LinkedIn InMail Credits 2026: How Many You Get and What Each One Costs

How many InMail credits does each LinkedIn plan include?

A free account gets no credits at all, and only Recruiter plans pool theirs across seats. What else separates the plans is in our LinkedIn Premium vs Sales Navigator comparison.

These counts were checked on LinkedIn's own help pages, which list each plan's allowance and bank.

The bank is a ceiling, not a savings account. Premium and Sales Navigator hold three months of allowance at most, and Recruiter Lite four. Past that, a credit you don't send stops adding up.

Each plan's price, and who its credits suit

Prices are per license in US dollars, with the billing period named each time. Each verdict is about InMail only; the plans differ in much more.

What does one InMail really cost?

Divide a plan's price by its credits and you get what one InMail is worth to you, the clearest way to compare plans.

It's our arithmetic, not a LinkedIn price. These plans sell no single credit, and you get more than InMail for the money.

On monthly billing, a credit works out to $8.00 on Premium Career, $4.67 on Business, $3.00 on All-in-One and $2.40 on Sales Navigator Core. Recruiter Lite comes to $5.67 at the price buyers report at checkout.

The yearly plan cuts each of those. Core falls to $1.80 a credit and All-in-One to $2.50, while Career halves to $4.00. You pay the whole year up front, though, and an unused credit still expires.

Responses lower the real cost again, because a reply, an accept or a decline within 90 days returns the credit.

At a 10 percent reply rate, the top of the range we plan campaigns around, your 50 Sales Navigator credits send about 55 InMails, and more if some people decline.

The figure that matters most is the price of a wasted credit. An InMail to someone who'd have accepted a free connection request is $2.40 spent on nothing. On Premium Career, it's $8.00.

I keep that number in mind when I pick who gets a credit. If I can't say why someone is worth $2.40, they get an invitation instead. The credit waits for someone who is.

Do InMail credits roll over or come back?

Yes to both, within limits. Unused credits carry into the next month until you reach your plan's bank: 15 on Premium Career, 45 on Business, 90 on All-in-One, 150 on Sales Navigator and 120 on Recruiter Lite.

Each credit lasts 90 days either way, so a slow month carries over and a slow quarter doesn't. A credit you haven't sent in three months is gone.

Renewal days differ. Sales Navigator credits arrive on the 1st of every month, in UTC. Premium and Recruiter Lite credits renew on the first day of your billing cycle, set by the day you signed up.

To see what's left, open a new InMail: the compose window shows the credits on your account. Premium also lists them on the My Premium page, and Sales Navigator on its Settings page.

The refund is the rule worth planning around. Any InMail that's accepted, declined or answered within 90 days of sending comes back to you as a credit. Even a one-tap Quick Reply counts.

Only silence spends the credit for good. An InMail still waiting for an answer hasn't returned its credit yet, so judge a month's spend once the replies are in.

Three moves can strand a balance. Canceling Premium takes it to zero, credits don't move with you when you upgrade, and Premium credits can't be spent in Sales Navigator or Recruiter. Send what's left before you switch plans.

Writing InMails that earn the credit back

Because a response refunds the credit, the way you write decides what an InMail costs. Write it like a first message with a subject line on top, not like a cold email.

The subject names their world, never your product. "Month-end close at {company}" gets opened; "Quick question" gets skipped. Keep it under ten words so it shows in full on a phone.

Keep the body under 300 characters: three short lines, one question, no link. LinkedIn allows up to 1,900 characters, but nobody answers a cold essay between meetings.

Open on a fact about them or their company, not about you. Then name one problem people in their seat tend to have, and stop there.

The last line decides the credit. A question that's easy to answer either way earns a "not right now" instead of silence, and that no hands the credit back. I end every InMail on a question a busy person can answer in five words.

If they ignored your invitation, say so in one clause. It's honest, and it explains why a stranger is writing twice.

Answer every response the same day, declines included. A one-line thank-you costs nothing, and I've seen more than one "not this year" come back the next quarter.

When replies come in under 5 percent, fix things in order: the list first, then the subject and first line, then volume. A sharp subject can't rescue credits spent on the wrong people.

Can you buy more InMail credits?

Only on Recruiter plans. Premium and Sales Navigator sell no extra credits at any price, and LinkedIn offers no plan with unlimited InMail.

On Recruiter Lite, the admin who pays can buy up to 70 extra credits a month. Bought credits never expire, but a seat still can't hold more than 120 when its billing cycle renews.

Read the Recruiter Lite credit rules before you budget for top-ups. They're short, and they're the only purchase LinkedIn documents.

Recruiter seats can buy extra packs too. LinkedIn doesn't publish the price, which comes through its sales team, so ask for a quote before you plan a campaign around them.

Everywhere else, more InMail means a bigger plan or another licensed account. Moving from Premium Business to Sales Navigator takes you from 15 to 50 a month, and a second seller brings a second 50 of their own.

Before you pay for either, use the free routes below. On most lists they reach more people than a month of credits does.

Getting more for free: Open Profiles and connections

The cheapest InMail is the one that spends no credit. Two kinds of message don't: a message to an Open Profile, and a message to someone who accepted your connection request.

An Open Profile is a Premium member who takes messages from anyone. You can message them for free, connected or not. Only Premium members can switch it on, so these are people who pay for LinkedIn themselves.

Free accounts can send only a limited number of Open Profile messages a month, and LinkedIn doesn't publish the figure. A Recruiter seat gets up to 350 a month.

I message the Open Profiles before a single credit moves. They've opted in to hearing from strangers. On the campaigns I set up, they answer at about the same 5 to 10 percent as a paid InMail.

Then invite the rest. A connection request costs you nothing, and once someone accepts, every message after it is free.

With 25 to 35 percent of a well-targeted cold list accepting, invitations reach far more people than credits can. How many you can send a week is in LinkedIn connection limits.

Your InMail pool is whoever doesn't accept. Most acceptances arrive in the first week, so withdraw invitations still pending after 14 days and give those people your credits, best fit first.

Some people belong in the pool from day one. Senior buyers and in-demand candidates rarely accept a stranger, so when a list is mostly people like that, start them on InMail.

Spread the month's credits over its weekdays rather than sending them on the 1st. Responses come back over days. Each one returns a credit you can spend again before the month is out.

InMail vs a connection request

For most of a list, the connection request wins. It's free, and an established account can send 200 to 250 invitations a week. Everyone who accepts gets your whole sequence at no cost.

Per message, the two are closer than you'd think. Out of 100 cold invitations, about 30 accept, 5 or 6 reply, and about 2 are interested. InMail replies land at about 5 to 10 percent.

The gap is volume. Your Sales Navigator license gets 50 credits a month, while the same account sends about 1,000 invitations in four weeks.

InMail wins in three places. It reaches people who left your invitation unanswered for 14 days, senior people who rarely accept strangers, and anyone you need this week rather than after an acceptance.

Timing is the one people forget. An invitation waits for an acceptance that can take a week, while an InMail lands today with your whole message. For a hiring deadline, an event or a fresh trigger like a new role, that week is the difference.

I treat the two as one routine, not rivals: invitations to the whole list, then InMail for the best of the people who didn't accept. That way your credits go where nothing free can reach.

Is LinkedIn InMail worth paying for?

InMail is worth paying for when the people you need won't accept a stranger's invitation, or when you can't wait for them to.

That fits founders selling to executives, recruiters chasing passive candidates and sellers working a short list of named accounts.

It isn't worth buying a plan for InMail alone if your list is broad and mid-level. Invitations reach those people free. A month of 50 credits won't carry a pipeline that needs hundreds of conversations.

Test it before you pay for more. Spend one month's credits on the people who ignored your invitations and count the responses. If fewer than 5 percent answer, fix the subject line and the list before you buy a bigger plan.

Here's how I'd choose, depending on who you are:

• A founder or seller prospecting: Sales Navigator Core, the most credits per dollar plus the filters you'll use anyway.
• InMail now and then, on top of invitations: Premium Business, at 15 credits a month.
• A recruiter filling a few roles a year: Recruiter Lite, the entry seat that can buy extra credits.
• A job seeker: Premium Career. Its 5 credits are for hiring managers, not prospects.

What your credits don't do (and what to pair them with)

LinkedIn gives you credits; it doesn't run the routine around them. No plan invites your list, withdraws stale invitations or moves the people who didn't accept onto InMail. Outside Recruiter's scheduled follow-up, every step is a click, per person, per account.

Replygrow runs that routine from your own accounts, with InMail as a campaign step:

• InMail beside every other step: a campaign visits profiles, invites, messages and sends InMail, spending each account's own Premium, Sales Navigator or Recruiter credits. Open Profiles get their message without using one.
• Every reply in one inbox: answers from all your accounts land in one inbox, and a reply pauses that person's sequence while everyone else carries on.
• Safer accounts: each account sends through its own residential proxy in the country you pick and starts on a 14-day warm-up. A steady pace lowers the risk, though no tool can promise zero.
• More replies: once every follow-up goes out on time, teams on Replygrow see a 15–35% higher response rate and 3x more meetings booked weekly.
• A price that drops as you grow: $79 per LinkedIn account a month, with discounts from 5% at 5 accounts up to 50% at 50.

Your LinkedIn plan stays exactly as it is: Replygrow sends from your accounts and spends only your credits. Every rate per account is on our pricing page.

Sales Navigator gives the most InMail for the money: 50 credits a month per license, about $2.40 each on Core. Premium Business at $69.99 a month is enough when InMail is an extra.

Whatever your plan, spend the free reach first: invitations, Open Profiles, then the month's credits on the best of who didn't accept. Write so a no is easy, since every response hands the credit back.

Replygrow runs that routine from your own accounts, with InMail as one step and every reply in one inbox.