# Username Checker & Verified Profile Finder (`toninovo/verified-username-footprint`) Actor

Username search and OSINT social profile finder for AI agents. Check public accounts across hundreds of sites and return high-confidence verified profile URLs with weaker matches separated.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/toninovo/verified-username-footprint.md
- **Developed by:** [ToniNovo Labs](https://apify.com/toninovo) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Developer tools, Agents
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 1 monthly users, 94.1% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $10.00 / 1,000 username checkeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Username Checker & Verified Profile Finder

Search a username across hundreds of public sites and return confidence-filtered profile URLs. Built as a username checker, OSINT username search, social profile finder, and account-discovery API for AI agents.

Built for AI agents, OSINT workflows, trust & safety tooling, account discovery, brand monitoring, and username research.

### What this Actor does

Give the Actor one or more usernames. It checks public websites using Maigret and returns structured JSON with confidence levels.

Unlike basic username-search wrappers, this Actor does not treat every HTTP hit as equally trustworthy. Search pages, generic pages, HTTP errors, and weaker detection methods are downgraded instead of being presented as verified profiles.

### Key features

- Agent-friendly structured JSON
- Fast mode: checks the top 200 sites
- Deep mode: checks the top 500 sites
- High / medium / weak confidence classification
- Strict mode for high-confidence results only
- No paid upstream API dependency
- Pay-per-event pricing
- Works well from API, automations, and AI agent workflows

### Input

```json
{
  "usernames": ["openai"],
  "mode": "fast",
  "strict": true,
  "timeoutSeconds": 5
}
```

#### Input fields

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `usernames` | array | 1-20 usernames to search |
| `mode` | string | `fast` checks top 200 sites, `deep` checks top 500 |
| `strict` | boolean | When true, `profiles` contains only high-confidence matches |
| `timeoutSeconds` | integer | Per-site network timeout, 3-15 seconds |

### Output

Each username produces one dataset item.

```json
{
  "username": "openai",
  "ok": true,
  "mode": "fast",
  "sitesChecked": 200,
  "elapsedSeconds": 12.1,
  "verifiedProfileCount": 17,
  "highConfidenceCount": 17,
  "mediumCandidateCount": 56,
  "weakSignalCount": 29,
  "profiles": [
    {
      "site": "YouTube",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@openai/about",
      "confidence": "high",
      "checkType": "message",
      "httpStatus": 200,
      "tags": ["social", "streaming", "video"]
    }
  ]
}
```

### Confidence model

`high` means the site returned a direct-profile-style URL and Maigret detected explicit presence/absence markers with no known protection signal.

`medium` means the profile is a plausible candidate but the evidence is weaker. Medium candidates are not billed as verified profiles.

`weak` includes HTTP-only signals, search/filter pages, generic roots, HTTP errors, and other low-confidence detections.

Confidence refers to technical evidence that a public username profile exists. It does **not** prove that accounts using the same username belong to the same real-world person.

### Pricing

This Actor uses Pay Per Event pricing.

- **Username Checked:** $0.01 per successfully completed username search
- **Verified Profile Found:** $0.012 per high-confidence profile returned
- **Actor Start:** $0.00005 per run
- Platform usage is included for the customer

Failed username searches are not charged by the custom username/profile events.

### Good use cases

- Username search API
- Public social profile finder
- OSINT enrichment
- Account discovery for AI agents
- Brand or handle monitoring
- Trust & safety research
- Investigating public username reuse
- Building MCP / agent workflows that need structured profile evidence

### Important limitations

This Actor searches public information only. A matching username across multiple websites does not establish common ownership or identity. Results may change as websites change their HTML, anti-bot systems, APIs, or profile rules.

Do not use the output as proof that multiple profiles belong to the same person. Treat results as public username-presence evidence and candidate profiles that may require independent verification.

### Responsible use

Use this Actor only for lawful purposes involving public information. Do not use it to harass, stalk, doxx, impersonate, or target individuals.

### Technology and license

The search engine is based on Maigret 0.6.6, which is MIT licensed. This Actor adds filtering, confidence classification, billing logic, Apify packaging, and agent-oriented structured output.

# Actor input Schema

## `usernames` (type: `array`):

Public usernames to search. Up to 20 per run.

## `mode` (type: `string`):

Fast checks the top 200 sites. Deep checks the top 500 sites.

## `strict` (type: `boolean`):

When enabled, return only high-confidence matches in profiles. Weak and medium signals remain summarized in counts.

## `timeoutSeconds` (type: `integer`):

Network timeout used by Maigret for individual site checks.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "usernames": [
    "openai"
  ],
  "mode": "fast",
  "strict": true,
  "timeoutSeconds": 5
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Structured results for each searched username, including confidence-filtered public profile candidates.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("toninovo/verified-username-footprint").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("toninovo/verified-username-footprint").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call toninovo/verified-username-footprint --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,toninovo/verified-username-footprint"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/ljSQphpF4roC2L1cb/builds/6yk4yjQJmT64hJnsH/openapi.json