LinkedIn Related User Scraper

The Actor expands one or more seed LinkedIn profiles into the people LinkedIn displays alongside them — the "More profiles for you" set — and returns one record per related person, deduplicated across seeds. Each record can optionally be enriched with that person's full profile. No LinkedIn account or session cookie is required.

Because the related set is LinkedIn's own association of one member with others, it surfaces people of comparable role, employer, or seniority without requiring a search query to describe them.

Accepted input

Field	Type	Default	Description
username	array of strings	—	Required. Seed LinkedIn usernames or /in/ profile URLs.
maxItems	integer	100	Maximum related profiles saved. 0 removes the limit.
enrichProfile	boolean	false	Fetches the full profile for each related person.

{
  "username": [
    "williamhgates",
    "https://www.linkedin.com/in/satyanadella/"
  ],
  "maxItems": 100,
  "enrichProfile": false
}

Seed values may be bare usernames or profile URLs; a URL is reduced to its /in/ segment before use. Seeds that reduce to the same username are deduplicated before any request is issued.

Response fields

One record per related person.

Field	Contents
name	Name of the related member
headline	Headline shown in the related list
url	Profile URL of the related member
username	Username extracted from that profile URL
source_username	Seed profile this person was found through
source_name	Name on the seed profile
source_url	URL of the seed profile
enriched	Whether the full profile was fetched
profile	The complete profile record, present only when enrichment succeeded

{
  "name": "Satya Nadella",
  "headline": "Chairman and CEO at Microsoft",
  "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/satyanadella",
  "username": "satyanadella",
  "source_username": "williamhgates",
  "source_name": "Bill Gates",
  "enriched": false
}

The four source_* fields make the origin of every row explicit, which matters when several seeds are supplied in one run: two seeds frequently surface the same person, and the retained row records which seed reached them first.

Deduplication and limits

Related people are deduplicated across the whole run, keyed on username where present and falling back to profile URL, then to the combination of seed and name. A person appearing in the related list of three seeds is therefore saved once, and the source_* fields on the saved row name the first seed that reached them.

Each seed contributes as many related profiles as LinkedIn publishes for it, which is a small fixed set rather than an open-ended list. maxItems bounds the total across all seeds; increasing it does not cause any individual seed to yield more.

Behaviour on partial results

Seeds are fetched one request each. A seed that cannot be retrieved — a private, removed, or unreachable profile — is logged as a warning and skipped, and the run proceeds to the next seed. A seed that is retrieved but publishes no related profiles contributes no rows and is not an error.

Enrichment is applied per related person and issues one additional request each. A failed enrichment leaves that row with its list-level fields, enriched set to false, and no profile object; it is not charged, and the run continues.

Frequently asked questions

What determines who appears in the related set? LinkedIn does. The set is the "More profiles for you" panel rendered on a public profile, and its composition and size are LinkedIn's, not configurable here. It typically favours people sharing an employer, role, or industry with the seed.

How many related profiles does one seed produce? A small fixed number, set by LinkedIn per profile rather than by this Actor. Raising maxItems does not increase the yield of a single seed; supplying more seeds is the only way to collect more rows.

Why are there fewer rows than seeds multiplied by the per-seed count? Deduplication. Overlapping seeds — people in the same company or field — surface many of the same individuals, and each is saved once. Heavy overlap is itself a signal that the seeds occupy the same professional cluster.

What does enrichProfile add, and what does it cost? It attaches the full profile record under profile: headline, location, about, experience, education, and activity. Each related person costs one additional request and one additional billed event. On a run with many seeds this dominates the cost, so a first pass with enrichment off, followed by LinkedIn Profile Scraper over the usernames actually wanted, is usually cheaper.

How does this differ from the related_profiles field on a profile record? LinkedIn Profile Scraper returns that list as one nested field on the seed's own record. This Actor expands the list into one row per person, deduplicates across every seed in the run, attributes each row to its source, and can enrich each person. Use that Actor when the seed is the subject; use this one when the related people are.

Is a LinkedIn account or session cookie required? No. Only publicly visible profiles are read, and no credentials or logged-in session are supplied.

Related Actors

Actor	Purpose
LinkedIn Profile Scraper	Full profile details for a known username or URL
LinkedIn Company Scraper	Company page details by handle or URL
LinkedIn Post Scraper	Post, activity, and article details by URL
LinkedIn Jobs Scraper	Job search by keyword and location