RapidAPI LinkedIn API alternative: the profile, without the monthly plan
On RapidAPI, a LinkedIn profile API is a monthly plan. RockApis's Real-Time LinkedIn Scraper API costs $175 a month for 50,000 credits on its smallest paid plan, and Fresh LinkedIn Profile Data $10 a month for 500 credits, 2 of them a profile. Credits a month doesn't use expire with it, both APIs' own FAQ says.
Datacircle has no plan. You add funds to a balance, from $5, and each LinkedIn profile costs the provider's own price: $1.25 per 1,000 through Up2Data, and a profile it can't find is free. You send the provider's own request to api.datacircle.dev, with your Datacircle key. That's the only change.
Their plans, per 1,000 profiles
Each plan as its RapidAPI pricing page gives it in October 2026, worked out per 1,000 profiles by URL: RockApis's Get Profile Data By URL is 1 credit, a failed request none; FreshData's Get Profile Details is 2 credits, 1 more for each extra option.
| Plan | A month | Profiles included | Per 1,000 in the plan | Per 1,000 past it | Requests a month, at most |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | free | 50 | free | none: it stops | 75 |
| Pro | $175.00 | 50,000 | $3.50 | $4.00 | 60,000 |
| Ultra | $300.00 | 100,000 | $3.00 | $3.50 | 120,000 |
| Mega | $500.00 | 200,000 | $2.50 | $2.50 | 250,000 |
| Plan | A month | Profiles included | Per 1,000 in the plan | Per 1,000 past it | Requests a month, at most |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $10.00 | 250 | $40.00 | none: it stops | 500 |
| Pro | $45.00 | 2,250 | $20.00 | $24.00 | 6,000 |
| Ultra | $250.00 | 16,000 | $15.63 | $16.00 | 40,000 |
| Mega | $1,000.00 | 100,000 | $10.00 | $12.00 | 240,000 |
Through Datacircle: $1.25 per 1,000 through Up2Data, $3.70 through HarvestAPI, the same at 1 profile or 1 million, with no plan. Sign up at datacircle.dev with your work email: a $5 credit, that's 4,000 LinkedIn profiles at $1.25 per 1,000.
What a month of profiles costs
The cheapest plan that takes each month's profiles, its credits past the plan's at the plan's own price:
| Profiles a month | RockApis | FreshData | Datacircle, HarvestAPI | Datacircle, Up2Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $175.00 (Pro) | $45.00 (Pro) | $3.70 | $1.25 |
| 10,000 | $175.00 (Pro) | $250.00 (Ultra) | $37.00 | $12.50 |
| 100,000 | $300.00 (Ultra) | $1,000.00 (Mega) | $370.00 | $125.00 |
A month you call less, a plan costs the same. On Datacircle, a month without calls costs nothing, and the balance waits: funds never expire.
The same profile, one call
On RapidAPI, a profile by URL is a GET to the API's own host with your RapidAPI key in X-RapidAPI-Key: linkedin-data-api.p.rapidapi.com/get-profile-data-by-url for RockApis, fresh-linkedin-profile-data.p.rapidapi.com/enrich-lead for FreshData. Through Datacircle, it's Up2Data's own request with your Datacircle key:
curl -X POST "https://api.datacircle.dev/v1/profiles/enrich" \
-H "Authorization: Token $DATACIRCLE_API_KEY" \
-H "X-Data-Provider: up2data" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamhgates"}'Or HarvestAPI's, at $3.70 per 1,000:
curl "https://api.datacircle.dev/linkedin/profile?url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamhgates" \
-H "Authorization: Token $DATACIRCLE_API_KEY" \
-H "X-Data-Provider: harvestapi"Every answer carries datacircle_meta: which provider answered, what the call cost, your balance after it. Both providers' requests and answers, field by field: LinkedIn Profile API in the docs. The same call for a whole CSV: get LinkedIn profile data with Python.
What they do that Datacircle doesn't
- Far more than the profile. RockApis: people search, a profile's posts, comments, reactions and recommendations, a company's details, jobs and posts, job search and articles, most of them 1 credit. FreshData: lead, company, job and post search (Sales Navigator search URLs included), a profile's PDF CV, and its languages, certifications, publications, patents and awards at 1 credit each. Datacircle passes on only the profile call.
- RapidAPI itself: one key and one bill for every API on its hub.
If you need those, they're built for them. If you send LinkedIn URLs from your own code and want each profile as it is today, at the provider's own price and without a plan, that's Datacircle.
What's different
Live. Each request goes to the provider and gets the profile as it is today. A call that fails is not charged, and every answer says what it cost.
Free: 10M+ U.S. B2B leads, as a flat file. Download it at datacircle.dev. Add $50 to your account: you get $50 of API PLUS the flat file. Or invite 3 people who sign up. What's in it: the B2B data co-op. Every LinkedIn profile API's price: LinkedIn profile API pricing compared.
Questions
Is there a cheaper alternative to the LinkedIn APIs on RapidAPI?
Through Datacircle, Up2Data costs $1.25 per 1,000 profiles found, and a profile it can't find is free, with no monthly plan. On RapidAPI, RockApis's Real-Time LinkedIn Scraper API starts at $175 a month ($3.50 per 1,000) and Fresh LinkedIn Profile Data at $10 a month ($40.00 per 1,000), October 2026.
Do unused RapidAPI credits roll over?
Not on these two: each API's own FAQ says unused credits expire at the end of the billing cycle.
Is there a subscription?
No. You add funds to your balance and pay per call; funds never expire.
Which APIs?
Right now we have 2 live LinkedIn profile APIs that we trust: Up2Data and HarvestAPI.
Is each request live, or cached?
Live. Each request goes to the provider and gets the profile as it is today.
Sign up at datacircle.dev with your work email: a $5 credit, that's 4,000 LinkedIn profiles at $1.25 per 1,000. Free: 10M+ U.S. B2B leads, as a flat file. Download it at datacircle.dev.
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