LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 720 million members. As one of the most popular social media platforms, LinkedIn provides developers with APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to integrate LinkedIn data and functionality into third-party applications. However, access to LinkedIn’s APIs is not free and requires approval from LinkedIn. This leads to the common question – is there a free LinkedIn API available?
LinkedIn API Options
LinkedIn currently offers three API programs:
- LinkedIn Marketing Developer Platform
- LinkedIn Platform
- Partner Program
None of these API programs provide free access to LinkedIn data or functionality. Here is a brief overview of each program:
LinkedIn Marketing Developer Platform
The Marketing Developer Platform provides APIs and solutions to help marketers optimize advertising efforts on LinkedIn. This includes APIs for campaign management, ad targeting, audience building, and measuring results. Access starts at several thousand dollars per month.
LinkedIn Platform
This is LinkedIn’s core API program and includes APIs for profile data, connections, groups, communications, and more. Access starts at tens of thousands of dollars per month depending on usage levels.
Partner Program
The Partner Program is for technology and service providers building solutions integrated with LinkedIn. Partners get access to LinkedIn APIs based on their partnership agreement. There are high costs and requirements to join the program.
So in summary, LinkedIn does not offer any free access tier to their developer APIs. All options require formal registration and significant financial commitment.
Are there any free alternatives?
Given LinkedIn’s strict API access policies, many developers look for free alternatives to access LinkedIn data. Here are some options:
Web Scraping
Web scraping uses software programs to extract data from LinkedIn’s public webpages. This provides access to limited profile data but violates LinkedIn’s terms of service. Scraping large amounts of data can also get your IP address banned.
Browser Extensions
Browser extensions like LinkedIn Sales Navigator Extractor can extract information from LinkedIn profiles you view in your browser. However, these also violate LinkedIn’s terms and access is limited.
Public Profiles API
LinkedIn used to offer a Public Profiles API that allowed free access to limited profile data that members made public. However, this API was officially retired in 2015.
Third-Party Packages
Some third-party Python packages like LinkedInt allow retrieving public profile data. However, they rely on web scraping instead of proper LinkedIn APIs.
So in summary, there are no robust free alternatives that provide LinkedIn API access. Web scraping or browser extensions may work for small one-off projects but come with risks.
What data is available with the free LinkedIn account?
While LinkedIn does not provide free API access, regular LinkedIn members can still access certain profile data and search capabilities through their free account. Here is an overview of what free members can view and extract:
- Your own full profile data
- Limited profile data of your 1st-degree connections
- Profile data of 2nd and 3rd degree connections that members make public
- Company pages and employee lists
- Group data and discussions for groups you’ve joined
- Search based on keywords, companies, titles, skills, etc
- Filtered searches based on location, industry, date joined, etc
- News articles, jobs, events, courses, and other content
While not as extensive as the full APIs, free members can still extract meaningful data through manual searches and scraping public profiles. This can be sufficient for basic needs like recruiting, research, or business development.
Access limitations with free account
However, there are limitations to what you can access with a free personal LinkedIn account:
- Cannot view full profiles of 3rd degree connections
- No access to InMail messaging
- Searches limited to 100 profiles at a time
- No access to advanced filtering options
- No ability to export data in bulk
- Rate limits on profile views per day
For large-scale data extraction or automated workflows, the lack of proper LinkedIn APIs can be highly limiting even for free tier members.
Conclusion
In summary:
- LinkedIn does not provide any free tier access to their developer APIs
- Alternatives like web scraping provide limited and risky access
- Free account members can view and extract some LinkedIn data through searches and public profiles
- But lack of API limits scale and automation for free members
So while there is no true free LinkedIn API access, individuals can still leverage their free account to manually gather some LinkedIn data. For large-scale automated data extraction, it is recommended to use the official LinkedIn APIs by registering as a developer and paying associated fees.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why doesn’t LinkedIn offer a free API tier?
LinkedIn does not offer a free API tier primarily for commercial reasons. LinkedIn makes significant revenue by charging companies for access to their platform and data. Offering free access would undermine this business model. LinkedIn also cites security and compliance as reasons to limit open access.
What are the risks of using web scraping for LinkedIn data extraction?
The main risks are getting your IP address banned, legal issues due to violating terms of service, and data inaccuracies. LinkedIn employs advanced bot detection so large scale scraping often results in IP bans. LinkedIn also prohibits unauthorized extraction of data from their platform legally. Lastly, dynamically scraped data can have accuracy issues compared to APIs.
What are some examples of how people use LinkedIn data?
LinkedIn data enables a variety of applications such as recruiting and HR, sales & marketing, market research, due diligence, networking, lead generation, advertising and more. Both individuals and companies leverage LinkedIn for use cases like finding talent, prospecting, company insights, connecting with people, targeted advertising and more.
Is there any fully legal way to get free LinkedIn data access?
Not really, other than the limited manual profile views and searches enabled with the free personal LinkedIn account. LinkedIn does not provide any free API access so all automated extraction violates their terms of service. Your best fully legal options are to pay for LinkedIn’s APIs or see if LinkedIn provides any of its data to third-party data aggregators and providers.
What are some paid alternatives to LinkedIn for social media business data?
For business use cases, alternatives with paid API access include:
- Data.com for company and contact data
- Oracle Data Cloud for B2B audience data
- social media APIs from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc
- HR/recruiting platforms like ZipRecruiter, Monster, Indeed, etc
- People data tools like Clearbit, FullContact, etc
Each platform has different data access policies, fees structures and use cases.
Can I get banned from LinkedIn for using web scraping?
Yes, getting banned is a risk with web scraping. LinkedIn employs advanced technology to monitor for bots and scrapers. If LinkedIn detects you are systematically extracting large amounts of data, they may ban or restrict your account access or ban your IP address. This is because web scraping violates LinkedIn’s User Agreement. If you want to access LinkedIn data at scale, you need to use their official APIs.
Is there any way to request LinkedIn for free API access for research or nonprofit purposes?
You can try contacting LinkedIn developer support and request access to their non-profit program for free or discounted API access if you meet the eligibility criteria. Certain academic researchers may also qualify for data access through LinkedIn’s exclusive agreements with select universities. Aside from those limited exceptions, most nonprofit and research use cases still need to pay for access.
So in summary – obtaining any free access to LinkedIn API requires justification, proof of eligibility and formal approval from LinkedIn directly. There are no freely available backdoors.
Key Takeaways
– LinkedIn does not offer any free tier access to their developer APIs. All options require fees and formal registration.
– Alternatives like web scraping provide limited, risky access and violate LinkedIn’s terms.
– Free account members can view and extract some data through searches and public profiles.
– Lack of APIs limits automation and large-scale extraction for free users.
– Nonprofits may get discounted or free access by contacting LinkedIn directly and proving eligibility.
– For reliable, legal access to LinkedIn data at scale, paying for official API access is recommended.