**LinkedIn search** is the platform's tool for finding people, companies, jobs, posts, groups, and schools across its network. You use it by typing into the search bar at the top of any page, then narrowing results with the filter tabs (People, Jobs, Companies, Posts, and more) and the **All filters** panel. The most powerful version is people search, where you can filter by title, current and past company, location, industry, connection degree, and school — and combine terms with Boolean operators like `AND`, `OR`, `NOT`, and quotes for exact phrases. This complete guide covers every search type, the filters that matter, the Boolean syntax that makes results precise, the free "commercial use limit" that quietly caps heavy searchers, and how to search at scale without doing it by hand.
The search types, and when to use each
LinkedIn runs one search bar across several content types. After you search, use the tabs to switch between them:
- **People** — the workhorse for networking, recruiting, and sales. Rich filters, Boolean support.
- **Companies** — find employers by industry, size, and location; a jumping-off point for [employee search](/guides/linkedin-employee-search).
- **Jobs** — the job board, with filters for remote, salary, experience level, and date posted.
- **Posts** — search content by keyword to find conversations, thought leaders, and warm outreach angles.
- **Groups**, **Schools**, **Events**, **Services** — narrower, but useful for niche targeting.
Most prospecting and recruiting work lives in **People** and **Companies**, so that's where this guide spends its time.
People search filters that actually matter
Open **All filters** on a People search and you get a stack of options. The high-leverage ones:
- **Connections** (1st / 2nd / 3rd) — 2nd-degree is the sweet spot for outreach: reachable, but not already in your network.
- **Current company** and **Past company** — isolate a target account, or find alumni of a company.
- **Title** — the fastest way to find a role, especially paired with Boolean.
- **Location** — country, region, or metro.
- **Industry** and **School** — strong secondary filters for relevance and warm angles.
Free accounts get the core filters. **[Sales Navigator](/guides/linkedin-sales-navigator-cost)** unlocks advanced ones — seniority level, company headcount, years in current role, recent job changes — which is what makes it worth the price for heavy prospectors. Our [advanced search guide](/guides/linkedin-advanced-search) breaks down every filter individually.
Boolean search: the skill that separates good searchers from great ones
LinkedIn's search bar reads Boolean operators. Master five of them and your results transform:
- **Quotes** — exact phrase: `"vice president of sales"`
- **AND** — both terms required: `python AND django`
- **OR** — either term: `founder OR "co-founder" OR ceo`
- **NOT** — exclude a term: `recruiter NOT agency`
- **Parentheses** — group logic: `(cto OR "vp engineering") AND fintech`
A worked example for finding senior product leaders at startups: `("head of product" OR "vp product" OR cpo) NOT (junior OR associate)`. Type Boolean into the keyword or title field, keep it under a handful of operators, and you'll cut irrelevant results dramatically.
The commercial use limit (why heavy search suddenly stops)
If you search a lot on a free account, you'll eventually see a message that you've hit your **commercial use limit**. LinkedIn caps how many searches a free account can run each month when the activity looks like recruiting or sales prospecting. The exact number isn't published and it resets at the start of each calendar month.
To lift it, you upgrade: **[LinkedIn Premium](/guides/linkedin-premium)** raises the ceiling and adds visibility features, while **Sales Navigator** removes the standard cap and adds the advanced filters. If you keep bumping into the limit, that's the signal you've outgrown free search — see our [Premium cost breakdown](/guides/linkedin-premium-cost) to decide which tier fits.
Searching without an account, and other edge cases
You can see a limited amount of LinkedIn content without logging in, but real search — filters, Boolean, People results — requires an account. For the workarounds and what's actually possible, see [how to search LinkedIn without an account](/guides/linkedin-search-without-login). To find a specific person from partial information, see [search by name, company, or email](/guides/linkedin-search-by-name-company-email).
Searching at scale, the practical way
Manual search is excellent for finding a few people. It's painful when you need to run the same search across dozens of companies, save everyone who qualifies, remember who you've already contacted, and follow up — that's hours of clicking and a spreadsheet that goes stale.
Conextly is built to close that gap for LinkedIn. It runs targeted searches, collects the matching people into an organized workspace, tracks every conversation so nothing slips, and drafts a personalized first message for each prospect — you approve every send. It turns "search, copy, paste, follow up" into a single reviewed workflow. See [Conextly's prospecting search](/product/search).