How to Scrape Xiaohongshu (RedNote) Live Streams, 1080p Video & KOL Leads in 2026

• Xiaohongshu (小红书 / RedNote) has evolved far beyond static photo carousels. In 2026, Xiaohongshu Live Commerce (live-room.xiaohongshu.com) and creator-led boutique shopping drive some of the highest average order values (AOV) and conversion rates in Asian e-commerce—outperforming traditional marketplace livestreams for luxury beauty, designer apparel, niche fragrances, and lifestyle home goods.

For global brands, MCN talent agencies, AI video analytics startups, and consumer research teams, capturing real-time Xiaohongshu live stream intelligence and KOL leads unlocks three high-ROI workflows:

• Live Commerce Benchmarking: Track which broadcasters are actively selling products (hasGoods: true), monitor concurrent viewer counts (viewersConcurrent), and capture real-time shopper questions (liveChatMessages).
• Automated KOL & Host Discovery: Discover rising creators across 13 lifestyle channels and 7 live categories (creatorLeads), enriched with exact follower counts, total likes & collects (totalLikesAndCollects), and verification badges (Pro Creator vs. Official Brand).
• Multimodal AI & ASR Video Pipelines: Stream real-time 1080p .flv and .m3u8 (HLS) broadcast feeds directly into Whisper ASR or Vision-Language Models (VLMs) to transcribe live sales pitches and detect featured SKUs.

What Data Can You Extract from Xiaohongshu Live Streams & KOLs?#

Quickstart: Scraping Xiaohongshu Live Streams & 1080p HLS/FLV Links in Python#

With the UnitBytes Xiaohongshu Live Stream & Commerce Scraper (or the unified RedNote All-in-One Scraper), you can extract active live rooms across all 7 categories with zero login cookies and zero upfront start fees ($0.00001):

import pandas as pd
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")

# Discover active Talent & Beauty ("2") and Lifestyle ("3") live streams with e-commerce chat
run_input = {
    "mode": "live",
    "liveCategories": ["2", "3"],
    "maxItems": 54,
    "includeLiveChat": True,
    "includeAuthorProfile": True
}

run = client.actor("unitbytes/xiaohongshu-rednote-live-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)
items = list(client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items())

# Filter for active e-commerce shopping broadcasts
shopping_rooms = [r for r in items if r.get("hasGoods")]
print(f"Discovered {len(items)} live streams ({len(shopping_rooms)} with active e-commerce carts)")

df = pd.DataFrame(items)
df.to_csv("xiaohongshu_live_commerce.csv", index=False, encoding="utf-8-sig")

Sample Live Stream Output JSON

{
  "itemType": "live_stream",
  "id": "570506035494964925",
  "roomId": "570506035494964925",
  "roomTitle": "秋冬高智感羊绒大衣专场｜显瘦穿搭实测",
  "url": "https://www.xiaohongshu.com/hina/livestream/570506035494964925",
  "liveStatus": "live",
  "hasGoods": true,
  "viewersTotalUv": 18420,
  "viewersConcurrent": 642,
  "roomPv": 24910,
  "hotValue": 51200,
  "streamInfo": {
    "flvUrl": "http://live-source-play.xhscdn.com/live/570506035494964925.flv",
    "hlsUrl": "http://live-source-play.xhscdn.com/live/570506035494964925.m3u8",
    "resolution": "1080x1920"
  },
  "buyerIntentKeywords": ["160能穿吗", "什么材质", "怎么洗"],
  "author": {
    "id": "63059b83000000000f005929",
    "nickname": "林设计师穿搭",
    "followerCount": 142000,
    "verification": {
      "badge": "Pro Creator",
      "isVerified": true,
      "desc": "时尚博主"
    }
  }
}

Automated KOL & Influencer Lead Discovery (creatorLeads)#

Instead of manually hunting for profile URLs, use Xiaohongshu Creator & KOL Leads Scraper in creatorLeads mode to automatically sweep trending lifestyle channels (homefeed.fashion_v3, homefeed.cosmetics_v3, homefeed.food_v3) and active live broadcasts, deduplicate creator IDs, and enrich their full profiles starting at $0.0035 / profile:

run_input = {
    "mode": "creatorLeads",
    "channels": ["homefeed.cosmetics_v3", "homefeed.fashion_v3"],
    "includeLiveHosts": True,
    "maxCreators": 50,
    "scrapePortfolio": True,
    "maxNotesPerCreator": 10
}

run = client.actor("unitbytes/xiaohongshu-rednote-profile-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)
kol_items = list(client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items())

Important Best Practice: How xsec_token Works on Direct Note URLs#

If your pipeline scrapes specific individual Xiaohongshu post URLs (mode: "notes" or mode: "comments"), keep this platform security rule in mind:

1. Always Include ?xsec_token=... or Use xhslink.com Share Links: Xiaohongshu binds a cryptographic ?xsec_token=... query parameter to every note link generated by its web feed or mobile app share button. Bare URLs formatted as https://www.xiaohongshu.com/explore/<24-hex-id> without xsec_token are blocked upstream by Xiaohongshu's gateway (code: 300031).
2. How to Obtain Valid Note URLs Automatically: Run mode: "trending" on Xiaohongshu Trend Scraper first—every discovered note in the dataset includes its complete, valid ?xsec_token=... URL ready for deep detail or comment extraction.
3. Creator Profile URLs Do Not Require xsec_token: Direct creator URLs (https://www.xiaohongshu.com/user/profile/<24-hex-user-id>) work out of the box without any token parameter in mode: "creators".