LinkedIn is the single richest source of B2B lead data on the open web — and the hardest to scrape because they aggressively block bots. On Kavex you scrape with your own LinkedIn session cookie, which means our requests look identical to your normal browsing. We never see your password, the cookie is encrypted at rest, and you can remove it anytime.
This guide covers the safe way to do it: which fields you can pull, how the cookie flow works, and how Kavex compares to Phantombuster and direct-DIY approaches.
What you can pull from a LinkedIn profile
Kavex extracts up to 26 fields per profile when you enable all toggles. Always-included fields: name, headline, location, current company.
- Profile content: about summary, past work history, education, skills, languages, certifications
- Background sections: volunteer experience, honors & awards, publications, patents, projects, courses, test scores
- Signals: connections count, followers count, verified badge, "open to work" flag, "hiring" flag, pronouns
- Media: profile photo URL, banner image URL
- Quality grade per row (full / partial / name_only) so you know what you got
Step-by-step scrape
Once your cookie is saved, scraping is a paste-and-go flow.
- Settings → LinkedIn Cookie → paste your li_at value → click Test → wait for "Active" badge
- /configure/linkedin-profiles → paste profile URLs or @handles (one per line)
- Toggle which of the 20 optional fields you want
- Submit. Results stream in with ~10s per profile (we rate-limit so LinkedIn doesn't flag you)
How is this different from Phantombuster?
Phantombuster bills per-execution-time (€56-€352/month for hours of phantom usage). Kavex bills per-result (3 credits = $0.003 per profile). On a typical 500-profile recruiting list, Phantombuster runs through 30+ minutes of phantom time; Kavex finishes in 1.5k credits ($1.50). The savings compound on regular use.
Every number on this page comes from that run, not from a price list.
Questions people ask
Will my LinkedIn account get banned?
We rate-limit aggressively (one request every 2.5-5.5 seconds with sticky proxy IPs), so for normal-volume use the risk is low. We recommend keeping your daily scrape volume under ~200 profiles per cookie. Heavier users should rotate cookies (sub-accounts).
How do I get my li_at cookie?
Open linkedin.com → DevTools (F12) → Application → Cookies → linkedin.com → copy the value of li_at. The /settings page in Kavex has step-by-step screenshots.
What happens when the cookie expires?
LinkedIn rotates session tokens every 30-90 days. We auto-test the cookie on every Settings visit and auto-delete it when invalid — you'll see a banner asking you to paste a fresh one.
Can I scrape someone else's LinkedIn data?
Only what they've made public on their own profile. We don't bypass any privacy settings — if a profile is private, you'll see only what a logged-in visitor sees.