How to See Someone's Connections on LinkedIn [+Export Them]

You want to know who's in the network of your competitors?

And find qualified leads in it?

Good news: You can do that on LinkedIn (and I will even show you how to export the leads in the network of your competitors).

In this tutorial, I’ll show you:

• What you need to see someone’s LinkedIn connections

• How to access and view those connections step by step

• How to bypass the 1,000+ connection limit

• How to do it with LinkedIn Sales Navigator

• How to export those connections with emails

📺 If you prefer to watch a video on how to see (and export) the network of someone, you can check this:

Why You Can’t See Everyone’s Connections on LinkedIn

You can only view someone’s LinkedIn connections if two conditions are met:

1. You’re connected to them

2. They’ve allowed access to their network

Prerequisite 1: You're connected to this person

You need to be a 1st-degree connection to see someone’s network.

If you’re only a 2nd- or 3rd-degree connection, LinkedIn won’t let you access their contacts.

💡 Pro tip: If you see 2nd or 3rd degree, you can send them a connection request. If you don't get a response, you can withdraw your connection request, and re-send one 3 weeks later.

📺 If you're not sure what is 1st, 2nd and 3rd-degree network, you can check this video:

Prerequisite 2: Check you can see their connections

Even if you’re connected, you still might not see their network.

Go to their profile and look under their headline. If you see something like “500+ connections” and it’s clickable, you’re good.

But if it’s grayed out or not clickable, it means they’ve hidden their network.

Here’s what it looks like when you’re connected, but still can’t access their connections:

In that case, there’s nothing you can do. Their settings block access.

💡 Pro tip: I will show you how to block the access to your network at the end of this article.

How to See Someone’s Connections on LinkedIn

Here's 3 steps to see someone's connections on LinkedIn

1. Go the their LinkedIn profile

2. Find and click on the "X+ connections" link

3. Check in the network

Step 1: Go to Their LinkedIn Profile

Search for the person whose network you want to view.

And make sure you're in 1st-degree connection with this person.

Step 2: Find the “X connections” Link

Under their headline, you’ll see something like “500 connections.” If it’s clickable, that's perfect!

Step 3: Check the network

Now you can browse through all their 1st-degree connections. These are people who might also be worth connecting with.

Bonus: Use filters to View More Than 1,000 Connections

LinkedIn only lets you browse 100 pages of results, with 10 profiles per page. That’s a hard cap of 1,000 visible profiles.

But here’s the trick:

If the person you're looking at has more than 1,000 connections, you can still view them all by using filters to split the list.

Just click on “All filters” and apply criteria like:

• Location

• Industry

• Job title

• Current company

This helps you break the network into smaller segments, each under 1,000 results.

It’s simple, and you get way more visibility into their connections without missing valuable leads.

How to See Someone’s Connections on 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 from LinkedIn.

📺 If you don't know how to use Sales Navigator, no problem. You can check this in-depth tutorial:

Now it's time for a step-by-step guide to see someone's 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 "Connection of" Filter

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

The one you’re looking for is “Connection of”. This filter lets you see the network of any LinkedIn user.

Just type the name of the person whose connections you want to view.

💡 Pro tip: You can only enter one person at a time in the “Connection of” filter. If you want to see multiple networks, you'll need to run separate searches.

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:

How to Export Someone’s Connections with Sales Navigator

Once you’ve found valuable leads in someone’s network, here’s how to export them.

Step 1: Export Someone's Connections with GiveMeLeads

It's time to export the connections of someone 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 2: 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:

Advanced Techniques to Find Qualified Leads in Someone’s Network

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

1. Filter the best leads in someone's network

2. Create a lead search

1. Filter the best leads in someone's network

You probably don’t want to export all 2,000+ connections from someone’s network.

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. Save your search

The 2nd advanced technique when exporting the leads of someone's connections is to save your search on Sales Navigator.

Now, every time a lead in someone's network matches that search, you’ll get notified.

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

📺 If you want to see exactly how to save your search on LinkedIn Sales Navigator, I made a YouTube video showing every step:

FAQ

How to Protect Your LinkedIn Connections from Competitors

If you're using LinkedIn for business development or recruiting, your network is valuable. The last thing you want is a competitor snooping around your connections and stealing your leads or candidates.

Here’s how to hide your LinkedIn connections:

1. Log into your LinkedIn account

2. Click on the “Me” icon at the top of the homepage (it’s your profile picture)

3. Select “Settings & Privacy” from the dropdown

4. Go to the “Visibility” tab on the left

5. Click “Connections” under “Visibility of your profile & network”

6. Change “Who can see your connections” to “Only you”

This small tweak is especially useful if you’re in a competitive industry where people often scrape networks to find leads or candidates.

💡 Pro tip: Even with this setting, mutual connections (people you both know) will still be visible.

Will users be notified if their connections are viewed by someone else?

Nope. LinkedIn does not alert users when their connections are being viewed.

You can browse freely, as long as the network is visible.