Search one username across 3000+ sites with an API call (Maigret, hosted)

Checking a username across thousands of sites usually means running Maigret locally: install it, let it walk the site list, then clean up the console output. I wrapped the open-source Maigret engine (MIT) as an Apify Actor so the same search runs as an API call and comes back as structured rows.

What you send

The input is small. The fields you will actually touch:

• usernames: an array, so a whole investigation list goes in one run
• topSites: limit the search to the top N sites (0 means all 3000+, which is slower)
• tags / excludeTags: e.g. coding,video to stay on developer and video sites
• sites: a fixed list like GitHub,Twitter,Instagram when you only care about a few
• noRecursion: skip the follow-up search on extra usernames Maigret discovers

{
  "usernames": ["some_handle", "another_handle"],
  "topSites": 500,
  "tags": "coding,social"
}

What comes back

One row per site where the handle is registered, each with the site name, a direct profile URL and the status.

By default the rows hold account-existence evidence only. Turn on extractProfileFields if you also need public profile fields such as name, bio or location. printNotFound adds the misses too, which helps when you have to show what was checked.

Because it is a dataset, you can pull it as JSON or CSV from the API and filter in code instead of grepping a console dump.

Why 3000+ sites matter

Most handle checkers cover a few hundred popular sites. The value of a bigger list is the long tail: forums, gaming, dating and developer sites where people reuse a handle and forget about it. That is where impersonation and fraud checks usually find the extra account.

Where it fits

• brand-handle checks before you name a product
• due diligence on a counterparty's public handle
• the first pass of an OSINT workflow before manual review

Use it only for public profile lookups on subjects you have a legitimate reason to check, and follow the laws that apply to you.

The Actor: Maigret username search on Apify. I build these Actors at Ntriq (Korea). If you want an output field added, say so in the comments.