Sherlock Username Scraper — OSINT Account Search

What does Sherlock Username Scraper do?

Sherlock Username Scraper delivers the Sherlock workflow with a confidence score on every hit. It helps you find and verify whether a username exists across hundreds of social media networks, forums, and websites in a single run, taking one or more handles and returning, for every site, whether the account is present, the profile URL (github.com/

How to use this actor

• 👉 Register for a free Apify account — no credit card required.
• 🎉 Just click Sign up free on Apify → and complete a quick signup.
• 💰 A free Apify account includes $5 in monthly credits — enough to test this actor.
• ⏳ Scrape during the free trial, with no commitment or upfront payment required.

Key features

• 🎯 The Sherlock sweep, with every match scored — get the Sherlock workflow with a confidence score on every hit. Each profile match is scored from 0 to 1, so you can tell a solid hit from a maybe at a glance. The score is deterministic — the same handle on the same site scores the same on every run — and it rides along on each record, so you can filter or triage on it downstream. Matches that fail verification still reach your dataset if you want them, but they are never billed. Set minConfidence to 0.7 to keep only the strongest.
• 🗂️ Per-username exposure dossier — alongside the per-site matches, each username gets a dossier: an exposure score, the categories of sites where the handle appears, and any surfaced identity signals — a ready-made summary for investigators, analysts, and trust-and-safety teams.
• 🌐 Hundreds of sites in one run — check a username across a large catalog of sites in a single run, or narrow the search with sites, tags, excludeTags, and topSites to target only the platforms you care about.
• 🧹 Empty-field stripping — drop null, empty-string, and empty-array fields from each record before push. Smaller payloads for AI agents and dashboards that already handle missing fields gracefully.
• 📤 Export anywhere — Download the dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the Apify Console, or stream live via the Apify API and integrations (Make, Zapier, Google Sheets, n8n, …).

What data can you extract from hundreds of sites?

Each result includes Core profile fields (recordType, username, siteName, profileUrl, siteMainUrl, status, httpStatus, and rank, and more). All fields are always present — unavailable data points are returned as null, never omitted.

Input

Configure the actor through the input schema in Apify Console.

Key parameters:

• usernames — One or more usernames to search for across sites.
• topSites — How many of the most popular sites to check per username. Lower is faster and cheaper. (default: 500)
• sites — Restrict the search to specific site names (leave empty to search all). Case-insensitive.
• tags — Only check sites tagged with these categories (e.g. coding, gaming, music).
• excludeTags — Skip sites tagged with these categories.
• minConfidence — Only return matches at or above this confidence score (0–1). Higher values return fewer, more certain matches. Leave at 0 to see everything. (default: 0)
• extractData — Pull profile details (display name, bio, location, avatar, linked accounts) from each match when available. (default: true)
• includeNotFound — Also emit sites that were checked but where the username was not found. (default: false)
• excludeEmptyFields — Drop null, empty-string, and empty-array fields from each output record instead of including them. (default: false)
• timeout — How long to wait for each site before giving up. (default: 30)
• maxConnections — Maximum number of sites checked at the same time. Higher is faster but may increase the chance of being rate-limited. (default: 50)

Input examples

Find a username everywhere — Check one handle across the full site catalog.

→ One profile record per site where the handle exists — each with a confidence score and profile URL — plus a single exposure dossier for the username.

{
  "usernames": [
    "johnsmith"
  ]
}

High-confidence matches only — Check several handles but keep only strongly verified hits on the most popular sites.

→ Profile records scoring at or above your confidence threshold, limited to the top sites, with public profile details attached.

{
  "usernames": [
    "johnsmith",
    "j.smith"
  ],
  "topSites": 100,
  "minConfidence": 0.8,
  "extractData": true
}

Output

Each run produces a dataset of structured profile records. Results can be downloaded as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the Dataset tab in Apify Console.

Example profile record

{
  "recordType": "profile",
  "username": "torvalds",
  "siteName": "Wikipedia",
  "profileUrl": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:torvalds",
  "siteMainUrl": "https://en.wikipedia.org/",
  "status": "found",
  "httpStatus": 200,
  "rank": 15,
  "tags": [
    "wiki"
  ],
  "confidence": 1,
  "verifiedBy": [
    "engine-a",
    "engine-b"
  ],
  "detectionMethod": "message",
  "extractedIds": {
    "uid": "6325744",
    "username": "Torvalds"
  },
  "foundAt": "2026-07-13T15:55:38.998Z"
}

How to scrape hundreds of sites

1. Go to Sherlock Username Scraper in Apify Console.
2. Configure the input.
3. Set topSites to control how many results you need.
4. Click Start and wait for the run to finish.
5. Export the dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Use cases

• Get the Sherlock-style username sweep, with a confidence score on every hit and weak matches never billed.
• Investigate a person of interest across social networks, forums, and niche communities from a single handle.
• Vet a username during fraud, trust-and-safety, or due-diligence checks and gauge its exposure at a glance.
• Map a subject's linked accounts and public identity signals for OSINT research and reporting.
• Monitor your own or a client's handle to see where it is present and reduce digital footprint.

How much does it cost to scrape hundreds of sites?

Sherlock Username Scraper uses pay-per-event pricing. You pay a small fee when the run starts and then for each result that is actually produced.

• Run start: $0.00005 per run
• Per result: $0.015 per profile record

Example costs:

• 10 results: $0.15
• 25 results: $0.38
• 100 results: $1.5
• 200 results: $3
• 500 results: $7.5

FAQ

How many results can I get from hundreds of sites?

The number of results depends on the search query and available profiles on hundreds of sites. Use the topSites parameter to control how many results are returned per run.

Can I integrate Sherlock Username Scraper with other apps?

Yes. Sherlock Username Scraper works with Apify's integrations to connect with tools like Zapier, Make, Google Sheets, Slack, and more. You can also use webhooks to trigger actions when a run completes.

Can I use Sherlock Username Scraper with the Apify API?

Yes. You can start runs, manage inputs, and retrieve results programmatically through the Apify API. Client libraries are available for JavaScript, Python, and other languages.

Can I use Sherlock Username Scraper through an MCP Server?

Yes. Apify provides an MCP Server that lets AI assistants and agents call this actor directly. Use excludeEmptyFields to keep payloads manageable for LLM context windows.

Is it legal to scrape hundreds of sites?

This actor extracts publicly available data from hundreds of sites. Web scraping of public information is generally considered legal, but you should always review the target site's terms of service and ensure your use case complies with applicable laws and regulations, including GDPR where relevant.

Your feedback

If you have questions, need a feature, or found a bug, please open an issue on the actor's page in Apify Console. Your feedback helps us improve.

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Getting started with Apify

New to Apify? Create a free account with $5 credit — no credit card required.

1. Sign up — $5 platform credit included
2. Open this actor and configure your input
3. Click Start — export results as JSON, CSV, or Excel

Need more later? See Apify pricing.

Disclaimer

Unofficial — not affiliated with the Sherlock project. "Sherlock" is used descriptively to indicate this actor performs a similar username-presence sweep; all detection and verification logic in this actor is our own.