# How to choose a LinkedIn data API in 2026.

> Five kinds of LinkedIn data API, how each charges, what it needs from you and who it suits: marketplaces, datasets, account APIs, per-record APIs.

Canonical: https://apiforagents.dev/guides/how-to-choose-a-linkedin-data-api · Updated 2026-10-16

LinkedIn data APIs come in five kinds, and the kind matters more than the brand: how you pay (per record, per hour, per account or per month), whether you need your own LinkedIn account, and whether data is fetched when you ask or read from a stored set.

- Kinds: 5
- Our kind: Per record
- Profiles here: $0.004
- Start: $5

## The five kinds

| Kind | How you pay | Your LinkedIn account | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per-record APIs (this one) | Per profile, company, post or job; prepaid balance | Not needed | Agents, products and scripts with variable volume |
| Scraper marketplaces | Per run or per result, set by each scraper's author; often a monthly plan | Usually not | Teams that want many sources and will compare scrapers |
| Stored datasets | Monthly credits or bulk licences | Not needed | Bulk analysis, large steady volume |
| Account-based APIs | Per connected account or seat, monthly | Yes, each user's | Messaging and inbox products |
| Automation tools | Monthly plans by execution time | Often your session | No-code workflows on your own account |

## Seven questions that decide it

1. What is the smallest amount I must pay to start, and does unused money expire?
2. Is the price per record, and can I see the exact price before a call?
3. Do I need to connect a LinkedIn account or share a cookie?
4. Is the data fetched when I ask, or read from a stored set, and does each row say when?
5. What happens when a profile is not found: am I charged?
6. Can my agent sign itself up and stay inside a budget?
7. Does the provider claim to be LinkedIn's partner? (If it is not, it should not.)

## Our answers

| Question | API for Agents |
|---|---|
| Smallest amount to start | $5; agents get a $0.10 trial first. Money is kept. |
| Price per record, quoted | Yes: $0.001 to $0.004, exact quote with estimateOnly, free |
| Your LinkedIn account | Never |
| Freshness | Every row says when it was measured and whether it was fresh or cached |
| Not found | Refunded and named in coverage |
| Agent self-signup and budget | One POST to sign up; maxUsd caps each call |
| LinkedIn partner | No, and we do not claim to be |

## Questions

### What is the best LinkedIn data API?

The one whose kind matches your volume and workflow. For agents and variable volume, a per-record API with quotes; for huge steady volume, a dataset or high-volume plan; for acting on your own account, an account-based API.

### What should a LinkedIn profile cost by API?

Published prices range from about a tenth of a cent to tens of cents per profile depending on volume and kind. Here it is $0.004, pay as you go.

## Why API for Agents

- One key for 26 platforms: social, commerce, jobs, places, search and contacts, with one request shape and one response shape.
- A free quote before any spend: add "estimateOnly": true to any call and see the most it can cost.
- Pay per record in US dollars. No subscription, nothing expires, top-ups from $5.
- $0.10 free to try, no card. An AI agent can sign itself up in one request; a person claims it later.
- Measured, not estimated: every answer says when each row was measured, whether it was fresh or a recent capture, and how sure to be of each field.
- Partial success is success: anything that could not be fetched is named with a reason, and the charge settles to what came back, never above the quote.
- Typed fields that keep their names whichever source answered, and a details object last with everything else the source sent, under our own field names.
- Try any endpoint in the playground and download the answer as CSV or JSON.

## Start

The playground runs any endpoint by hand: pick a platform and what you want from it, fill a short form named in plain words (or press Use sample input), see the free quote on the Run button, run it, then read the answer as a table or JSON and download it as CSV or JSON. The same call is written out as cURL, Python and Node while you type. Open it at https://apiforagents.dev/dashboard/run (sign in first).

Agents register at https://apiforagents.dev/auth.md (one POST, $0.10 free). People: https://apiforagents.dev/docs#start. Prices: https://apiforagents.dev/pricing.md