XCount

A CLI tool for extracting follower and following counts for X (Twitter) accounts via direct HTTP requests — no browser required.

GitHub: github.com/daviddanielng/xcount

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Requirements

Note: Release is no longer up to date, you must run it with cargo run

• Linux: pre-compiled binary available
• Windows / macOS: must build from source (see Building from Source)

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Installation

Note: Release is no longer up to date, you must run it with cargo run

Linux (pre-compiled binary)

Download the latest binary from the Releases tab on GitHub, then make it executable:

chmod +x xcount
./xcount --help

Optionally move it onto your $PATH:

mv xcount ~/.local/bin/xcount

Building from Source

Requires Rust (stable toolchain).

git clone https://github.com/daviddanielng/xcount.git
cd xcount
cargo build --release

The compiled binary will be at target/release/xcount. You can move it anywhere on your $PATH:

cp target/release/xcount ~/.local/bin/xcount   # Linux / macOS

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Usage

xcount [OPTIONS] --username <USERNAMES> | --input <FILE>

Options

Flag	Short	Default	Description
--username <USERNAMES>	-u	—	Comma-separated list of usernames (mutually exclusive with -i)
--input <FILE>	-i	—	Path to a file with one username per line (mutually exclusive with -u)
--format <FORMAT>	-f	json	Output format: json, csv, or excel
--output <DIR>	-o	.	Directory to write the output file into
--delay <SECONDS>	-d	1	Seconds to wait between each request
--verbose	-v	false	Print progress and log info to stderr

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Fetch one or more usernames

xcount -u daviddanielng
xcount -u daviddanielng,elonmusk,github

Results are always saved to a file — never printed. The file is named output-{timestamp}.{ext} and written to the current directory by default.

output-{yyyy-mm-dd-hh::mm}.json

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Read usernames from a file

The file must have one username per line.

xcount -i ./users.txt
xcount -i /home/daniel/usernames.txt

users.txt example:

daviddanielng
elonmusk
github

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Choose an output format

Use -f to set the format. Accepted values are json, csv, and excel. Defaults to json.

xcount -u daviddanielng,elonmusk -f csv
xcount -u daviddanielng,elonmusk -f excel
xcount -i ./users.txt -f json

Output filenames follow the pattern output-{timestamp}.{ext}:

output-{yyyy-mm-dd-hh::mm}.json
output-{yyyy-mm-dd-hh::mm}.csv
output-{yyyy-mm-dd-hh::mm}.xlsx

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Choose an output directory

Use -o to set the directory the output file is written to. Defaults to the current directory.

xcount -u daviddanielng,elonmusk -o ./results
xcount -i ./users.txt -f excel -o /tmp

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Delay between requests

Use -d to add a pause (in seconds) between each username fetch. Defaults to 1. Increase this to reduce the chance of getting IP-banned when processing large lists.

xcount -u daviddanielng,elonmusk,github -d 3
xcount -i ./users.txt -f csv -d 5

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Verbose output

Add -v to print progress logs during the run. Useful for monitoring or debugging.

xcount -u daviddanielng,elonmusk -v

[INFO] Fetching profile: daviddanielng
[INFO] Fetching profile: elonmusk
[INFO] Done. Output saved to output-{yyyy-mm-dd-hh::mm}.json

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Error Handling

If a username cannot be fetched (not found, private, rate-limited, etc.) you will see something like this in the output:

error: is true

[
  {
    "username": "daviddanielng",
    "followers": 0,
    "following": 0,
    "tweets": 0,
    "error": true
  }
]

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Output

Each record in the output contains the username, follower count, following count, tweet count and error status.

JSON example:

[
  {
    "username": "daviddanielng",
    "followers": 166,
    "following": 418,
    "tweets": 6076,
    "error": false
  }
]

Note: It is the same in both CSV and Excel formats.

Note on accuracy: Counts are read directly from the page's application/ld+json structured data, not parsed from the shortened display text (e.g. 1.2M, 418K) shown in the UI. This means counts are exact, even for accounts with very large follower numbers.

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Notes

• -u and -i are mutually exclusive — exactly one must be provided.
• Output is always written to a file — results are never printed to the terminal.
• The output file is named output-{timestamp}.{ext} and written to the directory set by -o ( defaults to the current directory).
• The delay set with -d applies between usernames, not before the first one.
• The pre-compiled binary targets Linux x64 only. All other platforms require building from source with cargo.

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Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. If you run into a bug or want to suggest a feature, open an issue on the GitHub repository.

When submitting a PR:

• Run cargo fmt and cargo clippy before committing
• Keep changes focused — one fix or feature per PR
• If you're adding behaviour, update this README to reflect it

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License

MIT © Daniel Enubiaka