How to Scrape LinkedIn with Apify (2026 Legal & Safe Guide)

Quick answer: how to scrape LinkedIn with Apify

1. Go to Apify Store and search "LinkedIn" — multiple actors are available — Go to Apify Store and search "LinkedIn" — multiple actors are available
2. Choose the actor that fits your need Profile Scraper, Company Scraper, or People Search Scraper
3. Configure the actor input URLs (for profiles) or search criteria (for people search)
4. Set max results and run concurrency based on your Apify plan — Set max results and run concurrency based on your Apify plan
5. Run the actor — it collects public profile data name, title, company, location, about
6. Export results as CSV, JSON or Excel — Export results as CSV, JSON or Excel
7. Clean and filter the data remove duplicates, filter by industry/title/location
8. Import into your CRM or outreach tool — Import into your CRM or outreach tool

Choosing the right LinkedIn actor

Apify offers several LinkedIn actors. Choose based on your goal:

• LinkedIn Profile Scraper: input profile URLs, get full profile data (experience, education, skills)
• LinkedIn People Search Scraper: input search criteria (job title, location, industry), get matching profiles
• LinkedIn Company Scraper: input company URLs, get company data (size, industry, description, employees)
• LinkedIn Posts Scraper: input profile URLs, get post data (content, likes, comments, dates)

B2B lead generation workflow

The highest-ROI workflow for B2B marketers: use the People Search Scraper to find decision-makers by job title and industry, then enrich with company data from the Company Scraper.

1. Define your ICP industry, company size, decision-maker title (e.g., "Marketing Director at SaaS companies 50-200 employees")
2. Run LinkedIn People Search Scraper with those criteria — Run LinkedIn People Search Scraper with those criteria
3. Export the results names, titles, companies, locations
4. Run LinkedIn Company Scraper on the unique company URLs for company details — Run LinkedIn Company Scraper on the unique company URLs for company details
5. Merge the two datasets you now have contact + company data
6. Filter remove companies that do not fit your ICP (wrong size, wrong industry)
7. Import into your outreach tool (Lemlist, Instantly, Mailshake) for cold email campaigns — Import into your outreach tool (Lemlist, Instantly, Mailshake) for cold email campaigns

Rate limits and safe scraping

LinkedIn actively detects and blocks automated scraping. Apify's LinkedIn actors include built-in rate limiting and proxy rotation to avoid blocks, but you should still:

• Keep concurrent runs low (1-3 for free tier, 5-10 for Pro)
• Do not scrape more than 1,000-2,000 profiles per day per account
• Use residential proxies if available (some actors include them, others require your own)
• Add delays between requests — the actors handle this automatically
• Do not log into LinkedIn while scraping is running

Legal considerations

LinkedIn scraping exists in a legal gray area. Key points: scraping public data (profiles visible without login) is generally legal in most jurisdictions. Scraping behind a login may violate LinkedIn's Terms of Service. The hiQ vs LinkedIn case (US Ninth Circuit, 2022) established that scraping public LinkedIn data does not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Best practices: only scrape public data, do not redistribute scraped data, use the data for legitimate business purposes (lead generation, market research), and comply with GDPR/CCPA for data of EU/California residents. Always consult legal counsel for your specific situation.

What to do with the scraped data

• Cold email outreach: import to Lemlist/Instantly/Mailshake with personalized first lines
• CRM enrichment: add company and contact data to HubSpot/Salesforce
• Lookalike audiences: upload email lists to Meta/LinkedIn for ad targeting
• Market research: analyze title distributions, company sizes, geographic concentrations
• Sales intelligence: identify companies hiring for specific roles (buying signal)