People search

Find people with Business Search. POST /search/people searches by title, current company, location and followers, in JSON or plain language.

This page shows the shape query takes in each mode, the fields a people search can filter on with the operator each accepts and what a request looks like.

People requests go to POST /search/people. For companies, see Company search.

Writing queries

The shape of query follows the search mode:

• Ludicrous takes a JSON object of conditions on the searchable fields, combined with and, or and not. Operators and value shapes are in Business Search query syntax.
• Instant and Smart take a plain-language sentence of up to 200 characters. Business Search turns the sentence into one structured query on the same fields. A sentence that asks for a job title is ranked on the title, role and about text together. A sentence that reads like a recruiting brief, with a role, an industry and a skill, is scored on the role, company and skill field groups independently.

Searchable fields

The operator a field accepts depends on the field’s type. Text fields accept only the text operator. Typed fields, such as strings and integers, accept equals, in and range. Sending equals to a text field returns HTTP 400.

Field	Type	Operators	Notes
current_title	text	text	Use mode: "all" to require every word
all_text	text	text	Title, role and about together
name	text	text
about	text	text
location	text	text	Descriptive location string
current_company_name	text	text
current_company_industry	text	text
past_job_titles	text	text
role, company, skill	text	text	Each searches a group of fields: role covers current_title, past_job_titles and about; company covers current_company_industry, specialties, description, slogan and name; skill covers about and certification_names
city	string	equals, in	Exact city name
country_code	string	equals, in	ISO 3166 alpha-2 code such as US or GB
followers	integer	range

Location and employer fields can be missing from individual profiles, and a missing value is not evidence that the fact is false: a profile with no current_company_name publishes no employer. Handle absent or null values without failing the whole record, and avoid filters that silently drop every profile where an optional field is blank.

Example request

Ludicrous

A Ludicrous request finds US profiles whose current title includes both product and manager, with at least 1,000 followers, and names five output fields:

Sample request

cURL

curl --request POST "https://api.brightdata.com/search/people" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "mode": "ludicrous",
    "query": {
      "and": [
        { "text": { "current_title": { "value": "product manager", "mode": "all" } } },
        { "equals": { "country_code": "US" } },
        { "range": { "followers": { ">=": 1000 } } }
      ]
    },
    "offset": 0,
    "limit": 3,
    "view": { "fields": ["current_title", "current_company_industry", "country_code", "followers", "connections"] }
  }'

Sample response

The first of the three returned records:

{
  "req_id": "rbdc10e0215c24a9498a4350df6cc10aa",
  "source": "linkedin_people",
  "meta": {
    "coverage_percent": 100,
    "matched": 32979,
    "offset": 0,
    "limit": 3
  },
  "documents": [
    {
      "bright_id": "889e0def2779fa14d5c357916557c70b39211ca82bb0ccd868e8cd65a1e8d100",
      "data": {
        "current_title": "Product Manager",
        "country_code": "US",
        "followers": 33814,
        "connections": 500
      }
    }
  ]
}

mode: "all" inside the text condition requires every search word to match. The words do not need to form an exact phrase, so a title of “Senior Manager, Product” still matches. Punctuation between the words does not prevent a match, word order does not matter and extra words in the title are allowed.

Instant

An Instant request asks for US product managers in one sentence:

Sample request

cURL

curl --request POST "https://api.brightdata.com/search/people" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "mode": "instant",
    "query": "Product managers in the United States",
    "limit": 3,
    "view": { "fields": ["current_title", "current_company_industry", "country_code", "followers", "connections"] }
  }'

Sample response

The first of the three returned records:

{
  "req_id": "r73078fe6b74e4231a96e86e869dcb6ab",
  "source": "linkedin_people",
  "meta": {
    "coverage_percent": 16,
    "matched": 1357049,
    "offset": 0,
    "limit": 3
  },
  "documents": [
    {
      "bright_id": "36fe273b100b7fe8340c6309c5dbe8b5918c4417645381e7d4b7886ddfafc942",
      "data": {
        "current_title": "Production Manager",
        "current_company_industry": "Appliances, Electrical, and Electronics Manufacturing",
        "country_code": "US",
        "followers": 7,
        "connections": 7
      }
    }
  ]
}

Smart

A Smart request sends the same sentence and ranks the candidates by how well each record answers it:

Sample request

cURL

curl --request POST "https://api.brightdata.com/search/people" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "mode": "smart",
    "query": "Product managers in the United States",
    "limit": 3,
    "view": { "fields": ["current_title", "current_company_industry", "country_code", "followers", "connections"] }
  }'

Sample response

The first of the three returned records:

{
  "req_id": "r8c12ef1a926c41f5b6aaa48799c8651e",
  "source": "linkedin_people",
  "meta": {
    "coverage_percent": 16,
    "matched": 1361494,
    "offset": 0,
    "limit": 3
  },
  "documents": [
    {
      "bright_id": "eecc7657488dfdf371f4e91c4a9e1d0e794ecdbe59b98b5b799ae6bd674156a4",
      "data": {
        "current_title": "Product Manager",
        "current_company_industry": "Software Development",
        "country_code": "US",
        "followers": 361,
        "connections": 358
      }
    }
  ]
}

For the fields each view returns and how view relates to query, see Business Search field views.