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

On LinkedIn, you can export your 1st-degree connections.

It's one of fastest way to book sales calls and generate business.

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 archive"

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.

Now, 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

Follow the 6 steps to export your connections from LinkedIn Sales Navigator with their verified emails:

1. Create a GiveMeLeads account

2. Download the Chrome Extension

3. Select your target on LinkedIn Sales Navigator

4. Launch your export

5. Schedule Your Leads Export (Optional)

6. Download your leads file

Let's dive in!

1. Create a GiveMeLeads account

Go on GiveMeLeads. Then click on "Get first 10 leads for free".

Then, you have to write your:

1. First Name

2. Last Name

3. Email

4. Password

And click on "Create account".

2. Download the Chrome Extension

The GiveMeLeads Chrome extension allows you to export your LinkedIn Sales Navigator leads with one click.

It's not mandatory to use it — you can also copy and paste the Sales Navigator search URL directly into the platform.

However, using the extension makes the process faster and easier, especially if you're just getting started.

3. 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".

Then click “Extract leads” using the GiveMeLeads extension or paste the search URL on the platform.

📺 If you're not sure how to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find qualified leads, you can check this video:

4. Launch your export

You target is set up. Now it's time to export your leads.

For that, click on "New Leads Export".

You will get a pop-up where you can select:

• The number of leads you want to export

• If you want to schedule this export on a weekly basis.

Then click on "Export Leads".

5. Schedule Your Leads Export (Optional)

GiveMeLeads lets you schedule lead exports. Pick the day you want, and you’ll receive fresh leads weekly.

Once set up, you'll get a fresh list of leads every week — automatically.

Each lead is unique, and the system ensures there are no duplicates. This saves you time and keeps your CRM clean, so you can focus on outreach, not data cleaning.

Then, you’ll automatically receive new leads every week — no manual work needed.

You can focus 100% on what really matters: sending emails, starting LinkedIn conversations, and booking meetings.

💡 Pro tip: With scheduled exports, you can easily build lead files with more than 2,500 fresh, qualified contacts delivered straight to your inbox every week.

6. Download your leads file with your connections

When your export is finished, you’ll receive an email with a download link.

You can also download your file directly by clicking the "Download" button in your dashboard. You’ll see two options.

1. "Open in Sheets"

This gives you a simple version of your lead list.

You have:

• Source (Sales Navigator, 1st-degree, profile viewers…)

• First Name

• Last Name

• Profile picture

• Company name

• Job title

• Headline

• LinkedIn URL

• Email

It doesn’t include all the data, but it’s perfect if you just want to import leads into your CRM or outreach tool like Lemlist or Expandi.

2. "Download CSV"

This gives you the full file with all available data. For each lead, you’ll see extra info like:

• Whether they have LinkedIn Premium

• Their total years of experience

• Company details like size, industry, and location

• Etc

Here's all the informations you can have:

💡 Pro tip: Don’t forget to scroll horizontally — there's a lot of valuable data in your lead file, including job titles, company size, verified emails, and even intent signals.

On top of that, GiveMeLeads automatically cleans your data:

• Fixes capital letters in names and job titles

• Removes emojis from job titles

• Removes legal suffixes in company names (like LLC, GmbH, etc.)

GiveMeLeads also checks if each lead matches your LinkedIn Sales Navigator filters.

If a lead doesn’t fit — for example, they have:

• An invalid job title

• Invalid location

• Wrong company size work

• Etc

We tag them in the column "filters" with the reason they’re invalid (like “Invalid job title” or “Wrong company size”).

That way, you keep full control of your data and don’t waste time guessing why a lead doesn’t match your targeting.

With GiveMeLeads, you get the verified professional email of every lead — even if they’re in your 2nd or 3rd-degree connections.

💡 Pro tip: No need to use separate tools to find or verify emails. Everything’s already cleaned, verified, and ready to go.

👉 Try GiveMeLeads today and turn LinkedIn into a lead machine.

📺 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 and get a good reply rate.

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

Let's start!

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 (use boolean operators to get better results)

• Location (US, Europe)

• Size of company

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 an alert.

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 steps:

FAQ

How often can I export my LinkedIn contacts?

You can export your LinkedIn contacts as often as you want. There’s no limit on how many times you can download your 1st-degree connections using LinkedIn’s native export tool.

If you want to go further, third-party tools like GiveMeLeads can help you automate this process and sync your contacts regularly with your CRM.

Can I export the email addresses of my LinkedIn connections?

Not really. When you use LinkedIn’s built-in export feature, you’ll get basic info like:

• Name

• Job title

• Company

• Date of connection

But you won’t get email addresses unless the person has made them public on their profile — which is rare.

If you want to filter your connections, and get their verified email addresses, you’ll need to use a lead enrichment tool like GiveMeLeads or other email finders.

Is it legal to export and use LinkedIn contact data?

Yes, as long as you follow the rules.

You’re allowed to export your first-degree connections from LinkedIn. You can’t export or scrape second- or third-degree contacts using LinkedIn’s own tools.

That said, many countries (like those in the EU and US) allow you to use publicly available data as long as you stay compliant with privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA.

Tools like GiveMeLeads provide GDPR-compliant data and let you manage opt-outs easily.

What’s the easiest way to export LinkedIn contacts?

The simplest way is to use a third-party tool.

Instead of manually exporting, formatting, and enriching each contact, tools like GiveMeLeads let you:

• Export contacts in 1 click

• Get clean, verified emails

• Sync everything with your CRM

• Save hours of manual work

It’s faster, easier, and much more scalable, especially if LinkedIn is a core part of your outbound process.