How to Add Stack Overflow Stats to Your GitHub Profile README

The github-readme-stackoverflow project renders a card showing your Stack Overflow reputation score, total answers, total questions, gold badges, silver badges, and bronze badges. It fetches this data from the Stack Exchange public API using your numeric user ID and formats it as an SVG image that embeds in your README.

Stack Overflow reputation is one of the few developer metrics that is difficult to game — it requires giving accurate, helpful answers that the community upvotes over time. A reputation above 1,000 signals genuine community engagement; above 10,000 indicates significant expertise in one or more technical areas. Including this on your GitHub profile is most valuable when your reputation is meaningfully high.

Your Stack Overflow user ID is the number in your profile URL. Visit your profile at stackoverflow.com/users/YOUR_ID/your-name — the number after /users/ is your ID.

Add this to your README, replacing YOUR_STACKOVERFLOW_ID:

[![Stack Overflow Profile](https://github-readme-stackoverflow.vercel.app/?userID=YOUR_STACKOVERFLOW_ID)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/YOUR_STACKOVERFLOW_ID)

For a card with a specific theme:

[![Stack Overflow Profile](https://github-readme-stackoverflow.vercel.app/?userID=YOUR_STACKOVERFLOW_ID&theme=dark)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/YOUR_STACKOVERFLOW_ID)

For a layout variant with stats in a single row:

[![Stack Overflow Profile](https://github-readme-stackoverflow.vercel.app/?userID=YOUR_STACKOVERFLOW_ID&layout=horizontal)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/YOUR_STACKOVERFLOW_ID)

The widget supports two main parameters:

• theme: dark (dark background with light text) or default (light background). Use dark for profiles using dark-mode widget themes like tokyonight or radical.
• layout: vertical (default, stacked layout) or horizontal (stats in a single row)

Link the card image to your Stack Overflow profile URL so visitors can click through to see your full answer history. Including the link is important — the card shows aggregate stats, but the real value comes when visitors can browse your specific answers in the domains they care about.

Place the Stack Overflow card alongside your GitHub stats card for a credibility-focused stats section. A natural grouping: GitHub stats (activity) + Stack Overflow stats (expertise) + streak (consistency).

If the card shows an error or empty stats, verify that your Stack Overflow user ID is correct. The ID is purely numeric — do not include the username portion of the URL, and do not prefix with 'user:'. Test your ID by accessing https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/users/YOUR_ID?site=stackoverflow directly in your browser.

If your reputation or badge counts appear outdated, the card is likely serving a cached version. The Stack Exchange API has rate limits and the service may cache results for several hours. The data will update on the next cache refresh cycle.

For a Stack Overflow profile with a very low reputation (under 100), consider omitting this widget as it may highlight limited community participation rather than demonstrating expertise.