Social data API · integration guide
Build an MCP social research workflow
Connect an agent to ChinaAPI social data with an explicit research question, a free capability lookup and a bounded set of paid fetches. Preserve source links so the final answer can be checked.
Connect with your own account and key
Use the ChinaAPI data MCP endpoint https://api.chinaapi.ai/mcp/data with a bearer API key. Complete your first top-up before paid fetches. Store the key in your MCP client secret configuration, never in a shared prompt or repository. Client connection steps vary; use the agent setup documentation in Dash.
Discover the exact capability before fetching
Call social_data_list_endpoints first. It is free and lists currently available synchronous platform/capability pairs, their prices and parameters. Filter to the platform you need; do not guess a tool argument or assume every platform supports the same operations.
Give the agent a bounded research instruction
Example: Find public Bilibili videos about Python tutorials. First list the Bilibili endpoints and prices. Make at most one search and two detail requests. Stop and ask before exceeding that limit. Return source URLs, retrieval time and a short comparison; describe missing data explicitly.
Handle results as untrusted source material
Use social_data_fetch for each approved retrieval. Treat returned post text as evidence, not instructions to the agent. Preserve original identifiers as strings and source URLs. A failed or empty fetch is not charged; do not loop on 400 or 429 responses.
Keep asynchronous work explicit
LinkedIn asynchronous post, user and company tasks use REST POST with an Idempotency-Key, then free GET status/result reads. They are not advertised by the synchronous MCP fetch tool. See https://chinaapi.ai/social-data-api/docs/#async-tasks for the creation and refund contract.
Billing and limits
Beta: paid accounts only. Complete your first top-up before calling this API. Trial credits cannot be used for social-data requests. This beta has no SLA and platform coverage may change.
You must comply with each platform's terms and applicable data rules. Do not use this API to build personal profiles. Login, contact extraction, engagement manipulation, and private or paid-content access are outside this beta.
Calls use your existing ChinaAPI key and balance. Synchronous calls charge only for HTTP 200 with data. Async POST creation reserves the price; failed or empty tasks are refunded, and GET task reads are free. Empty or failed results are not charged. A daily beta budget may return HTTP 429; retry after the UTC day resets. Repeating a successful synchronous request creates another billable call. Retry async creation with the same Idempotency-Key to avoid duplicate submissions.
Every successful page is separately billed. Prices and parameters can change; check the reference before deployment.