The steps are exactly the same as copying your own.
On mobile, find the video on your feed, through search, or on the other creator's profile, then tap the Share arrow and choose Copy Link. On desktop, open the video at tiktok.com and copy the URL from the address bar, or use the Share button. You do not need to own a video or be logged in as its creator to copy its public link. The only requirement is that the video is public, because a private video has no shareable public address for tools or other people to open.
Sharing your giveaway link in a caption or bio
Once you have the link, you may want to put it somewhere people can find it, such as in another post, a Story, or your bio. TikTok limits clickable links in some places, so where a raw link looks messy or will not turn clickable, a shortened version can help.
You can paste the copied TikTok link into a free URL shortener to get a tidier address that is easier to read and share, which is handy for cross-posting your giveaway to other platforms with character limits. Just remember that for feeding the URL into a comment picker, you want the original full link rather than a third-party shortened one, because the tool needs to resolve the exact video. Keep the clean full link for your tools and use the tidy short link for public sharing.
Copying a link using a QR code
TikTok can also generate a QR code for a video or profile, which is useful for in-person promotion or for putting a giveaway on printed material. In the Share menu, alongside Copy Link, you will often find an option to share or save a QR code.
Anyone who scans that code lands on the video, which is a neat way to drive entries to a giveaway from a physical location, a packaging insert, or a slide in another video. It is not something you would feed into a picker, but it is a friendly way to point people at the post you will later draw your winner from.
If you run giveaways regularly, it is worth keeping a simple note or document of your video links as you go. Saving the full URL the moment you post each giveaway means you are not hunting for it later under time pressure, and it gives you a tidy record of which video each contest ran on. A small habit, but it removes one more thing that can go wrong on the day you draw a winner.
Quick reference
To copy a TikTok video link on mobile, open the video, tap the Share arrow or the three dots, and choose Copy Link. On desktop, open the video at tiktok.com and either copy the URL from the address bar or use the Share button and Copy Link. For your own video, navigate to your profile first, then follow the same steps. Use the full address-bar link when feeding the URL into another tool, keep the post public so its comments can be read, and double-check the pasted link points at the video rather than your profile.
Get that right and the link is ready for whatever you need it for, whether that is sharing a funny clip with a friend or running a fair, fast giveaway. If a giveaway is your goal, here is a simple overview of how to do a giveaway picker on TikTok online once your link is copied.