If you’re scrolling through TikTok and spot an account, wondering when they joined TikTok! Or maybe you want to check your own account’s “birthday” for milestone purposes.
The thing is, TikTok doesn’t clearly display the exact creation date of every account in a “Joined on” label. That means if you want to find out when an account was created, you’ll need to dig a little.
The good news, though it’s not wholly specific, there are several methods you can try. We’ll give you three of them here, i.e., checking your welcome/verification email, tracing your first post, and inspecting the year shown (if any) on a TikTok banner.
You can also try the TikTok account age checker tool if you’re tracking an account age for content milestones or to simply satisfy curiosity.
It’s not a guaranteed magic date everyone can find, because of how TikTok protects and structures its data, but using one or more of these methods, you’ll usually get close enough.
TikTok Account Age Checker
Disclaimer: This tool is provided for informational purposes only and is not affiliated with TikTok or ByteDance Ltd. We do not host content or guarantee accuracy. Users must respect copyrights, privacy, TikTok’s terms, and applicable laws. Misuse is solely the user’s responsibility. By using these tools, you agree to our terms.
If you want a bit more automation, you can use the account age checker, a tool designed for this. There, you can enter the TikTok username, and the tool returns the approximate registration date (or how old the account is).
These tools rely on publicly available metadata to estimate the date. You simply type the username, hit “Check”, and wait for the result. It’s quick.
Such tools are convenient if you’re checking many accounts or just want a fast answer.
➡️ How It Works:
- The tool tries to find TikTok’s public data (if available) or uses indirect metadata like videos or account ID, or gets data from the internet.
- It extracts whatever timestamp is available (e.g., when the account was created).
- The tool calculates the difference between that timestamp and the current date to show “age”.
- The result is displayed to you – though you should double-check or treat it as an estimate.
How To See When A TikTok Account Was Created
The methods can give you clarity about when a TikTok ID started, how long they have been posting, or even how to verify another account’s authenticity. None of it requires technical skill, just a few smart steps.
1. Check First Welcome Email
You can try checking the oldest email you ever received from TikTok. That first welcome or verification email often marks the day your account came to life.
When you sign up for TikTok, it sends a message to the address you used, welcoming you to the community or confirming your registration. The timestamp on that email typically matches your creation date.
It helps to open your email inbox, type “TikTok” into the search bar, and then sort the results by oldest. The earliest message, usually titled “Welcome to TikTok” or “Verify your account,” gives the clearest clue. That moment captured in your inbox becomes a timestamp of your beginning on TikTok.
Sometimes, you might have changed emails later, so your newest inbox won’t contain that message. If so, consider any linked accounts you used before (Google, Apple, etc.). Those connected addresses might hold the original verification email, too.
This method feels simple but often gets overlooked because people delete old emails or don’t think about their inbox as a timeline. Yet it’s arguably the most accurate non-technical method available to you. TikTok’s internal system always sends that verification message upon registration.
It’s worth remembering that your welcome email date might differ slightly from the exact second your account was created. Some verification links arrive a few minutes later, but the margin is minimal — usually within minutes or hours.
If you created multiple accounts or changed usernames, check for multiple welcome messages; each will show different timestamps. That helps you know which account you made first.
You can also use your phone’s backup or email-client search if you used a mobile sign-up. You can try searching “TikTok” or “[email protected]” will usually surface something. Once found, that date can be marked or stored somewhere safe, so you’ll always know when you officially joined.
2. By First Post Checking
It often happens that you or someone else didn’t save that welcome email, but TikTok itself holds another obvious clue: the date of your first upload. Your first public post often shows the hint of your account creation. You can just scroll down your own feed until you reach the oldest video. The timestamp shown under that post acts as an approximate account creation mark.
You can take note that this date doesn’t always equal the true “Joined” date. Some users open an account and wait weeks before posting. Others delete their early clips. Still, for a large number of profiles, this remains the most visible sign of account age.
Scrolling to the first post takes patience, especially for users with hundreds of videos. A quicker way is to use TikTok’s desktop version, where scrolling is faster and timestamps are clearer. If the first video is still available, note its upload date; that’s usually within a few days of sign-up.
For creators who post frequently, that oldest clip often marks the exact week they joined. It gives a nostalgic reminder of their first video style, caption, and energy.
The best part of this method is that it requires no outside tool or login details. Anyone viewing a public profile can see post dates. So, it works equally for checking your own account or someone else’s.
A limitation arises if the user deleted early content or switched privacy settings. In that case, you’ll only see the earliest visible post, which could be months newer than the true creation time.
In several cases, creators set early uploads to private, so you can’t view them publicly. If you’re checking your own profile, toggle to your private tab; it might hold older content. The earliest video there usually indicates your original join date.
You might also notice that the video’s metadata (if downloaded or viewed in detail) includes creation time. This information is stored within the video file properties, as this can give you a more technical timestamp than the one visible on TikTok.
3. Checking Year on TikTok Banner
It might sound too easy, but sometimes the simplest clues hide in plain sight. Certain TikTok profiles — especially verified, creator, or business accounts — display a year on their profile banner or description. It might read “Est. 2020” or “Since 2019.” That year can serve as a broad reference to when the account was first opened or converted into a professional account.
You can open the profile you’re curious about and look at the banner image area. If a year appears there, note it down. This method offers a quick overview of how long the account has existed, even if it doesn’t reveal a full date.
Some users manually add that year in their bio as part of branding, so you’ll want to treat it cautiously. For instance, “Est. 2020” could mean when the creator started posting seriously, not necessarily when they signed up.
This method works best for creators who maintain consistent branding. Business and influencer accounts often include founding years as part of their marketing identity. TikTok sometimes automatically displays “Member since” for business profiles, which gives an authentic creation year.
One reason to trust banner information (when automatically generated) is that it draws directly from TikTok’s verification or business registration record. That means if TikTok granted your account a “Business” label in 2021, it wouldn’t predate that year.
Step 1: Log in to your TikTok account, and after that, you can find many options at the bottom bar of the TikTok Homepage. Click on the Discover icon from the bar and open the Discover section.
Step 2: You can see the Ad banner section at the top of your Discover tab. Go to the section to find the joining date.
Step 3: Swipe the banners until you find the “Year on TikTok” banner, and when you tap on the Get Started option, it will start scanning your profile.
TikTok will display the joining date.
Not everyone will find a banner year, though. Most personal or casual users don’t have one, making this method situational.
Why doesn’t TikTok directly show when an account was created?
It might seem odd that TikTok doesn’t show a simple “Joined on” date, but that choice ties into privacy and platform design. TikTok’s main focus is short-form content and engagement, not chronological history. By hiding creation dates, the platform avoids potential bias between older and newer creators.
Your content’s visibility depends on performance, not how long you’ve been there. It also limits how much outside observers can track user timelines or infer private data like age.
For everyday users, the absence of an account-creation label can make it harder to verify authenticity. Some fake or spam accounts mimic established users, and a visible join date could help distinguish them. Meanwhile, genuine creators sometimes want to celebrate milestones or prove seniority, which becomes trickier without that timestamp.
Still, users have adapted through indirect methods i.e. welcome emails, data downloads, and tools like TechniqueHow’s TikTok Account Age Checker, which estimates the date automatically. These alternatives fill the gap while respecting TikTok’s privacy stance. It’s a small trade-off: privacy over transparency.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Not directly in the app, but you can request a full “Download your data” file under your settings. Inside that file, TikTok includes your registration details, including your account creation date, which provides the most official proof of your join date.
Most are safe if they don’t ask for login credentials. The open checker works only by entering a username, not passwords. Still, avoid tools that demand logins or suspicious permissions, since they might collect personal data without consent.
If you’ve lost your welcome email, deleted your first posts, and have no banner data, try the TechniqueHow’s age checker or request your TikTok data download.
No direct effect exists, though older accounts sometimes gain credibility due to consistent posting history. TikTok’s algorithm values engagement patterns more than age, but a long-standing account may enjoy a reputation advantage over newer profiles.
