The Ultimate Guide to How to Extract Data from Linkedin Using API

How to Extract data from LinkedIn using Api? LinkedIn is a business-intelligence minefield with over 1 billion users in 2025. Are you a recruiter searching for the best talent, a marketer looking at the marketplace for trends, or an entrepreneur building connections? Whatever your requirement, LinkedIn has the information. But to search through profiles or job ads one by one? That’s a time waster.

Enter the LinkedIn API, a handy tool with which you can automate retrieving data like profiles, LinkedIn company data, and so on. If you wish to know how to scrape LinkedIn data through API, you’re in the correct tutorial. This in-depth blog post, inspired by Magical API, will take you by the hand through step-by-step guidance, from installing to master strategies, so you can utilize the potential of LinkedIn efficiently and ethically.

Let’s get started!

Introduction to LinkedIn API Data Extraction

LinkedIn API scraping data is all about tapping into the site’s Application Programming Interface (API) to fetch useful data programmatically. Think of it as a gateway between LinkedIn’s gigantic database and your application, allowing you to scrape data like user profiles, company statistics, job listings, or even engagement statistics from posts. This beats manual copy and paste by miles, offering speed, scalability, and precision.

Why should you care? Imagine you’re a recruiter who needs to find applicants with specialized knowledge, or a marketer looking to track the competitors’ hiring patterns. It would take days to do this by hand, but minutes if you used the API assuming you have the correct access. Products like Magical API make LinkedIn API data scraping easier still, providing answers that keep the process streamlined and yet within LinkedIn’s tight rules.

Since 2015, LinkedIn has limited public access to APIs to protect user privacy, so you’ll need to be an approved partner or utilize a third-party service like Magical API. In this guide, we’ll get the fundamentals covered: how to set up access, authenticate requests, pull data, and more tuned to make you successful in 2025 and beyond.

Setting Up API Access and Permissions

You can’t just jump into how to extract data from LinkedIn using API without having gained access. LinkedIn doesn’t just give API keys to everyone—it’s an approved process with permission. This is how you begin:

Step 1: Register as a Developer

Visit the LinkedIn Developer Portal and sign in with your LinkedIn account. Create a new app by filling out details like the app name, description, and a linked company page. No company page? You’ll need to set one up—it’s a prerequisite for most API products.

Step 2: Select an API Product

LinkedIn has a number of APIs, each of which is bespoke for particular usage cases:

• Profile API: Accesses user profile data—perfect for recruiters or personal branding software.
• Marketing Developer Platform: Manages advertising and sponsored content, perfect for marketers.
• Sales Navigator Application Platform (SNAP): Blasts sales leads with enhanced searching capabilities.
• Talent Solutions: Used for hiring, like job postings and candidate searching.

Choose according to your needs. For instance, LinkedIn API for recruiters in Talent Solutions is the goldmine of a recruitment professional. Magical API is superior in the sense that there are ready-made company and profile data scraping implementations.

Step 3: Request Access

Submit an application for your chosen product. LinkedIn reviews these to ensure compliance with their terms, so be specific about your use case—generic or suspicious requests often get denied. Approval can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, so patience is key.

Step 4: Secure Your Credentials

Once approved, you’ll receive a Client ID and Client Secret. These are your API keys—guard them closely, as they’re essential for authentication.

Why Magical API?

It is tedious to directly use LinkedIn APIs like technical setup and waiting time which takes some time. Magical API makes it all easy. Until now, until April 2025, their service provides instant LinkedIn integration without the hassle and a groovy dashboard. They have recently introduced additional rate-limiting controls to be the number one solution for business professionals and developers alike.

Authenticating Your LinkedIn API Requests

Authentication is the key to LinkedIn’s data. Without authentication, your API calls will be going against a brick wall. LinkedIn employs OAuth 2.0, a secure and popular protocol. Follow these steps to get authenticated:

Step 1: Familiarize yourself with OAuth Flows

LinkedIn employs two OAuth 2.0 flows:

• 3-Legged OAuth: User authorization is necessary, best suited for apps where users log in through LinkedIn.
• 2-Legged OAuth: Server-to-server authentication, no user interaction necessary—best suited for backend operations.

For every extraction procedure, 3-legged OAuth is the solution. Start by directing users to LinkedIn’s authorised URL with your Client ID and scope choices (e.g., r_liteprofile for basic profile data).

Step 2: Obtain an Access Token

After user authorization, LinkedIn redirects an authorization code to your redirect URL. In return for the code, retrieve an access token by making a POST to their token endpoint with your Client Secret. Tokens expire after 60 days, but refresh tokens can be used to refresh access.

Step 3: Pass the Token in Requests

Pass the token in your API call headers:

Authorization: Bearer {your_access_token}

Consider magical API’s Advantage

Authentication is finicky business! Tokens time out, flows die, and mistakes pile up. Magical API does it for you. Our 2025 releases include real-time token management, along with automatic renewals, so your data scraping works flawlessly.

Extracting and Parsing LinkedIn Data

Since authentication will no longer be an issue, let’s fetch some data! There are several options when selecting LinkedIn API endpoints. This is the way to get and utilize the data:

Step 1: Choose Your Endpoint

Some of the more popular endpoints are:

• Profile API: GET https://api.linkedin.com/v2/me—obtains the profile of the authenticated user.
• Organization API: Obtains company information like size and industry.
• Posts API: Obtains organic or sponsored posts.
• Jobs API: Pulls job listings and metadata.

Refer to the API documentation at LinkedIn for supported endpoints and permissions.

Step 2: Send a Request for Extract Data from Linkedin Using Api

Do something similar in Postman or Python code:

python

import requests

url = “https://api.linkedin.com/v2/me?projection=(id,firstName,lastName)”

headers = {

    “Authorization”: “Bearer {your_access_token}”,

    “X-Restli-Protocol-Version”: “2.0.0”,

    “LinkedIn-Version”: “202502”

}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)

data = response.json()

print(data)

This pulls the user’s ID and name.

Step 3: Parse the Response

Data is JSON. Extract Data from Linkedin Using Api and what you need:

python

first_name = data[“firstName”][“localized”][“en_US”]

Step 4: Manage Rate Limits to Extract Data from Linkedin Using Api

LinkedIn restricts API calls (e.g., 100/day for some endpoints). Review these, and you’re temporarily blocked. Magical API enhances this with smart throttling and proxy support.

Example: Exporting LinkedIn Contacts via API

Need a list of your contacts? Connections API (permissioned) lets you import your network. Pair with Magical API’s CSV export, and you’ve got a decent contact list for your CRM.

Best Practices for Scraping LinkedIn Data Legally

Others scrape around the API and scrape LinkedIn. Legitimate scraping of LinkedIn data, however, is a minefield. LinkedIn policies ban unauthorized scraping, and even after the 2022 hiQ Labs ruling that legalized public data scraping, LinkedIn still enforces. Adhere to the following best practices:

• Use the API: It’s the authorized, ethical way.
• Get Consent: Scrape private data with consent only.
• Pace Yourself: Don’t flood LinkedIn servers.
• Stay True: Be honest if asked about your mission.

Magical API follows these standards. Their 2025 updates put compliance first, with public information and API-approved processes, so they are an ensured choice.

Advanced Techniques for LinkedIn API Data Extraction

Ready to filter up. Here are pro tips to optimize how to extract data from LinkedIn using API:

1- Batch Requests to Extract Data from Linkedin Using Api

Instead of individual calls, batch requests together. LinkedIn’s REST API does this with the batchGet endpoint, minimizing calls and accelerating extraction. For example:

GET https://api.linkedin.com/v2/people?ids=List((id:123),(id:456))

This pulls multiple profiles in a single go.

2- Filtering and Pagination

LinkedIn’s APIs will usually return paginated results. Use start and count parameters to scroll through large datasets:

GET https://api.linkedin.com/v2/connections?start=0&count=50

Loop through pages to gather all.

Combining APIs

Connect information between several endpoints. For instance, use the Profile API to get user IDs and then the Organization API to get their employer’s details. The latest innovation at Magical API includes multi-endpoint syncing, bringing back enriched sets in one call.

Error Handling for Extract Data from Linkedin Using Api

APIs aren’t perfect; rate limits, expired tokens, or server errors can derail you. Build robust error handling:

python

try:

    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)

    response.raise_for_status()

except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:

    print(f”Error: {e}”)

Real-Time Monitoring

Set up webhooks (if supported) or periodic polling to track changes, like new job postings. Magical API’s 2025 roadmap hints at real-time LinkedIn updates, a game-changer for dynamic data needs.

Mastering LinkedIn with Magical API

Extract Data from Linkedin Using Api is a life-changer for individuals and businesses. From setting up access to advanced batching techniques, this guide has presented the whole gamut. Magical API is such a tool that brings the experience to a whole new level, offering a compliant and simplified way of accessing LinkedIn’s goldmine of information. As of April 2025, their platform is getting better, with real-time information and simplicity of use that makes LinkedIn API data scraping child’s play for everyone.

Whether you’re exporting LinkedIn contacts via API or leveraging the LinkedIn API for recruiters, you’re now equipped to succeed. Start with the LinkedIn Developer Portal or explore Magical API for a faster path. Happy data hunting!

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