Which LinkedIn plan do you actually need?
Most people asking this buy one tier too high. There are only five real dividing lines in LinkedIn's range, and every one of them gets crossed by people who did not need to. Four questions below — fewer, depending on your answers — and you get the tier that fits with its real cost. Sometimes the answer is the free account, and this tool will say so.
Nothing is submitted and there is nothing to buy — Linkediz publishes LinkedIn's prices and sells none of its products. Some answers lead to “the free account is enough”, which is a real outcome of this tool.
Nothing is submitted and there is nothing to buy. Linkediz publishes LinkedIn's prices and sells none of its products — every figure comes from the pricing tables, dated to when it was last read.
Every answer this tool can give
Eight outcomes, and the answers that reach each one. Four of the eight cost less than Sales Navigator Core, and one of them costs nothing.
Premium Career ($39.99 a month). Applicant insights and salary data exist on this tier and nowhere else on LinkedIn — not on Business, which costs more, and not on Sales Navigator. For a job search this is the only plan that helps, and paying more actively removes the features you need. Premium Career in full.
Premium Business ($69.99 a month). Opening a lot of profiles is exactly what the commercial use limit catches, and Business is the cheapest plan that removes it. The extra InMail credits are a side effect, not the reason. Premium Business in full.
The free account is probably enough ($0). If you are not browsing at volume, not building lists and not job hunting, no paid tier solves a problem you have. Premium adds InMail credits and profile-viewer history — worth paying for only if you can name what you would do with them. What the paid tiers add.
Premium Business ($69.99 a month). If you message people you have already found rather than building target lists, you are paying Sales Navigator prices for a search you do not use. Business removes the commercial use limit and gives you 15 credits for $50 a month less. Premium Business in full.
Sales Navigator Core ($119.99 a month). The search, the filters, the saved lead lists and the 50 InMail credits are identical to Advanced. Everything Advanced adds is a team feature, so on one seat Advanced is $480 a year more billed monthly, $720 more prepaid, for warm-intro paths through a network of one. Sales Navigator Core in full.
Sales Navigator Advanced ($159.99 a month). Shared lists and TeamLink start paying once several sellers work the same accounts and collide. Below about five seats they usually do not — and the search is identical to Core either way. Core against Advanced.
Recruiter Lite — check the network restriction first ($170 a month). It has the pipelines and the recruiting filters. The catch is that its search is limited to your own network, which is the only paid LinkedIn plan with that restriction. If your candidates sit outside it, Sales Navigator Core reaches further for less money. Recruiter Lite in full.
Recruiter Corporate — but get a quote first. Several recruiters working the same requisitions need shared pipelines, which Recruiter Lite does not have at any price. LinkedIn publishes no price for Corporate, so go in knowing the Lite baseline and which capability wall you are buying out of. Lite against Corporate.
Every dividing line, and what crossing it costs
LinkedIn's paid range looks like a ladder and is really five separate decisions. Each row is one of them.
Below it: Free account. Above it: Premium Career, $39.99. Where the line actually falls.
Below it: Premium Career, $39.99. Above it: Premium Business, $69.99. Where the line actually falls.
Below it: Premium Business, $69.99. Above it: Sales Navigator Core, $119.99. Where the line actually falls.
Below it: Sales Navigator Core, $119.99. Above it: Sales Navigator Advanced, $159.99. Where the line actually falls.
Below it: Sales Navigator Core, $119.99. Above it: Recruiter Lite, $170. Where the line actually falls.
Start below the line and let a real limit push you up. Upgrades credit the unused term; a tier you did not need does not refund itself, and on an annual plan it cannot be exited at all.
Want a second opinion on the answer?
Describe what a normal week on LinkedIn looks like for you and we will tell you which tier fits, what it costs on your billing period, and whether the free account would do. There is nothing to buy at the other end of this.
- A reply within 4 business hours, from a person
- On the channel you pick — Telegram, WhatsApp, a call or email
- Nothing to buy: we publish LinkedIn's prices, not our own
The questions behind the question
Which LinkedIn plan do I need?
It depends on four things: whether you are job hunting, how many profiles you open in a month, whether you build target lists, and whether you work accounts with other people. Job hunting means Premium Career at $39.99 and nothing dearer, because applicant and salary insights are Career-only. Heavy browsing means Premium Business at $69.99, which is the cheapest plan that removes the commercial use limit. Building target lists means Sales Navigator at $119.99. Hiring means Recruiter. And if none of those describe you, the free account is genuinely enough.
Is LinkedIn Premium worth it?
Only if you can name what you would do with it. Premium buys InMail credits, profile-viewer history and — on Business only — freedom from the commercial use limit. If you are not messaging strangers, not checking who viewed you, and not browsing at volume, it is $39.99 a month for a badge. The honest test is whether you have hit a limit, not whether the features sound useful.
Do I need Sales Navigator or is Premium enough?
The dividing line is whether you build lists. Sales Navigator's value is the lead and account search with 40+ filters, saved lead lists and alerts — a list-building product. If you mainly message people you have already identified, Premium Business does that for $50 a month less. This is the most expensive misjudgement in LinkedIn's range and it is usually made in the direction of overbuying.
What if I need two of these things?
Then start with the cheaper plan and let a real limit push you up. Every tier can be upgraded mid-term with the unused portion credited, so beginning lower costs nothing but a month. Beginning higher costs the difference for as long as it takes to notice — and on an annual term LinkedIn refunds none of it.
Start below the line, not above it
Upgrading mid-term credits what you have not used. Buying a tier too high refunds nothing — and on an annual plan you cannot leave at all.