Overview
The user command fetches and displays a Twitter userβs profile information, including their bio, follower counts, verification status, and account statistics.
twitter user SCREEN_NAME [OPTIONS]
Arguments
The Twitter username (handle) to look up. You can include or omit the @ symbol. Examples: elonmusk, @elonmusk
Options
Output the user profile as JSON instead of formatted display.
Examples
Basic usage
JSON output
Parse with jq
# View a user's profile
twitter user elonmusk
twitter user @elonmusk
The command displays comprehensive profile information:
Display name and username
Bio/description
Location and website
Join date
Follower and following counts
Tweet count
Verification status
Profile and banner images
Example Output
π Getting Twitter cookies...
π€ Fetching user @elonmusk...
ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ
β Elon Musk β
β @elonmusk β
β β Verified β
β βββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ£
β CEO of Tesla and SpaceX β
β β
β π Texas β
β π tesla.com β
β π
Joined June 2009 β
β βββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ£
β π₯ Followers: 169.2M β
β π€ Following: 523 β
β π Tweets: 38.4K β
ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ
JSON Output Structure
{
"id" : "44196397" ,
"screen_name" : "elonmusk" ,
"name" : "Elon Musk" ,
"description" : "CEO of Tesla and SpaceX" ,
"location" : "Texas" ,
"url" : "https://tesla.com" ,
"followers_count" : 169200000 ,
"following_count" : 523 ,
"tweet_count" : 38400 ,
"verified" : true ,
"created_at" : "2009-06-02T20:12:29.000Z" ,
"profile_image_url" : "https://..." ,
"profile_banner_url" : "https://..."
}
The @ symbol is optional when specifying usernames. Both twitter user elonmusk and twitter user @elonmusk work identically.
Use the JSON output with jq to monitor account growth or extract specific information: # Track follower count
twitter user elonmusk --json | jq '.followers_count'
# Get account creation date
twitter user elonmusk --json | jq '.created_at'
For more detailed user information, use these related commands:
user-posts - View tweets from a user
twitter user-posts elonmusk
likes - View tweets liked by a user
followers - List a userβs followers
twitter followers elonmusk
following - List accounts a user follows
twitter following elonmusk
Use Cases
Profile research - Gather information about Twitter accounts
Verification checking - Confirm account authenticity
Network analysis - Collect follower/following statistics
Account monitoring - Track changes in profile data over time
search - Search for tweets
feed - View your timeline
tweet - View a specific tweet