LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 660 million users worldwide. As a platform built to connect professionals, LinkedIn offers various tools and services to help users network, find jobs, share content and more. One of the key ways LinkedIn enables other applications to integrate with its platform is through its developer API.
What is an API?
API stands for Application Programming Interface. An API allows two software applications to communicate with each other. APIs enable third-party developers to access data and functionality from an existing application. The application providing the access is called the API provider while the application consuming the API is called the client.
APIs work through a set of protocols, routines, standards and tools that allow machines to interact with each other. They specify how one application can request services and data from another application and get a response back. This request-response cycle is similar to how a website interacts with a web browser.
APIs allow applications to exchange data in real time. They enable seamless integration between different systems and services. APIs power many of the apps and services we use every day by facilitating data sharing between platforms.
Why Do Companies Provide APIs?
There are several reasons why companies open up APIs to external developers:
- Enable integration with other apps and services
- Allow customization and extension of core product capabilities
- Foster innovation by letting developers build on top of the platform
- Expand reach and distribution through third-party clients
- Monetization through API usage fees and add-on services
By providing APIs, companies can leverage the work of a global developer ecosystem to enhance the capabilities of their own products. APIs essentially outsource innovation to external developers.
Types of APIs
APIs can be classified into different types based on usage and access protocols:
- Public APIs – Open to any external developer to use in their own applications. Often requires an API key for access.
- Partner APIs – Provided under special agreement to select partner companies and developers.
- Private APIs – Only usable within the company’s internal developer teams.
- Web APIs – Accessed over HTTP and REST protocols.
- SDKs – Toolkits and libraries for building applications in specific programming languages.
Does LinkedIn offer an API?
Yes, LinkedIn provides a robust public API that enables developers to integrate LinkedIn data and services into their own applications.
LinkedIn’s API capabilities allow clients to:
- Access profile data
- Manage connections
- Share content and updates
- Leverage LinkedIn’s social graph
- Analyze company and industry data
Here are some of the main things that can be done using LinkedIn’s APIs:
Login with LinkedIn
The Login with LinkedIn API allows members to easily sign in to third party apps and websites using their LinkedIn account credentials. This eliminates the need to create separate login accounts.
Share Content
Members can leverage their professional social graph to share content and updates from a third-party app directly to their LinkedIn profile.
Access Profile Data
LinkedIn APIs can pull profile data like work experience, education, skills, interests etc. This data can be used to customize and personalize experiences in external apps.
Company Pages and Data
The Company Pages API provides access to company data on LinkedIn like descriptions, follower statistics, employee statistics etc. The company data can be integrated into business apps.
Search LinkedIn Profiles and Content
Developers can build targeted LinkedIn search capabilities into their own tools using the LinkedIn API. This allows searching over member profiles, companies, jobs, content and other entities.
Analytics and Reporting
Apps can use LinkedIn’s APIs to generate analytics and insights like page views, post impressions, follower growth etc. Apps can even support notifications and alerts based on LinkedIn data.
These are just some of the capabilities unlocked by LinkedIn’s developer APIs. The full range of offerings includes over a dozen different APIs supporting profile management, social actions, messaging, ads, marketing and more.
LinkedIn API Access and Authentication
To start using LinkedIn’s APIs, developers must first register their app and get approved for an API key. Here are the steps to get API access:
- Register for a LinkedIn developer account
- Create a LinkedIn app under the account
- Select the LinkedIn APIs the app will use
- Agree to the LinkedIn API terms of use
- Submit the app for review and approval
- Once approved, get the Client ID and Client Secret for the app
- Add the API key credentials into the app code to authenticate API calls
Developers have to follow certain guidelines around data privacy, storage and retention when using the LinkedIn APIs. Usage also has to conform to LinkedIn’s terms of service.
OAuth 2.0 Authentication
LinkedIn implements the OAuth 2.0 protocol for API authentication and authorization. OAuth 2.0 allows apps to access user data without handling user credentials directly. It provides a secure token-based workflow for API authorization.
With OAuth, the end user logs into LinkedIn directly from the client app through a popup. After consenting to data access, LinkedIn then redirects back to the app with an authorization code. This code can be exchanged by the app for an access token. The access token can be used to make API calls on behalf of the user.
This allows the client app access to authenticated LinkedIn APIs without ever handling the user’s login credentials directly. OAuth eliminates the need to store user passwords and enforces secure access control.
LinkedIn API Usage Limits
Like most commercial APIs, LinkedIn enforces certain usage limits and quotas:
- Requests per second – Varies based on the specific API.
- Concurrent requests – Limited based on app tier.
- Oauth token expiry – Currently set at 60 days.
- Data retention – Data cache limited to 24 hours.
These quotas prevent abuse and ensure the availability of LinkedIn’s APIs for all users. To go beyond the base quotas, developers have to apply for higher tier app access.
LinkedIn API Pricing and Cost
Access to LinkedIn’s APIs is free up to a certain usage threshold. Beyond that, developers have to purchase monthly subscriptions based on the number of API calls required. Here are the current LinkedIn API pricing tiers:
| Tier | Monthly Cost | Call Volume |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 50,000 |
| Basic | $59.99 | 500,000 |
| Pro | $995 | 5 million |
| Plus | $995 | 50 million |
| Plus Pro | $5,995 | 500 million |
As the call volume grows, developers have to move up the tiers. LinkedIn also offers customized premium packages for large-scale API usage beyond 500 million calls per month.
Overall, LinkedIn provides very generous free tier limits compared to many other commercial API providers. This allows smaller developers and startups to build on the platform at no cost.
Top LinkedIn API Use Cases
Here are some examples of how developers are leveraging LinkedIn APIs to enhance their applications:
Recruiting and Job Search
HR apps use LinkedIn to enable publishing and applying for jobs through LinkedIn profiles. This helps streamline the hiring and job seeking process.
Social Sharing and Sign-On
By integrating LinkedIn APIs, apps can enable frictionless social sign-on and facilitate sharing professional updates with a user’s network.
Marketing Automation
LinkedIn data powers social advertising, audience segmentation and personalized marketing in various martech tools.
Sales Intelligence
LinkedIn’s rich professional data helps identify contacts at target customer companies. This allows optimizing sales prospecting.
Company Research
Financial apps use LinkedIn to collect competitive intelligence on companies like leadership, employees, news etc.
Mobile Apps
Mobile developers widely integrate LinkedIn APIs to bring professional social networking experiences to iOS and Android apps.
Browser Extensions
Browser plugins leverage LinkedIn APIs to enrich website profiles and pages with additional data like work histories.
These examples demonstrate the diverse use cases enabled by LinkedIn integration. The capabilities can enhance everything from marketing to recruiting to sales and beyond.
Advantages of LinkedIn API Integration
Here are some of the top benefits of integrating with LinkedIn’s APIs:
- Access to rich, structured professional data – LinkedIn has one of the most extensive profile databases which can be leveraged in external apps via the APIs.
- Targeted sharing – Content and messages can be precisely targeted using LinkedIn’s professional social graph.
- Personalized experiences – LinkedIn’s identity and preferences data enables tailoring apps to individual users.
- Trust and reach – Integrating with LinkedIn builds credibility and quickly expands the user base for apps.
- Analytics – Apps can derive key insights from LinkedIn’s platform metrics like post reach, follower growth etc.
By tapping into LinkedIn’s vast ecosystem, developers can significantly extend the utility of their own applications across sales, marketing, recruiting and more.
Conclusion
LinkedIn offers extensive and powerful APIs to enable external applications to integrate with its platform. Key capabilities include social sign-on, content sharing, company pages, marketing tools, analytics and more.
With over 660 million users, LinkedIn provides access to the world’s largest professional community. The breadth and depth of its structured data is unmatched. LinkedIn’s developer platform allows tapping into these assets through modern APIs.
For developers building apps targeting professionals and businesses, LinkedIn integration delivers tremendous value. The APIs are well-documented, continuously updated and easy to use. With flexible pricing and authentication options, LinkedIn makes it simple to get started.
In summary, LinkedIn opens up a versatile platform ecosystem via comprehensive APIs. These enable all types of apps to integrate LinkedIn data and services in a secure and scalable manner. For any developer building apps for working professionals, LinkedIn’s APIs are a must-have tool to consider integrating.
