A tool for locating and extracting public Venmo profile data. Supports both a CLI and a dark-themed web GUI. Only accesses information Venmo makes publicly available.
Live demo: venmo-osint.vercel.app
- Profile lookup — username, display name, first/last name, user ID, bio, account type, member since, friend count, avatar
- Name search — find accounts by first + last name using DuckDuckGo indexing + 34 username pattern probes (including
First-Last-Nauto-generated variants up to any number) - Keyword/username search — search Venmo's user index
- Public transactions — pulls a profile's recent public payment feed (who paid whom, note, date, direction) from Venmo's stories API. Requires a valid session cookie.
- Export — download results as JSON, TXT, CSV, or a structured PDF (with embedded profile photo), or copy to clipboard
- Session cookie support — paste or auto-grab your Venmo cookie to unlock transactions and keyword search
- Mobile-friendly — bottom nav bar, stacked inputs, responsive layout
- Hosted + local — deploy to Vercel or run locally
git clone https://github.com/denniskeefe/venmo-osint.git
cd venmo-osint
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
python3 app.pyOpens automatically at http://127.0.0.1:5050.
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
# Look up a profile
python3 venmo_osint.py profile venmo
# Search by name
python3 venmo_osint.py name John Smith
# Search by keyword
python3 venmo_osint.py search john
# Output as JSON
python3 venmo_osint.py -f json profile venmoA Venmo session cookie unlocks keyword search and exposes more transaction data. Without one, profile lookup and name search still work.
In the web GUI → Cookie / Auth → Grab from Browser. Reads your Chrome, Firefox, or Brave cookie store directly.
- Log in to venmo.com in Chrome
- Open DevTools → Network tab → reload the page
- Click any
venmo.comrequest → Headers → copy theCookie:value - Paste it in the GUI or pass via
--cookie
Cookie priority (highest first):
--cookieCLI flagVENMO_COOKIEenvironment variable~/.venmo_osintconfig file (saved automatically,chmod 600)
Runs three strategies concurrently:
| Strategy | How it works |
|---|---|
| DuckDuckGo | site:venmo.com/u "First Last" — finds indexed public profiles |
| Pattern probing | 34 username variants (johnsmith, john.smith, jsmith, johnsmith1, etc.) probed in parallel with 15 workers |
| Dash-number scan | First-Last-1, First-Last-2, … scanned in batches of 10 until an entire batch returns 404 — finds Venmo auto-generated usernames like Chris-Keefe-10 regardless of how high the number goes |
Each profile lookup attempts to pull the account's recent public payment feed — actor, target, note, date, and direction (paid vs. charged).
- Source:
api.venmo.com/v1/stories/target-or-actor/<user_id> - Requires a valid session cookie. Venmo removed the global public feed in 2021; viewing even public transactions now requires being logged in. Without a cookie (or with an expired one), the tool shows a prompt to add/refresh your cookie rather than a misleading "no transactions" message.
- Only data the target has marked public is returned; private transactions are never accessible.
After a profile lookup, an export bar appears below the result:
| Format | Contents |
|---|---|
| JSON | Full raw data object |
| TXT | Human-readable report with all fields and transactions |
| CSV | Spreadsheet-ready rows, one per field + one per transaction |
| Structured report with embedded profile photo, field table, and transaction list | |
| Copy | JSON to clipboard |
Files are named venmo_<username>_<date>.<ext>. PDF and photo embedding use a same-origin image proxy (/api/image-proxy) to avoid browser CORS restrictions on Venmo's CDN.
vercel deployvercel.json routes all traffic through api/index.py. A slimmed requirements-vercel.txt is used (excludes browser-cookie3 which requires native libs unavailable in serverless).
To use a session cookie on Vercel: add VENMO_COOKIE as an environment variable in your Vercel project settings.
Note: Grab from Browser is disabled on the hosted version — it requires local filesystem access to your browser profile.
Venmo throttles IPs that make many requests in a short window (HTTP 429, or
stub 404 pages from account.venmo.com). If you see:
Venmo is rate-limiting this IP — wait a few minutes and try again.
…or…
Couldn't load this profile — Venmo returned no data (possibly rate-limited, or the user doesn't exist).
then back off. When throttled, Venmo returns an empty stub page that looks identical for a real user and a nonexistent one, so a "not found" during heavy use is often just the rate limit — not a missing account.
Recommendations to avoid getting throttled:
- Prefer direct profile lookups (one request) over name search when you already know the username.
- Use name search sparingly. Each name search fires 50+ concurrent probes
(34 username patterns + sequential
First-Last-Nbatches), which is the single biggest trigger for rate limiting. - Space out requests. Avoid rapid, repeated lookups of the same profile.
- If you get blocked, wait 20–30 minutes before retrying. Hammering the endpoint resets the cooldown.
- The public REST API (
api.venmo.com) and the profile page (account.venmo.com) are throttled independently — standard-username lookups may still work via the API even when the page scrape is blocked, butFirst-Last-Nusernames depend on the page scrape and will fail until the limit clears.
venmo_osint.py # Core library + CLI
app.py # Flask web GUI (local)
api/index.py # Vercel serverless adapter
requirements.txt # Full deps (local)
requirements-vercel.txt # Slim deps (Vercel, no browser-cookie3)
vercel.json # Vercel routing config
This tool only accesses data Venmo makes publicly available. Do not use it to harass, stalk, or harm individuals. You are responsible for complying with Venmo's Terms of Service and applicable laws.
Created by Dennis Keefe — see my other projects. If you find this useful, you can buy me a coffee ☕.