How to Export Candidates from LinkedIn Recruiter (CSV, Excel, Resumes)

Recruiter vs. LinkedIn Jobs — Know Which Product You Have

Before trying to export, confirm which LinkedIn product you're actually in. The export options are different:

LinkedIn Jobs — where you post a job and receive applicants. No bulk export. This is what most small and mid-sized companies use.
LinkedIn Recruiter (and Recruiter Lite) — a separate, paid product for sourcing and managing candidates in Projects. Has limited native export features.
Talent Hub / Recruiter System Connect (RSC) — an ATS integration layer, not an end-user export tool.

If you're looking at a page titled "Applicants" on a job post, you're in LinkedIn Jobs. If you're looking at "Projects", "Pipeline", or "Talent Pool", you're in Recruiter.

What You Can Export from LinkedIn Recruiter (Natively)

LinkedIn Recruiter does offer some native export features, but they are narrower than most teams expect.

Typical native export path:

Open a Recruiter Project
Select candidates in the pipeline (individually or as a filtered list)
Click the "More" or actions menu
Choose an export option — available actions depend on your seat type, admin settings, and region

What you generally get (when export is available at all) is a limited CSV with a subset of profile fields: name, current title, company, location, and the LinkedIn profile URL. Some plans allow PDF profile exports as well.

What you typically do NOT get from Recruiter exports:

The applicant's resume file as they uploaded it
Screening question answers from LinkedIn Jobs applications
Emails and phone numbers (unless surfaced through InMail or RSC integrations)
A simple per-job applicant list (Recruiter is Project-based, not job-based)

Export behavior also varies by region (EU restrictions are stricter), by seat type (Recruiter vs. Recruiter Lite vs. Talent Hub), and by admin policy at your company. Always check your current plan's documentation.

Why Recruiter Exports Often Disappoint Hiring Teams

Teams buy Recruiter expecting a clean "export my candidates to Excel" button. The reality is closer to this:

Recruiter is optimized for in-tool workflow, not data portability
Exports are designed for ATS sync, not human review in a spreadsheet
The best candidate data (notes, screening answers, resume PDFs) often stays trapped in the UI
Every seat needed to review candidates costs thousands of dollars per year

If your goal is just "give the hiring manager a spreadsheet of applicants with their resumes," Recruiter is not the shortest path.

Step-by-Step: Exporting from LinkedIn Recruiter

If you do have a Recruiter seat and want to use the native export:

Log in to linkedin.com/talent/ (Recruiter) or Recruiter Lite
Open the Project that contains the candidates you want to export
Filter the pipeline (by stage, source, or saved search) to narrow the list
Select candidates using the checkboxes — there may be a per-export cap (commonly 25 or 100 per batch, varies by plan)
Click the More / actions menu and choose the available export option (typically CSV or PDF profiles)
Download the file; check that the fields you need are actually present

For large pipelines you will need to repeat this in batches. There is no "export all" for most plans.

Exporting Applicants Without a Recruiter Seat

Most companies don't actually need Recruiter — they just need to export applicants from jobs they already posted on LinkedIn Jobs. That's what ApplicantSync does.

ApplicantSync is a free Chrome extension that works on the Applicants tab of your own LinkedIn job posts. It captures the data LinkedIn shows you as the poster and turns it into a structured dataset with:

Full applicant list per job
Resume files and shareable resume URLs
Screening questions and each applicant's answers
Email and phone (when provided)
Parsed experience and education
CSV or XLSX export in one click

No Recruiter seat, no credential sharing, no per-user fees. If your hiring need is "I want my applicants in a spreadsheet with their resumes," this is a much shorter path than Recruiter.

When Recruiter Is Still the Right Answer

ApplicantSync is focused on inbound applicants to your own jobs. If you actually need to source passive candidates — searching the LinkedIn graph, running InMail campaigns, tracking pipelines across dozens of roles — Recruiter is the right tool and ApplicantSync won't replace it.

Many teams do both: Recruiter for sourcing, ApplicantSync for processing inbound applicants and sharing them with hiring managers who don't have Recruiter seats.

Compliance Notes

Whichever tool you use, you remain responsible for how exported candidate data is stored and shared:

Follow LinkedIn's terms of service for the product you're using
Respect GDPR/CCPA and other local privacy regulations — you are the data controller once data leaves the platform
Limit access to candidate data to people with a legitimate hiring need
Have a clear retention policy — don't keep candidate data indefinitely

ApplicantSync is an independent tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by LinkedIn®.

Final Thoughts

LinkedIn Recruiter can export candidates — just not as completely, cheaply, or flexibly as most teams expect. For pure sourcing pipelines, that's fine. For the very common need of "I posted a job, I want my applicants in Excel with their resumes," a Chrome extension is a much better match than an enterprise sourcing tool.