Search tracked social media profiles by handle or name, filtered by platform. Returns profile metadata, follower counts and average performance stats. Use it to resolve a handle to a profile id before fetching stats or posts, or to discover creators in the database. Results may include deactivated profiles (is_active=false), e.g. an account that was renamed or went private, retained with frozen stats; filter on is_active if you only want live accounts. Note a creator who changed handles can appear as two rows (old deactivated + new active).
Look up creator profiles by handle or name across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, filtered by platform, and get each one's follower count and average performance stats back. It is the resolver step for almost every other skill: turn a handle a user typed into the internal profile id that get_profile, compare_profiles and outlier search all key on. Built for agents that start from a name or an @handle and need a stable id and a stats baseline.
Connect the Viral Outliers MCP server once and the search_profiles tool becomes available to your agent alongside all other skills:
claude mcp add --transport http viral-outliers https://viraloutliers.com/api/mcp \
--header "Authorization: Bearer so_live_YOUR_KEY"In Claude.ai or ChatGPT, add a custom connector pointing at https://viraloutliers.com/api/mcp. Your agent then calls search_profiles on its own whenever the task needs it.
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
query | string | Handle or name fragment. |
platforms | string[] | "tiktok" | "instagram" | "youtube". |
page | number | Page number, 1-based. |
pageSize | number | Results per page, clamped to 1–100. |
Each match is a profile record: platform, handle and display name, follower count, tracked post count, and average views/likes/engagement across several time windows, the same baseline the outlier scores are computed against. That is enough to benchmark any single post against the account's normal performance without a second call.
Results are paginated (up to 100 per page). They can include deactivated profiles (is_active=false): an account that was renamed, went private or was removed, retained with frozen stats; filter on is_active if you only want live accounts. Note that a creator who changed handles can appear as two rows: the old deactivated handle and the new active one. Each call costs 1 credit (1 credit = $0.01).
The search runs over the profiles already in the tracked database, creators crawled on demand or monitored on a schedule, so a match returns instantly with full stats, no live scrape required. Pass a handle or name fragment plus an optional platform filter and page through the results.
If the creator you want is not in the database yet, search comes back empty for them; that is your cue to call crawl_profile with the platform and handle, which adds the profile and its recent posts within minutes and makes it searchable. From a resolved profile you typically move on to get_profile for the full record, compare_profiles to benchmark against rivals, or track_profile to keep it fresh.
Handle resolution is the everyday one: an agent is handed "@creator" in a user message, resolves it to a profile id, and then fetches stats or posts. Creator-discovery workflows search a niche term, shortlist profiles by follower band, and fan out into an outlier search per profile. Vetting workflows resolve a shortlist of potential collaborators and pull their baselines to compare reach and engagement before outreach.
Because the same record carries both identity and stats, one search answers both "who is this" and "how big and how engaged are they". No separate analytics lookup to stitch on.
Doing this yourself means hitting each platform's search or profile endpoints, handling handle changes and private accounts, and computing rolling averages from raw post history just to get a usable baseline. Every platform rate-limits and reshapes those endpoints on its own timeline.
Here you make one authenticated request and get a normalized, cross-platform profile record with the baseline already computed, at a flat credit price, and a clear fallback (crawl_profile) for anyone not yet in the database. Compared with influencer-database products that sell static exports, this is live-queryable and wired into the same system that ranks the creator's outlier posts.
1 credit ($0.01) per call in prepaid credits (1 credit = $0.01). For example, 100 calls per dollar. Subscriptions include monthly credits; top-up packs start at $15. Failed asynchronous jobs are refunded automatically, and calls stop at a zero balance, never a surprise bill. See the full pricing table.
Call search_profiles with the handle and platform. If the creator is already tracked you get their profile id and stats immediately; if not, the crawl_profile skill adds them within minutes.
Follower count, tracked post count, and average views/likes/engagement across several time windows, enough to benchmark any post against the account baseline.
When a creator changes their handle the old handle is kept as a deactivated row (is_active=false) with frozen stats and the new handle appears as a separate active row. Filter on is_active to keep only the live account, or keep both if you need the history under the old name.
Also available as a REST API endpoint.
Related topics: creator analytics API · influencer research automation · competitor tracking · handle-to-profile-id resolution · creator discovery API