How do you view a LinkedIn profile anonymously?
Switch your profile viewing setting to Private mode before you open anyone's profile. People you then view see you only as an anonymous LinkedIn Member. These steps are from LinkedIn's help page on profile viewing visibility settings, checked 4 November 2026, and your change saves automatically.
On desktop
Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage, select Settings & Privacy, click Visibility in the left pane, then under Visibility of your profile & network click Visibility when viewing other profiles. Choose Private mode.
In the LinkedIn app
Tap your profile photo, tap Settings & Privacy, tap Visibility, then under Visibility of your profile & network tap Visibility when viewing other profiles. Choose Private mode. The help page gives one set of mobile steps rather than separate iOS and Android ones.
In Sales Navigator, if you use it
Move your cursor over your photo at the top right of the Sales Navigator homepage, click Settings, then Privacy and Data, and pick Private mode under Profile viewing options. LinkedIn's Sales Navigator help page (last updated about two years ago) says changing this does not change your LinkedIn.com setting, so set both.
Viewing while signed out is the other route, though the LinkedIn help pages we checked don't say how signed-out visits are recorded (4 November 2026), and it shows you less. A signed-out visitor may see the public profile, which LinkedIn calls a simplified version of the profile. Members choose which sections appear in it or switch it off, and LinkedIn notes that visitors may need to sign in to see the full profile.
What does the other person see in each mode?
They see one of three things, depending on the setting above. The first two columns come from LinkedIn's settings page; the cost to a free account comes from its page on missing viewer history. The last column is our suggestion for a small B2B team.
| Your setting | What the person you view sees | Cost on a free account | Use it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your name and headline | Your name, headline, location and industry | None: you keep your three most recent viewers from the last 90 days | You will connect or message them this week anyway |
| Private profile characteristics | Characteristics such as job title, company, school and industry, for example Someone at Accenture | You lose your own viewer list | Rarely: at a five-person firm, Someone at Northwind Ltd (an example) points straight at you |
| Private mode | LinkedIn Member, marked as viewing profiles in private mode | You lose your own viewer list | Competitor research, or checking a partner or candidate before a call |
Premium changes only the third column. LinkedIn's private mode page says a Premium member can browse in private mode and still see who viewed their profile in the last 90 days, which a free account can't. Its Basic versus Premium comparison says Premium Business and Premium Career show up to 365 days of viewers. Neither tier shows the names of people who viewed you in private mode.
A free account in private mode loses something a founder can use: the list of people who looked at you, which is one of the free lead sources in our guide to finding leads on LinkedIn without Sales Navigator. Premium keeps that list while you browse privately; our guide to LinkedIn Premium for small business covers its price and what else it includes.
Is LinkedIn private mode actually private?
For profile views, LinkedIn says yes. Its private mode page puts it plainly: "No other information about you will be shared with the member whose profile you viewed." LinkedIn's own help pages also describe four other places your interest can show, each with its own rules (all checked 4 November 2026):
- Company Page visits. A separate Page visit visibility setting decides whether organisations see that you visited their Page. When it is on, admins of a Premium Company Page, who might see only a limited number of visitors, can see your full name, photo, job title, company, industry and location, and admins of a free Page might see the job title and company of some visitors (LinkedIn Page visit visibility).
- Sales Navigator. With Page visit visibility on, you may also appear in Sales Navigator search results for people who viewed that company's Page. LinkedIn's Page visitor analytics page lists that search on Sales Navigator Advanced and Advanced Plus.
- Search suggestions. If you pick someone's name from the search suggestions, LinkedIn shows their mini profile on the results page and treats it as a profile view that may notify them, depending on your settings.
- Search Appearances. Members can see the top companies and job titles of the people who searched for them (Search Appearances). That page doesn't say whether private mode changes these figures.
Members still doubt it. We searched a Reddit archive for the 25 most recent r/linkedin threads with private mode in the title, posted between 1 October 2025 and 16 October 2026. Five said or suspected that private mode wasn't working for them. In four, the person they viewed looked at their profile soon after; one of those posters also said two connections, asked to check, saw the poster's full name. Under the largest, Private mode is NOT private (82 comments when checked), a reply posted as LinkedIn's Help team said the other person should not see your information with private browsing on, and asked for details. None of the five records a confirmed cause.
Does switching to private mode hide profiles you already viewed?
LinkedIn's two help pages on profile viewing modes don't answer it (checked 4 November 2026), so plan as if an earlier view stays visible. It was the most common question in the 25 threads above: seven asked whether switching to private mode after a public view, or switching back and forth, hides the earlier visit. One of them, Private mode AFTER you've viewed someone's profile in public mode, got no factual answer.
Where LinkedIn does answer the timing question, for Page visits, the answer is not necessarily: visits made while Page visit visibility was on might still appear to Page admins for up to 365 days. Two habits follow:
- Change the setting before you search, not after. A name chosen from the search suggestions already counts as a view.
- If a visible view would be awkward (a competitor's founder, a former employer), open nothing until both the profile and Page settings are private.
How do I turn off my profile visibility when visiting LinkedIn Pages?
Switch off Page visit visibility. These steps are from LinkedIn's help page Manage LinkedIn Page visit visibility settings, last updated two days before we checked it on 4 November 2026. The page describes switching the toggle on; switch it off to hide your visits.
On desktop
Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage, click Settings & Privacy, click Visibility, then click Page visit visibility. Set Allow organizations to see when you visit their LinkedIn Page to Off.
In the LinkedIn app
Tap your profile picture, then Settings & Privacy, then Visibility, then Page visit visibility, and set the same toggle to Off.
This setting is separate from the profile viewing setting, so private mode alone does not cover Page visits. LinkedIn says you can turn it on or off at any time.
Should a founder browse prospects in private mode?
Browse privately for research you won't act on, and visibly for people you are about to contact. A view from a named founder is a small, honest first touch, and private mode costs a free account its own viewer list. Use this checklist for a research session (written for a two-person team; adjust the names):
When you reach step 6, a connection request with a short note says more than a silent view. Our 30 connection request templates give you openers for cold prospects, mutual connections and people whose posts you read. If you also want to hide your own profile from search and non-members, that is a different set of settings, covered in how to make your LinkedIn profile private.
Frequently asked questions
Can someone tell if I looked at their LinkedIn?
Yes, if you browse with Your name and headline. They can see your name, headline, location and industry under Who's viewed your profile. A free member sees their three most recent viewers from the last 90 days, but only if their own setting shows their name; Premium Business and Career members can see up to 365 days. In private mode they see only LinkedIn Member.
What are the benefits of LinkedIn Premium for private browsing?
Premium lets you browse in private mode and still see who viewed your own profile, which a free account can't do. It does not reveal people who viewed you in private mode. LinkedIn's Premium Business page lists US$69.99 a month or US$539.88 a year per licence, last updated 20 April 2026, and says prices are estimates that may exclude tax.
Can Premium members see who viewed their profile in private mode?
No. LinkedIn's help pages say that even with a Premium account you can't see the names of members who viewed your profile in private mode. You also can't block private-mode viewers or make them reveal their names. Premium members see the same LinkedIn Member entry that free members see.
Does private mode hide me from Sales Navigator users?
For profile views, yes: LinkedIn's Sales Navigator help centre says a private-mode viewer's name and profile information aren't shared with the owner of the profile they view. Two separate settings still matter. Sales Navigator has its own profile viewing option, and with Page visit visibility on you can appear in some Sales Navigator searches for people who viewed a company's Page.
Can I view a LinkedIn profile without an account?
Yes, if the member's public profile is switched on, for example through a search engine. LinkedIn says a public profile may be visible to people who aren't members or aren't signed in. It is a simplified version of the full profile, each member chooses which sections appear or turns it off, and visitors may need to sign in to see more. Changes can take weeks or months to show on Google or Bing.
Sources
- LinkedIn Help: Who's viewed your profile visibility settings (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Browse profiles in private and semi-private mode (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Missing Who's viewed your profile history (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Who's viewed your profile, Basic and Premium features (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: LinkedIn Page visit visibility (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Manage LinkedIn Page visit visibility settings (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Who's visited your LinkedIn Page analytics for admins (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: View your profile Search Appearances (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: LinkedIn public profile visibility (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Sales Navigator Help: Manage profile visibility settings in Sales Navigator (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Sales Navigator Help: Private mode viewers of profiles (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Premium: Premium Business (pricing last updated 20 Apr 2026) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- r/linkedin: Private mode is NOT private (27 Oct 2025; 82 comments) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- r/linkedin: Private mode AFTER you've viewed someone's profile in public mode (9 Jan 2026) (checked 4 Nov 2026)