Guide
LinkedIn API pricing in 2026: the official API and the alternatives
LinkedIn's official API costs nothing today, but almost none of it is open to every developer. Unofficial APIs, which work through your users' own accounts, charge per connected account instead. Here is what each costs, from LinkedIn's terms and the providers' own pricing pages, and what a month adds up to.
By Lempile · Updated
The official LinkedIn API: free, but mostly closed
LinkedIn's API Terms of Use say it currently doesn't charge a fee for its APIs, and that it may choose to in the future. The same terms forbid charging your own users extra fees for access to LinkedIn's content or APIs.
The price isn't the obstacle; access is. Only Sign In with LinkedIn and Share on LinkedIn are open to every developer. Everything else, from the Profile API to messaging and the Marketing APIs, needs LinkedIn's approval or a partner program, and Sales Navigator's API runs under its own partner agreements. The full map is in Does LinkedIn have an API?
Unofficial LinkedIn APIs: priced per connected account
Unofficial APIs work through LinkedIn accounts your users connect themselves, so they charge per connected account per month rather than per call. Unipile's public price list and Lempile's are the same:
| Connected accounts | Unipile | Lempile |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 10 | €49 a month in total | €49 a month in total |
| 11 to 50 | €5.00 per account | €5.00 per account |
| 51 to 200 | €4.50 per account | €4.50 per account |
| 201 to 1,000 | €4.00 per account | €4.00 per account |
| 1,001 to 5,000 | €3.50 per account | €3.50 per account |
| 5,001 and more | €3.00 per account | €3.00 per account |
Where they differ is in what an account is and what's billed:
- Unipile counts every linked identity as one account: a LinkedIn profile, a WhatsApp number and an email address make three. Its pricing page says every tier includes unlimited API calls. It bills after each 30-day period, on the most accounts linked at once.
- Lempile counts LinkedIn and X accounts, at the same price, on the most accounts connected at once during the month. The price covers every endpoint, with no per-call or per-message fees, and excludes VAT. Lempile paces each account itself, at most 1,500 LinkedIn calls a day, to keep it healthy. Over 5,000 accounts, volume pricing is on request.
- Both offer a 7-day free trial with no card.
Lempile and Unipile compared beyond price, with dated sources: Lempile vs Unipile.
What a month costs
From 11 accounts, every account is billed at the rate of the tier the total falls in, not a mix of rates. At Lempile's prices, excluding VAT:
| Accounts | Worked out | A month |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | flat €49 | €49 |
| 25 | 25 × €5.00 | €125 |
| 100 | 100 × €4.50 | €450 |
| 500 | 500 × €4.00 | €2,000 |
| 2,000 | 2,000 × €3.50 | €7,000 |
One quirk of the flat first tier: 11 accounts cost more than 10 (€55 against €49).
What to check before you pick one
- Per-call fees. A per-account price with no per-call fees keeps the bill flat however much each account does. X's official API went the other way: see X API pricing in 2026.
- What counts as an account. Check whether non-LinkedIn identities and disconnected accounts count toward the total.
- How accounts are kept healthy. The cheapest API is expensive if your users' accounts get restricted. Ask how each account is paced, and whether it keeps its own session and IP.
- What isn't covered. Lempile doesn't support Sales Navigator or Recruiter, for example. Check the features you need before comparing prices.