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TikTok LIVE Glossary
Every term you’ll hear around TikTok LIVE — coins, diamonds, gifts, battles, and the kinds of gifters that make or break a stream. In plain English.
Money & gifts
The two-sided currency behind every TikTok LIVE gift — what a viewer pays, and what a creator earns.
- Coin
- The viewer-side currency. Viewers buy coins directly from TikTok (roughly $0.0104 each, cheaper in bigger bundles) and spend them on gifts.
- Why it matters: Coins are what your audience pays — the “retail” price of a gift before TikTok’s cut.
- Diamond
- The creator-side currency. When a gift is sent, its coin value becomes diamonds in the creator’s account — 1 coin gifted ≈ 1 diamond, but each diamond is worth far less in cash than the coin cost to buy.
- Why it matters: Diamonds are what you actually convert to money, so they’re the honest unit for measuring earnings.
- Live Gift
- A virtual item a viewer sends during a live stream, bought with coins. Gifts range from a 1-coin Rose to a 44,999-coin Universe.
- Gift value
- How many coins a gift costs. It’s fixed per gift — a Rose is always 1 coin, a Lion is always 29,999 — so the gift name tells you the size of the support instantly.
- Diamond-to-USD (payout rate)
- The cash value of a diamond when a creator withdraws — roughly $0.005, about half of what the coin cost the viewer.
- Why it matters: The ~50% gap between what a viewer pays and what you receive is TikTok’s platform fee.
- TikTok’s cut
- The platform fee TikTok keeps on every gift — commonly cited at around 50% of the coin value. Any agency split comes out of the creator’s remaining share on top of that.
- Recharge
- Buying (topping up) coins. Viewers “recharge” their coin balance before they can send gifts.
- Cash out / Withdrawal
- Converting accumulated diamonds to real money and withdrawing it (e.g. to PayPal or a bank), subject to TikTok’s minimum and verification rules.
Notable gifts
A few gifts worth knowing by name — from the everyday to the screen-takeover showstoppers.
- Rose
- The iconic 1-coin gift. Cheap, constant, and the most common way viewers show up — volume matters more than size here.
- Finger Heart
- A small, popular low-coin gift (5 coins) — another high-frequency “I’m here” signal from the audience.
- Galaxy
- A mid-tier gift (1,000 coins) often used to mark a real moment or push a battle score.
- Lion
- A premium gift (29,999 coins) — a screen-filling animation and a serious chunk of diamonds from a single tap.
- Universe
- One of the largest standard gifts (44,999 coins). A Universe is a marquee moment — worth roughly the same in diamonds as hundreds of dollars in coins.
- Gift combo / streak
- Sending the same gift rapidly in a row. Combos stack fast and are a common way gifters run up a battle score in the final seconds.
Battles (Match / PK)
Live head-to-head competitions where gifts are the score. Also called a Match or PK.
- Battle (Match / PK)
- A timed head-to-head where two or more creators compete and viewer gifts are the points. Highest diamond total when the clock hits zero wins.
- Why it matters: Battles concentrate gifting into a few minutes — they can be your most profitable window, or a waste of energy against the wrong opponent.
- 1v1
- The classic battle: one creator versus one opponent. The simplest format to read and the easiest to learn on.
- 2v2 / Team match
- Two creators per side. Scores combine per team, so coordination (and a strong partner) matters.
- Multi-guest battle
- Three or more creators competing at once in a grid, each with their own score.
- Free-for-all (FFA)
- Every creator in the battle competes individually — no teams. Last-place penalties and chaos make these high-variance.
- Battle score
- The running diamond total each side has earned during the battle. It’s what the on-screen bar is showing.
- Final round
- The last stretch of a battle (often the final 30–60 seconds), when most of the gifting happens as fans rush to close a gap or protect a lead.
- Power-up / Card
- In-battle boosts (e.g. a multiplier or “Critical Strike” card) that temporarily amplify the value of gifts. Knowing when one is active changes whether a battle was actually profitable.
Gifters & audience
The people on the other side of the screen — and the words for the ones who matter most.
- Gifter
- Anyone who sends a gift during your live. TikData keeps a permanent profile for every one of them.
- Big gifter
- A high-value supporter who sends large amounts. A handful of big gifters often drive the majority of a creator’s diamonds.
- Why it matters: Knowing who your biggest supporters are — and noticing when one goes quiet — is the single highest-leverage thing in LIVE retention.
- Top gifter
- A viewer’s rank by how much they’ve gifted you (over a stream, a period, or lifetime). TikTok shows a top-3; TikData tracks the full list.
- Enigma (anonymous gifter)
- A gifter who hides their identity — TikTok shows them without a normal handle. They still get a permanent, trackable profile in TikData even while anonymous.
- Why it matters: Anonymous doesn’t mean untrackable: an Enigma can be one of your biggest spenders, and we follow their activity across streams.
- Gifter level / badge
- A loyalty tier a viewer earns with a specific creator by gifting over time, shown as a badge next to their name.
- Subscriber
- A viewer who pays a monthly fee to subscribe to a creator, unlocking perks like badges and emotes. Separate from one-off gifting.
- Moderator
- A trusted viewer a creator appoints to help manage chat during lives.
- Co-host / Guest
- Another creator or viewer brought on-screen to share the live (multi-guest), common in collabs and battles.
Programs & agencies
How TikTok’s creator programs and agencies fit around LIVE.
- LIVE Pro
- TikTok’s tier/dashboard for established LIVE creators, unlocking deeper tools and perks once eligibility thresholds (diamonds, followers, hours) are met.
- Creator Network / Agency (MCN)
- An organization that signs creators, supports their LIVE growth, and takes a share of earnings in exchange. Agencies manage a roster of many creators.
- Roster
- The set of creators an agency manages. TikData’s agency plans track a whole roster from one dashboard.
- Creator Network bonus
- Extra payouts TikTok offers agencies/creators for hitting LIVE targets (hours, diamonds, new-creator milestones) within a period.
- Eligibility
- The thresholds (age, followers, diamonds, valid hours) a creator must meet to unlock LIVE, gifting, battles, or program perks.
Analytics terms
How TikData describes what’s happening in your gifter data.
- Gifter funnel
- The full picture of one gifter across your creators: who they are, how much they’ve sent, to whom, across how many streams, and when they last showed up.
- Cool-off / cooling gifter
- A previously active top gifter who has gone quieter than their own normal cadence — flagged before they fully lapse, so you can re-engage in time.
- Lapsed gifter
- A former regular or top gifter who has stopped gifting past a threshold. The retention alert you most want to catch early.
- Day × hour heatmap
- A 7×24 grid of when your gifters actually show up and spend — used to pick the best time to go live.
- Temperature (hot → cold)
- A simple status for each gifter — active, cooling, or lapsed — so you can see at a glance who’s heating up and who’s slipping away.
- Trailing vs lifetime diamonds
- Lifetime = everything a gifter has ever sent; trailing (e.g. last 30 days) = recent momentum. Comparing the two shows whether someone is rising or fading.
Want the deeper version? Read the TikTok LIVE guides →
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