Free LinkedIn Headline Generator

How to choose a LinkedIn headline

Your headline is the line under your name. LinkedIn describes it this way:

“Your professional headline is the text below your name in the introduction section on your profile. It's displayed in search results and can be separate from the title of your current position.”

That last part is the useful one. Your headline doesn't have to be your job title, so it can say what you do and where you're heading. A few things make that work:

1. Lead with what's true now. Your current or most recent work, or what you're studying, is the part a reader can check against the rest of your profile.
2. Use the words the people you want to reach would use. A teacher who trains new staff can call it “staff training”. That is the same work in the vocabulary of a learning and development team.
3. Translate, don't promote. Describing real work in a new field's words is fair. Writing a job title you haven't held, or a seniority you haven't reached, is the line not to cross: the first conversation with a recruiter will find it.
4. Keep numbers you can back up, exactly. A result with its real figures is stronger than an adjective. Leave out the ones you couldn't explain in an interview.
5. Decide on purpose whether to announce a search. Pointing toward a direction is different from saying you're looking. If you're employed and want to stay discreet, leave out the announcement entirely (more on Open to Work below).
6. Skip labels you can't prove. Words like expert, award-winning or proven read as filler unless the rest of your profile backs them up.

The generator gives you three options built on these rules, each leading with something different: your background, your strengths, or your direction. Pick the one that sounds most like you, then edit it.

Examples

These are illustrative, not real people. Each shows what was entered and three headlines that use only that information. Character counts include spaces.

Questions people ask

How long can a LinkedIn headline be?

220 characters. LinkedIn's own Talent Blog puts it plainly: “You get 220 characters — so make them count.” Every option here stays within that, including after you edit it. If the editor on your profile ever shows a different limit, go with the editor. Length isn't a target, though: a short headline made of true, specific words beats a long one padded to the limit.

Should I put the job I want in my headline?

You can, as a direction rather than a title. “Teacher | Curriculum design and staff training” next to a clear interest in learning and development tells a reader where you're heading. Putting “L&D Manager” under your name when you haven't held that job tells them something that isn't true. The generator treats what you want next as a goal and never writes it as experience.

Should my headline say I'm open to work?

Only if you're comfortable with everyone seeing it, including your current employer. Your headline is public. LinkedIn's separate Open to Work feature lets you choose who sees that you're open, and its help page is candid about the limits:

“To protect your privacy, we take steps to prevent LinkedIn Recruiter users who work at your current company from seeing your shared career interests, but we can't guarantee complete privacy.”

Choosing all LinkedIn members instead also adds the #OpenToWork photo frame to your profile picture, according to the same page. In the generator, “Yes, say I'm open” lets one of the three headlines say so; the default points toward your direction without announcing a search; and “Keep it discreet” leaves out seeking, open-to-work and any wording that announces a move. No wording makes a profile private, though, so choose with that in mind.

What if I don't have a job title right now?

Describe what you are doing: studying, returning after a break, caring for family, freelancing on small projects. Real coursework, projects and volunteer work count as experience. The generator builds from whatever you enter and doesn't invent a title to fill the gap.

I freelance but don't have clients yet. What should my headline say?

State the offer: what you do and who it's for. Leave out anything that implies a client list, client results or testimonials you don't have yet. Choose “Freelance or consulting clients” in the generator and it will write the offer that way.

Is my headline the same as my job title?

No. As LinkedIn puts it above, the headline “can be separate from the title of your current position.” Your title stays in your experience section; the headline is yours to write.

How the generator works

• When you press the button, your entries go in one request to our AI provider, Anthropic, which writes all three options together. Nothing is sent while you type. For now, headlines are written in English.
• Before you see them, each headline is checked for anything you didn't enter: numbers, credentials, seniority words, employers, self-praise labels and job-search wording you didn't choose. It's also checked for length and for chopped endings. An option that fails is rebuilt from your own words and marked Template.
• If AI writing is unavailable, busy or has reached its daily limit, you get three template options built only from what you typed, clearly labelled.
• We don't save what you type or the headlines you get. Anthropic says that, by default, it doesn't use inputs or outputs from its commercial products, including its API, to train its models; its privacy center lists the exceptions, such as feedback a customer chooses to share. See our privacy policy.
• The checks catch added facts of the kinds listed above; they can't know your whole history. Read every option before you use it and keep only what's true for you.

When the headline isn't the hard part

A headline is easy to write once you know the direction. If you're still choosing, Career Leap, our free career assessment, explores three career directions based on your experience and priorities. If you're changing fields, our guide to changing careers without starting over covers how to carry your experience with you, and teachers weighing a move can start with the career test for teachers.

Written by Jon Miksis, founder of Make the Leap. Platform details on this page come from LinkedIn's own help pages, linked where they appear; the examples are illustrative and use only the information shown with them.