How to analyze Xiaohongshu (RedNote) notes and comments with AI
Xiaohongshu (小红书, also called RedNote) is where many Chinese consumers research products before they buy: reviews, comparisons, "worth it or not" notes and long comment threads. For a brand entering China, it shows how a category is discussed and which competitors come up. For a Chinese brand, it is a direct read on feedback about its own products. This guide shows how to search notes by keyword, pull the comments and have your AI summarise them, in English or Chinese.
Why AI can't do it alone
Xiaohongshu has no open data API; its open platform is for approved merchants and partners. Its website often asks visitors to log in before they can keep browsing, and it limits automated access, so the browsing and search tools built into AI assistants rarely reach notes or comments. Web search outside China indexes little Xiaohongshu content. Without a data connection, ChatGPT and Claude have nothing reliable to analyse.
Do-it-yourself options
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| Option | How it works | Works well for | What you take on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual reading in the app | Search in the Xiaohongshu app, read notes and copy comments into a document | A first look at a category | Needs a Chinese-speaking reader and an account; slow; screenshots and copied text lose likes, dates and links |
| Screenshots plus AI | Take screenshots of notes and comment sections and ask the AI to read them | A handful of notes | Partial comment threads, no counts or links, and hard to repeat |
| Your own scraper | A script or automated browser collects notes and comments | Teams with a developer | Login walls, verification checks and frequent changes; accounts used for scraping risk restrictions |
| Official access | The Xiaohongshu open platform | Approved merchants and partners, for their own business data | Eligibility and approval; not a route for reading public notes and comments in general |
| Local agencies and monitoring services | Agencies or social listening services in China deliver reports or exports | Ongoing, large programs | Contracts, minimum fees and lead time; data arrives as reports rather than in your AI |
If you already work with an agency that gives you clean exports, you can upload those to your AI. The connected route below suits teams that want to ask their own questions, in their own time.
The connect-a-data-source route
Connect your AI to ProLevelMax once and ask in plain words. The data source handles access to Xiaohongshu; you don't need a Xiaohongshu account, and only publicly visible notes and comments are collected. The AI searches notes, pulls comments, translates where needed and writes the analysis in the same conversation.
- Create an account at prolevelmax. com. New users receive $1 in sign-up credit after verifying their email (one per person). No card required.
- Connect your AI.
Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other AI that can run commands: create an API key in the Dashboard under API keys, then send your AI this line together with the key:set up https://prolevelmax.com/SKILL.md
The AI reads the file and completes the setup.
ChatGPT (web): open Plugins, click + → Add custom MCP server, enterhttps://prolevelmax.com/mcp, choose OAuth and create it, then sign in to ProLevelMax and click Allow. In a chat, type @ and pick ProLevelMax. No API key is needed.
Claude.ai or Claude Desktop: Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, then pastehttps://prolevelmax.com/mcpand sign in.
Full steps are in How to give your AI real-time social media data. - Ask in plain words. The AI picks a data source, tells you the price and runs it after you agree. Runs that can cost more than $0.10 always wait for your confirmation.
- Keep or export the results. Each run can be downloaded as CSV, Excel or JSON, and results are kept for 30 days.
Developers can call the same sources from scripts or an n8n HTTP Request node through the REST API. See the docs.
Tip: Chinese keywords give much better results than English ones on Xiaohongshu. If you don't know the right term, ask the AI to suggest a few, or to check Xiaohongshu's search suggestions first.
Prompts to copy
You can write prompts in English and ask for the answer in English.
how a category is discussed
Search Xiaohongshu for 防晒霜 (sunscreen) and 防晒推荐 (sunscreen recommendations), and take the 20 notes with the most likes from the last 3 months.
Read the first 2 pages of comments on each. Summarise in English the main buying criteria, complaints and questions, with counts and translated example comments. Keep the Chinese original in brackets.competitor comparison
Search Xiaohongshu for notes about [Brand A], [Brand B] and [Brand C] in the last 6 months, 10 notes per brand with the most comments.
Pull their comments and make a table: mention count, what people praise, what they complain about, and typical price remarks, with one linked quote per brand.feedback on our own product (for Chinese brands)
搜索小红书上最近 30 天提到"[我们的产品名]"的笔记，取评论最多的 15 篇，读取评论。
按好评、差评、使用问题、购买疑问分组，统计每组数量，每组附两条原文评论和链接。what makes notes perform
Take the 30 most-liked Xiaohongshu notes about 露营装备 (camping gear) this year.
Compare their titles, formats (image or video) and likes, saves and comments, and describe what the top 10 have in common.What it costs in practice
Xiaohongshu sources are billed per call. Note search, note comments, comment replies and note details each cost $0.03 per call, and one call returns one page.
Example: one category scan. Search 3 keywords, 2 pages each, read 2 pages of comments on 20 notes and expand replies under 10 popular comments.
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| Item | Calls | Price | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Note search | 3 keywords × 2 pages = 6 calls | $0.03 per call | $0.18 |
| Note comments | 20 notes × 2 pages = 40 calls | $0.03 per call | $1.20 |
| Comment replies | 10 calls | $0.03 per call | $0.30 |
| Total | 56 calls | $1.68 |
Arithmetic: 56 calls × $0.03 = $1.68 (search 6 × $0.03 = $0.18, comments 40 × $0.03 = $1.20, replies 10 × $0.03 = $0.30). Fetching full details for each note adds $0.03 per note.
Some Xiaohongshu sources are billed per result instead: from $0.015 per result plus $0.001 per run, with a minimum of $0.0452 per run. Creator data from Pugongying, Xiaohongshu's creator marketplace, costs more per call. Live rates are on the pricing page.
Your AI shows the price before every run, and the charge never exceeds the quote. You can set a daily or monthly spending limit for each API key or connected app in the Dashboard. These figures cover data only; your AI plan is separate.
To follow a keyword over time, ask your AI to create a daily or weekly schedule. Schedules run at a set Beijing time, each run is capped at its run limit, and results land in your run history.
Limits
- Public data only. Private accounts, messages and anything that needs someone's login are not collected. Deleted notes and notes the author has made private can't be fetched.
- Platform rules. Use the data in line with Xiaohongshu's terms and the laws that apply to you.
- Privacy. Notes and comments come with public nicknames. Report on themes and quotes rather than profiling individuals, and follow the privacy rules that apply to you, such as China's Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) or GDPR.
- Sampling bias. Search results are ranked by Xiaohongshu, popular notes get most of the comments, and some notes are brand collaborations. Ask the AI to show how the sample was chosen, and read the quotes behind each conclusion.
- Translation. Slang, abbreviations and platform-specific terms can lose meaning in translation. Keep the Chinese original next to each translated quote.
- Counts such as likes, saves and comments are the public numbers at the moment of the request.
Related
- How to get Xiaohongshu (RedNote) notes and comments with AI
- How to get Xiaohongshu, Douyin, Weibo and Bilibili data from outside China
- How to get Douyin videos and comments with AI
- How to get Weibo hot search and posts with AI
FAQ
Can I analyse Xiaohongshu if I don't read Chinese?
Yes. Give the AI a Chinese keyword, or ask it to suggest one, and ask for the summary and translated quotes in English. Keep the original text next to each quote so a Chinese speaker can check it.
Do I need a Xiaohongshu account?
No. You only need a ProLevelMax account. The data source handles access, and only public notes and comments are collected.
Does Xiaohongshu have an official API for this?
Not for general research. Its open platform is for approved merchants and partners. To read public notes and comments, people use third-party data services.
How much does a typical Xiaohongshu analysis cost?
A scan of 20 notes with 2 pages of comments each, plus searches and replies, costs about $1.68, as in the example above. Your AI quotes the price before every run.
New users receive $1 in sign-up credit after verifying their email (one per person). No card required. Pay per use with no subscription. Top up by card (USD) or Alipay (CNY); Enterprise top-ups from $1,000 by bank transfer.
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