How to Export LinkedIn Search Results (What Actually Works in 2026)

LinkedIn does not let you export people-search results. Not from linkedin.com, and — in LinkedIn's own words — not from Sales Navigator either: "LinkedIn currently doesn't offer the option to export account and lead information from Sales Navigator into a CSV or XLS file." The one product with a documented export control is LinkedIn Recruiter, where you can "select up to 25 profiles" and save them to PDF — and where CSV comes from a project's Pipeline, not from a search. Below is what LinkedIn does document, and what it doesn't.

Sales Navigator: you save leads, you don't export them

The native workflow is a list, not a file. From LinkedIn's guide to viewing and saving leads in Sales Navigator:

1. Go to the Sales Navigator homepage.
2. Click All filters, then Lead filters.
3. Enter your search criteria and click Search.
4. Click Save next to any profile you want.
5. To save several at once, "select the check box displayed above the search results and click Save to list". LinkedIn documents this as saving "25 leads at a time".

The storage caps are published: "You can save up to 1,000 leads in each list and 10,000 total leads." LinkedIn's article on managing those lists documents no download control. Getting a smaller, better list is a question about how you build the search filters, not about exporting.

Save the search so it re-runs itself

The closest native substitute for repeat exporting. From LinkedIn's article on saving lead and account searches, on desktop:

1. "Sign in to Sales Navigator".
2. Click Lead filters or Account filters at the top of the homepage.
3. "Refine your search by adding or removing filters."
4. Turn on the Save search to get notified of new results toggle, near the top of the search filters pane on the left.

On mobile the same toggle reads Be first to know when new leads match. The cap: "You can save a total of 50 lead searches and 50 account searches." Alerts go to the account's email and to the All alerts tab.

Sales Navigator's only genuine CSV is the admin usage report: seat usage metrics, not leads.

The data archive exports your connections, not your search

There is a real documented export, just not of results. Per LinkedIn's instructions for exporting your connections:

1. "Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage."
2. "Select Settings & Privacy from the dropdown."
3. "Click Data privacy on the left pane."
4. Under the How LinkedIn uses your data section, click Get a copy of your data.
5. Select Download larger data archive, including connections, verifications, contacts, account history, and information we infer about you based on your profile and activity.
6. Select Request archive.
7. "You'll receive an email to your Primary Email address which will include a link where you can download your data."

Labels vary between LinkedIn's live articles: the download your data page calls the control Download your data and puts Data Privacy on the "left rail". Use whichever matches your screen. It also gives timing: specific data types arrive "within minutes", the larger archive "within 24 hours", and "The data will be available for download for 72 hours."

What comes back is your first-degree connections, with email addresses only where the connection permitted visibility. Its categories include Search Queries — the word or phrase and date of a search — and none for result rows.

LinkedIn Recruiter: the one documented export button

Recruiter's Save to PDF and Save to CSV controls are documented in the article linked above. PDF works from search results:

1. Run a search using the global search bar.
2. "Select the box(es) next to the profile(s) you want to export. You can select up to 25 profiles."
3. "Click Save to PDF at the top of your search results."

CSV does not — it comes from a project:

1. Open your project in Recruiter and click Pipeline.
2. Select the box next to the profiles you want, again up to 25.
3. "Click Save to CSV at the top of the list."

For one person, "Click the More icon and select Save to PDF from the dropdown." Quotas are per seat, per month: "200 profiles per month, per seat via PDF" and "5000 unique profiles and 200 files per month, per seat via CSV". Recruiter Lite does not support CSV exports.

Check how much you can even see

The search itself is capped too, and those numbers are published. On linkedin.com, free and basic members get "A maximum of 250 results per search or 25 pages of search results"; for Premium there is no published number, only "Increased number of people searches for the Premium Business plan and above". In Sales Navigator, "You can view up to 2,500 lead results across 100 pages", and account search stops at "1,000 account results across 40 pages".

The commercial use limit sits on top, described but not quantified: "We are not able to display the exact number of searches or views you have left." It resets "at midnight PST on the 1st of each calendar month" — the same shape as LinkedIn's connection request limits.

What the User Agreement says about scraping tools

Most "export LinkedIn search results" guides end at a browser extension. Section 8.2 of the LinkedIn User Agreement, effective November 3, 2025, addresses that directly:

8.2.2 — "Develop, support or use software, devices, scripts, robots or any other means or processes (such as crawlers, browser plugins and add-ons or any other technology) to scrape or copy the Services, including profiles and other data from the Services"

8.2.4 — "Copy, use, display or distribute any information (including content) obtained from the Services, whether directly or through third parties (such as search tools or data aggregators or brokers), without the consent of the content owner"

8.2.13 — "Use bots or other unauthorized automated methods to access the Services, add or download contacts, send or redirect messages, create, comment on, like, share, or re-share posts, or otherwise drive inauthentic engagement"

8.2.4 covers redistributing the file even when a third party did the collecting, and LinkedIn renumbers section 8 between revisions, so check the numbers against the live page. It is the clause family behind most stories about why LinkedIn restricts automation tools.

Using a tool: work from the search, not from a file

If you wanted the CSV because something downstream needs the list, one option is a tool that reads the search. ZenMode's campaign wizard accepts a LinkedIn search URL or a Sales Navigator search URL as the source for a campaign: you build the search on LinkedIn, paste the URL in, and the campaign works from that search. There is no export step and no file at the end, and it runs on your own computer.

What LinkedIn does not document

The gaps where competing articles tend to invent steps:

• Search alerts on linkedin.com people search. No Help Center article exists; the steps that circulate come from a member's LinkedIn post, not documentation.
• Saved searches and alerts in Recruiter. The article exists but would not load on the day we checked.
• CRM Sync setup. Confirmed to exist and to be Advanced Plus only, LinkedIn's suggested alternative to a CSV, but not its steps.
• A 1,000-result cap on linkedin.com people search. Widely repeated, and not what LinkedIn's current article says: 250 results across 25 pages for free members, no Premium number.
• Any figure for the commercial use limit. LinkedIn states it will not display it.
• Whether a third-party exporter is approved by LinkedIn. That runs through LinkedIn's partner program and official APIs, unverified here.

FAQ

Can I export Sales Navigator leads to a CSV file?

No. The Help Center article titled "Export account and lead information from Sales Navigator" says the opposite: "LinkedIn currently doesn't offer the option to export account and lead information from Sales Navigator into a CSV or XLS file." You save leads into lists instead, 25 at a time.

Does the LinkedIn data archive include people I found in a search?

No. Its documented categories include Search Queries — the word or phrase and date of a search — with none for search results. The connections export returns your first-degree connections only.

Want to run outreach straight from a search URL, inside LinkedIn's own limits? Start your 14-day free trial.