Client Credential Flow (2-legged OAuth)

If your application needs to access APIs that are not member specific, use the Client Credential Flow. Your application cannot access these APIs by default.

Learn more:

• LinkedIn Developer Enterprise products and permission requests.
• LinkedIn Developers Platform knowledge base.

Step 1: Get Client ID and Client Secret

• Getting started? Create a new application on the Developer Portal.
• Existing application? Go to My apps to modify your app settings.

Each application is assigned a unique Client ID (Consumer key/API key) and Client Secret. Please make a note of these values as they will be integrated into your application config files. Your Client Secret protects your application's security so be sure to keep it secure!

Step 2: Generate an Access Token

To generate an access token, issue a HTTP POST against accessToken with a Content-Type header of x-www-form-urlencoded and the following parameters in the request body:

https://www.linkedin.com/oauth/v2/accessToken

• View the Best Practices for Secure Applications page for more security info.

Sample Request (Secure Approach)

POST https://www.linkedin.com/oauth/v2/accessToken HTTP/1.1

Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
grant_type=client_credentials
client_id={your_client_id}
client_secret={your_client_secret}

curl --location --request POST 'https://www.linkedin.com/oauth/v2/accessToken' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
--data-urlencode 'grant_type=client_credentials' \
--data-urlencode 'client_id={your_client_id}' \
--data-urlencode 'client_secret={your_client_secret}'

A successful access token request returns a JSON object containing the following fields:

• access_token — The access token for the application. This token must be kept secure.
• expires_in — Seconds until token expiration.
  • The access token has a 30-minute lifespan and must be used immediately. You may request a new token once your current token expires.

Sample Response

{
    "access_token": "AQV8...",
    "expires_in": "1800"
}

For error details, refer the API Error Details section.

Step 3: Make API Requests

Once you've received an access token, you can make API requests by including an Authorization header with your token in the HTTP call to LinkedIn's API.

Sample Request

GET https://api.linkedin.com/v2/jobs HTTP/1.1

Connection: Keep-Alive
Authorization: Bearer {access_token}

API Error Details