curl -X GET 'https://api.github.com/search/users?q=example-q&sort=followers&order=desc&per_page=30&page=1' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  -H 'Accept: application/vnd.github+json' \
  -H 'X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2026-03-10'

# GET /search/users (GitHub API)
Base URL: https://api.github.com
Auth: Authorization; GitHub token; required.
Last verified: 2026-10-20

> Search users

## Critical Gotchas
* GitHub recommends an `Accept: application/vnd.github+json` header and an explicit `X-GitHub-Api-Version` header.
* Fine-grained tokens only authorize repositories and permissions selected when the token is created.

## cURL
curl -X GET 'https://api.github.com/search/users?q=example-q&sort=followers&order=desc&per_page=30&page=1' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  -H 'Accept: application/vnd.github+json' \
  -H 'X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2026-03-10'

## Parameters
| Name | In | Type | Required | Description |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| q | query | string | Yes | The query contains one or more search keywords and qualifiers. Qualifiers all... |
| sort | query | string | No | Sorts the results of your query by number of `followers` or `repositories`, o... |
| order | query | string | No | Determines whether the first search result returned is the highest number of... |
| per_page | query | integer | No | The number of results per page (max 100). For more information, see "[Using p... |
| page | query | integer | No | The page number of the results to fetch. For more information, see "[Using pa... |

## Response example
{"total_count":0,"incomplete_results":true}

---
Need an API key? Get one at https://github.com/settings/tokens

GET

GET /search/users — GitHub API

GitHub token (required); https://api.github.com

GitHub API

Search users

Base URL: https://api.github.com
Auth: Authorization: Bearer <GITHUB_API_KEY>
Last verified: 2026-10-20 · upstream hash matched

Actions Try in browser→

Agents: curl -H "Accept: text/markdown" this URL
→ 285 tokens · Vary: Accept

Critical gotchas

GitHub recommends an Accept: application/vnd.github+json header and an explicit X-GitHub-Api-Version header.

Fine-grained tokens only authorize repositories and permissions selected when the token is created.

cURL

curl -X GET 'https://api.github.com/search/users?q=example-q&sort=followers&order=desc&per_page=30&page=1' \  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GITHUB_TOKEN" \  -H 'Accept: application/vnd.github+json' \  -H 'X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2026-03-10'

Parameters

Name	In	Type	Required	Description
q	query	string	Yes	The query contains one or more search keywords and qualifiers. Qualifiers allow you to limit your search to specific areas of GitHub. The REST API supports the same qualifiers as the web interface for GitHub. To learn more about the format of the query, see [Constructing a search query](https://docs.github.com/rest/search/search#constructing-a-search-query). See "[Searching users](https://docs.github.com/search-github/searching-on-github/searching-users)" for a detailed list of qualifiers.
sort	query	string	No	Sorts the results of your query by number of `followers` or `repositories`, or when the person `joined` GitHub. Default: [best match](https://docs.github.com/rest/search/search#ranking-search-results)
order	query	string	No	Determines whether the first search result returned is the highest number of matches (`desc`) or lowest number of matches (`asc`). This parameter is ignored unless you provide `sort`.
per_page	query	integer	No	The number of results per page (max 100). For more information, see "[Using pagination in the REST API](https://docs.github.com/rest/using-the-rest-api/using-pagination-in-the-rest-api)."
page	query	integer	No	The page number of the results to fetch. For more information, see "[Using pagination in the REST API](https://docs.github.com/rest/using-the-rest-api/using-pagination-in-the-rest-api)."

Response 200 OK

{
  "total_count": 0,
  "incomplete_results": true,
  "items": [
    {
      "login": "string",
      "id": 0,
      "node_id": "string",
      "avatar_url": "https://example.com",
      "gravatar_id": "string",
      "url": "https://example.com",
      "html_url": "https://example.com",
      "followers_url": "https://example.com",
      "subscriptions_url": "https://example.com",
      "organizations_url": "https://example.com",
      "repos_url": "https://example.com",
      "received_events_url": "https://example.com",
      "type": "string",
      "score": 0,
      "following_url": "string",
      "gists_url": "string",
      "starred_url": "string",
      "events_url": "string",
      "public_repos": 0,
      "public_gists": 0,
      "followers": 0,
      "following": 0,
      "created_at": "2026-09-03T00:00:00Z",
      "updated_at": "2026-09-03T00:00:00Z",
      "name": "string",
      "bio": "string",
      "email": "string",
      "location": "string",
      "site_admin": true,
      "hireable": true,
      "text_matches": [
        {
          "object_url": "string",
          "object_type": "string",
          "property": "string",
          "fragment": "string",
          "matches": [
            "[recursive or deeply nested schema]"
          ]
        }
      ],
      "blog": "string",
      "company": "string",
      "suspended_at": "2026-09-03T00:00:00Z",
      "user_view_type": "string"
    }
  ]
}

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