Check if an Archive of Our Own username is taken

What we check on Archive of Our Own

Standard tier - checked on every full lookup

Archive of Our Own is checked from a username. The response says whether that handle exists on Archive of Our Own - registered: true or registered: false - with the moment that was established in checkedAt. An email address on its own cannot reach Archive of Our Own; if you only have an email, its local part is tried as a handle and any hit is labelled as derived, never counted as a confirmed match.

Archive of Our Own is checked on every full lookup (?wait=true or streaming), alongside every other platform. It is not in the sub-second instant subset, which is reserved for the highest-value platforms for each input type.

If Archive of Our Own blocks the check, times out, or answers ambiguously, it is omitted from results[] entirely rather than returned as registered: false. Absence from the response means "unconfirmed", never "no account".

Who checks Archive of Our Own accounts

Creative platform accounts are checked by marketplaces and freelance platforms that pay out to sellers and creators. A portfolio built over years on design, photo or writing sites is rarely faked, so a seller or freelancer with real creative history is a different risk from a brand-new address asking to be paid.

More on this: Marketplace trust and safety.

Inputs Archive of Our Own accepts

• Username: send the handle as query. Archive of Our Own is checked for that exact handle - useful when a person reuses the same name across platforms.

One request

curl -X POST "https://api.digifootprint.dev/v2/lookup?wait=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer dfp_your_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "someuser"}'

What a Archive of Our Own result looks like

{
  "platform": "archiveofourown",
  "registered": true,
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T09:53:21.706Z",
  "identity": "username"
}

The full response shape - breaches, web mentions, matches versus socialMatches, and what method means - is in running a lookup.

Related platforms

Every one of these is checked in the same request as Archive of Our Own.

More creative platforms: Figma, SmugMug, Wattpad, Envato, Sketchfab · all creative

Archive of Our Own lookup FAQ

Can I check a phone number on Archive of Our Own?

Not directly. Archive of Our Own can be reached from username. Phone numbers are checked on the messaging and social apps that sign people up by phone.

How fast is a Archive of Our Own check?

Archive of Our Own is checked on a full lookup, which streams results as they land - the first matches arrive in around 60 milliseconds and the whole set typically completes in a few seconds.

What happens if Archive of Our Own blocks the check?

Archive of Our Own is left out of the response. We never report a platform we could not confirm as "not registered" - a missing platform means unconfirmed, not absent.

Does the API return the Archive of Our Own account details?

No. You get whether an account exists for the input you sent, and when that was established. No profile contents, photos, followers or private data are collected or returned.