How to search RedNote (Xiaohongshu) from outside China — and why Chinese keywords find more
Short answer: You do not need a Chinese phone number or the app. POST /api/v1/search with a query and platform: "xiaohongshu" finds public RedNote notes on the topic, reads them in full and ranks them by engagement, and translate_to: "en" (or "ja") returns them in your language. The query itself should be in Chinese, because the notes are written in Chinese — and two wordings of the same Chinese query can differ a lot, as measured below.
Disclosure: LinkDigest is the author's own service. The numbers come from runs on 2026-11-06 that produced the public Japan reports, and from the camping-gear run of 2026-10-30.
The call
curl -s -X POST https://linkdigest.dev/api/v1/search \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ld_live_..." \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"query": "大阪 美食 攻略", "platform": "xiaohongshu", "limit": 10, "digest": true}'
digest: true puts the results straight into a batch: every note found is read (caption, image text, video speech, top comments), a comparison is written, and the notes come back ranked by likes + 2 × saves + comments. Without digest, the call returns the links and you choose which to read. A search that finds nothing is free; one that finds notes on Xiaohongshu costs 4 credits.
Measured: the same city, two queries (2026-11-06)
| query (Chinese) | hits | read | comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| 大阪 美食 攻略 (Osaka food guide) | ≥5 | 5 | written |
| 京都 温泉 旅馆 推荐 (Kyoto onsen ryokan recommendation) | 1 | 1 | written, on one note |
| 京都 住宿 攻略 (Kyoto accommodation guide) | 5 | 5 | written |
| 东京 药妆店 必买 (Tokyo drugstore must-buys) | 2 | 2 | written, on two notes |
| 日本 药妆 必买 (Japan drugstore must-buys) | 1 | 1 | dropped — too thin to publish |
The lesson is the one Chinese users already know: RedNote's own vocabulary is 攻略 (guide), 推荐 (recommendation), 必买 / 必吃 / 必去 (must-buy / must-eat / must-go), 测评 (review), and short two- or three-word queries. A long, specific query (温泉 旅馆 推荐) narrows to a handful; the generic 攻略 form finds the notes people actually saved. Ask for 10 results and read the top 3–5.
Translating the query
If you only have English, translate the terms rather than the sentence: "best ramen in Tokyo" → 东京 拉面 推荐; "what Chinese tourists buy in Japanese drugstores" → 日本 药妆 必买. Brand and place names are usually written the way the brand writes them in Chinese (大阪, 京都, 松本清 for Matsumoto Kiyoshi). The returned notes can be translated whole with translate_to.
Reading the result
For each note: Japanese or English title (with the original), author, date, likes, saves, comments, the link, the key points with quotes, and the top comments. For the set: one comparison — themes, hooks, formats, claims, objections, gaps — each point with the note numbers and the quotes that show it. The Osaka run above read five notes in 132 seconds; the Kyoto accommodation run read five in 158.
What you do not get
- Not RedNote's own ranking. The search is a web search over public notes, then our read and our ranking; a note that is not indexed on the web is not found.
- Bare links fail. Search results are share links; a note pasted as
/explore/<id>without its token shows "page not found" (why). - No private or deleted notes, and no notes RedNote refuses to serve to a link — those come back as errors, uncharged.
See also: the search API in detail, RedNote analytics for foreign brands, platform notes for Xiaohongshu.