How to Find Someone on X (Twitter)

To find someone on X, type their name into the search bar, press Enter, and open the People tab, which lists matching accounts. If the name is common, add details you know, such as their company or city, or look through the followers of a friend or organisation they’re connected to.

This guide covers 6 ways to find a person’s account, from a plain name search to checking mutual connections. Once you’ve found the account, searching their posts is covered in how to search tweets from a specific user. Every operator this guide uses is listed in the Twitter advanced search operators reference.

How Do You Search for a Person on X?

You search for a person on X by entering their name or a guess at their handle in the search bar and switching to the People tab. Listed below are the 4 steps.

1. Log in to x.com or the X app (X Help Center).
2. Type the person’s full name, or a handle you think they use.
3. Press Enter.
4. Open the People tab to see accounts instead of posts.

Check the profile photo, bio, location and joined date to confirm it’s the right person; display names are not unique on X, while handles are.

6 Ways to Find Someone on X

When a name search doesn’t find the account, these 6 methods narrow it down. Listed below are the methods, simplest first.

1. Search the name in quotes to keep first and last name together: "Jane Smith".
2. Guess the handle: try x.com/janesmith, x.com/jane_smith or the handle they use on other sites.
3. Search posts that mention them: "Jane Smith" (company OR city) in the Latest tab often surfaces posts that tag the account.
4. Check mutual connections: open the followers or following list of their employer, school or a friend.
5. Look on their other profiles: personal websites, LinkedIn and GitHub often link to an X account.
6. Search the web: site:x.com "Jane Smith" in a search engine finds indexed profiles.

Mention searches like method 3 are covered in how to search tweets mentioning a user.

How Do You Find Someone by Their Posts?

If you remember something the person posted, search the words in quotes; the author’s handle appears on each result. "exact words they used" since:2024-01-01 narrows it to a period. The method is in how to search tweets by exact phrase.

Why Can’t You Find Someone on X?

You can’t find someone on X when they use a different name, their account is suspended or deactivated, or they changed their handle. A protected account still appears in People search, but its posts are hidden unless they approve you. If you find the account but can’t follow or reply to it, see who blocked me on Twitter.

How to Search Many Profiles With apidojo

X’s People tab shows a short list on screen; apidojo’s Twitter User Scraper on Apify returns matching profiles as data, with bio, location, follower counts and verification, so you can filter them in a spreadsheet. The actor accepts search terms and X search URLs as input (Apify).

{
  "searchTerms": ["Jane Smith"]
}

The pay-per-result listing charges $0.30 per 1,000 users (Apify). See the apidojo Twitter Scraper.