The process takes five minutes and affects all your repositories
GitHub lets you change your username from your account settings. The change applies when ready to your profile, repositories, and all the links people use to find your work. Old links to your profile redirect automatically for the next year, but links to specific repositories do not — if someone bookmarked a project URL, that link will break.
You can change your username once every seven days. If you change it and want to change it again, you must wait a week. GitHub does not charge for this, and you do not lose any repositories, followers, or contribution history.
Key Takeaways
- Go to Settings > Account in your GitHub profile and change your username in the Name field — the change takes effect when ready.
- Your old profile URL redirects for one year, but direct links to repositories and gists will break and need to be updated.
- You can change your username once every seven days, and the change does not affect your repositories, followers, or history.
- If you have cloned repositories locally, update the remote URL in each one by running git remote set-url origin with your new username.
- Organizations, teams, and collaborators will see your new username when ready, but they do not need to do anything on their end.
Where to find the username setting
Log into GitHub and click your profile picture in the top right corner. Select Settings from the dropdown menu. On the left sidebar, click Account.
In the Account settings page, you will see a field labeled Name near the top. This is where your username appears. Click in the field, delete your current username, and type your new one. GitHub will check in real time whether the new name is available — if it is taken, you will see a red X and cannot save.
Once you have entered an available username, scroll down and click the Update username button. The change takes effect when ready.
What breaks and what stays the same
Your profile URL changes from github.com/oldusername to github.com/newusername. GitHub automatically redirects the old URL to the new one for 12 months, so links people shared will still work during that time. After 12 months, the old URL will not redirect anymore.
Direct links to your repositories, gists, and pull requests will break when ready. If you have a repository at github.com/oldusername/myproject, it moves to github.com/newusername/myproject. Any bookmarks, documentation, or README files that point to the old URL will need to be updated by hand.
Your repositories themselves do not move or change — they stay in your account with all their history, issues, and pull requests intact. Your followers, stars, and contribution graph do not change. Organizations and teams you belong to will see your new username, but your membership and permissions stay the same.
Updating repositories you cloned locally
If you have cloned any of your repositories to your computer, the remote URL still points to your old username. When you try to push or pull, Git will fail because the repository no longer exists at that address.
For each repository you cloned, open the terminal or command prompt and navigate to the folder. Run this command, replacing newusername with your actual new username and reponame with the repository name:
git remote set-url origin https://github.com/newusername/reponame.git
You can check that the change worked by running git remote -v. You should see the new URL listed for both fetch and push. After that, push and pull will work normally.
Telling collaborators and updating documentation
If you work with other people on repositories, they will see your new username when ready in commit history, pull requests, and team pages. They do not need to do anything — GitHub handles the display change on their end.
However, if your username appears in documentation, README files, or setup instructions, you should update those files to use your new username. Search your repositories for mentions of your old username and change them where they appear as part of a URL or instruction.
If you have shared links to your repositories in emails, chat, or on websites, those links will break. Update them to use your new username, or wait up to 12 months for the old profile URL to redirect (though this only works for your profile, not for specific repositories).
If you want to use your old username again
Once you change your username, GitHub reserves your old username for 12 months. During that time, no one else can claim it, and you cannot use it again until the 12 months are up. After 12 months, the old username becomes available for anyone to register.
If you change your mind within the first year, you can change your username back to the original one. You still have to wait seven days between changes, so if you just changed it, you cannot change it back when ready.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will my repositories disappear if I change my username?
No. Your repositories stay in your account with all their history, issues, and pull requests. The URL changes, but the repository itself does not move or get deleted. You will just access it at your new username instead of your old one.
Do I need to tell GitHub support to change my username?
No. You change it yourself in your account settings. The change takes effect when ready without any approval or waiting period. GitHub support is not involved unless something goes wrong with the change itself.
What happens to my SSH keys and personal access tokens?
They continue to work without any changes. SSH keys and tokens are tied to your account, not your username, so changing your username does not affect them. You do not need to regenerate or update them.
Can I change my username more than once?
Yes, but you must wait seven days between changes. If you change your username and want to change it again, you cannot do so until seven days have passed since the last change.
Will my old username redirect forever?
Your profile URL will redirect for 12 months. After that, the old URL will not work anymore. Repository URLs do not redirect at all — they break when ready and need to be updated by hand.