On LinkedIn, when you view someone's profile, they can usually see that you did — your name, headline, and photo appear in their "Who's viewed your profile" list — unless you switch on private mode, which hides your identity and shows you only as an anonymous viewer. Likewise, you can see who viewed your profile, but on a free account you only get a limited, teaser list of recent viewers; the full list requires [LinkedIn Premium](/guides/linkedin-premium). So the short answer: profile views are visible by default in both directions, private mode makes your viewing anonymous (at the cost of seeing your own viewers), and Premium unlocks the complete list of who's viewed you. This guide explains exactly who sees what, by account type, and how to change your own visibility.
Can people see when you view their profile?
Yes, by default. When you visit someone's profile, LinkedIn records it and can show them your full details in their viewer list. Your profile view visibility setting controls how you appear to others:
- Full visibility (default) — they see your name, headline, and photo.
- Private profile characteristics — they see only your headline and industry, not your name.
- Private mode / anonymous — they see "LinkedIn Member — someone viewed your profile," with no identifying detail.
You change this under Settings → Visibility → Profile viewing options. The important trade-off is below.
The catch with private mode
Private mode is symmetrical: if you browse anonymously, LinkedIn also hides who viewed *you*. Turn on anonymous viewing and your own "Who's viewed your profile" list stops showing names — you can't take without giving. For salespeople and recruiters this matters, because seeing who's checking you out is a warm-lead signal. Most people who prospect keep full visibility on for exactly that reason.
How to see who viewed your LinkedIn profile
Go to Me → View profile → Who's viewed your profile, or click the "Who's viewed your profile" tile on your home page. What you get depends on your plan:
- Free account: a limited list — typically the handful of most recent viewers, and often only those who weren't browsing privately. Older viewers are blurred/locked.
- Premium (any tier): the full list of viewers from the last 90 days, plus trends, job titles, companies, and how they found you.
If seeing your viewers matters to you, that's one of the more concretely useful reasons to consider Premium — see our Premium cost breakdown.
Why profile viewers are a sales signal (and what to do with them)
Someone who views your profile has raised their hand, quietly. They looked you up for a reason — a post you wrote, a mutual connection, a need you might solve. That makes profile viewers one of the warmest, most under-used sources of outreach: not cold, not random, but genuinely curious about you right now.
The problem is acting on it consistently. Viewers scroll past, you get busy, and the warm moment passes. This is where Conextly helps for LinkedIn: it surfaces the right people to reach, tracks each conversation so an engaged viewer never gets forgotten, and drafts a personalized message for each — you approve every send. A profile view stops being a notification you glance at and becomes the start of a tracked, personal follow-up. See Conextly's outreach workflow.
Profile-view privacy quick reference
| You want to… | Setting | |---|---| | See who viewed you (full) | Full visibility + Premium | | Browse others anonymously | Private mode (but you lose your own viewer list) | | Show only headline, not name | Private profile characteristics | | Reset recent view history | Not possible; the list rolls off after 90 days |