LinkedIn Profile Activity Time Scraper

Turn a list of known prospects into a current linkedin profile activity time snapshot. The Actor inspects supplied public LinkedIn people profiles and writes one structured observation per unique profile: the latest public activity timestamp, canonical activity URL, activity type, observation time, and an explicit status.

No LinkedIn login or customer cookies are required. The Actor uses Apify Residential Proxy sessions because LinkedIn does not reliably deliver public profile pages over direct or datacenter traffic.

What does this LinkedIn activity scraper do?

For every supplied public profile URL, the Actor:

1. normalizes the profile URL;
2. opens the public recent-activity surface with a bounded, coherent session;
3. reads structured public activity metadata;
4. selects the newest observed activity;
5. records when the observation happened; and
6. distinguishes activity found, no activity observed, and access failure.

It does not discover people, log in to LinkedIn, or return a complete historical activity feed.

Who is it for?

• SDRs and sales operations teams prioritizing prospects who recently published public content.
• Recruiters deciding when to follow up with known candidates.
• CRM operators adding an observation timestamp and activity signal to existing lead records.
• RevOps analysts comparing scheduled snapshots in a spreadsheet, warehouse, or automation.
• Developers and AI agents that need a typed, API-friendly result instead of a human-facing profile page.

Why use it?

The output is profile-level and workflow-ready. You do not need to download a full post history just to answer “when was public activity last observed?”

Important reliability details are explicit:

• no_activity_observed means a usable public page was inspected but no supported activity record was found;
• access_failed means LinkedIn did not return a usable public page after bounded session rotation;
• a challenge page is never mislabeled as “no activity”; and
• duplicate profile URLs are processed once.

What data does it extract?

Field	Meaning
profileUrl	Canonical public LinkedIn profile URL
profileSlug	Slug parsed from the supplied profile URL
status	activity_found, no_activity_observed, or access_failed
hasActivity	true, false, or null when access failed
latestActivityAt	Latest exposed ISO 8601 activity timestamp
latestActivityAge	Relative age text when only a relative value is exposed
activityUrl	Canonical URL of the latest observed activity
activityType	Normalized type such as post or article
observedAt	Time at which this profile was inspected
sourceUrl	Public LinkedIn activity surface requested
httpStatus	Final upstream HTTP status when available
error	Concise access error, otherwise null

All activity fields can be null when LinkedIn does not expose them. Use status and hasActivity before filtering by a timestamp.

How to get started

1. Open the Actor input page.
2. Add one or more public URLs in profileUrls.
3. Keep US as the proxy country unless your workflow requires another supported country.
4. Set maxItems to the maximum number of unique profile observations needed.
5. Run the Actor.
6. Open the default dataset or export it as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, or JSONL.
7. Sort successful observations by latestActivityAt for outreach prioritization.

Input parameters

profileUrls (required)

An array of public LinkedIn people profile URLs. Both strings and Apify request-list objects are accepted by the Actor. Only URLs matching linkedin.com/in/<slug> are supported.

{
  "profileUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajjames" },
    { "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/satyanadella" }
  ]
}

maxItems

Maximum number of unique profile observations written during one run. The default is 100 and the allowed range is 1–5,000.

proxyCountryCode

Two-letter country code for Apify Residential Proxy. The tested default is US. The Actor does not expose a direct or unmeasured automatic proxy fallback.

Example input

{
  "profileUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajjames" }
  ],
  "maxItems": 1,
  "proxyCountryCode": "US"
}

Example output

This representative record is based on the current local implementation:

{
  "profileUrl": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajjames/",
  "profileSlug": "ajjames",
  "status": "activity_found",
  "hasActivity": true,
  "latestActivityAt": "2026-02-03T00:14:35.000+00:00",
  "latestActivityAge": null,
  "activityUrl": "https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/speed-becoming-liability-taste-advantage-anthony-j-james-4pyif",
  "activityType": "article",
  "observedAt": "2026-08-30T06:09:25.843Z",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajjames/recent-activity/all/",
  "httpStatus": 200,
  "error": null
}

The source can change after this documentation is written. Always treat observedAt as the freshness boundary.

How much does it cost to inspect LinkedIn profiles?

The Actor uses pay per event:

• a $0.005 start event once per run; and
• one profile observation event for each completed public profile observation.

The provisional BRONZE profile-observation price is $0.0092 per completed profile. Failed-access records are useful diagnostics but do not emit the profile-observation charge.

For a BRONZE run, calculate the total as the start event plus the number of completed profiles multiplied by the BRONZE profile-observation event. Tier pricing can lower the per-profile event price for higher subscription tiers.

Apify platform usage and proxy traffic are included in the Store pay-per-event experience when the Actor is run from the Store; always review the live pricing tab before a large run.

Outreach-prioritization workflow

1. Export target profile URLs from your CRM.
2. Run this Actor on the list.
3. Keep rows with status = activity_found.
4. Sort by latestActivityAt descending.
5. Join the results to CRM records using profileUrl.
6. Route recently active prospects into a timely, human-reviewed outreach sequence.

The Actor reports a public signal. It does not determine intent, availability, or willingness to be contacted.

Recurring monitoring workflow

Schedule the same Task daily or weekly and store each dataset with its observedAt value. Compare the newest snapshot with the previous snapshot to identify a changed activityUrl or latestActivityAt.

The Actor does not maintain history or send alerts itself. Use Apify schedules, webhooks, Make, Zapier, Google Sheets, or your warehouse to retain and compare snapshots.

API with cURL

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~linkedin-profile-recent-activity-time/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "profileUrls": [{"url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajjames"}],
    "maxItems": 1,
    "proxyCountryCode": "US"
  }'

Never commit your Apify token to source control.

API with JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/linkedin-profile-recent-activity-time').call({
  profileUrls: [{ url: 'https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajjames' }],
  maxItems: 1,
  proxyCountryCode: 'US',
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

API with Python

import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(os.environ["APIFY_TOKEN"])
run = client.actor("automation-lab/linkedin-profile-recent-activity-time").call(
    run_input={
        "profileUrls": [{"url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajjames"}],
        "maxItems": 1,
        "proxyCountryCode": "US",
    }
)
items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items
print(items)

Use with MCP and AI agents

Add the Actor-specific Apify MCP endpoint to Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http apify \
  "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/linkedin-profile-recent-activity-time"

Claude Desktop

Add this server object to the Claude Desktop MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/linkedin-profile-recent-activity-time"
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add the same apify server under Settings → MCP in Cursor.

VS Code

Add the same Actor-specific URL to your VS Code MCP server configuration. Your client opens the Apify OAuth flow the first time it connects.

Example prompts:

• “Inspect these public LinkedIn profile URLs and rank successful observations by latest activity time.”
• “Run a snapshot for this prospect list and return only profiles with a newly observed activity URL.”
• “Export access failures separately so I can retry them later.”

Integrations

• Google Sheets: append one observation row per profile and sort by timestamp.
• Make or Zapier: trigger the Actor from a new CRM list and continue when the run finishes.
• Webhooks: notify an internal pipeline when a scheduled snapshot completes.
• Warehouses: retain profileUrl, latestActivityAt, and observedAt for historical comparisons.
• CRM enrichment: join by canonical profile URL and preserve the observation status.

Limits and failure behavior

LinkedIn controls public delivery and can change page structure without notice. Public visibility also varies by profile and geography.

• The Actor requires Apify Residential Proxy access.
• It supports public people profile URLs, not company, school, job, search, or Sales Navigator URLs.
• It reports only activity exposed on the public page; it cannot prove that a person has no private or unexposed activity.
• no_activity_observed is an observation, not a claim that no activity exists anywhere.
• access_failed is not charged as a completed profile observation.
• Repeated URLs are deduplicated within the run.
• A timestamp may be null when LinkedIn exposes only relative age text.
• Deleted or visibility-restricted activities may disappear between runs.

Tips for reliable runs

• Supply canonical https://www.linkedin.com/in/... profile URLs.
• Keep US unless a specific supported geography is important to your workflow.
• Use moderate batches and rerun only access_failed rows instead of blindly repeating the full list.
• Store observedAt with every downstream record.
• Do not interpret a publication timestamp as proof of current buying intent.

Responsible use and legality

Use the Actor only for lawful purposes and data you are permitted to process. Public accessibility does not remove obligations under privacy, data-protection, employment, anti-spam, contractual, or sector-specific rules.

Follow LinkedIn's applicable terms and local law. Minimize collected data, define a retention period, secure exports, honor relevant rights requests, and keep consequential outreach or recruiting decisions under human review. Do not use this Actor for harassment, surveillance, discrimination, or attempts to access non-public information.

Frequently asked questions

Does it require LinkedIn cookies or a login?

No customer cookies or LinkedIn account are required. The Actor uses bounded public-page sessions through Apify Residential Proxy.

Does it return all posts, comments, and reactions?

No. It returns a profile-level latest observed public activity signal. For recent public post records, use the related LinkedIn Profile Posts Scraper.

What does no_activity_observed mean?

A usable public page was inspected, but no supported public activity record was found. It does not prove that the person has never been active.

Why did I receive access_failed?

LinkedIn returned a challenge, an unusable page, or no response after bounded session rotation. Retry that row later. The Actor keeps access failure distinct from no activity and does not charge it as a completed observation.

Can I schedule recurring checks?

Yes. Save the input as an Apify Task, attach a schedule, and retain each run's dataset. Comparison and alerting are downstream workflow steps rather than built-in history.

Why is the latest activity timestamp null?

LinkedIn may expose only relative age text on some public surfaces. In that case, inspect latestActivityAge. If both fields are null, check status and error.

Related automation-lab Actors

• LinkedIn Profile Posts Scraper — extract recent public posts and articles when you need post-level records.
• LinkedIn Public People Profile Scraper — enrich known public profile URLs with identity and career fields exposed publicly.
• LinkedIn Profile URL Finder — resolve known people to likely public profile URLs before activity inspection.

Support

When reporting a problem, include a redacted input, run URL, affected profile URL if it is safe to share, expected status, and observed status. Do not include Apify tokens, private cookies, or confidential CRM data.