Apify Linkedin Posts Scraper

LinkedIn Posts Scraper: Posts to Structured JSON

Scrape public LinkedIn posts into clean JSON with the Apify LinkedIn Posts API. Point it at a profile to pull that person's recent posts, or pass specific post URLs to fetch them directly. You get one flat row per post: text, hashtags, media, author, and engagement counts.

When to use this skill

• The user wants to scrape or export LinkedIn posts (to JSON, CSV, a sheet, or a database).
• They want a creator's, brand's, or competitor's recent posts.
• They want to build a dataset of posts for research, monitoring, or content ideas.
• They ask for a "LinkedIn posts scraper" or "LinkedIn posts API".

Not for: private or connection-only content, profile bio data (use the LinkedIn Profile API), or company pages (use the LinkedIn Company API).

What you get (one row per post)

postUrl, postId, postType, datePosted, title, text, hashtags, authorName, authorHeadline, authorUrl, authorFollowers, authorType, numLikes, numComments, numShares, images, videos, embeddedLinks, taggedCompanies, taggedPeople, topComments, summary. A post that cannot be collected comes back as an error row (result_type = "error") instead of failing the run.

Prerequisites

• Apify account (sign up at https://apify.com?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=awesomeskills).
• Authentication via apify login, or an APIFY_TOKEN environment variable (Apify Console, Settings, Integrations).

The Actor

• Store page: https://apify.com/johnvc/linkedin-posts-api?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=awesomeskills
• Actor ID: johnvc/linkedin-posts-api
• Pricing: pay per post returned (see references/gotchas.md).

Run it with the Apify CLI

Discover a profile's recent posts:

apify actors call "johnvc/linkedin-posts-api" -i '{"profileUrls":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamhgates"],"maxPostsPerProfile":20}' \
  --json \
  --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-linkedin-posts-scraper \
  2>/dev/null

Fetch specific posts by URL:

apify actors call "johnvc/linkedin-posts-api" -i '{"postUrls":["https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7446904645010210816"]}' \
  --json \
  --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-linkedin-posts-scraper \
  2>/dev/null

Every call carries the three flags this repo expects: --json, --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-linkedin-posts-scraper, and 2>/dev/null.

Run it from Claude or another AI agent (MCP)

The Actor is MCP-ready. Add the hosted server URL:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=actors,docs,johnvc/linkedin-posts-api

Then ask, for example: "Use the LinkedIn Posts API to pull Bill Gates's last 20 posts and export them as JSON." MCP setup docs: https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp

Workflow

1. Pick the mode. Profile URLs for discovery (up to 25 per run), or post URLs for exact fetches (up to 1000 per run). You can pass both; supply at least one.
2. Bound the volume. Set maxPostsPerProfile (default 20, max 200), and, for a window, startDate and endDate (YYYY-MM-DD, discovery only).
3. Estimate cost, then confirm with the user if the run is large. See references/gotchas.md.
4. Run the Actor and read the dataset. Deliver the rows as JSON or CSV, or hand back the dataset link.

Inputs

• profileUrls (array of /in/ profile URLs, up to 25, discovery mode)
• postUrls (array of post URLs, up to 1000, exact fetch)
• maxPostsPerProfile (integer, default 20, max 200)
• startDate / endDate (YYYY-MM-DD, discovery only)

Non-/in/ profile URLs (company or school pages) are skipped.

Cost

Billing is per post returned, so a discovery run costs roughly the number of profiles times maxPostsPerProfile. Estimate first and confirm large runs. Thresholds are in references/gotchas.md.

Troubleshooting

• Empty profile: you get an error row (result_type "error", error_type "CollectionError"), not a failed run. Skip it; the rest of the batch still returns.
• Wrong URL type: only /in/ profile URLs discover posts; company or school URLs are skipped.
• Over a limit: keep profiles at 25 or fewer and post URLs at 1000 or fewer per run; split larger jobs into batches.

See references/gotchas.md for cost guardrails and error recovery, and references/actor-index.md for the Actor routing table.

Related LinkedIn Actors

• LinkedIn Profile API: https://apify.com/johnvc/linkedin-profile-api?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=awesomeskills
• LinkedIn Company API: https://apify.com/johnvc/linkedin-company-api?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=awesomeskills
• LinkedIn Jobs API: https://apify.com/johnvc/linkedin-jobs-api?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=awesomeskills