LinkedIn Advertising API: Access, Tiers and Reporting (2026)

November 9, 2026

Short answer

The LinkedIn Advertising API is the part of LinkedIn's Marketing API program that lets approved developers create and manage ad accounts, campaigns and creatives and pull ad analytics for accounts they administer. Every app starts in the Development tier, which can edit up to 5 ad accounts, and must request the Standard tier for unlimited accounts. It cannot read other companies' ads; for that you use LinkedIn's public Ad Library.

The LinkedIn Advertising API, also called the LinkedIn Ads API or Marketing API, is for running ads, not for researching them. LinkedIn's overview says it provides "all features available in LinkedIn Campaign Manager" through code: ad accounts, campaign groups, campaigns, creatives, ad types and analytics. Everything below is from LinkedIn's own docs, checked today.

What the LinkedIn Advertising API covers

Part	What you can do	Limits LinkedIn lists
Ad accounts	Create and manage accounts and their users	Enterprise or Business account with one authenticated admin
Campaign groups	Group campaigns for status, budget and reporting	2,000 campaigns per non-default group
Campaigns	Schedules, daily or total budgets, targeting by job title, function, seniority and more	5,000 per ad account
Creatives	Video, image, carousel, article, text, message, conversation, follower, spotlight and job ads	15,000 per ad account
Reporting	Clicks, impressions, spend and professional demographics by account, campaign or creative	See the reporting table below

Who can get access

LinkedIn's product page asks four questions: do you have an established business, an established use case, a use case that matches a supported solution and is not restricted, and do you agree to the Marketing API Terms? Then:

Create an app in the Developer Portal and add the Advertising API under My Apps > your app > Products.
Fill in the access form with an ads management or reporting use case.
Wait for LinkedIn's review and check status in the portal.
If rejected, read the common rejection reasons, create a new app and apply again.

LinkedIn says it may decline partners who meet the minimum requirements. Matched Audiences, Audience Insights and Media Planning need their own application, and the Advertising API is a prerequisite for all three; Audience Insights and Media Planning are open only to developers who meet extra criteria.

Development tier vs Standard tier

	Development	Standard
Read	No limit, for ad accounts you administer	No limit, for ad accounts you administer
Create ad accounts	1 test account through the API; real ones in Campaign Manager	Unlimited
Edit	Up to 5 ad accounts	Unlimited
How to get it	Apply from your app's Products tab	Support ticket on the Developer Support Portal, after you build and test

Source: access tiers and increasing access. All calls in both tiers run on production data, so a live test campaign can spend real money.

Authentication and versions

3-legged OAuth. All Marketing API permissions are member permissions: a LinkedIn member who manages the ad account must approve your app. Key scopes are r_ads, rw_ads and r_ads_reporting. rw_ads works only where the member is an account billing admin, account manager, campaign manager or creative manager.
Monthly versions. Every call sends a Linkedin-Version: YYYYMM header. Each version is supported for at least a year; the latest is 202610, and version 202511 is sunset on November 16, 2026 (versioning).
Daily rate limits. Limits are per app and per member, reset at midnight UTC, and are not published; you see yours in the portal's Analytics tab. Over the limit you get HTTP 429, and admins get an email at 75% (rate limits).

Reporting: the adAnalytics endpoint

Rule	Value
Finders	`analytics` (1 pivot), `statistics` (up to 3 pivots), `attributedRevenueMetrics`
Metrics per call	Up to 20 via `fields`; only impressions and clicks by default
Response size	15,000 elements, no pagination
Daily data	Last 6 months; older ranges round to months
Retention	Performance data 10 years; professional demographics 2 years
Demographic pivots	Top 100 values per creative per day

A daily campaign report for October, following LinkedIn's reporting docs:

curl "https://api.linkedin.com/rest/adAnalytics?q=analytics&pivot=CAMPAIGN&timeGranularity=DAILY&dateRange=(start:(year:2026,month:10,day:1),end:(year:2026,month:10,day:31))&accounts=List(urn%3Ali%3AsponsoredAccount%3A123456789)&fields=impressions,clicks,costInLocalCurrency,dateRange,pivotValues" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Linkedin-Version: 202610" \
  -H "X-Restli-Protocol-Version: 2.0.0"

Plan around the 15,000-element cap: 30 days x 500 campaigns is 15,000 rows, so split bigger pulls by date or account.

Advertising API vs Ad Library: which one you need

You want to	Use
Launch, pause and edit your own or a client's campaigns	Advertising API
Pull spend, clicks and conversions for accounts you manage	Advertising API, reporting
See what a competitor runs on LinkedIn	LinkedIn Ad Library
Build lead lists or audiences from member data	Neither: LinkedIn's restricted uses forbid it

The Advertising API reads only ad accounts you administer. LinkedIn's public Ad Library covers everyone else: ads that ran after June 1, 2023, kept for a year after their last impression, with preview, format, advertiser and payer. For EU-targeted ads it also shows impressions, targeting and run dates. The help page links an "Ad Library API" page, which returned an error to our checker today, so we cannot describe its access terms. Our LinkedIn Ad Library guide has a full teardown method, and the ad creative research playbook covers LinkedIn, Meta and Google together.

Doing it with ScrapeIO

ScrapeIO reads the public Ad Library, not ad accounts, so it needs no app review or OAuth. The LinkedIn ads search API searches by company, companyId or keyword, with countries, startDate and endDate, and pages with paginationToken. The LinkedIn ad details API opens one ad by URL. Both cost 1 credit a call. Add the LinkedIn company posts API for a competitor's organic side. See the LinkedIn Ad Library platform page and the LinkedIn Ad Library MCP server; for the rest of LinkedIn's official APIs, see Is the LinkedIn API free?

curl "https://scrapeio.com/v1/linkedin/ads/search?company=Salesforce&countries=DE,FR" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_KEY"

FAQ

Is the LinkedIn Advertising API free?

The LinkedIn developer pages we checked list no price for API access. You pay for the ads you run, and access depends on approval.

How do I get LinkedIn Advertising API access?

Create a Developer Portal app, add the Advertising API under Products and submit the access form with an ads management or reporting use case.

What is the difference between the Development and Standard tiers?

Development edits up to 5 ad accounts and creates 1 test account through the API. Standard removes both limits and is requested by support ticket.

Can the LinkedIn Ads API show competitors' ads?

No. It reads only ad accounts you administer. Competitors' ads are in the public LinkedIn Ad Library.

Sources

Checked on 9 November 2026 from each vendor's own pages. Prices and limits change; follow the links before you decide.

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