How to Export Your Connections on LinkedIn? (2025 Tutorial)

Yes, you can export your LinkedIn contacts. And yes, it’s useful.

Whether you want to back up your network or turn your connections into warm leads, this tutorial will walk you through everything.

What you’ll learn in this guide:

• Why you should export your LinkedIn contacts

• How to export your LinkedIn connections from the platform

• How to export 1st-degree contacts from Sales Navigator

• What to do with your exported contacts

• Advanced strategies

📺 If you prefer to watch a video on how to export your connections on LinkedIn, you can check this:

Why You Should Export Your LinkedIn Contacts

Your LinkedIn network is one of your most valuable assets. But it only lives on LinkedIn… which means if your account ever gets restricted or banned, you lose everything.

By exporting your connections, you can:

• See exactly who’s in your network

• Identify warm leads you forgot about

• Import those contacts into your CRM

• Keep a backup of your data (just in case)

• Reuse those contacts in future campaigns

This is especially useful if you’re in sales, recruiting, or business development.

How to Export Your LinkedIn Contacts

All right, you want to export your LinkedIn contacts.

In other words, you want to export all the people who are in your 1st-degree network.

LinkedIn gives you a native way to export all your 1st degree connections.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Go to LinkedIn and click on your profile icon

Open LinkedIn, and then click on "Me" on top of any LinkedIn page.

Step 2: Click on "Setting & Privacy"

Then click on "Settings & Privacy".

Step 3: Select "Data Privacy"

Click on "Data privacy" in the menu.

Step 4: Click on "Get a copy of your data"

Then you have to click on "Get a copy of your data".

It's between "Manage your data and activity" and "Manage cookie preferences".

Step 5: Select "Download larger data archive…"

We are almost done! You just need to

1. Select "Download larger data archive, including connections, verifications, contacts, account history, and information we infer about you based on your profile and activity"

2. Then click on "Request archive".

💡 Pro tip: It's written "Your download will be ready in about 24 hours". But it takes maximum 2/3 hours. And most of the time, you can download your archive in a few minutes.

Once you clicked on "Request archive", you get this a confirmation message on your screen.

You just need to wait and check your emails.

Step 6: Click on "Download first part of your data archive with this link"

Check your email (and spam folder). You will receive an email from LinkedIn.

Then click on "Download first part of your data archive with this link".

Step 7: Click on "Download first part of your data archive with this link"

Once you've clicked in the link, you will be redirected to the same LinkedIn page.

Here, you just have to click on "Download archive".

Pro tip: You'll receive a .zip file. Just extract it to access the folder and its contents.

Step 8: Open your CSV file and check your contacts data

Once you’ve extracted the archive, open the folder.

You’ll find several files inside.

The one you need is called "Connections.csv". It contains the full list of your LinkedIn connections.

When you open the file "Connections.csv", you will see 7 data points from your connections:

First name

• Last name

• LinkedIn URL

• Email (only if the user made it public)

• Job title

• Company name

• Position

• Date connected

But you will notice 2 things:

1. The data isn’t clean. You’ll see emojis (like 🚀) and names in odd formats, such as "vincent ROBIN" in all caps.

   
   

2. Most email addresses are missing. And the ones you do get are often personal emails, which means you can’t legally use them for cold outreach under GDPR rules.

If you want to get the verified emails of your connections, the best way is to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

📺 If you want to check if LinkedIn Sales Navigator is worth it for you, you can check this video:

How to Export Your Contacts from LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Sales Navigator is where things get interesting.

You can apply advanced filters, segment your contacts, and access way more valuable data than what you get in the basic "Connections.csv" file from LinkedIn.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to export your connections using Sales Navigator.

Step 1: Go to the Lead Filter page

When you're on the homepage on LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you just have to click on "Lead filters".

Step 2: Select the 1st-Degree Connection Filter

As you can see, there are a lot of advanced filters on this lead page.

But the one we want to use to export your connections is: "Connection".

Then, select "1st degree connections".

Step 3: Split your search

With Sales Navigator, you can only see 2500 results.

So if you have more than 2500 people in your network, you need to split your search into several chunks.

The best way to do that is to use some filters like:

• Company headcount

• Geography

• Years of experience

• Years in current company

• Etc

Then, you save your searches in lead lists.

📺 If you want to have a video tutorial on how to split your search on LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can check this video:

Step 4: Export your search with GiveMeLeads

It's time to export your connections into a clean CSV file.

The first thing you have to do is to is to sign-up on GiveMeLeads.

You do the quick onboarding, and then you just have to give the Sales Navigator URLs.

Finally, you can start to export your connections.

Here's how:

1. Click "New Leads Export" in the GiveMeLeads dashboard

2. Select the number of leads you want

3. Check if you want to get the leads once or on a regular basis (you can select the day of the week you want to receive your file)

4. Confirm and start the extraction

5. Wait while Givemeleads processes your request

Step 5: Download Your List of Leads

The final step is getting your lead file:

1. Once processing is complete, you'll get a notification

2. Go to your GiveMeLeads dashboard

3. Find your export

4. Click "Open in Sheets" to get your file

   
   

   

The file includes:

• First Name

• Last Name

• LinkedIn URL

• Company

• Job title

• Verified email (if available)

📺 If you want to check how to export leads from LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can check this video:

How to Use Exported Contacts for Business?

You now have a file with your most valuable contacts. Here's how to put them to work:

Update Your CRM with your Contacts

If you use a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool to manage your B2B leads, you should absolutely consider syncing it with your LinkedIn contact data.

Why? Because your CRM is only as good as the data inside it.

By exporting your 1st-degree connections or filtered lead searches from LinkedIn or Sales Navigator, you can:

1. Enrich your CRM with fresh data (like current job titles or companies)

2. Fill in missing contact details from past prospects

3. Track conversations and follow-ups in one central place

4. Segment your leads more accurately based on updated info

All you need to do is export your LinkedIn data into a CSV file, clean it up a bit, and then import it into your CRM (like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Pipedrive).

💡 Pro tip: Tag these leads in "warm leads". You will have a much higher reply rates when you reach out to your contacts.

Turn Them Into a Leads List

When you export leads from LinkedIn to Excel, you can build qualified list of leads for your outreach campaigns.

Once you've created your list of leads from your connections, you can start to send LinkedIn DMs and/or cold email.

📺 If you want to learn how to target rich leads, you can check this video:

Find Candidates Faster

In your LinkedIn contacts, you might have some people who are good fit for your open positions.

When you take data from LinkedIn search results to Excel, you can identify good candidates.

Advanced Techniques When Exporting Your LinkedIn Connections

Here are 2 advanced techniques I want to show you to leverage your connections on LinkedIn.

1. Filter your best leads

2. Create a lead search

1. Filter Your Best Leads in your Contacts

I'm sure you don’t want to export everyone in your LinkedIn network, just the contacts that actually matter to your business.

The best way to do that is to add some filters in the lead filters page.

When exporting via Sales Navigator, use filters like:

• Job title (CEO, VP, Head of Marketing)

• Location (US, Europe)

• Seniority (Decision-makers only)

That way, you don’t waste time on low-quality contacts.

2. Create a Lead Search

The 2nd advanced technique when exporting your connections is to save your search on Sales Navigator.

Now, every time a new 1st-degree connection matches that search, you’ll get notified.

That's perfect to stay on top of new warm leads entering your network.

📺 If you want to see exactly how to create a lead search, I made a YouTube video showing every step: