Whether you’re in sales, marketing, recruitment, or business development, exporting LinkedIn contacts is a critical step to effectively manage your network. Downloading your connections allows you to nurture relationships, import data into your CRM, or launch targeted outreach campaigns that convert.
But how exactly do you export LinkedIn contacts? LinkedIn doesn’t make this process very obvious, and depending on your goals and the data you want (like phone numbers), some methods will serve you better than others.
In this detailed guide, you’ll learn:
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Why You Should Export LinkedIn Contacts
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How To Export LinkedIn Connections To Excel
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How To Export Contacts From LinkedIn Sales Navigator
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How To Export LinkedIn Contact From Search Results
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How To Import LinkedIn Contacts To Gmail
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How To Use Exported LinkedIn Contacts For Business
Let’s get started.
Why You Should Export LinkedIn Contacts?
Downloading LinkedIn contacts is more than just having a list of names — it’s about taking control of your professional network data and unlocking new business opportunities.
Here are the main reasons why exporting LinkedIn contacts is crucial:
1. Backup and Data Security
Your LinkedIn account is valuable, but technical glitches, hacking, or account restrictions can cause you to lose access to your network. Having an offline copy of your connections ensures you never lose your contacts, safeguarding your professional relationships and your sales pipeline.
2. Quality Control of Your Network
With a downloaded list, you can easily audit and clean your contacts. This helps you keep only quality LinkedIn contacts — removing outdated, irrelevant, or duplicate entries and focusing your efforts on high-potential relationships. This plays a key role in Network Segmentation for targeted campaigns.
3. Enhanced Outreach & CRM Integration
Many sales and marketing teams rely on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to track prospects and clients. Exported LinkedIn contacts can be imported into CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot, enabling:
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Segmented marketing campaigns such as Basic LinkedIn Campaign or Segments Campaign
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Automated follow-ups powered by linkedin message automation
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Better management of your sales pipeline
4. Data Analysis & Campaign Optimization
Having contact data offline means you can analyze your network using linkedin Analytics to identify trends, segment contacts by location or industry, and track Post Engagement or message response rates. This insight powers smarter campaigns and improved ROI.
5. Access to Contact Details for Personalization
While LinkedIn limits sharing of emails and phone numbers for privacy, exporting your connections allows you to supplement this data with email finder tools or use Best LinkedIn Automation Tools to enrich your contacts, enabling more personalized and multi-channel outreach.
How To Export LinkedIn Connections To Excel?
LinkedIn offers a native feature to export LinkedIn contacts to Excel, but it’s hidden under privacy settings and only provides limited data. Here’s the step-by-step process for downloading LinkedIn contacts:
Step 1: Log In and Click “Me”
On your LinkedIn homepage, click the “Me” icon — your profile picture in the top-right corner.
Step 2: Select “Settings & Privacy”
From the dropdown, select “Settings & Privacy.”
Step 3: Navigate to Data Privacy
Click on the “Data Privacy” tab from the left-hand menu.
Step 4: Request a Copy of Your Data
Scroll down to “How LinkedIn uses your data” and click “Get a copy of your data.”
Step 5: Choose “Connections”
Select the “Connections” option to download just your contacts. Then click “Request Archive.”
Step 6: Wait for the Data Email
LinkedIn will prepare your data archive, which can take a few minutes up to a few hours, depending on your network size. You will receive an email with the subject: “Your LinkedIn data archive is ready!”
Step 7: Download Your Archive
Click the link in the email. You will be redirected to LinkedIn’s download page. Click “Download archive” to save the CSV file.
Step 8: Open Your CSV File
Open the CSV file in Excel or Google Sheets. It will include these columns:
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First Name
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Last Name
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LinkedIn Profile URL
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Email Address (if shared)
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Company
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Position
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Date Connected
Important Considerations:
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Phone numbers are not included in this export because LinkedIn restricts access to this info for privacy reasons.
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Only contacts who have chosen to share their email will have that data visible. This typically means about 30% of your contacts.
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The data is raw and unfiltered. You may want to clean it up before importing into CRM or outreach tools.
How To Export Contacts From LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
LinkedIn Sales Navigator Campaign is a premium sales prospecting tool with enhanced filters and access to richer prospect data. Exporting contacts from Sales Navigator requires third-party tools since LinkedIn does not provide a native export feature here.
Step 1: Filter for 1st Degree Connections
In Sales Navigator’s search interface, apply the filter for “Connections” and select “1st-degree connections.” This limits your export to direct contacts.
Step 2: Manage Export Limits by Chunking Searches
Sales Navigator only displays a maximum of 2,500 results per search (100 pages x 25 results). If you have more than 2,500 contacts, divide your search using filters such as location, industry, or company size to create manageable chunks.
Step 3: Use Evaboot or Similar Export Tool
Evaboot is a Chrome extension and linkedin automation tool designed to work seamlessly with Sales Navigator:
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Install the Evaboot extension.
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Navigate to your filtered Sales Navigator search results.
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Click the “Export with Evaboot” button that appears at the top right.
Step 4: Download Your Exported File
Evaboot processes your export and emails you a detailed CSV file with enriched data, including:
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LinkedIn Profile URLs
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Job Titles and Descriptions
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Company Names, Websites, and Industries
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Locations and Company Size
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Profile and Company Logos
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Connection Counts and Profile Status
Step 5: Enrich Emails & Contacts
Evaboot also offers an email enrichment feature to find professional emails associated with LinkedIn profiles, allowing for highly personalized outreach.
Tips & Insights:
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Business data decays quickly: expect ~22.5% decay annually. Refresh your lists every 3–6 months.
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Use URL enrichment to update older leads by uploading saved LinkedIn URLs for fresh data.
How To Export LinkedIn Contacts from Search Results?
If you want to export contacts from LinkedIn’s basic search (instead of Sales Navigator), follow these steps:
Step 1: Use 1st Degree Connection Filter
On LinkedIn’s main search bar, enter your query and filter results to show only 1st-degree connections.
Step 2: Split Searches to Avoid Limits
Basic LinkedIn search is limited to 1,000 results. For large networks, use filters like industry, location, or current Tag a Company on LinkedIn to split results into smaller batches.
Step 3: Copy the Search URL
Once you have your filtered search, copy the full URL from your browser.
Step 4: Paste URL Into Scraping Tool
Use LinkedIn scraping tools like:
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Phantombuster
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TexAu
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Captain Data
These tools crawl your search result pages and extract contact data.
Step 5: Download Your Data
After running the extraction, download your CSV which includes:
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Names
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LinkedIn Profile URLs
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Job Titles
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Locations
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Connection Degree
Note: This method provides less data than Sales Navigator exports and has scraping limits (about 80 profiles per day). For larger or richer exports, Sales Navigator + Evaboot is recommended.
How To Import LinkedIn Contacts To Gmail?
After exporting your LinkedIn contacts, importing them into Gmail is straightforward and useful for email outreach:
Step 1: Access Google Apps
In Gmail, click on the Google Apps grid icon at the top-right.
Step 2: Open Contacts
Scroll and select “Contacts.”
Step 3: Select Import
In Google Contacts, click “Import” in the left sidebar.
Step 4: Upload Your CSV File
Select the CSV file exported from LinkedIn and upload it.
Step 5: Verify Imported Contacts
Your LinkedIn contacts with email addresses will appear in your Gmail contacts, ready for emailing or grouping.
Tip: Only contacts with emails will be imported. Those without emails won’t be added to Gmail.
How To Use Exported LinkedIn Contacts For Business?
Exported LinkedIn contacts can be a goldmine when leveraged correctly:
1. Build Targeted Lead Lists
Use LinkedIn exports to build segmented lists by job role, industry, or location. This precision fuels LinkedIn message automation and Lead Generation Tools for Sales Teams, allowing you to reach prospects who matter most.
2. Keep Your CRM Up-to-Date
Import LinkedIn contacts into your CRM regularly. Accurate and current data improves lead nurturing and sales forecasting. Remember, according to HubSpot, 22.5% of B2B data becomes outdated every year — so frequent updates are key.
3. Recruit Talent Efficiently
Recruiters can create curated candidate pools from LinkedIn exports, matching talent profiles with open roles quickly and accurately.
4. Personalize Marketing & Sales Campaigns
Leverage detailed contact data to tailor emails, phone calls, or LinkedIn outreach. Personalization boosts post engagement, opens, and conversions.
5. Optimize Your Sales Pipeline
Use exported contacts to segment prospects by buying stage or engagement level, enhancing your sales pipeline management and follow-up strategies. Additionally, employing a LinkedIn automation tool can help automate follow-ups and outreach, making the process more efficient and effective.
Conclusion
Exporting LinkedIn contacts is a foundational step for professionals looking to harness their network’s full potential. LinkedIn’s native export function provides a quick way to download LinkedIn contacts, but limits access to emails and phone numbers.
For deeper insights and richer contact data, combining LinkedIn Sales Navigator Cost with tools like Evaboot offers advanced export options, including bulk email enrichment and detailed company info.
Regularly exporting and maintaining your LinkedIn contacts protects your network, improves your CRM data quality, and accelerates your B2B prospecting and outreach efforts.
By following this guide, you’re equipped to export, organize, and utilize LinkedIn contacts effectively — whether for personal career growth, recruiting, or scaling your sales pipeline.
