How to Easily Export LinkedIn Contacts in 2026
TL;DR: LinkedIn's native export gives you a CSV of your connections with names, companies, job titles, and connection dates. Most email addresses will be blank. The process takes 10-30 minutes. You can also export Sales Navigator lead lists and group member data. For outreach, enrich the CSV with a tool like Apollo, or import directly into Outly for LinkedIn message campaigns.
Your LinkedIn network is one of the most valuable professional assets you have. Whether you're switching CRMs, building a prospect list, or just want a backup before something goes wrong with your account, knowing how to export your contacts is a practical skill every LinkedIn user should have.
The process is straightforward, but there are a few things worth knowing before you start — particularly about what LinkedIn actually gives you and what it doesn't.
How to Export LinkedIn Contacts to Excel/CSV
This is the official method. It's free, requires no third-party tools, and works for every LinkedIn account.
Step 1: Locate the Settings
Log in to linkedin.com. Click your profile photo in the top right corner and select Settings & Privacy from the dropdown menu.
In the left sidebar, click Data Privacy. Scroll down until you see the section titled Get a copy of your data.
Step 2: Choose the Data You Want Archived
You'll see a list of data types you can request. Check the box next to Connections. You can also select other data types at the same time (messages, posts, etc.) — they'll all be included in the same archive.
Click Request archive.
Step 3: Wait for Your Download
LinkedIn will send a download link to your primary email address. The wait time varies:
- Small networks (under 1,000 connections): usually 10-30 minutes
- Medium networks (1,000-5,000): 1-4 hours
- Large networks (5,000+): up to 24 hours
Once you receive the email, click the download link, download the ZIP file, and extract it. Look for Connections.csv inside the archive.
Does This Process Export LinkedIn Contacts with Their Email Address and Phone Numbers?
This is the part that surprises most people. The short answer: mostly no.
The CSV file includes:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Email Address (only if the connection has made their email visible to connections)
- Company
- Position
- Connected On (the date you connected)
What's not included:
- LinkedIn profile URLs
- Phone numbers
- Profile photos
- Message history
- Most email addresses
Can You Export LinkedIn Contacts With Their Email Addresses?
LinkedIn only includes an email address if the connection has explicitly set their email visibility to "Everyone" in their privacy settings. The majority of users leave this set to "Connections" or "Only you," so the email field comes back blank for most contacts.
Note: If you need email addresses, you'll need to enrich the data after export using a tool like Apollo.io, Hunter.io, or Lusha. Match rates vary — expect to find verified emails for 40-70% of contacts depending on the tool and how well-known the companies are.
How to Download LinkedIn Contacts to Excel Using Outly
If you want to export a targeted prospect list (not just your existing connections), Outly gives you a more powerful workflow.
Step 1 — Get the LinkedIn Search URL
Run a search on LinkedIn or Sales Navigator for your target audience. Apply your filters (job title, industry, company size, location, etc.) until you have the list you want. Copy the URL from your browser.
Step 2 — Open Outly
Log in to your Outly account at app.useoutly.com. Navigate to the campaign creation section.
Step 3 — Search for Your Prospects
Paste your LinkedIn search URL into Outly's campaign setup. Outly will pull the prospects from your search and display them in your campaign dashboard.
Step 4 — Download Your CSV File
From your campaign dashboard, you can export your prospect list as a CSV file. The export includes names, job titles, companies, and LinkedIn profile URLs — more useful than LinkedIn's native export for outreach purposes.
How to Export All the Members of My LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups have their own member list, and you can export it — but with limitations.
To access group member data:
- Go to the LinkedIn Group you manage or belong to
- Click on "Members" in the group navigation
- Browse the member list
Caution! LinkedIn doesn't provide a native export for group member lists. You can view members within the platform, but there's no built-in "export to CSV" button for groups. Third-party tools that claim to export group member data typically do so through scraping, which violates LinkedIn's Terms of Service. Use these tools at your own risk — account restrictions are a real consequence.
The safest approach for group member outreach: use LinkedIn's group messaging feature to send messages directly to group members without exporting their data.
3 Big Drawbacks of Exporting Your LinkedIn Contacts to Excel
1. No Profile URLs
LinkedIn's native export doesn't include profile URLs. You get names and companies, but no direct links back to their LinkedIn profiles. If you want to look someone up after exporting, you'll need to search for them manually.
2. Stale Data
Your export is a snapshot of your network at the moment you requested it. People change jobs, get promoted, and update their profiles constantly. A list you exported 6 months ago may have 20-30% stale data. For ongoing prospecting, you need a live tool rather than a static export.
3. Missing Email Addresses
As covered above, most email fields will be blank. If email outreach is your goal, you'll need to enrich the data after export, which adds time and cost. For large lists, enrichment can take hours and still leave gaps.
How to Export Lead Lists into a CSV File Using Outly
For Sales Navigator users, Outly provides a cleaner workflow for building and exporting prospect lists.
- Build your target audience in Sales Navigator using advanced filters
- Import your Sales Navigator search URL into Outly
- Outly pulls the prospect data and organizes it in your campaign dashboard
- Export the list as a CSV with names, titles, companies, and LinkedIn URLs
This workflow gives you a more complete dataset than LinkedIn's native export, with profile URLs included and data that's current at the time of export.
Can We Do More for You? You Bet We Can!
Beyond exporting, Outly lets you take immediate action on your prospect list. Instead of exporting to a spreadsheet and manually sending connection requests, you can launch an outreach campaign directly from your Outly dashboard.
Set up a connection request sequence, add follow-up messages, and let Outly run the campaign automatically. You focus on the conversations that come back.
Note: Outly's campaigns run in the cloud, so they continue even when your computer is off. You don't need to stay logged into LinkedIn for campaigns to run.
Conclusion
LinkedIn's native export gives you a clean CSV of your connections with names, companies, job titles, and connection dates. It's missing email addresses for most contacts and doesn't include profile URLs, but it's the safest and most reliable method available.
For most use cases — CRM import, list building, or running outreach campaigns — the native export combined with an enrichment tool covers what you need. Skip the scraping tools. The data they provide isn't worth the account risk.
If your goal is LinkedIn outreach rather than email, you don't need email addresses at all. Tools like Outly let you run structured message campaigns to your existing connections or new prospects directly on LinkedIn, without the complexity of email enrichment.
Ready to Turn Your LinkedIn Contacts Into Conversations?
Outly helps you build targeted outreach campaigns from your LinkedIn prospect lists, with automated follow-up sequences and AI-drafted messages.
Starter plan: $39.99/month. Pro plan: $79.99/month.
