Can People See What You Search on LinkedIn?

No, other LinkedIn members cannot normally see the names, companies, jobs or keywords you type into the LinkedIn search bar. Your search terms are not displayed to the people or organisations you search for.

However, searching and viewing are not the same action. If you open a person's profile after finding them in search results, LinkedIn may show that person that you viewed their profile. What they see depends on your profile viewing settings.

This guide explains what LinkedIn searches reveal, when another member may know you looked at them, and how to manage your search and viewing privacy.

Can someone see that you searched their name on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn does not send a notification simply because you entered someone's name in the search box. The person cannot see:

• The exact words you searched
• How many times you searched their name
• The filters you used
• Whether you saw their profile in the results
• Searches you performed for companies, jobs, posts or groups

The situation changes only when you take another action, such as opening the person's profile, following them, connecting with them, reacting to their content or sending a message.

Searching for someone vs viewing their profile

It is important to separate these two activities:

Searching

You type a name, job title, company or keyword into LinkedIn and review the results. This does not normally identify you to anyone shown in those results.

Viewing

You click a result and open a member's full profile. That visit may appear in the member's Who's viewed your profile area.

What the member sees depends on the setting you selected under Profile viewing options:

1. Your name and headline: The member may see your identity, profile photo and professional headline.
2. Private profile characteristics: The member may see limited information, such as your job function, industry or region, without your name.
3. Private mode: The member sees an anonymous LinkedIn member rather than your identity.

You can read the full walkthrough in our guide on how to view LinkedIn profiles anonymously.

Does LinkedIn notify someone when you search for them?

No notification is triggered by the search itself. A notification may be generated after a profile visit, depending on the visitor's privacy setting and the other member's LinkedIn account settings.

Other actions that can reveal your interest include:

• Sending a connection request
• Following the member
• Liking or commenting on a post
• Endorsing a skill
• Sending an InMail or direct message
• Viewing or reacting to a newsletter or event

For a more detailed breakdown, see does LinkedIn notify someone when you search for them?.

Can companies see that you searched for them?

A company page administrator does not ordinarily receive a list of individual people who typed the company name into LinkedIn search.

LinkedIn may provide companies with aggregated analytics about page visitors, followers and content performance. Aggregated information is different from revealing your exact private search query.

Your identity may become visible when you follow the company, engage with its posts, register for an event or interact with an employee.

Can employers see your LinkedIn job searches?

Employers cannot normally open a report showing every job title or company you searched for. Nevertheless, some job-search actions are stored in your own LinkedIn account, including recent searches, saved jobs, job alerts and submitted applications.

Those records are not all controlled from the same place. Clearing recent searches does not automatically remove:

• Saved jobs
• Job alerts
• Application records
• Uploaded resumes
• Messages with recruiters

Use our separate guide to delete LinkedIn job search history and review the related account areas individually.

Can LinkedIn Recruiter users see your searches?

LinkedIn Recruiter is designed for employers and talent professionals to search for candidates. A Recruiter user can search LinkedIn member profiles, save candidates and organise hiring projects, but that does not give the recruiter access to the private search terms in your personal LinkedIn account.

Recruiter search history is also different from ordinary LinkedIn search history. Our guide to LinkedIn Recruiter search history vs saved searches explains the distinction.

How to make LinkedIn profile visits private

On the LinkedIn website:

1. Sign in to LinkedIn.
2. Select Me or your profile photo.
3. Open Settings & Privacy.
4. Select Visibility.
5. Open Profile viewing options.
6. Choose Private mode or Private profile characteristics.

In the LinkedIn mobile app:

1. Tap your profile picture.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Choose Visibility.
4. Tap Profile viewing options.
5. Select the level of privacy you prefer.

LinkedIn occasionally changes menu wording and layout, but the setting is generally located under Visibility.

How to clear your LinkedIn search history

Clearing your search history removes recent searches from your own LinkedIn account interface. It does not erase profile-view notifications already shown to another member.

You can usually clear searches from the search box by opening your recent searches and selecting Clear, or through the data and privacy section of LinkedIn settings.

Follow our complete desktop and mobile instructions in how to delete LinkedIn search history.

What clearing LinkedIn search history does not do

Clearing the list does not:

• Make an earlier profile visit anonymous
• Withdraw a connection request
• Delete messages
• Remove saved jobs or job alerts
• Delete applications already sent to employers
• Remove your activity from LinkedIn's internal security records immediately

Think of search-history clearing as account housekeeping rather than a universal deletion tool.

LinkedIn privacy checklist

For a more private LinkedIn experience:

• Set profile viewing to private before opening sensitive profiles
• Clear recent search history periodically
• Review public profile visibility
• Disable unnecessary profile update notifications
• Remove old resumes and imported contacts
• Review connected apps and active sessions
• Check who can discover your profile using your email address or phone number

Frequently asked questions

Can LinkedIn Premium users see who searched them?

Premium features may provide additional profile-view insights, but they do not normally reveal the private words another person typed into the LinkedIn search bar. A genuinely private-mode profile visit remains anonymous to the profile owner.

Can someone tell how many times I searched for them?

No. LinkedIn does not normally provide members with a counter showing how many times another person searched their name.

Will clearing my search history remove a profile view?

No. Search history and profile viewing history are separate. Clearing recent searches does not remove a view that has already been recorded or displayed.

Can recruiters see that I am searching for jobs?

Recruiters may see signals you intentionally share, such as Open to Work, but they cannot normally inspect your complete private job-search history.

Is LinkedIn private mode completely invisible?

Private mode hides your identity from the person whose profile you view. LinkedIn itself still operates the service and may retain activity data for security, personalisation and legal purposes under its policies.

Final answer

People cannot normally see what you type into LinkedIn search. They may, however, see that you viewed their profile after selecting a result. Set your profile viewing option to private before opening profiles, and manage search history separately when you want to clean up recent activity.