developer · Checked at the edge
Is this GitHub username free?
Check any GitHub username against the platform itself, asked from the beat.rip edge. Beat.rip says taken, likely free or exactly why it cannot tell.
Opens Beat.rip with this platform selected; add more there.
- characters
- 1–39
- how it is checked
- Edge
- best free answer
- Likely free
GitHub username rules
- Length
- 1 to 39 characters
- Characters
- Letters, digits and hyphens. Capitals are allowed, and Beat.rip lowercases every name before asking, so it checks the lowercase form.
- Platform rule
- Cannot start or end with a hyphen, no double hyphens.
- Reserved
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Beat.rip checks these rules on your device before any request. A username that breaks them is marked invalid, never available, and no request is sent for it.
How Beat.rip checks GitHub
The beat.rip edge asks api.github.com directly, and nobody in between. REST API users endpoint: 200 with login for a user or organisation, 404 for neither (users and orgs share one namespace). When the API refuses (its 60-an-hour anonymous limit is spent at once from a shared egress address), the github.com profile page’s status: 200 for a user or organisation, 404 for neither (measured 2026-10-29 with torvalds and a random name).
Requests are paced to at most 2 requests at a time, 200 ms apart, identify themselves as beat.rip, and each answer is cached for seconds to minutes, so a busy minute never hammers the platform.
Every result row links to https://github.com/name, with your name in place of “name”, so you can confirm by hand.
What each answer means on GitHub
- Taken
The platform’s own endpoint returned an account for the username.
- Likely free
No account at GitHub’s own endpoint. Likely free, but a name can still be reserved, suspended or held.
- Unknown
The platform refused, rate-limited or answered something unrecognised. The row says which and links to the profile.
- Invalid
The username breaks one of the rules above, so nothing was asked.
Questions about GitHub usernames
How long can a username be on GitHub?
Between 1 and 39 characters.
Which characters can a username use on GitHub?
Only letters, digits and hyphens. Capitals are allowed, and Beat.rip lowercases every name before asking, so it checks the lowercase form. The platform’s own rule: cannot start or end with a hyphen, no double hyphens.
Can Beat.rip tell whether a username is free on GitHub?
It can say “likely free” when GitHub’s own endpoint has no such account. A name can still be reserved, suspended or held, so Beat.rip never calls it available.
Does checking a username on GitHub reserve it?
No. Beat.rip cannot sign up on your behalf; claim the username on GitHub itself. Availability changes by the minute.