To export your LinkedIn connections, go to Settings & Privacy, then Data privacy, then Get a copy of your data, tick Connections, and click Request archive. LinkedIn emails you a link to a zip containing Connections.csv, usually within about ten minutes.
Step by step
- Open your settings. Click your profile photo in the LinkedIn navigation bar and choose Settings & Privacy.
- Go to Data privacy. In the left sidebar, open Data privacy, then click "Get a copy of your data".
- Pick the connections export. Choose "Want something in particular?" and tick Connections. This is much faster than the full archive.
- Request and wait for the email. Click Request archive. The download link lands in your email, typically within ten minutes for connections only.
- Download and unzip. The zip contains Connections.csv, which opens in Excel, Google Sheets, or any CRM import tool.
What the export file contains
Connections.csv has one row per connection with these columns: First Name, Last Name, URL (their profile link), Email Address, Company, Position, and Connected On. Two practical warnings: the email column is mostly empty because each person decides whether their address is exportable, and the file only covers people who already accepted you.
What LinkedIn leaves out of the export
| Data | In the native export? |
|---|---|
| Current connections with name, company, position | Yes |
| Date each connection was made | Yes |
| Email addresses | Only when the contact allows it, so mostly no |
| Pending sent requests | Not in the connections export; the full archive lists them without status |
| Declined or expired requests | No, nowhere |
| Accept rate or any outreach history | No |
In other words, the export answers "who is in my network today?" but not "what happened to my outreach?". For a sales team this means the export is great for seeding a CRM with accepted connections, and useless for reporting: if a prospect declined last month, no LinkedIn export will ever show it, because LinkedIn deletes that information rather than storing it.
Frequently asked questions
Why are most email addresses missing from my LinkedIn export?
Because each connection controls whether their email is exportable. In their privacy settings, most people leave "Allow your connections to export your email" off, so LinkedIn omits the address. This is expected behavior, not a broken export.
How long does a LinkedIn data export take?
The connections-only export usually arrives by email within about ten minutes. The full archive, which includes messages, invitations, and profile data, can take up to 24 hours. Both come as a download link that works for roughly 72 hours.
Can I export my sent connection requests too?
Partially. The connections-only export does not include them, but the full LinkedIn archive contains an invitations file listing sent and received invitations from the last several years with names, dates, and any note you attached. It still contains no status: nothing in the file says whether a request was accepted, declined, or is still pending.
Is exporting my LinkedIn connections allowed?
Yes. Exporting your own data through the official Settings export is explicitly supported by LinkedIn and required of them by data-portability law in many jurisdictions. What LinkedIn prohibits is scraping other people's profiles at scale with automated tools, which is a different activity entirely.
How often should I export my connections?
The export is a snapshot that goes stale immediately, so it depends on how you use it. For a one-time backup, once is fine. For keeping a CRM current, a monthly export and re-import is a common rhythm. For tracking outreach status, snapshots are the wrong tool because they never contain statuses.