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.

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 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.

💡Pro tip: If you can't see the results of your search, it's probably because you're way beyond the limits of LinkedIn

How to See and Export Someone’s Connections with Sales Navigator

Follow the 7 steps to export someone's connections with LinkedIn Sales Navigator:

1. Create a GiveMeLeads account

2. Download the Chrome Extension

3. Select your target on LinkedIn Sales Navigator

4. Add Intent Data (Optional)

5. Launch your export

6. Schedule Your Leads Export (Optional)

7. Download your leads file

Let's dive in!

Step 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".

Step 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.

Step 3: Select your target on LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Go to LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

The filter 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 or use GiveMeLeads.

Then, use filters to find your ideal leads (like job title, company size, or location).

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:

Step 4: Add Intent Data (Optional)

Depending on your GiveMeLeads plan, you can add intent data to your searches.

It’s a great way to find warm leads — people who are more likely to reply or book a call.

Let’s say your LinkedIn Sales Navigator filters are:

• Company size: 51–200 employees

• Job title: “Head of Sales”

• Location: San Francisco Bay Area

On top of that, GiveMeLeads will look for people who match these filters and show intent, such as:

• 1st-degree connections

• People in your competitors’ network

• People who follow your company page

• People who viewed your LinkedIn profile

Once you’ve selected your intent data sources, click “Save Changes”

💡 Pro tip: You can set priorities for each source. For example, you can give more weight to 1st-degree connections than profile viewers.

💡Pro tip #2: If you work with multiple sales reps (or co-founders), you can use all of their LinkedIn accounts to get more and better leads. Each account brings its own network, 1st-degree connections, and profile viewers — which means more warm leads for your team.

Step 5: 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".

Step 6: 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.

Step 7: Download your leads file

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.

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

Let's start!

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 to get decision makers.

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.