Bypass LinkedIn Limits Smartly: Your Guide to Unrestricted Prospecting

Been digging through LinkedIn for leads and suddenly hit the limit? I get the level of frustration. It’s like having your hands tied while the best opportunities pass you by.

LinkedIn search limits might indeed be a real barrier when it comes to lead generation. As it turns out, there are some ways to bypass them. 

In this article, I cover several smart moves on how to get around LinkedIn search limits and minimize wasted searches.

TL;DR: Best ways to bypass LinkedIn limits compared

I’ve tested several ways to hack LinkedIn search limits and present the seven most effective methods (free and paid) in this article. For quick navigation, I’ve provided links to chapters where every way is discussed in more detail:

Before we dive deeper into my analysis, let’s ensure you understand the basic points. 

What are LinkedIn search limits?

LinkedIn is a robust tool for achieving sales or recruiting goals, but for basic account users, it imposes some limits. I would recommend that you distinguish between the two types of them:

• Profile search limits
• Commercial search limits

What is the LinkedIn profile search limit?

That’s the number of profiles you can access when you enter a keyword in a search bar and filter the list by People. The estimated LinkedIn free search limit is approximately 1,000 profiles, which is equivalent to 100 pages, each containing 10 profiles.

Paid LinkedIn account types slightly expand your lookup opportunities. These options include Sales Navigator and Recruiter Lite, which are tailored for prospecting and recruiting. 

Let’s take a quick look at what changes if you go with one of these plans:

Whether you need a paid or free account depends on your lead generation volume and goals.

What is the LinkedIn commercial search limit?

The platform lists the following activities that count towards your commercial search limit:

• Looking for profiles on LinkedIn.com and mobile
• Browsing a high number of profiles outside your 1st-degree network
• Looking up specific companies and viewing their employee lists
• Looking for contacts beyond your immediate network, such as 3rd-degree connections
• Browsing profiles through the People Also Viewed section
• Viewing member profiles on the People tab.

At the same time, these actions don’t contribute to your monthly LinkedIn search limit:

• Searching profiles by entering their names into the search box
• Viewing 1st-degree connections through the Connections page
• Exploring jobs on the Jobs page.

As you can see, LinkedIn can be quite confusing, so I hope this information will help you during your search.

Factors that influence LinkedIn search limits

It would be unfair if I didn’t share this information with you, but LinkedIn pays much attention to your account’s reputation. If you’ve just created a new account and your SSI (Social Selling Index) is low, the platform’s algorithms may be rather suspicious of your excessive daily activity. 

At Snov.io, we recommend new account owners stay within safe and moderate daily limits.

• Safe: 10-20 profile views per day
• Moderate: 30-40 profile views per day
• Risky: 50+ profile views per day

Learn more about LinkedIn algorithms in this short video prepared by our marketing experts:

2. Try Google X-Ray Search

Google X-Ray is your beloved Google lookup, but with a twist. By using specific operators, you can tell the search engine exactly what you’re looking for. This technique not only helps bypass LinkedIn limits but can also unearth profiles that meet your desired criteria, such as:

• Job positions
• Skills
• Locations
• Academic degrees and certifications

To start using Google X-Ray for LinkedIn searches, you first need to get acquainted with key operators:

Once you feel like you’ve got the hang of them, go to the Google search bar and type in your first string (feel free to use this template): site:linkedin.com person’s name/job position

Though Google X-Ray search can help uncover LinkedIn profiles beyond built-in limits, it would be fair to mention its limitations:

• You’ll need to process each result manually, which is a time-consuming process.
• Google will display only the public parts of profiles.

Additionally, Google may occasionally generate outdated data, resulting in misleading search results.

3. Take advantage of LinkedIn Boolean search

You can use AND, OR, and NOT operations for LinkedIn lookup as well. Even though this method doesn’t remove the LinkedIn search limits, it provides a shortcut to more qualified prospects. 

Boolean search is very similar to Google X-Ray, as it presupposes using special Boolean operations to narrow down your results: 

• AND — returns the results that include all keywords linked with AND
• OR — displays results that include at least one or all specified keywords
• NOT — completely excludes a keyword from your results
• Brackets () — group multiple search strings and set priorities
• Quotation marks “” — look for precise phrases or keywords

Picture it this way: every keyword pulls in its own set of profiles. You combine or cut terms using these operations until you’re left with exactly who you’re looking for. 

Let’s imagine you’re a sales specialist who aims to find marketing leads in different industries, excluding education. Simply enter relevant job positions as keywords into the LinkedIn search bar and use the necessary Boolean operators to exclude education. The ideal search string would look as follows:

(“Marketing Manager” OR “Growth Marketer”) NOT Education 

Boolean search isn’t technically a way to bypass LinkedIn limits. But it will help you to zero in on the right prospects faster, minimizing wasted effort.

4. Have multiple LinkedIn accounts

That’s another free way to hack the restrictions, though I’d rather you do it cautiously. While this option seems straightforward and quite tempting, it carries a certain level of risk.

❗ LinkedIn allows users to have only one personal account. So, keep in mind that violating this policy might lead to temporary or permanent restrictions.

If you still choose to go down this path, consider these safety measures:

• Use separate Chrome accounts or browsing sessions.
• Avoid logging into several accounts from the same device/IP without protection.
• Never reuse emails or duplicate content across accounts.

💡 Bonus hack

Juggling multiple LinkedIn accounts while trying to ensure consistency can feel draining.  

LinkedIn Rotation takes the pressure off. With this Snov.io feature, you can automatically spread actions across 5 accounts, keeping your outreach on track without manual account management.

4. Use LinkedIn groups to find prospects without searching

Joining relevant groups lets you hit two birds with one stone. First of all, you can minimize the risk of reaching LinkedIn search limits too soon. Secondly, it becomes easier to find relevant prospects with highly specific interests.

Yes, this way to bypass restrictions still impacts your limit since you’ll still need to look them up in the main search bar. What’s good is that there aren’t that many groups on LinkedIn as a rule, so you won’t reach limits so fast.

5. Sync LinkedIn advanced search with your ICP

Filing to plan is planning to fail. Indeed, when it comes to collecting qualified leads, deciding on your goal is above everything. Plus, it’s a good workaround to LinkedIn search limits, as it helps you easily minimize wasted searches. 

The first thing on your checklist has to be creating a detailed Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). 

To be able to do this, I recommend that you ask yourself these simple questions: 

• Who benefits from my services? Look closely at their job titles, industries, and roles.
• What are their pain points and needs? Reflect on the challenges these people or businesses face and explore how you can support or solve them.

Once you feel like you’ve got a proper hang of your targets, go to the main LinkedIn search bar. Here, you can see some filtering options, including but not restricted to: 

• Geography
• Company
• Industry
• School

For example:

I recommend combining your ICP insights with LinkedIn filters to expand profile visibility. Simply put, breaking your search into smaller segments yields different sets of results.

Let’s say you’re targeting marketing managers based in the United States. Type in your title and start playing with filters. For example, you can add an industry and city; once you’ve collected your first chunk of leads, change the filters but leave the title intact. 

This way, you can significantly broaden your reach and focus on sustainable results.

💡Bonus hack

If you’re hitting LinkedIn search limits, try using Snov.io’s Database Search as an alternative.

It helps you find pre-verified leads based on your ICP, with filters for job title, industry, location, company size, and more.

6. Consider switching to LinkedIn Sales Navigator

For large-scale search needs, going with LinkedIn Sales Navigator will be worth a shot. It’s a robust sales tool with advanced search capabilities and extensive filters.

The only catch is that this option requires a paid plan, with pricing starting at $79.99 per month. But you don’t have to upgrade immediately, as a 30-day free trial is available.

By opting for Sales Navigator, you won’t be limited by commercial use restrictions any longer. As I’ve already stated above, Sales Navigator provides up to 2500 leads and 1000 account results per search.

Key takeaways

LinkedIn search limits are painful. But they obviously shouldn’t keep you from achieving your lead generation goals, especially when so many smart workarounds exist. 

Focus on quantity versus quality. Ensure your search is targeted and prioritize sustainable success in your strategies. And if you want to minimize wasted effort on irrelevant leads, try Snov.io — a safe LinkedIn automation solution that controls limits smartly.