TikTok Emoji Codes: The Full List and How to Use Them
TikTok has 46 emoji you cannot reach from your keyboard. They only appear when you type a specific word in square brackets, and TikTok has never published a list of them. Here is the complete set, searchable, plus the reason your code probably did not work.
TikTok emoji code converter
46 of 46Search by feeling or paste a code. Tap any row to copy the code, then paste it into a TikTok caption or comment.
The glyphs above are standard-emoji stand-ins so you can tell the rows apart. TikTok’s own artwork appears once you post the code inside the app.
Looking for what these emoji mean rather than how to type them? Read our guide to what TikTok emojis actually signal.
How to Use TikTok Emoji Codes
The mechanic is the same everywhere it works: type the word in square brackets and post. Three steps, and the third is the one people miss.
- 1Open a caption or comment box. Codes work when you are writing a video caption or a comment. They are typed into the text field like any other word.
- 2Type the code inside square brackets. Write the code with no spaces, for example [pride] or [wronged]. Type it by hand rather than pasting from a site that may use curly brackets.
- 3Post it. The code stays as plain text while you type and in the preview. It only turns into the emoji once the caption or comment is actually posted.
Codes work in captions and in comments, on both iOS and Android. They do not work in your bio, in usernames, or in direct messages, and they do not survive outside the app. That last part is not a bug. TikTok’s emoji are images the app swaps in, not Unicode characters like 😂 or 🔥, so there is no glyph to carry anywhere else.
The Full List of 46 Codes
The set splits into two visual families. The older round faces came first, and the dumpling-shaped characters were added later. Tap any code in the converter above to copy it. The list below is the same data laid out for scanning and printing.
Faces (26)
[smile]Small round pink face with a closed, gentle smile.[happy]Peach face with squinted eyes and a wide open mouth.[angry]Red face with heavy furrowed brows.[cry]Blue face with tears streaming down both cheeks.[embarrassed]Teal face with an awkward, concerned expression.[surprised]Peach face with wide eyes and an O-shaped mouth.[wronged]Yellow face with sad, downturned eyes. The 'done me dirty' face.[shout]Purple face with an open mouth and visible fangs.[flushed]Yellow face with strongly blushing cheeks.[yummy]Pink face with tongue out, giving a thumbs up.[complacent]Blue face wearing sunglasses.[drool]Pink face with heart eyes and drool.[scream]Blue face screaming in fear.[weep]Light blue face with heavy tears.[speechless]Teal face with a single sweat drop.[funnyface]Pink face winking with its tongue out.[laughwithtears]Pink face laughing hard enough to cry.[wicked]Purple face with a mischievous grin and horns.[facewithrollingeyes]Pink face rolling its eyes upward.[sulk]Red face with a deep frown.[thinking]Yellow face with a hand resting on its chin.[lovely]Pink face blowing a kiss.[greedy]Peach face with dollar signs for eyes.[shock]Blue face with angry eyes and an open mouth.[astonish]Grey face with an open mouth and furrowed brow.[rage]Red face with steam venting from the head.
Dumplings (20)
[wow]Dumpling with a wide, surprised face.[joyful]Dumpling with a big open smile.[hehe]Dumpling with a small knowing smile.[slap]Dumpling with X eyes and a slap mark across the face.[tears]Dumpling with steady streams of tears.[stun]Dumpling with scared eyes and a sweat drop.[cute]Dumpling with oversized adoring eyes.[blink]Winking face with a heart.[disdain]Irritated dumpling with bags under its eyes.[cool]Dumpling wearing sunglasses.[excited]Dumpling laughing extremely hard.[proud]Dumpling looking down its nose with a smirk.[smileface]Dumpling with wide eyes and a small smile.[evil]Purple dumpling with fangs.[angel]White dumpling wearing a halo.[laugh]Dumpling laughing with its eyes closed.[pride]Dumpling with a kissy mouth and one raised eyebrow. Reads as a smirk, not pride.[nap]Sleeping dumpling with a snot bubble.[loveface]Dumpling with hearts for eyes.[awkward]Dumpling with sweat beading on its forehead.
Codes Whose Names Mislead
A handful of codes are named after something other than what they draw, which is why people hunt for them by description and come up empty. These are the ones worth memorising:
[wronged]Yellow face with sad, downturned eyes. The 'done me dirty' face.
[complacent]Blue face wearing sunglasses.
[pride]Dumpling with a kissy mouth and one raised eyebrow. Reads as a smirk, not pride.
[pride] is the one that sends most people to a search engine. It produces a smirking face, so everyone reasonably tries [smirk] first, which does nothing at all. The same trap catches [complacent], which is simply a face in sunglasses, and [wronged], which is the pleading, hard-done-by face rather than anything to do with being wrong.
Why Your Code Did Not Work
In rough order of how often each one is the real answer:
- You checked before posting. This is the big one. The code sits there as literal text while you type it and in the preview. TikTok only swaps in the image once the comment or caption goes live. Nothing is broken, the conversion just happens at post time.
- The code is not real. Plenty of lists circulating online include codes TikTok never shipped. There are 46. If a code is not in the converter above, it will post as bracketed text.
- You are on desktop. The web version and the Windows app are unreliable ground for these. The same code that stays plain text on a PC usually renders on the phone.
- Your brackets are the wrong brackets, or the app is old. Copying from a site that styles its punctuation can hand you curly or full-width brackets that look identical and match nothing. Retype the code by hand. If that fails, update the app.
Why TikTok Has Its Own Emoji At All
The habit comes from Douyin, the app ByteDance runs in China. Chinese platforms have long shipped their own in-app emoticon sets as images rather than relying on Unicode, partly so a sticker renders identically for everyone regardless of whether their device has caught up with the latest emoji release. An image always looks the same. A Unicode character depends on the font the reader happens to have.
There is an ownership angle too. A proprietary set is an asset in a way a shared standard is not, and Chinese tech companies have raced each other to trademark their own emoji designs. Nobody can trademark 😀, because it belongs to the Unicode Consortium and every vendor draws its own. A dumpling in sunglasses that only exists inside one app is a different matter.
The practical result for you is a small private vocabulary. Using [pride] in a comment signals that you know the app well enough to have learned a code that is not written down anywhere official. That is most of why people use them at all, and it is the subject of the companion piece on what TikTok emojis mean. For how emoji usage compares across every major platform, see the most popular emojis of 2026.
Sources
TikTok publishes no official reference for these codes, which is exactly why the list is hard to pin down. The 46 codes here were cross-checked against two independent references that enumerate the same set.
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