REST API endpoints for followers

Use the REST API to get information about followers of authenticated users.

About follower administration

If a request URL does not include a {username} parameter then the response will be for the signed-in user (and you must pass authentication information with your request). Additional private information, such as whether a user has two-factor authentication enabled, is included when authenticated through OAuth with the user scope.

Note

Most endpoints use Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN> and Accept: application/vnd.github+json headers, plus X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2026-03-10. Curl examples below omit these standard headers for brevity.

List followers of the authenticated user

GET /user/followers

Lists the people following the authenticated user.

Parameters

Headers

accept (string)
Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

Path and query parameters

per_page (integer)
The number of results per page (max 100). For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API."
Default: 30
page (integer)
The page number of the results to fetch. For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API."
Default: 1

HTTP response status codes

200 - OK
304 - Not modified
401 - Requires authentication
403 - Forbidden

Code examples

Example

Request:

curl -L \
  -X GET \
  https://api.github.com/user/followers

Response schema (Status: 200):

Array of Simple User:

name: string or null
email: string or null
login: required, string
id: required, integer, format: int64
node_id: required, string
avatar_url: required, string, format: uri
gravatar_id: required, string or null
url: required, string, format: uri
html_url: required, string, format: uri
followers_url: required, string, format: uri
following_url: required, string
gists_url: required, string
starred_url: required, string
subscriptions_url: required, string, format: uri
organizations_url: required, string, format: uri
repos_url: required, string, format: uri
events_url: required, string
received_events_url: required, string, format: uri
type: required, string
site_admin: required, boolean
starred_at: string
user_view_type: string

List the people the authenticated user follows

GET /user/following

Lists the people who the authenticated user follows.

Parameters

Headers

accept (string)
Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

Path and query parameters

per_page (integer)
The number of results per page (max 100). For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API."
Default: 30
page (integer)
The page number of the results to fetch. For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API."
Default: 1

HTTP response status codes

200 - OK
304 - Not modified
401 - Requires authentication
403 - Forbidden

Code examples

Example

Request:

curl -L \
  -X GET \
  https://api.github.com/user/following

Response schema (Status: 200):

Same response schema as List followers of the authenticated user.

Check if a person is followed by the authenticated user

GET /user/following/{username}

Parameters

Headers

accept (string)
Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

Path and query parameters

username (string) (required)
The handle for the GitHub user account.

HTTP response status codes

204 - if the person is followed by the authenticated user
304 - Not modified
401 - Requires authentication
403 - Forbidden
404 - if the person is not followed by the authenticated user

Code examples

Example

Request:

curl -L \
  -X GET \
  https://api.github.com/user/following/USERNAME

Response schema (Status: 204):

Follow a user

PUT /user/following/{username}

Note that you'll need to set Content-Length to zero when calling out to this endpoint. For more information, see "HTTP verbs."
OAuth app tokens and personal access tokens (classic) need the user:follow scope to use this endpoint.

Parameters

Headers

accept (string)
Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

Path and query parameters

username (string) (required)
The handle for the GitHub user account.

HTTP response status codes

204 - No Content
304 - Not modified
401 - Requires authentication
403 - Forbidden
404 - Resource not found
422 - Validation failed, or the endpoint has been spammed.

Code examples

Example

Request:

curl -L \
  -X PUT \
  https://api.github.com/user/following/USERNAME

Response schema (Status: 204):

Unfollow a user

DELETE /user/following/{username}

OAuth app tokens and personal access tokens (classic) need the user:follow scope to use this endpoint.

Parameters

Headers

accept (string)
Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

Path and query parameters

username (string) (required)
The handle for the GitHub user account.

HTTP response status codes

204 - No Content
304 - Not modified
401 - Requires authentication
403 - Forbidden
404 - Resource not found

Code examples

Example

Request:

curl -L \
  -X DELETE \
  https://api.github.com/user/following/USERNAME

Response schema (Status: 204):

List followers of a user

GET /users/{username}/followers

Lists the people following the specified user.
If the specified user has a private profile, this endpoint returns an empty list unless the request is authenticated as that user. A request authenticated as the specified user returns the list even if the token has no OAuth scopes.

Parameters

Headers

accept (string)
Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

Path and query parameters

username (string) (required)
The handle for the GitHub user account.
per_page (integer)
The number of results per page (max 100). For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API."
Default: 30
page (integer)
The page number of the results to fetch. For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API."
Default: 1

HTTP response status codes

200 - OK

Code examples

Example

Request:

curl -L \
  -X GET \
  https://api.github.com/users/USERNAME/followers

Response schema (Status: 200):

Same response schema as List followers of the authenticated user.

List the people a user follows

GET /users/{username}/following

Lists the people who the specified user follows.
If the specified user has a private profile, this endpoint returns an empty list unless the request is authenticated as that user. A request authenticated as the specified user returns the list even if the token has no OAuth scopes.

Parameters

Headers

accept (string)
Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

Path and query parameters

username (string) (required)
The handle for the GitHub user account.
per_page (integer)
The number of results per page (max 100). For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API."
Default: 30
page (integer)
The page number of the results to fetch. For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API."
Default: 1

HTTP response status codes

200 - OK

Code examples

Example

Request:

curl -L \
  -X GET \
  https://api.github.com/users/USERNAME/following

Response schema (Status: 200):

Same response schema as List followers of the authenticated user.

Check if a user follows another user

GET /users/{username}/following/{target_user}

Parameters

Headers

accept (string)
Setting to application/vnd.github+json is recommended.

Path and query parameters

username (string) (required)
The handle for the GitHub user account.
target_user (string) (required)

HTTP response status codes

204 - if the user follows the target user
404 - if the user does not follow the target user

Code examples

Example

Request:

curl -L \
  -X GET \
  https://api.github.com/users/USERNAME/following/TARGET_USER

Response schema (Status: 204):