How to Search LinkedIn for Candidates with AI (Claude, ChatGPT, Grok)

Short answer: connect a LinkedIn MCP server, such as LinkMCP, to Claude, ChatGPT or Grok. Then describe the person you want to hire. The assistant searches LinkedIn through your own account, reads and ranks the profiles against your job description, and drafts the first message for you to approve.

People search and messages go through your own LinkedIn account, so they need a paid LinkMCP plan. In the free trial, you can test the "read and rank" part with profile links that you paste.

We make LinkMCP. This page shows what it does for recruiters and where other tools fit better.

What the assistant can do, tool by tool

LinkMCP gives your assistant 35 LinkedIn tools. These are the ones a recruiter uses:

Step by step

1. Add LinkMCP to your AI app. Claude: Is there a LinkedIn connector for Claude?. ChatGPT: How to Connect ChatGPT to LinkedIn. Grok (a custom connector on grok.com): How to Connect Grok to LinkedIn.
2. Choose a LinkMCP plan and connect your LinkedIn account once in the LinkMCP web app. Searches and messages go through your own account.
3. Describe the role. Give the title, the skills, the location, and what rules a person out. The assistant runs linkedin_search_people. If you already built a search on LinkedIn, paste its URL. With a Sales Navigator seat, ask for Sales Navigator, and the assistant runs linkedin_search_sales_navigator.
4. Read and rank. Ask the assistant to read the best matches in full and rank them against your job description. It reads up to 10 profiles per call with linkedin_bulk_get_profiles.
5. Find a way in. The assistant lists mutual connections with linkedin_get_shared_connections, or finds a work email with find_email.
6. Approve every message. Ask for drafts first, and send only what you approve. Claude asks for your permission before a tool that sends; ChatGPT may ask, depending on its settings. So do not rely on the app: say "Do not send anything" until you approve.

In Grok, type @ in the chat and choose LinkMCP, so that Grok uses it for the request.

Prompts to try

Search LinkedIn for senior backend engineers in Berlin who list Go or Rust. Show 2nd-degree connections first. Give me a table of 20: name, headline, location, profile URL.

Here is my LinkedIn search URL: [URL]. Get the first three pages of results. Remove everyone whose headline says student or intern.

Read the top 10 profiles in full. Rank them against this job description, with one reason for each: [paste the job description].

For the top 5, who in my network knows them?

Draft a connection request note for each of the top 3, under 300 characters, that mentions one thing from their profile. Show me the drafts. Do not send anything.

If the assistant answers without LinkedIn data, name the tool in your prompt, for example: "Use the LinkMCP tool linkedin_search_people."

What the free trial can and cannot do

• Works in the trial: read a profile from its link, read up to 10 profiles in one call, read a person's posts, look up a company from its link, and find and check work emails.
• Needs a paid plan with your LinkedIn account connected: people search, Sales Navigator search, mutual connections, connection requests, messages and InMail.

To test the idea in the trial, paste 10 profile links and your job description, and ask the assistant to rank them.

LinkMCP starts with a 7-day free trial, and you do not need a credit card. In the trial, profile and company lookups, posts and post comments, and email and phone lookups work. Searches, messages, posting and Sales Navigator act through your own LinkedIn account, and connecting it needs a paid plan. Starter costs $19 per month. New trials get their first month of Starter for $9.50.

Limits and account risk

• Every search, message and connection request goes through your LinkedIn account, so each has a daily limit and a minimum gap. In the default Cautious tier, you can send 25 messages, 10 InMails and 20 connection requests a day, and do 125 actions in total.
• Searches wait at least 5 seconds between calls, with at most 3 a minute. Messages wait 20 seconds, and InMails 60 seconds.
• A new or quiet account starts at 15 connection requests a day. Each active day adds 5, up to the limit of your tier.
• InMail uses the InMail credits of your LinkedIn plan.
• LinkMCP is not a campaign tool. It does not send sequences. Each message is a request in your chat.

LinkMCP is not affiliated with LinkedIn. As with any tool that acts on LinkedIn for you, a restriction cannot be ruled out completely; these limits keep the risk low. All limits: Security and limits. What can trigger a restriction: Will my LinkedIn get banned?

Where other tools fit better

• LinkedIn Recruiter is LinkedIn's own product for recruiting teams. LinkMCP does not search with Recruiter, and it does not read or change Recruiter projects or pipelines.
• Sourcing platforms. AI answers to this question also name SeekOut, hireEZ, Fetcher and Juicebox. Check their own pages for what they search and what they cost.
• High volume. For outreach to hundreds of candidates a week, LinkMCP's daily limits are too low on purpose.

LinkMCP fits when you want to search, read and write in the AI app that you already use, with your own LinkedIn account.

FAQ

Related

• Search LinkedIn and Sales Navigator with AI (filters and data that you get back)
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator MCP for Claude and ChatGPT
• Will my LinkedIn get banned?