Quick Answer
Yes, it is possible to export the email addresses of your LinkedIn contacts, but with some limitations. LinkedIn does not allow directly exporting all your connections’ emails for privacy reasons. However, there are a few workarounds that allow exporting a limited number of email addresses at a time. The main options are:
- Exporting emails from LinkedIn messages – You can export email addresses of people you’ve messaged.
- Using the LinkedIn Contacts Export tool – Exports email addresses of up to 500 connections.
- Using third-party Chrome extensions – Some extensions can export a few hundred emails at a time.
- Scraping emails through Premium Sales Navigator – Upgrades allow exporting more email addresses.
- Asking connections individually – Manually requesting email addresses from connections.
So in summary, LinkedIn does not allow mass exports of all connections’ emails, but provides tools to export limited batches at a time. Third party extensions can also help extract more email addresses through scraping.
Exporting Emails from LinkedIn Messages
One way to get a portion of your LinkedIn connections’ email addresses is by exporting your LinkedIn messages.
When you send or receive messages with other members on LinkedIn, their email addresses are visible to you. LinkedIn allows you to export your message history, which contains the email addresses of people you have messaged.
To export your LinkedIn messages:
- Go to the LinkedIn messaging screen and click on the “Me” icon in the top right.
- In the dropdown menu, choose “Settings & Privacy”.
- Go to the “Data privacy” tab and click on “Download your data”.
- Deselect all data types and only check “Messages”.
- Enter your password and click “Request archive”.
- LinkedIn will email you when the data file is ready to download.
- The messages file will contain CSV sheets with your message history, including the email addresses of your connections.
This allows you to get the email addresses of people you have actively messaged and engaged with on LinkedIn. However, it is limited to only those connections.
Using the LinkedIn Contacts Export Tool
LinkedIn provides an official tool for exporting connections from your account called “Contacts Export”. This lets you export partial profile information of up to 500 of your 1st-degree connections.
Here are the steps to use the LinkedIn Contacts Export:
- Go to the LinkedIn Contacts Export page – https://www.linkedin.com/psettings/member-data
- Click on “Get a copy of your connections” under “Connections”.
- Choose up to 500 connections to export.
- Select “Email address” in the data options.
- Enter your password and click “Request archive”.
- LinkedIn will email you the exported .CSV file.
This official tool allows getting a sample batch of 500 connections’ email addresses easily. However, you can only use it a few times before LinkedIn restricts overuse.
Using Third-Party Chrome Extensions
There are some third-party Chrome browser extensions that can scrape and export LinkedIn connection emails in bulk:
- LeadsBridge – Can export around 300 emails per use for free users. Paid plans allow exporting more.
- Linkclump – Exports 250 emails per use for free. Paid version lets you export all your connections’ emails.
- LinkedIn Exporter – Exports 150 emails per use in the free version.
The steps to use these extensions are:
- Install extension on Chrome browser.
- Visit LinkedIn Connections page.
- Click on extension icon to scrape emails.
- Extension will export CSV file with emails.
These extensions provide an easier way to export batches of a few hundred LinkedIn connections’ emails. However, they access data through scraping which violates LinkedIn’s terms of service if done excessively.
Upgrading to Premium Sales Navigator
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a premium subscription that allows exporting more LinkedIn data compared to the free account.
The LinkedIn Sales Navigator pricing plans and their email export limits are:
Plan | Email Export Limit |
---|---|
Professional | Up to 1000 per week |
Team | Up to 2000 per week |
Enterprise | Up to 3000 per week |
The steps to export emails with Sales Navigator are:
- Subscribe to a Sales Navigator plan.
- Install the Sales Navigator browser extension.
- Find the “Export Connections” option in the extension.
- Select connections and export their email addresses.
Sales Navigator plans allow exporting 5-10x more emails than LinkedIn’s free account. However, these paid plans are expensive for individual users.
Asking Connections Individually for Email
The most time-consuming but foolproof way to get a connection’s email is by directly asking them for it individually. Steps are:
- Go to a connection’s profile and open the “More” menu.
- Select “Send message” to start a new conversation.
- Type a message asking if they can share their email address.
- If they consent, they can reply with their email.
While very tedious, this method gives you the most legitimate access to a connection’s email with their explicit consent. However, most people may ignore such messages.
Limitations and Risks of Exporting Emails
While the above methods allow exporting some LinkedIn connections’ emails, there are limitations and risks to be aware of:
- LinkedIn explicitly prohibits mass exporting of emails from their platform.
- Most techniques only provide a few hundred emails at best for free users.
- Excessive use of scraping tools and extensions could get accounts banned.
- Users may file spam complaints if contacted without consent.
- Manually obtained emails have a higher risk of being invalid or inactive.
So while it is possible to get a sample of connections’ emails from LinkedIn, any mass extraction violates their terms and could carry risks. Tread carefully and get explicit consent where possible.
Conclusion
In summary:
- LinkedIn doesn’t allow exporting all your connections’ emails directly.
- You can get limited batches of emails through official tools, browser extensions, or upgrades.
- Scraping large amounts of emails could get your account restricted.
- It’s better to only export and use emails for legitimate purposes after getting consent.
- Focus more on actively engaging connections on LinkedIn itself instead.
While LinkedIn limits email exports to protect privacy, you can still get samples of a few hundred addresses at a time. Use these carefully and ethically for one-to-one communication, not mass spamming. Building strong relationships on LinkedIn is better than just extracting private data.