How to Scrape LinkedIn with cURL

LinkedIn contains valuable data -- post results, profile results, company results, post snippets, and more. Scraping this data directly means dealing with anti-bot detection, CAPTCHAs, IP rotation, and constantly breaking selectors. The Scavio API handles all of that and returns clean, structured JSON from a single POST request.

This tutorial shows you how to scrape LinkedIn using cURL and the Scavio API. By the end, you will have a working cURL script that fetches real-time LinkedIn data and parses the results.

Prerequisites

• A terminal with cURL installed (pre-installed on macOS, Linux, and Windows 10+)
• A Scavio API key (free tier includes 250 credits/month -- no credit card required)

Step 1: Install Dependencies

curl is built into cURL, so there is nothing to install.

# cURL is pre-installed on macOS, Linux, and Windows 10+

Step 2: Make Your First LinkedIn Search

Send a POST request to the Scavio LinkedIn API endpoint with your query. The API returns structured JSON with post results, profile results, company results, and more.

curl -X POST "https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/search" \
  -H "x-api-key: your_scavio_api_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"site:linkedin.com/in AI engineer San Francisco"}'

Step 3: Example Response

The API returns structured JSON. Here is an example response for a LinkedIn search:

{
  "search_metadata": { "status": "success" },
  "organic_results": [
    {
      "position": 1,
      "title": "Jane Doe - Senior AI Engineer - Acme Corp | LinkedIn",
      "link": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/janedoe",
      "snippet": "San Francisco Bay Area · Senior AI Engineer at Acme Corp · 5,000+ connections · Experienced in LangChain, LangGraph, and RAG..."
    }
  ]
}

Every field is structured and typed -- no HTML parsing, no CSS selectors, no regex extraction. Your cURL code can access any field directly.

Step 4: Full Working Example

Here is a complete, runnable cURL script that searches LinkedIn and prints the results:

#!/bin/bash
# Scrape LinkedIn search results using Scavio API.
# Returns structured JSON with post results, profile results, company results, and more.

SCAVIO_API_KEY="${SCAVIO_API_KEY:-your_scavio_api_key}"
QUERY="${1:-site:linkedin.com/in AI engineer San Francisco}"

curl -s -X POST "https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/search" \
  -H "x-api-key: $SCAVIO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"site:linkedin.com/in AI engineer San Francisco"}' | python3 -m json.tool

Why Use Scavio Instead of Scraping LinkedIn Directly?

• No proxy management. Direct scraping requires rotating proxies to avoid IP bans. Scavio handles all of this server-side.
• No CAPTCHA solving. LinkedIn aggressively blocks automated requests. Scavio returns clean data every time.
• Structured JSON output. No HTML parsing or CSS selector maintenance. Get typed, consistent data from every request.
• Multi-platform in one API. Search Google, Amazon, YouTube, and Walmart from the same API key with the same authentication pattern.
• Free tier included. 250 credits/month with no credit card required. Each search costs 1 credit.