What a LinkedIn InMail actually costs
Between $2.40 and $8 a credit — and the order runs backwards. The allowance does not scale with the price, so Premium Career, the cheapest paid plan LinkedIn sells, has the most expensive InMail on the platform, while Sales Navigator Core has the cheapest. If you are buying a plan for its InMail, this is the table to read first.
Every plan, cheapest InMail first
Cost per credit at the monthly price. Read the first and last rows together: the plan at the top costs $80 a month more than the one at the bottom and gives you 45 more credits.
| Plan | Monthly price | Credits / month | Cost per credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales Navigator Core | $119.99 | 50 | $2.40 |
| Sales Navigator Advanced | $159.99 | 50 | $3.20 |
| Premium Business | $69.99 | 15 | $4.67 |
| Recruiter Lite | $170 | 30 | $5.67 |
| Premium Career | $39.99 | 5 | $8 |
| Sales Navigator Advanced Plus | Quote only | 50 | — |
| Recruiter Corporate | Quote only | 150 | — |
Recruiter Corporate grants 150 credits a month but LinkedIn publishes no price for it, so its cost per credit cannot be calculated and is not guessed at here — see Recruiter Corporate pricing. Figures are US list prices excluding tax, at the monthly rate. Prepaying the year lowers every row proportionally but by very different amounts — the annual discount runs from 50% to 6%.
| Route | Relative size | Per credit |
|---|---|---|
| Core$119.99 ÷ 50 credits | $2.40 | |
| Advanced$159.99 ÷ 50 credits | $3.20 | |
| Business$69.99 ÷ 15 credits | $4.67 | |
| Recruiter Lite$170 ÷ 30 credits | $5.67 | |
| Career$39.99 ÷ 5 credits | $8 |
The highlighted bar is Premium Career — the cheapest plan on LinkedIn and the worst value per message on it, by a factor of 3.3. This is the single most common mispurchase in this product range: people buy the entry tier because it is cheap, specifically in order to send InMail, and it is the most expensive way to do that.
A reply gives the credit back — so reply rate is money
LinkedIn refunds a credit when the recipient replies within 90 days. That makes your effective allowance a function of your targeting, and it is the only way to send more without changing plan.
| Reply rate | Core | Advanced | Business | Recruiter Lite | Career |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | 50 | 50 | 15 | 30 | 5 |
| 10% | 55 | 55 | 16 | 33 | 5 |
| 20% | 62 | 62 | 18 | 37 | 6 |
| 30% | 71 | 71 | 21 | 42 | 7 |
| 40% | 83 | 83 | 25 | 50 | 8 |
Sends per month at each reply rate, assuming refunded credits are re-spent within the same month. At a 40% reply rate a 50-credit allowance funds 83 messages — 33 more than the headline number, which is more than upgrading a tier would give you, since every Sales Navigator tier grants the same 50.
Four things about credits that change what you get
A credit granted in January is gone by April, used or not. Saving them for a campaign next quarter does not work.
A Sales Navigator seat accumulates at most 150. Past that, each new monthly grant replaces nothing and is simply lost.
Ten seats is ten separate allowances of 50, not one of 500. One seller cannot spend another's — team pricing has the seat arithmetic.
Core, Advanced and Advanced Plus all grant 50. If credits are your constraint, moving up the Sales Navigator range changes nothing — see Sales Navigator limits.
Buying a plan for the InMail?
Tell us how many messages a month you actually need to send and we will work out which tier costs least per message for that volume — including the cases where the answer is that no tier fixes it. Nothing to buy here.
- 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 people ask about credits
How much does a LinkedIn InMail cost?
It depends entirely on the plan, and not in the direction you would expect. A credit costs $2.40 on Sales Navigator Core and $8 on Premium Career — so the cheapest paid plan on LinkedIn has the most expensive InMail, and one of the dearest has the cheapest. The allowance does not scale with the price: Premium Career is $39.99 for 5 credits while Sales Navigator Core is $119.99 for 50.
How many InMail credits do you get with each LinkedIn plan?
Sales Navigator Core: 50 a month; Sales Navigator Advanced: 50 a month; Premium Business: 15 a month; Recruiter Lite: 30 a month; Premium Career: 5 a month; Sales Navigator Advanced Plus: 50 a month; Recruiter Corporate: 150 a month. The allowance is per seat, and it does not pool across a team.
Can you buy extra InMail credits?
Not as a standalone purchase on the self-serve plans. LinkedIn does not sell top-up credit packs to Premium or Sales Navigator subscribers — the only way to raise the allowance is to change plan, and even then it does not always rise: Sales Navigator Core, Advanced and Advanced Plus all grant 50 a month. Additional credits are negotiable only on Recruiter Corporate and Advanced Plus contracts.
Do LinkedIn InMail credits roll over?
Yes, up to a ceiling of three times the monthly allowance, and they expire after 90 days. So a Sales Navigator seat accumulates at most 150 credits, and a credit granted in January is gone by April whether or not you used it. Hoarding credits does not work.
Do you get InMail credits back if someone replies?
Yes — a credit is refunded when the recipient replies within 90 days, which makes reply rate directly worth money. At a 25% reply rate a 50-credit allowance funds about 66 sends rather than 50. Improving targeting is the only way to increase your effective allowance without changing plan.
Is it worth buying Premium just for the InMail credits?
Rarely. Premium Career gives 5 credits for $39.99, which is $8 each — the worst value on the range. Premium Business at $69.99 gives 15 for $4.67 each. If InMail volume is genuinely the reason you are buying, Sales Navigator Core at $119.99 for 50 credits is better value per message than either, though you are then paying for a search product you may not need.
What happens when you run out of InMail credits?
You cannot send another InMail until the next monthly grant. There is no overage charge and no way to buy your way past it mid-month on a self-serve plan. Connection requests with a note still work, and they are subject to the separate weekly invitation ceiling of roughly 100 that applies on every plan.
Price the message, not the plan
$8 a credit on Premium Career against $2.40 on Sales Navigator Core. If InMail is why you are buying, the cheap plan is the expensive one.