What every route into LinkedIn is permitted to do, and what it costs the account
LinkedIn's Open Permissions table lists three API permissions any developer can add without review — profile, email and w_member_social — and none of them searches people or sends a message. Off that table, LinkedIn's own pages call Verified on LinkedIn and Events Management API self-serve, each with a condition its row sets out; its other programmes are approved, contracted or closed. The matrix sets 20 routes into LinkedIn against the same columns: how each authenticates, what it reads and writes, the ceiling its owner publishes, what it costs, and the account exposure that follows from the first two.
- Pages read
- Sources
- 41 pages, each linked where it is used
Each route, read across the same columns
Rows run from LinkedIn's own self-serve products to the unofficial layer. The exposure column is not written per row: it is computed from the authentication class and whether the route writes to LinkedIn, by the rule set out below, which is the same rule the MCP directory applies to every server. Each row is a link target, so a single route can be cited on its own.
- LinkedIn’s self-serve API (4)
- LinkedIn’s partner programmes (8)
- No-code platforms (3)
- MCP servers (2)
- The unofficial layer (3)
| Route | Authenticates with | Reads | Writes | Published ceiling | Cost | Account exposure | Source, date read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn’s self-serve API | |||||||
Sign In with LinkedIn using OpenID ConnectSelf-serveprofileemail | OAuth 2.0 LinkedIn’s own OAuth 2.0 with OpenID Connect (the openid scope), on a developer app you register. The member signs in and consents. |
| Nothing. | 500 requests per member and 100,000 per application, each UTC day | Neither LinkedIn’s access page nor the product guide names a fee. | Low LinkedIn grants the route, and it only reads. | Read Getting Access to LinkedIn APIs ↗Sign In with LinkedIn using OpenID Connect ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
Share on LinkedInSelf-servew_member_social | OAuth 2.0 LinkedIn’s own OAuth 2.0, on a developer app you register. The member authorises the app to post as them. | Nothing. |
| 150 requests per member and 100,000 per application, each UTC day | Neither LinkedIn’s access page nor the product guide names a fee. | Medium LinkedIn grants the route, and what it writes appears under the member’s or the organisation’s name. | Read Getting Access to LinkedIn APIs ↗Share on LinkedIn ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
| Verified on LinkedInSelf-serve | OAuth 2.0 LinkedIn’s own OAuth 2.0: the member grants your app access to their verification data. |
| Nothing. |
| Free on the Development and Lite tiers; LinkedIn prices Plus on contact. | Low LinkedIn grants the route, and it only reads. | Read Verified on LinkedIn API overview ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
Events Management APISelf-serveLinkedIn's pages disagree ↓r_eventsrw_events | OAuth 2.0 LinkedIn’s own OAuth 2.0, member permissions (3-legged), on a developer app. | The organization’s events | Manage the organization’s events | None published. | The access page names no fee. | Medium LinkedIn grants the route, and what it writes appears under the member’s or the organisation’s name. | Read Marketing API access and tiers ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
| LinkedIn’s partner programmes | |||||||
Community Management APIBy applicationw_member_socialw_organization_socialr_organization_socialr_member_postAnalytics | OAuth 2.0 LinkedIn’s own OAuth 2.0, on an app LinkedIn has vetted. Starts in a Development tier; Standard needs a second review. |
|
|
| Neither LinkedIn’s programme page nor its access page names a fee. | Medium LinkedIn grants the route, and what it writes appears under the member’s or the organisation’s name. | Read Community Management API overview ↗Marketing API access and tiers ↗Restricted uses of Marketing APIs and data ↗Marketing API data storage requirements ↗API rate limits ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
Advertising APIBy applicationr_adsrw_adsr_ads_reporting | OAuth 2.0 LinkedIn’s own OAuth 2.0, on an approved app, acting on ad accounts where the member holds a role. | Ad accounts and their reporting, for accounts the member administers | Manage those ad accounts, within the tier’s edit limits |
| Neither LinkedIn’s access page nor its tier page names a fee for API access. | Medium LinkedIn grants the route, and what it writes appears under the member’s or the organisation’s name. | Read Getting Access to LinkedIn APIs ↗Marketing API access and tiers ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
Member Post ManagementClosedr_member_social | OAuth 2.0 Would be LinkedIn’s own OAuth 2.0. Not obtainable. | The programme page names it and does not describe its scope | Nothing. | None published. | Not obtainable. | Not applicable None to derive: the route is closed to new applicants. | Read Community Management API overview, FAQ ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
Sales Navigator Application Platform (SNAP)ClosedLinkedIn's pages disagree ↓r_sales_nav_analyticsr_sales_nav_displayr_sales_nav_validationr_sales_nav_profiles | OAuth 2.0 LinkedIn’s own OAuth 2.0 for approved SNAP partners, member and application flows. |
| Display Services modules connect and send messages, including InMail, from inside the partner’s app | None published. | Not obtainable by new partners. | Not applicable None to derive: the route is closed to new applicants. | Read Sales Navigator Application Platform ↗Getting Access to LinkedIn APIs ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
| Messages APIBy partner agreement | OAuth 2.0 LinkedIn’s own OAuth 2.0, for approved partners only. No permission for it is on the access page. | Nothing. | Member-to-member messages to first-degree connections, each tied to a specific member action |
| No fee is published on the page. | Medium LinkedIn grants the route, and what it writes appears under the member’s or the organisation’s name. | Read Messages API ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
| Invitations APIBy partner agreement | OAuth 2.0 LinkedIn’s own OAuth 2.0, for approved partners only. No permission for it is on the access page. | Invitations the authenticated member has sent and received, and their status | Connection invitations, sent only on behalf of the authenticated member | None published. | No fee is published on the page. | Medium LinkedIn grants the route, and what it writes appears under the member’s or the organisation’s name. | Read Invitations API ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
| Recruiter System Connect (RSC)By partner agreement | OAuth 2.0 Two-legged OAuth, with a client ID and secret per customer, issued after partner onboarding. | One-Click Export of candidates from Recruiter, InMail history, and stub profiles after an InMail response | Candidates, applications and notes synced from the ATS into the customer’s Recruiter account | A certification meeting, with the test cases for each module demoed | No fee from LinkedIn: included in a Recruiter Corporate or RPS licence at no additional cost. ATS providers may charge an implementation fee. Not available on Recruiter Lite. The seat it runs on: Recruiter, Quote only, checked 10 September 2026. | Medium LinkedIn grants the route, and what it writes appears under the member’s or the organisation’s name. | Read Recruiter System Connect ↗LinkedIn Help: Recruiter System Connect FAQ ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
ComplianceClosedr_compliancew_compliance | OAuth 2.0 Would be LinkedIn’s own OAuth 2.0, member flow. Not obtainable. | Activities, for compliance monitoring and archiving | Manage and delete data for compliance | None published. | Not obtainable. | Not applicable None to derive: the route is closed to new applicants. | Read Getting Access to LinkedIn APIs ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
| No-code platforms | |||||||
| n8n LinkedIn nodeThird party | OAuth 2.0 OAuth2 against your own LinkedIn developer app, with the Share on LinkedIn and Sign In with LinkedIn using OpenID Connect products added, and the Advertising API when posting as an organization. n8n’s instructions also ask for a LinkedIn Company Page. | Nothing. | Create a post, as a person or as an organization |
| Priced by n8n, not by LinkedIn. | Medium LinkedIn grants the route, and what it writes appears under the member’s or the organisation’s name. | Read n8n LinkedIn node ↗n8n LinkedIn credentials ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
| Zapier LinkedIn appThird party | OAuth 2.0 You connect your LinkedIn account to Zapier, and Zapier holds the authorisation. | Nothing. |
|
| Priced by Zapier, not by LinkedIn. | Medium LinkedIn grants the route, and what it writes appears under the member’s or the organisation’s name. | Read Zapier LinkedIn integrations ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
| Make LinkedIn appThird party | OAuth 2.0 A Make connection to your LinkedIn account, by LinkedIn OAuth or by LinkedIn OpenID Connect. | Company posts, follower statistics and share statistics |
| None published by Make | Priced by Make, not by LinkedIn. | Medium LinkedIn grants the route, and what it writes appears under the member’s or the organisation’s name. | Read Make LinkedIn app documentation ↗Make LinkedIn integration page ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
| MCP servers | |||||||
| An MCP server from LinkedIn or MicrosoftNone found | Nothing to authenticate against: we found no such server. | Not applicable. | Not applicable. | None published. | Not applicable. | Not applicable None to derive: there is no route. | Read LinkedIn developer product catalogue ↗GitHub search: mcp in org:linkedin ↗microsoft/mcp README ↗MCP Registry search: linkedin ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
| Third-party LinkedIn MCP serversThird party | One of the directory’s authentication classes, from no credential at all to your own session.
| Depends on the class; the directory lists each server’s tools | Depends on the server: 8 of the 13 can act on LinkedIn as you. | Set by each server’s route; the directory records it | Per server, from free to a vendor subscription; the directory records each one. |
Derived per server by the rule below. | Read The LinkedIn MCP directoryQuoted evidence ↓ |
| The unofficial layer | |||||||
| Browser extensions in your signed-in sessionThird party | Browser session None of its own. It acts inside your browser while you are signed in to LinkedIn, as you. | Whatever your signed-in account can see | Whatever your account can do: invitations, messages, posts, comments, reactions | No API ceiling applies. Your account’s own limits do | A vendor subscription. This page prices no vendor; the tool directory records published prices. | High Automated activity under your own name, on a route LinkedIn does not grant. | Read User Agreement, section 8.2 ↗Prohibited software and extensions ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
| Cloud tools that hold your sessionThird party | Session cookie Your LinkedIn session, stored and used on the vendor’s servers rather than in your browser. | Whatever your signed-in account can see | Whatever your account can do, run from the vendor’s machines | No API ceiling applies. Your account’s own limits do | A vendor subscription. This page prices no vendor; the tool directory records published prices. | High Automated activity under your own name, on a route LinkedIn does not grant. | Read User Agreement, section 8.2 ↗Account restrictions ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
| Data vendors and scrapersThird party | Vendor API key The vendor’s own key. No LinkedIn login of yours is involved; the vendor’s infrastructure does the collecting. | Profile, company, job and post data, as the vendor collects it | Nothing. | LinkedIn’s robots.txt answers every crawler it does not name with Disallow: / | A vendor subscription or per-record price. This page prices no vendor. | Low The route uses no LinkedIn login of yours. A member who uses data obtained this way is still bound by section 8.2, and section 3.4 applies to that member’s account. | Read LinkedIn robots.txt ↗User Agreement, section 8.2 ↗Quoted evidence ↓ |
Every LinkedIn, platform and court page behind these rows was read on 8 October 2026; the third-party MCP row is computed from the directory, read on 20 September 2026. Third-party prices are linked rather than printed: they move on the vendor's clock, not LinkedIn's. The member-side ceilings — invitations a week, InMail credits, search result caps — apply on every route that acts as you, and are on the LinkedIn limits page.
Two claims in published LinkedIn AI tooling that LinkedIn's own pages contradict
Each claim is quoted from the repository that prints it, beside the LinkedIn sentences that settle it.
“There is no official API for posting to a personal profile without an approved partner app”Jakeschincariol/linkedin-agent-skill README ↗
Share on LinkedIn is on LinkedIn’s list of open permissions, which any developer can add without review, and the permission it grants posts on behalf of the member who authorised the app.
“Open Permissions are the only permissions that are available to all developers without special approval.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/shared/authentication/getting-access ↗
“Member Auth: Post, comment and like posts on behalf of an authenticated member.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/shared/authentication/getting-access ↗
“LinkedIn has no invite or DM API”sergebulaev/linkedin-skills README ↗
Both exist and are documented. Both are restricted to approved partners, and the Messages API’s own requirements exclude automated or scheduled sending.
“Usage of this API is restricted to approved partners, subject to limitations via API agreement.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/shared/integrations/communications/invitations ↗
“A message must be associated with a specific member action. Member actions do not include an automated or scheduled event.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/shared/integrations/communications/messages ↗
What the owner of each route says, in its own words
Copied from the pages linked in the matrix, apostrophes included. Where a platform lists its LinkedIn operations, the full list is here, so the counts in the matrix can be checked against it.
LinkedIn’s self-serve API
“Most permissions and partner programs require explicit approval from LinkedIn. Open Permissions are the only permissions that are available to all developers without special approval.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/shared/authentication/getting-access ↗
“Member Auth: Retrieve authenticated member's name, headline, and photo.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/shared/authentication/getting-access ↗
“Required to retrieve the member's lite profile including their id, name, and profile picture.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/consumer/integrations/self-serve/sign-in-with-linkedin-v2 ↗
“Keep in mind Sign In with LinkedIn using OpenID Connect does not verify user identities and should not be marketed as such.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/consumer/integrations/self-serve/sign-in-with-linkedin-v2 ↗
LinkedIn’s two pages disagree on headline. The access page lists it under the profile permission; the product guide describes the profile scope as id, name and profile picture, and its userinfo response has no headline field. The row follows the product guide.
“Self-serve (automatic)”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/consumer/integrations/verified-on-linkedin/overview ↗
“Member Authorizes: Grants your app permission to access their LinkedIn verification data via OAuth 2.0.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/consumer/integrations/verified-on-linkedin/overview ↗
“For Plus tier pricing and partnership inquiries, contact LinkedIn Business Development.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/consumer/integrations/verified-on-linkedin/overview ↗
It is not on the Open Permissions table, and only its Development tier is self-serve. Serving members beyond the app’s own admins takes the Lite tier’s application review.
“Available to all developers as a self-serve API product on request.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/marketing/increasing-access ↗
LinkedIn also says this, and the two sentences conflict:
“The Advertising API, Community Management API, Events Management API, Lead Sync API, Conversions API, and Matched Audiences API are open to all approved developers — apply through the standard process.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/marketing/increasing-access ↗
“Retrieve your organization's events.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/marketing/increasing-access ↗
“Manage your organization's events.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/marketing/increasing-access ↗
LinkedIn’s partner programmes
“When applying for Standard Tier, provide a screencast video demonstrating each use case specified in your access request form, matching the use cases described in the Standard Tier access request form.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/marketing/community-management/community-management-overview ↗
“Create and manage posts, comments, and reactions while monitoring engagement on behalf of individual profiles.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/marketing/community-management/community-management-overview ↗
“In particular, member data shouldn't be used for advertising, sales, or recruiting use cases (including to identify sales or marketing prospects or prospective talent for hire, for lead creation, to enhance customer data in a CRM or marketing automation platform, to build an audience list, or for ad targeting purposes).”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/marketing/restricted-use-cases ↗
The Standard tier is described as “designed for live production with no restrictions”; LinkedIn still meters every app on an unpublished daily limit.
“Developers seeking to build a marketing related integration using Advertising API permissions must be approved.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/shared/authentication/getting-access ↗
“Advertising API: Development tier is designed to build end-to-end workflows and supports read-only access for unlimited ad accounts and edit capabilities for up to five (5) Ad Accounts. Standard tier is designed to support campaign management solutions including edit capabilities for unlimited ad accounts.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/marketing/increasing-access ↗
“r_member_social is a closed permission. We're not accepting access requests at this time due to resource constraints.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/marketing/community-management/community-management-overview ↗
“Usage of this API is restricted to approved partners, subject to limitations via API agreement.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/shared/integrations/communications/messages ↗
“A message must be associated with a specific member action. Member actions do not include an automated or scheduled event. For example, a member navigating through your application is not a specific member action.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/shared/integrations/communications/messages ↗
“Usage of this API is restricted to approved partners, subject to limitations via API agreement.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/shared/integrations/communications/invitations ↗
“Send an invitation by issuing a POST that specifies the URN of the LinkedIn member that the invite will be sent to. You can only send invites on behalf of the authenticated user.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/shared/integrations/communications/invitations ↗
“The use of these APIs is restricted to those developers approved by LinkedIn. Please reach out to your LinkedIn Relationship Manager or Business Development contact as you will need to meet certain criteria and sign an API agreement with data restrictions in order to use this integration.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/talent/recruiter-system-connect ↗
“Recruiter System Connect synchronizes customers’ candidate information between your ATS and LinkedIn Recruiter.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/talent/recruiter-system-connect ↗
“All API requests require OAuth's 2 Legged Authorization.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/talent/recruiter-system-connect ↗
“For all customers with one or more Recruiter Corporate or Recruiter Professional Service (RPS) seats, RSC is included as part of your Recruiter license at no additional cost. Some ATS providers charge customers an implementation fee as a part of their standard business practice; however, there is no fee from LinkedIn.”www.linkedin.com/help/recruiter/answer/a414395 ↗
“RSC is not available for Recruiter Lite customers.”www.linkedin.com/help/recruiter/answer/a414395 ↗
“RSC is available for all Recruiter Corporate or Recruiter Professional Service (RPS) seats as part of your Recruiter License.”www.linkedin.com/help/recruiter/answer/a414395 ↗
“The following permissions used for Compliance integrations are listed for reference purposes only. Access is closed and may not be requested.”learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/shared/authentication/getting-access ↗
No-code platforms
“Use the LinkedIn node to automate work in LinkedIn, and integrate LinkedIn with other applications. n8n supports creating posts.”docs.n8n.io/integrations/builtin/app-nodes/n8n-nodes-base.linkedin/ ↗
“If this node doesn't support the operation you want to do, you can use the HTTP Request node to call the service's API.”docs.n8n.io/integrations/builtin/app-nodes/n8n-nodes-base.linkedin/ ↗
“Advertising API (if using it as an organization account rather than an individual)”docs.n8n.io/integrations/builtin/credentials/linkedin/ ↗
Post: 1 operation
- Create
“This integration supports posting company updates and share updates to your LinkedIn Company Page. It does not include LinkedIn lead gen forms (see LinkedIn Ads or other lead-gen integrations for that).”zapier.com/apps/linkedin/integrations ↗
“This is an advanced action which makes a raw HTTP request that includes this integration's authentication.”zapier.com/apps/linkedin/integrations ↗
3 actions
- Create Company Update
- API Request (Beta)
- Create Share Update
The same page offers these actions to AI clients through Zapier MCP.
“With the LinkedIn app in Make, you can manage the users, organizations, posts, and statistics in your LinkedIn account.”apps.make.com/linkedin ↗
Users: 4 modules
- Create a User Text Post
- Create a User Image Post
- Create a User Video Post
- Delete a User Post
Companies: 11 modules
- Watch Company Posts
- List Company Posts
- Create a Company Text Post
- Create a Company Image Post
- Create a Company Video Post
- Get a Company Post
- Delete a Company Post
- Get the Follower Statistics
- Get the Follower Statistics over Time
- Get the Company Share Statistics
- Get the Company Share Statistics over Time
Other: 2 modules
- Make an API Call
- Get the Statistics of Shares
The platform's integration page counts it differently: 19 modules, 1 trigger, 13 actions and 5 searches.
MCP servers
An absence of evidence, bounded by where we looked: LinkedIn’s developer product catalogue lists no MCP product, a GitHub search for “mcp” in the linkedin organisation returns no repository, the microsoft/mcp README does not mention LinkedIn, and the MCP Registry lists no LinkedIn server under a LinkedIn or Microsoft namespace. A partner-only or unannounced integration would appear in none of these.
8 of the 13 servers in the directory can act on LinkedIn as you, and 4 put no LinkedIn account behind them. Each one's tools, credential and exposure are on its record, and the routes a server can take are compared side by side.
The unofficial layer
“In order to protect our members' data and our website, we don't permit the use of any third party software, including "crawlers", bots, browser plug-ins, or browser extensions that scrape, modify the appearance of, or automate activity on LinkedIn's website.”www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1341387 ↗
Runs against User Agreement section 8.2. The bullets, under this site's labels: Scraping, by any means; Bots and automated activity; Changing how LinkedIn looks.
“Automated inauthentic activity violates the LinkedIn User Agreement and can result in temporary or permanent restriction of your account.”www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1340522 ↗
Runs against User Agreement section 8.2. The bullets, under this site's labels: Bots and automated activity; Scraping, by any means.
“The use of robots or other automated means to access LinkedIn without the express permission of LinkedIn is strictly prohibited.”www.linkedin.com/robots.txt ↗
Runs against User Agreement section 8.2. The bullets, under this site's labels: Scraping, by any means; Data obtained through third parties.
The clause on data obtained through aggregators or brokers binds the member who uses the data, and every case in the enforcement record below was fought between LinkedIn and a company that collected its data.
Three of the four self-serve products print a daily limit: Sign In with LinkedIn using OpenID Connect at 500 requests per member, Share on LinkedIn at 150 requests per member and Verified on LinkedIn at 5,000/day on its Development and Lite tiers. For other endpoints, LinkedIn's rate-limit page says that “Standard rate limits are not published in documentation.” ↗
The clauses the unofficial layer runs against, quoted with their section number
Section 8.2 is LinkedIn's list of “Don’ts”. The four bullets below are the ones that describe the tools in the matrix's last family. Section 3.4 is where the agreement says what LinkedIn may do to an account, and the help-centre pages after it are where LinkedIn says what it does.
Labelled here: Scraping, by any means
“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;”User Agreement, section 8.2 ↗
In the matrix: Browser extensions in your signed-in session; Cloud tools that hold your session; Data vendors and scrapers.
Labelled here: Bots and automated activity
“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;”User Agreement, section 8.2 ↗
In the matrix: Browser extensions in your signed-in session; Cloud tools that hold your session.
Labelled here: Data obtained through third parties
“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 (such as LinkedIn for content it owns);”User Agreement, section 8.2 ↗
In the matrix: Data vendors and scrapers.
Labelled here: Changing how LinkedIn looks
“Overlay or otherwise modify the Services or their appearance (such as by inserting elements into the Services or removing, covering, or obscuring an advertisement included on the Services);”User Agreement, section 8.2 ↗
In the matrix: Browser extensions in your signed-in session.
Labelled here: What LinkedIn may do to the account
“LinkedIn reserves the right to limit your use of the Services, including the number of your connections and your ability to contact other Members. LinkedIn reserves the right to restrict, suspend, or terminate your account if you breach this Contract or the law or are misusing the Services (e.g., violating any of the Dos and Don’ts or Professional Community Policies).”User Agreement, section 3.4 ↗
“Any member who uses tools for such purposes is in violation of the User Agreement. This means that they risk having their accounts restricted or shut down. They also risk the possibility that any prohibited tools they’re using may become non-operational without notice.”LinkedIn Help, Prohibited software and extensions ↗
“Automated inauthentic activity violates the LinkedIn User Agreement and can result in temporary or permanent restriction of your account.”LinkedIn Help, Account restrictions ↗
“Review and disable the software or extension that automates activities. Your account will then automatically be re-enabled at the time specified on the suspension notification.”LinkedIn Help, Automated activity on LinkedIn ↗
Four cases, each step dated from the docket or the parties' own words
In filing order. Every step links to the filed document, the docket, LinkedIn's own statement or the defendant's own notice — not to a write-up of one. Of the three cases LinkedIn brought itself, all list breach of contract first.
hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corporation
- hiQ files against LinkedIn for a declaratory judgment. Source ↗
- On remand from the Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit again affirms the preliminary injunction barring LinkedIn from denying hiQ access to publicly available member profiles. Its basis is that hiQ “raised serious questions about whether LinkedIn may invoke the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) to preempt hiQ’s possibly meritorious tortious interference claim.” Source ↗
- The district court dissolves the preliminary injunction. Its November order records: “On August 1, 2022, this Court dissolved the preliminary injunction, holding that LinkedIn had established a significant change in facts by showing that hiQ no longer had an ongoing business.” Source ↗
- The summary-judgment order, signed 27 October, is publicly refiled. It grants LinkedIn’s motion only in part: on the contract claim it grants summary judgment as to the conduct of hiQ’s turkers, and denies it as to hiQ’s scraping and use of data, because a genuine dispute of material fact remains on hiQ’s waiver and estoppel defences. Source ↗
- Consent judgment and permanent injunction: judgment of $500,000 entered against hiQ, which is permanently enjoined from using automated means to access or copy data from LinkedIn, logged in or not, without LinkedIn’s express written permission, and from creating or using accounts with fake identities. Source ↗
“In sum, the Court therefore DENIES LinkedIn’s motion for summary judgment on the breach of contract claim as to hiQ’s scraping and unauthorized use of data because there remains a genuine dispute of material facts for hiQ’s waiver and estoppel defenses, but GRANTS the motion as to hiQ turkers’ conduct.”storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.312704/gov.uscourts.cand.312704.404.0.pdf ↗
LinkedIn Corporation v. Mantheos Pte. Ltd.
- LinkedIn files against Mantheos and its founders, and says so the same day on its own newsroom. Source ↗
- Final Judgment on Consent. The defendants deny liability, are permanently restrained and barred from scraping LinkedIn or selling its data, and represent that they destroyed all LinkedIn member profile data. Source ↗
“Using a network of hundreds of fake LinkedIn member accounts and virtual debit cards under fake names, Mantheos fraudulently obtained LinkedIn Sales Navigator subscriptions.”news.linkedin.com/2022/february/taking-legal-action-to-protect-members-against-scraping ↗
LinkedIn Corporation v. Nubela Pte. Ltd., Proxycurl LLC, Steven Goh and Bach Le
- LinkedIn files against Nubela, Proxycurl, Steven Goh and Bach Le. Source ↗
- The founder announces Proxycurl’s shutdown, and writes that it was shut down to comply with the legal settlement with LinkedIn. Source ↗
- Docket entry 28, a judgment. The document is not on CourtListener, so nothing further is said of it here. Source ↗
“In January earlier this year (2025), LinkedIn filed a lawsuit against Proxycurl. Today, we are shutting Proxycurl down.”nubela.co/blog/goodbye-proxycurl/ ↗
LinkedIn Corporation v. ProAPIs Inc., Netswift (SMC-Private) Limited and Rehmat Alam
- LinkedIn files its complaint against ProAPIs, Netswift and Rehmat Alam. Source ↗
- Final Judgment on Consent, and the case is closed. The defendants deny liability, are permanently restrained and barred from accessing LinkedIn through impersonation, fake accounts, scraping, crawling or bots, and certify that they have permanently deleted all LinkedIn data they obtained. Source ↗
The 2022 Ninth Circuit opinion affirmed a preliminary injunction on hiQ's tortious interference claim, the district court dissolved that injunction in August 2022, the November order left the contract claim over hiQ's scraping to a factual dispute, and the case ended by consent judgment. Each case above links its docket, and was checked against it on 8 October 2026.
Authentication and writes in, exposure out, for every row
Exposure here means one thing: what the route puts at stake for the LinkedIn account behind it. It reads the authentication class and whether the route writes to LinkedIn, and nothing else. It is not a quality score, and a low level is not a statement that LinkedIn permits a route.
| Authenticates with | Reads only | Writes to LinkedIn |
|---|---|---|
| No account | Low | Low |
| Vendor API key | Low | Low |
| OAuth 2.0 | Low | Medium |
| Browser session | Medium | High |
| Session cookie | Medium | High |
A closed programme and a search that found nothing carry no level, because there is no route to be exposed through. The rule lives in lib/mcp/registry.ts and this page imports it, so the matrix and the MCP directory cannot disagree about it.
The questions this matrix answers, directly
Can I post to my own LinkedIn profile through the official API?
Yes, without partner approval. Share on LinkedIn is one of LinkedIn’s open permissions, which any developer can add from the Developer Portal, and LinkedIn describes w_member_social as “Member Auth: Post, comment and like posts on behalf of an authenticated member.” LinkedIn publishes its throttle: 150 requests per member and 100,000 per application, each UTC day.
Does LinkedIn have an API for sending messages or connection requests?
Both exist. The Messages API and the Invitations API pages each say only: “Usage of this API is restricted to approved partners, subject to limitations via API agreement.” Neither appears on LinkedIn’s list of open permissions. The Messages API then requires: “A message must be associated with a specific member action. Member actions do not include an automated or scheduled event. For example, a member navigating through your application is not a specific member action.”
Which LinkedIn API permissions can any developer get without approval?
LinkedIn’s Open Permissions table lists three: profile and email (Sign In with LinkedIn using OpenID Connect) and w_member_social (Share on LinkedIn). LinkedIn’s access page says: “Most permissions and partner programs require explicit approval from LinkedIn. Open Permissions are the only permissions that are available to all developers without special approval.” Off that table, LinkedIn describes two more products as self-serve, each with a condition. Verified on LinkedIn: “Self-serve (automatic)”. It is not on the Open Permissions table, and only its Development tier is self-serve. Serving members beyond the app’s own admins takes the Lite tier’s application review. Events Management API: “Available to all developers as a self-serve API product on request.” The same page also says: “The Advertising API, Community Management API, Events Management API, Lead Sync API, Conversions API, and Matched Audiences API are open to all approved developers — apply through the standard process.”
Is the LinkedIn Sales Navigator API accepting new partners?
No. LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator API page reads: “We are not currently accepting new partners for access to the LinkedIn Sales Navigator API. We periodically review our onboarding capacity and will update this page if availability changes. Thank you for your understanding.”
What can n8n, Zapier and Make do with LinkedIn?
n8n’s LinkedIn node lists one operation: Post → Create. Zapier’s LinkedIn app lists three actions (Create Company Update, API Request (Beta) and Create Share Update) and no triggers. Make’s documentation names 17 modules for posts, follower and share statistics, and a raw API call. None of them lists a messaging, invitation or people-search operation.
Is there an official LinkedIn MCP server?
We found none on 8 October 2026. An absence of evidence, bounded by where we looked: LinkedIn’s developer product catalogue lists no MCP product, a GitHub search for “mcp” in the linkedin organisation returns no repository, the microsoft/mcp README does not mention LinkedIn, and the MCP Registry lists no LinkedIn server under a LinkedIn or Microsoft namespace. A partner-only or unannounced integration would appear in none of these. The third-party servers are catalogued at linkediz.com/mcp, 13 of them as read on 20 September 2026.
What does LinkedIn’s User Agreement say about automation tools?
In section 8.2 of the agreement effective 3 November 2025, members agree that they will not “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”. LinkedIn’s help centre states the consequence: “Automated inauthentic activity violates the LinkedIn User Agreement and can result in temporary or permanent restriction of your account.”
What happened in LinkedIn’s lawsuits over scraping?
hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corporation (3:17-cv-03301), filed 7 June 2017: hiQ brought the case and held a preliminary injunction on its tortious interference claim, which LinkedIn sought to preempt with the CFAA. The injunction was dissolved in August 2022, and the case ended by consent judgment. Latest dated step: 8 December 2022. LinkedIn Corporation v. Mantheos Pte. Ltd. (4:22-cv-00651), filed 1 February 2022: LinkedIn alleged scraping through fake accounts that had bought Sales Navigator. It ended in a consent judgment. Latest dated step: 9 May 2022. LinkedIn Corporation v. Nubela Pte. Ltd., Proxycurl LLC, Steven Goh and Bach Le (3:25-cv-00828), filed 24 January 2025: Proxycurl’s founder shut it down and wrote that he did so to comply with the settlement. The docket then records a judgment. Latest dated step: 25 July 2025. LinkedIn Corporation v. ProAPIs Inc., Netswift (SMC-Private) Limited and Rehmat Alam (5:25-cv-08393), filed 2 October 2025: LinkedIn alleged scraping through a network of fake accounts. It ended in a consent judgment. Latest dated step: 16 September 2026.
Cite the matrix, or one row of it
Linkediz, “LinkedIn route-permission matrix”, https://www.linkediz.com/linkedin-automation-rules. LinkedIn, platform and court pages read 8 October 2026; MCP counts from the directory, read 20 September 2026.
Every row has its own anchor. The Share on LinkedIn row, for example, is https://www.linkediz.com/linkedin-automation-rules#share-on-linkedin. Quote the read date with the figure: LinkedIn changes these pages without notice.
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