GitHub Readme Stats SVG Generator

GitHub README stats SVG: dynamic profile badges, themes and self-hosting

A README stats SVG is a dynamic badge embedded in your GitHub profile that renders commits, stars, pull requests, issues and contributions as a single inline SVG card (~5KB). The dominant tool in the ecosystem is github-readme-stats by Anuraghazra (67k+ stars, one of the top 100 non-language repos on GitHub). Cards live in the special USERNAME/USERNAME repository — GitHub treats its README as your profile homepage above pinned repos. Use this generator to preview cards and produce shareable static SVG snapshots that work without the live API.

Card types and embed URLs

The github-readme-stats project ships several card types, each on a Vercel endpoint:

• Stats card: github-readme-stats.vercel.app/api?username=USER&theme=dark
• Top languages: /api/top-langs/?username=USER&layout=compact
• Streak counter: github-readme-streak-stats.herokuapp.com/?user=USER (sibling project, DenverCoder1)
• WakaTime integration: coding-time stats via WakaTime account.

Embed with: ![Stats](https://github-readme-stats.vercel.app/api?username=USER)

Themes, customization and PT-BR support

90+ built-in themes ship with the project: dark, radical, merko, gruvbox, tokyonight, onedark, cobalt, synthwave, transparent, dracula, prussian and more. Fully custom via query params: &bg_color=0d1117&title_color=58a6ff&text_color=c9d1d9&icon_color=39d353. Localization is supported with &locale=pt-br — popular among Brazilian devs.

Rate limits, caching and self-hosting

The hosted Vercel instance caches responses on a CDN for roughly 2 hours to mitigate GitHub API rate limits. Hits-of-hits problem: when many users embed the same card the upstream API can throttle. The fix is self-hosting — fork the repo, deploy your own Vercel project with a personal GitHub token, and point the embed at your custom URL for unlimited capacity. Five-minute setup; the project README walks through it.

Alternatives and complementary cards

Useful sibling projects to combine with github-readme-stats:

• github-profile-trophy (Ryo-Maoka): achievement-style trophies.
• github-readme-activity-graph (Ashutosh00710): contribution graph as SVG.
• novatorem (Jonny Burger): Spotify "currently playing" track.
• Shields.io: custom badges for tech stack, downloads, version, license.
• wakatime-readme: weekly coding-time breakdown by language.

FAQ

Is there a rate limit? Yes — the public Vercel endpoint shares GitHub API quota across all users. Cards are CDN-cached for ~2 hours. For heavy traffic, self-host.

Can I self-host? Yes — fork anuraghazra/github-readme-stats, deploy on Vercel free tier, add a PAT_1 environment variable with a GitHub personal access token, and you have unlimited capacity.

Can I customize colors beyond the built-in themes? Absolutely — every color is overridable via query string: bg_color, title_color, text_color, icon_color, border_color.

Does it work in private repos? Stats reflect public contributions by default. Include private contributions by passing &count_private=true on a self-hosted instance with a token that has private-repo scope.