Tumblr
Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
Tumblr is a short-blog platform with a shared feed. The unit of content here is not "a post on a profile" but an entry that others pick up by reblogging: a copy goes to someone else's blog, your own text can be added to it there, and the chain lives on without the author's involvement. The terms of service describe this mechanism outright: the platform needs a content licence in part in order to enable reblogging, allowing content to be redistributed from one blog to another with your own text added before or after it.
The platform has changed owners more than once, and the current one is named in the terms themselves: Tumblr, Inc. — a Delaware corporation wholly owned by Automattic Inc.; a separate paragraph there says that "Tumblr is now part of Automattic" and the terms have been updated to reflect that change.
What sets Tumblr apart from most platforms in this guide is the openness of its technical side: the API documentation, the licence agreement for it and the rules sit in a public repository under the Apache 2.0 licence (documentation repository). Everything set out below is taken from there and from the app stores: the tumblr.com site itself is closed to automated reading.
Who's here
Tumblr does not publish audience figures of its own — no MAU or DAU — in the documents we checked. There are only the figures of distribution channels, and each of those belongs to someone else.
Google reports about the Tumblr app: more than 100 million downloads, 3.74 million reviews and an average rating of 3.9; the publisher is Tumblr, Inc.. That is a store counter, not a number of live users. Apple gives for the same app 371 thousand ratings at an average of 4.2, an age rating of 13+, a size of 165.3 MB and support for English and 15 more languages. The app's language list is the only confirmed guide to the platform's languages.
The legal ties to countries are visible in the makeup of the rule translations: the terms are translated into seven European languages, and the privacy policy has a separate version for the European Union (repository files).
Getting started
We cannot give a step-by-step description of registration: the help centre is closed to us by crawling rules. Below is only what is recorded in the open documents.
Age. The terms set three thresholds: the minimum age is 13, 16 for users in the European Union and the United Kingdom, and 18 for certain features.
Blogs. An account and a blog are not the same thing: a user has a primary blog and secondary ones, and their number is capped — no more than 10 new blogs a day.
Your own domain. A blog can be attached to your own domain, but when you register a domain with Tumblr or transfer an existing one you additionally accept the registrar's terms.
There is no separate business account. Neither the terms nor the API documentation describes company verification or a special account type for business: a company works through the same blog as a private person.
What you can publish
The formats are described in the specification of the Neue Post Format: an entry is assembled from blocks — text with formatting and subheadings, images, links, audio, video and embeddable players — and lists support nesting down to the seventh level. The old set of post types — text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio, video, answer — is still supported, and a size limit is named only for the legacy way of uploading photos: an image file no larger than 10 MB.
What is forbidden is listed in the community guidelines. Among other things: terrorism, hate speech, harm to minors, promotion of self-harm, and also spam — "don't add tags that will mislead the searcher, don't overload posts with barely relevant tags, don't embed questionable code in posts such as JavaScript redirects or the insertion of someone else's ads into blogs, don't use deceptive ways of earning revenue and traffic, and don't create blogs whose main purpose is affiliate marketing".
A separate ban covers automation: "Don't register accounts or publish content automatically, systematically or programmatically". It has to be read together with the API licence: the API itself is allowed, and what is forbidden is mass registration and machine publishing that circumvents the rules.
How to grow
What the platform describes itself
Tumblr does not describe the ranking mechanics of the feed in its open documents. The confirmed growth tools are the reblog and tags: the API serves a feed of posts by a specific tag, and the rules require tags to be meaningful (community guidelines).
Paid promotion
The platform's own promotion tool is called Blaze. The terms class it as a paid service: "some services require payment ('paid services', including but not limited to premium themes, Blaze and subscriptions"). The prices are visible in Apple's app listing: among the in-app purchases are Blaze for 9.99 dollars and Blaze for 24.99 dollars. What each package includes and how reach is counted is not visible in open sources.
Advertising
The terms oblige those who publish or buy advertising and sponsored content to comply with the "Global Advertising Policy". The text of that policy itself sits on a domain closed to us.
What is known for certain is how ads may not be shown in third-party applications. The API licence forbids removing or inserting content when displaying someone else's feed, including advertising and sponsored material, changing the order of posts, and styling your own ads so that they are confused with posts.
Path to monetization
Tumblr does not publish payout terms for authors — thresholds, shares, geography — in its open documents. Something else is confirmed: there are paid features the user pays for, and there is a paid subscription to a blog.
Content subscriptions do exist: the API documentation mentions the cancellation of a Post+ subscription as a side effect of blocking a user — that is, a blog can have a paid subscription. That line does not disclose the mechanics or the platform's share.
Subscriptions renew automatically: payment is charged monthly or annually, and cancellation must come no later than 14 days before the end of the period.
The prices of in-app purchases in the Apple app on the date of the check are these: Tumblr Premium — 6.99 dollars and 69.99 dollars, the Supporter Badge — 2.99 dollars a month, the blue checkmark — 7.99 dollars, the rainbow checkmark in TumblrMart — 7.99 dollars, the "moon" badge — 5.99 dollars, gift crabs for the dashboard — 2.99 dollars, 500 Live credits — 4.99 dollars. This is what the user pays the platform. Note the character of the list: a substantial part of the paid features are profile decorations and badges.
The author keeps the rights to their own content: "you retain the intellectual property rights to what you publish on Tumblr", while the platform receives a royalty-free licence, which is what makes reblogging possible.
Tools and automation
The official API
The Tumblr API version 2 is documented publicly. Two authorization schemes are supported — OAuth 1 and OAuth 2, including exchanging an OAuth 1 token for OAuth 2; available are blog details, publishing and editing posts, the queue and drafts, the following feed, likes and the feed by tag.
A useful detail: the /user/limits method returns, for each type of action, the limit, the remainder and the reset time — a service can show a blog owner how many posts they have left for today.
The company maintains the official client libraries itself: JavaScript (tumblr.js), Python (pytumblr), Java (jumblr), PHP (tumblr.php) and Go (tumblr.go); the same place holds XKit-Rewritten, a set of extensions for the new interface (the organization's repositories). For browser extensions there is separate web client documentation: the window.tumblr object, the mapping of internal class names to real ones and access to localization strings (the web platform document).
What the API does not allow
The API licence constrains product ideas more than it seems. You may not recreate the dashboard and full Tumblr clients where the platform already has an official app; promote content inside the Tumblr network, including for money, or build rankings and directories of blogs; syndicate and distribute other people's content; create collections of themes and extensions that bypass the platform; export content into a store that replicates Tumblr's own store; or resell material or open access to it through your own interface — an exception is made only for transferring data at the user's own request. Separately forbidden is using content for surveillance, profiling and manipulation, and targeting people by protected characteristics.
The practical conclusion: a scheduling service for your own blog is possible here, but a "promotion" service, a blog directory or an archive of other people's posts is not.
Limits and rules
The numbers are taken from the official API documentation (the section on limits):
- Request rate: 300 calls per minute, 18,000 per hour and 432,000 per day per IP address; 1000 per hour and 5000 per day per application key. On exceeding them the server answers
429 Limit Exceeded. - Posts: no more than 250 new posts a day per user, reblogs included.
- Media: 250 images a day, 20 videos a day and no more than 60 minutes of video in total; an image file through the legacy method — no larger than 10 MB.
- Actions: 200 follows and 1000 likes a day, 10 new blogs a day.
- Standing ceilings: no more than 5000 blog follows, 1000 posts in the queue and 1000 filtered tags.
Legal and content matters:
- Age — 13, 16 in the European Union and the United Kingdom, 18 for certain features.
- Automated registration and machine publishing are forbidden, as are third-party theme repositories: the rules require themes to be taken only from the platform's own directory, since third-party collections have historically served as a channel for spam and credential theft.
- Law. The counterparty is Tumblr, Inc., a Delaware corporation within Automattic.
- Robot access. The platform's robots file forbids crawling to the ClaudeBot and anthropic-ai robots entirely; the help centre is closed the same way. We observed that ban and did not request
tumblr.compages.
Who it's for
It suits projects with visual and textual content that have a devoted community: the reblog works without an advertising budget and without algorithmic distribution, but without a community it gives nothing either. It suits developers: the documentation, the licence agreement and the rules lie in the open, and official libraries exist for five languages. It suits those who care about keeping the rights to their content: the terms expressly leave intellectual property with the author.
It does not suit you if you are building a promotion service, a blog directory or an archive of other people's posts: the API licence expressly forbids that. It does not suit planning by audience metrics: the platform publishes no reach figures. And it does not suit those who need predictable income from a platform: there are no confirmed payout terms for authors in the open documents.
Tools for this platform
The list is built from the tools' own facts: every line is a tool's statement that it supports the platform, with the source named. A tool missing from the list only means we have no such statement.
Scheduling and publishing:
- ContentStudio — states support; source, checked 2026-07-28
- Onlypult — states support; source, checked 2026-07-28
- Sprout Social — listening; source, checked 2026-07-28
- Vista Social — states support; source, checked 2026-07-28
Automation:
- Latenode — states support; source, checked 2026-07-28
- Pabbly Connect — states support; source, checked 2026-07-28
Social listening:
- Brandwatch — states support; source, checked 2026-07-28
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
the platform describes itself as: “Tumblr is the place you go to be yourself on the internet. No performance, no perfection. Just you, and the people who get it.”
Self-description: this is the platform's claim about itself, not an independent assessment
source, checked 2026-07-28
Tumblr, Inc. — a Delaware corporation wholly owned by Automattic Inc.; the terms state separately that Tumblr is now part of Automattic
From the preamble of the terms of service
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform needs a licence to user content in part for reblogging: redistributing a post from one blog to another with your own text added before or after it
The wording of the terms
source, checked 2026-07-28
Who's here
Google Play: more than 100 million downloads, 3.74 million reviews, an average rating of 3.9; the publisher is Tumblr, Inc.
The numbers belong to Google and do not measure the audience
source, checked 2026-07-28
App Store: 371 thousand ratings at an average of 4.2, an age rating of 13+, a size of 165.3 MB
The numbers belong to Apple
source, checked 2026-07-28
Account and access
the minimum age is 13, 16 for users in the European Union and the United Kingdom, 18 for certain features
The terms call this a hard rule
source, checked 2026-07-28
What you can publish
a post is assembled from blocks of the Neue Post Format (NPF): text with formatting and subheadings, images, links, audio, video, embeddable players; lists support nesting down to the seventh level
The old set of post types is also supported
source, checked 2026-07-28
Content
the rules forbid terrorism, hate speech, harm to minors, promotion of self-harm, spam, deceptive ways of earning revenue and traffic, and blogs whose main purpose is affiliate marketing
The community guidelines
source, checked 2026-07-28
an outright ban: do not register accounts or publish content automatically, systematically or programmatically
To be read together with the API licence: the API itself is allowed
source, checked 2026-07-28
third-party theme repositories are forbidden: the rules require themes to be taken only from the platform's directory, since third-party collections have historically served as a channel for spam and credential theft
The community guidelines
source, checked 2026-07-28
Advertising
the terms oblige those who publish or buy advertising and sponsored content to comply with the Global Advertising Policy
The text of the policy itself sits on a domain closed to us and was not read
source, checked 2026-07-28
How the money works here
Who is admitted. There is currently no program under which Tumblr pays creators: Post+ has been closed ("As of January 2024, Tumblr has removed Post+"), tipping has been closed ("Tipping has shut down as of June 1st, 2024"). Of the paid options, Premium remains ("Anyone with a Tumblr account is eligible for Premium or gifting Premium to others, regardless of where they reside") and Blaze promotion ("To Blaze a post you must be over 18 years old"), but these are payments from the creator, not to the creator
both earning mechanics for creators have been closed by the platform itself
source, checked 2026-08-04
There are no creator payout programs in operation. Closed: Post+ (a subscription to closed posts, removed in January 2024) and Tipping (closed on 1 June 2024). The paid options in operation — Tumblr Premium and Blaze post promotion — take money from the user rather than paying the creator
the platform has no creator program left
source, checked 2026-08-04
Where it is available. There is no list of countries; for Premium it says "regardless of where they reside"
the help centre sets no country restrictions for the paid options in operation, but there is no creator payout program either
source, checked 2026-08-04
the API documentation mentions the cancellation of a Post+ subscription as a side effect of blocking a user — that is, a paid subscription to a blog exists
The platform's share, withdrawal thresholds and payout geography are not visible in open sources
source, checked 2026-07-28
Paid subscriptions
the terms name as paid services premium themes, Blaze and subscriptions; subscriptions renew automatically and must be cancelled no later than 14 days before the end of the period
All prices are given in US dollars
source, checked 2026-07-28
Pricing
in-app purchases in the Apple app: Tumblr Premium 6.99 and 69.99 dollars, Blaze 9.99 and 24.99 dollars, the supporter badge 2.99 dollars a month, the blue checkmark 7.99, the TumblrMart rainbow checkmark 7.99, the moon badge 5.99, gift crabs 2.99, 500 Live credits 4.99
Apple store prices on the date of the check
source, checked 2026-07-28
Limits and restrictions
250 new posts a day per user (reblogs included), 250 images, 20 videos and no more than 60 minutes of video in total, 200 follows, 1000 likes, 10 new blogs
The limits are counted by the calendar day of the platform's servers
source, checked 2026-07-28
a blog can follow no more than 5000 blogs, hold no more than 1000 posts in the queue and filter no more than 1000 tags
Standing ceilings, not daily ones
source, checked 2026-07-28
an image file uploaded through the legacy method — no larger than 10 MB
There is no maximum video size in the open documentation
source, checked 2026-07-28
Restrictions
the robots file expressly forbids crawling to the ClaudeBot and anthropic-ai robots (Disallow: /); the same instruction stands on the subdomains of the platform's help centre and blogs
The ban was observed: not a single tumblr.com page was requested
source, checked 2026-07-28
the help centre help.tumblr.com is closed to ClaudeBot, anthropic-ai and a number of other data collectors
So the platform's step-by-step instructions were not checked
source, checked 2026-07-28
Moderation
«If we conclude that you are violating these guidelines, you may receive a notice via email. If you don't explain or correct your behavior, we may take action against your account» and «we reserve the right to suspend accounts, or remove content, without notice, for any reason» (verbatim). On copyright there is a three-strike system: «we use a three-strike system… each valid copyright infringement notice constitutes a strike, and three strikes results in the termination of a user's account» (verbatim); a valid counter-notification removes a strike.
www.tumblr.com closes ClaudeBot by name (robots), so Tumblr's official policy repository on GitHub was used (the same document); help.tumblr.com is open.
source, checked 2026-08-07
Appeals: removal of content and blocking of an account — through www.tumblr.com/support (for a terminated account, the «Terminated account» category); decisions on reports — the form tumblr.com/abuse with the «Appealing Reports Decisions» category; posts flagged explicit — the «Appeal» button. The deadline for submitting: «You can submit an appeal up to 6 months after our initial moderation decision» (verbatim).
help.tumblr.com (a WordPress.com host) contains no prohibitions in robots.txt.
source, checked 2026-08-07
No specific period is named: «it will be reviewed (by humans!) without undue delay and you will be notified of our final decision» (verbatim) — review by humans «without undue delay».
There is no numeric period.
source, checked 2026-08-07
Legal
the author keeps the intellectual property rights to what is published; the platform receives a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence with the right to sublicense
Limited to the tasks of operating the service
source, checked 2026-07-28
API access
300 calls per minute, 18,000 per hour and 432,000 per day per IP address; 1000 per hour and 5000 per day per application key; on exceeding them the server answers 429 Limit Exceeded
The documentation repository was last updated on 18 October 2024
source, checked 2026-07-28
OAuth 1 and OAuth 2 are supported, including exchanging an OAuth 1 token for OAuth 2
The application key is registered by the developer themselves
source, checked 2026-07-28
the /v2/user/limits method returns, for each type of action, the limit, the remainder and the reset time
It lets a service show a blog owner how many posts they have left
source, checked 2026-07-28
the licence forbids recreating the dashboard where an official app exists; promoting content inside the network, including for money; building rankings and directories of blogs; syndicating other people's content; creating theme collections that bypass the platform; replicating the store and reselling material
An exception is made for transferring data at the user's own request
source, checked 2026-07-28
it is forbidden to remove or insert content when displaying someone else's feed, including advertising, to change the order of posts and to style your own ads to look like the platform's posts
Advertising must be clearly separated from content
source, checked 2026-07-28
it is forbidden to use content for surveillance, profiling and manipulation, and to target people by protected characteristics
A separate clause of the licence
source, checked 2026-07-28
official client libraries: tumblr.js (JavaScript), pytumblr (Python), jumblr (Java), tumblr.php (PHP), tumblr.go (Go); the same place holds XKit-Rewritten, a set of extensions for the new interface
The repositories of the tumblr organization on GitHub
source, checked 2026-07-28
separate web client documentation describes the window.tumblr object, the mapping of internal class names to real ones and access to localization strings
It is intended for browser extensions
source, checked 2026-07-28
the repository of the official API documentation was last updated on 18 October 2024; the repository licence is Apache-2.0
Limits and methods could have changed without the repository being edited
source, checked 2026-07-28
Languages
the interface language of the home page: en-US
The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang
source, checked 2026-07-28
the Apple app listing declares English and 15 more languages
The only confirmed guide to the platform's languages
source, checked 2026-07-28
the terms of service are translated into German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish and Portuguese; the privacy policy has a separate version for the European Union
By the makeup of the files in the official policy repository
source, checked 2026-07-28
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