Disclosure: This article is published by Datamagnet, which sells a people and company data API. Vendor prices come from each vendor's own pricing page, checked in October 2026. Prices change often, so confirm them before you buy.
LinkedIn API Pricing in 2026: What the Official API Costs, and What Developers Use Instead
LinkedIn doesn't publish a price list for its APIs. Access is granted program by program, and the only self-serve permissions let you sign a member in and post on their behalf. Need profile or company data for anyone else? You'll use a third-party data API, a dataset or a scraper, at roughly $8 to $280 per 1,000 profiles.
This guide covers what each official LinkedIn API program gives you, who can get in, and what the alternatives cost per 1,000 lookups.
Key Takeaways
- LinkedIn's open permissions are free and self-serve, but they only return the signed-in member's own name, headline, photo and email (Microsoft Learn).
- Marketing, Sales and Talent APIs all require approval. The Sales Navigator API page says LinkedIn is "not currently accepting new partners" (Microsoft Learn).
- Third-party profile data ranges from about $8 to $280 per 1,000 lookups on entry and mid plans, depending on vendor and volume.
- Compare live data with dataset snapshots separately. A cheap snapshot row and a live lookup aren't the same product.
Does LinkedIn Publish API Pricing?
No. None of LinkedIn's developer access pages list a price. Instead, LinkedIn splits its APIs into programs, and each program decides who gets in.
Microsoft's access guide puts it plainly: "Most permissions and partner programs require explicit approval from LinkedIn. Open Permissions are the only permissions that are available to all developers without special approval" (Microsoft Learn, Getting Access to LinkedIn APIs).
So "LinkedIn API pricing" really asks two questions. First, can you get access at all? Second, if you can't, what does the data cost elsewhere?
What Can You Get From LinkedIn's Official APIs?
Here's every program on LinkedIn's access page, and what it takes to use it.
| Program | What it gives you | Access |
|---|---|---|
| Sign In with LinkedIn (OpenID Connect) | The signed-in member's name, headline, photo and primary email | Self-serve, free |
| Share on LinkedIn | Post, comment and like on behalf of the signed-in member | Self-serve, free |
| Marketing (Advertising API, Community Management, Lead Sync and more) | Ad campaigns, reporting, company Page management, Lead Gen Form sync | Application and approval |
| Sales Navigator Application Platform (SNAP) | Display modules, analytics exports, CRM sync, matched profile data | Partner only, not accepting new partners |
| Talent (Recruiter System Connect, Apply Connect, Apply with LinkedIn, Job Posting) | ATS and recruiting integrations | Partner application |
| Compliance | Activity archiving for regulated firms | Closed |
Sources: Microsoft Learn, Getting Access, Sales Navigator Application Platform, Marketing API Program, Talent Solutions, all checked October 2026.
Can the official API look up any profile?
Not for most developers. The open profile permission retrieves "the authenticated member's name, headline, and photo." It doesn't return anyone else.
The permission that does return other people's data is r_sales_nav_profiles. LinkedIn describes it as access to endpoints "that present matched, publicly available member profile information." It sits inside SNAP, which isn't taking new partners.
What about the Sales Navigator API?
The Sales Navigator docs say LinkedIn is "not currently accepting new partners for access to the LinkedIn Sales Navigator API." If you were planning to build on SNAP, plan for the door being closed. Our guide to getting Sales Navigator data programmatically covers the workarounds teams use instead.
What Do Developers Use Instead?
Most teams pick one of three routes. Each trades cost against freshness and effort.
- A profile data API. You send a profile or company URL and get structured JSON back. This is the fastest route to working code, and there's nothing to maintain.
- A dataset. You buy a bulk snapshot of millions of records. The unit price is the lowest, but every row is as old as the last refresh.
- A scraper. You run a ready-made scraper, such as an Apify actor, or build your own on proxy infrastructure. Unit prices can be low, but you own failures, retries and parsing.
Which one fits? It depends on volume and how fresh the data must be. A CRM refresh of 500 champions a week needs a different tool than loading 5 million rows into a warehouse.
How Much Do Third-Party LinkedIn Data APIs Cost per 1,000 Profiles?
The table normalizes each vendor's published pricing to the cost of 1,000 person profile lookups. Where a vendor charges in credits, the math uses its published credit costs.
| Provider | Model | Cost per 1,000 profiles | Freshness | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Datamagnet | Credits; 1 credit per profile | $7.96 (Scale) · $9.90 (Pro) · $39 (Starter) · $50 (200-credit pack) | Fetched live at request time | Pricing |
| Reverse Contact (ScrapIn) | Credit packs; 1 credit per URL lookup | About $9 on the 200K pack ($1,800); 2 credits for a live refresh | Lookup or live refresh | Pricing |
| Apify actor (most-used profile scraper) | Pay per result | $10 ($0.01 per profile) plus Apify platform usage | Scraped when run | Actor · Apify pricing |
| Bright Data | Web Scraper API, or datasets | $1.50 (Scraper API, pay as you go) · $2.50 (dataset, 100K tier) | Scraper live; datasets are snapshots | Scraper API · Datasets |
| Enrich Layer | Credit packs; 1–3 credits per found person | $21.60–$64.80 (largest pack) · $100–$300 (smallest pack) | Cached first | Pricing |
| Coresignal | Monthly credits; 10 credits per core record, 20 per full record | $165.83 core (Starter) · $15 core (Premium, $1,500/mo) | Stored records | Pricing |
| People Data Labs | Records per month | About $280 at entry ($98/mo for 350 records) | Stored dataset | Pricing |
| Crustdata | Credits; 1 credit database enrich, 7 live | Dollar value per credit not published | Database or live | Docs |
All prices checked October 2026. Per-1,000 figures are our arithmetic from each published price, not a rate the vendor quotes.
How Do You Compare These Prices Fairly?
Headline rates hide four differences. Check each before you commit.
Live data or a snapshot? A dataset row at $2.50 per 1,000 is excellent value for analysis. It's poor value if you need a title that changed last week. B2B contact data decays fast, so match freshness to the job.
What does a "credit" buy? Enrich Layer charges 1–3 credits per found person, depending on what you request. Coresignal charges 10 credits for a core record and 20 for a full one. Compare the credits a real request uses, not the credit price alone.
Do failed lookups cost money? Datamagnet charges only for successful requests. Reverse Contact charges for an email or phone only when one is found. Ask every vendor this question.
What's the minimum? People Data Labs starts at $98 a month. Coresignal's smallest paid plan, Mini, is $49 a month for about 250 core records. Bright Data datasets start at a 100K-record tier. A low unit price doesn't help if you need 2,000 lookups.
Here's the practical rule. For a few thousand profiles a month that must be current, a pay-per-lookup API is usually cheapest overall. For millions of rows where last quarter's data is fine, buy a dataset.
Which Option Fits Your Use Case?
Match the route to the job, not the headline price.
| Use case | Best fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Enrich new CRM leads as they arrive | Live profile API | Low volume, needs current titles |
| Track job changes on key accounts | Live API with change alerts | You pay only when someone moves |
| Score a 5M-row market map | Dataset | Lowest unit price, freshness matters less |
| One-off research list of 2,000 people | Pay-as-you-go API or an Apify actor | No subscription minimum |
| Product feature that shows profiles to users | Live API | Your users expect current data |
If you're building the live route, Datamagnet's People API and Company API return structured JSON from a profile or company URL. The Posts API adds post content and engagement. The API docs list every field.
When Is the Official LinkedIn API the Right Choice?
Use the official API whenever your feature acts as the member, or runs LinkedIn's own products. Third-party data can't replace these.
- Sign-in. "Sign In with LinkedIn" is free, self-serve and the right way to authenticate members.
- Posting for a member. Share on LinkedIn lets your app post, comment and like on the signed-in member's behalf.
- Ads and Lead Gen Forms. Campaign management, reporting and Lead Sync live only in the Marketing API program.
- Company Page management. Community Management APIs handle Page posts, follower statistics and brand mentions.
- ATS integrations. Apply Connect and Recruiter System Connect exist for recruiting software, through LinkedIn's partner program.
In short, the official API is for acting inside LinkedIn. Third-party data APIs are for reading public profile and company data at scale. Many products use both.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the LinkedIn API cost?
LinkedIn doesn't publish API pricing. Its open permissions, Sign In with LinkedIn and Share on LinkedIn, are free and self-serve. Marketing, Sales Navigator and Talent APIs require approval, and terms are set per partner. If you need other people's profile data, third-party APIs cost roughly $8 to $280 per 1,000 profiles in October 2026.
Can I get any LinkedIn profile through the official API?
Usually not. The self-serve profile permission returns only the signed-in member's name, headline and photo. Matched public profile data sits behind the Sales Navigator Application Platform, and LinkedIn's docs say it is not currently accepting new partners. Most developers who need other profiles use a third-party data API instead.
Is the LinkedIn Sales Navigator API available?
Not to new developers right now. LinkedIn's Sales Navigator documentation states that it is "not currently accepting new partners" for API access. Existing partners keep their integrations. If you need Sales Navigator search results as data, third-party APIs can turn a Sales Navigator search URL into JSON.
What is the cheapest way to get LinkedIn profile data?
For bulk analysis, a dataset is cheapest per row. Bright Data lists $2.50 per 1,000 records on its 100K tier. For current data on fewer profiles, a pay-per-lookup API usually costs less overall, because you skip subscription minimums. Datamagnet's Scale plan works out to $7.96 per 1,000 live profile lookups.
Do I need LinkedIn's approval to use a third-party data API?
No partner approval is needed, because you aren't calling LinkedIn's API. You're buying data from a vendor that collects public profile information. Check each vendor's terms and data practices, and run your own legal review for your use case. That matters most if you store profiles or process data about people in the EU.
Conclusion
"LinkedIn API pricing" has a short answer: there's no public price list, and the useful programs are approval-gated or closed. If you need to sign members in, post for them, run ads or integrate an ATS, apply for the official program. If you need public profile and company data for people beyond your signed-in user, pick between a live API, a dataset and a scraper by volume and freshness.
To test the live route, create a free Datamagnet account and look up 10 profiles on the free credits. Then compare the cost against your volume on the pricing page.
