Is the LinkedIn API free? Prices, limits and approval (2026)
LinkedIn lists no price for its APIs, but almost all of them need LinkedIn's approval, and none lets you read arbitrary public profiles. Self-serve access gives only Sign In with LinkedIn (the member's own name, headline, photo and email) and Share on LinkedIn. The Community Management API is for registered organizations, starts at 500 calls per app per day, and reads Pages you administer.
Short answer: no money changes hands for most LinkedIn APIs, but LinkedIn decides who gets in. Its docs say most permissions and partner programs require explicit approval, and that open permissions are the only ones available to all developers LinkedIn.
The official LinkedIn options at a glance
| Product | Who can get it | What it reads | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sign In with LinkedIn (OpenID Connect) | Any developer, self-serve source | The signed-in member's name, headline, photo and email | Not stated |
| Share on LinkedIn | Any developer, self-serve | Write only: post, comment, like as the member | Not stated |
| Community Management API | Registered legal organizations, commercial use source | Pages you administer, your posts and analytics | Development tier: 500 calls per app and 100 per member per 24 hours source |
| Advertising API | Approved developers | Ad accounts you administer | Development tier edits up to 5 ad accounts |
| Sales Navigator (SNAP) | Approved SNAP partners source | Matched, publicly available member profile information | Partner terms |
| Member Data Portability | Members in the EEA and Switzerland source | That member's own data | Changelog covers the past 28 days |
Two programs are closed: the Company Intelligence API is not accepting new applications, and Compliance access may not be requested source source.
Community Management API, step by step
- Create an app in the Developer Portal, tied to your organization's LinkedIn Page. A super admin of that Page must verify the app.
- Submit the access form with a business email (personal emails fail vetting), your legal name, registered address, website and privacy policy app review.
- LinkedIn reviews your use case, email, organization and domain. If approved, you get the Development tier.
- Build within 12 months. Development tier allows 500 calls per app and 100 per member per 24 hours, no BATCH_GET calls, and no webhook push access tiers.
- For Standard tier (no restrictions), submit a narrated, high-resolution screencast of each use case, test credentials and a product overview.
A rejection is final for that app: you create a new app and apply again. LinkedIn says restricted APIs are judged case by case with no fixed timeline, and it may decline partners who meet the minimum requirements source.
What you can read about organizations you don't run
This is where most research plans end. For organizations you don't administer, the Organization Lookup API returns only id, name, localizedName, localizedWebsite, vanityName, logoV2, locations and primaryOrganizationType. The network size endpoint gives a follower count for any organization Organization Lookup. Description, industry, staff count and posts are admin-only.
Worked example
Say you want follower counts for 300 competitors every week. Each needs a lookup and a network size call: 600 calls, which is more than the Development tier's 500 a day for the whole app. Split across two days it fits, but you still get no posts, no descriptions and no employee counts.
Which one fits you
- "Log in with LinkedIn" in your app: OpenID Connect, self-serve.
- Scheduling posts for your company or your clients: Community Management API.
- Managing campaigns: Advertising API.
- CRM enrichment inside Sales Navigator: become a SNAP partner.
- Public company pages, public posts or public profiles of people and companies you don't manage: no official API offers this.
The free open-source route
Open-source LinkedIn scrapers usually drive a browser with your logged-in session. LinkedIn's User Agreement, section 8.2, bars using software, scripts or robots to scrape the Services, using bots or other unauthorized automated methods, and getting around use limits User Agreement. Your own account is the one at risk. Our LinkedIn scrapers guide covers the hiQ and Proxycurl cases in detail.
This is not legal advice. If your project depends on it, ask a lawyer who knows your use case and your country.
The pay-per-call option
ScrapeIO reads public LinkedIn data, 1 credit per call: linkedin company API, linkedin company posts API, linkedin profile API, linkedin post API and linkedin ads search API. It is read-only and cannot post or act as a user, and you don't connect your own LinkedIn account.
Worked example: the 300-competitor weekly check with company details and one page of posts is 600 calls a week, about 2,600 credits a month, or roughly $4.89 at the Starter rate of $1.88 per 1,000 credits.
See also LinkedIn company page scraper and LinkedIn competitor analysis. Endpoints are on the LinkedIn platform page, and the LinkedIn MCP server serves them to AI agents. New accounts get 100 free credits.
Sources
Checked on 8 November 2026 from each vendor's own pages. Prices and limits change; follow the links before you decide.
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/shared/authentication/getting-access
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/marketing/increasing-access
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/marketing/community-management-app-review
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/marketing/community-management/organizations/organization-lookup-api
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/dma/member-data-portability/member-data-portability-member/
- https://www.linkedin.com/legal/user-agreement
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