What is InMail on LinkedIn? LinkedIn InMail is a message you send to a member you are not connected to. LinkedIn puts it this way: "InMail messages allows you to directly message another LinkedIn member that you're not connected to." With a free account you can only message your 1st-degree connections. To send an InMail you need a Premium subscription with InMail credits, or the recipient has an Open Profile. Source: LinkedIn Help: Send an InMail Message, retrieved 29 September 2026.
This guide explains what InMail means on LinkedIn, how it differs from a regular message and a connection request, how many credits each plan includes, how to send one, and when it is worth a credit at all. Plus five short templates and answers to the most common questions. Last updated: 29 September 2026.
What does InMail mean on LinkedIn?
There are three ways to reach someone on LinkedIn: a regular message, a connection request, and an InMail. A regular message only goes to 1st-degree connections. A connection request asks for exactly that connection, and only after it is accepted can the two of you message. An InMail skips the detour. It lands straight in the inbox of someone who does not know you, with a subject line and up to 2,000 characters of text.
In return, LinkedIn charges credits. Every Premium plan comes with a fixed number of InMail credits per month, and there is no plan with unlimited InMail: "We currently don't offer a subscription plan with unlimited InMail message credits." The recipient also has the final say. "You can't message a member if they've chosen not to receive InMail messages in their message preferences settings," no matter how many credits you hold. Source: LinkedIn Help: InMail Messages, retrieved 29 September 2026.
Two exceptions make InMail cheaper than it first sounds. First, you get the credit back when the recipient responds. Second, an InMail to an Open Profile costs nothing. Both are explained below. How to write InMails that actually get answered is covered in How to finally get replies to your LinkedIn InMails.
InMail vs. message vs. connection request on LinkedIn
The three routes differ in who you can reach, what it costs, how long the text may be, and whether you can follow up. The table summarizes what LinkedIn itself says.
Criterion | Message | InMail | Connection request |
|---|---|---|---|
Recipient | 1st-degree connections | Members outside your network, unless they have turned InMail off | Members you are not yet connected to |
Cost / credits | none | 1 credit; free to Open Profiles | none |
Characters | LinkedIn states no limit on the pages we checked | 200 in the optional subject line, 2,000 in the body; 1,900 in Sales Navigator and Recruiter | LinkedIn states no limit on the pages we checked |
Requirement | You are connected | Premium plan with credits, or an Open Profile on the recipient's side | None, a free account is enough |
Credit back | n/a | Yes: on Premium if accepted, declined or answered, in Sales Navigator if answered, within 90 days | n/a |
Follow-up possible? | Yes, as a normal conversation | Premium: only after a reply; Sales Navigator: yes, costs another credit | After acceptance, as a regular message |
Sources: InMail Messages, InMail messages FAQ, InMail message credits and renewal process, Understand InMail credits in Sales Navigator and Send an InMail message in Sales Navigator, all retrieved 29 September 2026. How the two routes complement each other in practice is explained in our knowledge base article What is the difference between InMails and invites?
One number is missing from the table on purpose. How many connection requests you may send per week and how long the note may be is not stated on any of the LinkedIn Help pages we checked, so we do not quote a figure.
LinkedIn InMail credits by plan
How many InMails you can send per month depends on your plan. These are the numbers LinkedIn publishes:
Plan | Credits per month | Maximum you can accumulate |
|---|---|---|
Premium Career | 5 | 15 |
Premium Business | 15 | 45 |
Premium All-in-One | 30 | 90 |
Sales Navigator (Core, Advanced, Advanced Plus) | 50 | 150 |
Recruiter Lite | 30 | 120 |
LinkedIn Hiring Pro | 5 per job | separate credits, not part of the InMail pool |
Sources: InMail messages FAQ, InMail message credits and renewal process, Understand InMail credits in Sales Navigator and Sales Navigator: Compare plans (row "InMail": 50/month in all three plans), retrieved 29 September 2026.
The rules that go with those numbers, all from the same Help pages:
- Credits expire after 90 days. Unused credits roll over into the next month up to the cap in the table. Whatever is not used within 90 days is gone.
- Renewal. On Premium you receive new credits on the first day of your billing cycle. In Sales Navigator they arrive on the first day of each month (UTC), regardless of your billing date.
- Credit back on Premium. "Every InMail message that is accepted/declined or responded to directly within 90 days of it being sent is credited back." Quick replies count as a response. An InMail that simply sits there returns nothing.
- Credit back in Sales Navigator. You receive a credit for every InMail that gets a response within 90 days. The quick replies "Interested", "Maybe later" and "Not interested" all qualify. No response, no credit.
- Reminder. The recipient gets an automatic reminder within three days of your InMail. You do not have to nudge them yourself.
- No top-ups. On Premium and in Sales Navigator you cannot buy additional credits. The only exception is Recruiter Lite, where you can buy packs of 10, up to 70 additional InMails per seat.
- Separate pools. Premium credits cannot be used in Sales Navigator or Recruiter. If you cancel Premium, your balance drops to zero. Credits do not transfer when you upgrade.
As for price, LinkedIn lists the plans at roughly €30 to about €150 (US$40 to US$160) per month depending on the package. The exact amounts, annual prices and what you get for them are in How much does LinkedIn Premium cost in 2026?. If the 50 credits are your main reason to consider Sales Navigator, read LinkedIn Sales Navigator: a worthwhile investment or an overrated sales tool? first, and the comparison LinkedIn Premium Business vs. Sales Navigator.
Open Profile: the free InMail
An Open Profile is a Premium setting. Anyone who turns it on can be messaged by any LinkedIn member without the sender spending a credit. In LinkedIn's words: "The Open Profile Premium feature allows anyone on LinkedIn to contact a Premium member for free, even if they're not in the sender's network." Source: LinkedIn Help: Open Profile and messaging, retrieved 29 September 2026.
For you as a sender this means part of your audience is reachable without credits, even from a free account. Free accounts do face a monthly cap on Open Profile messages, and LinkedIn does not publish the number. Save your paid credits for the people who do not have an Open Profile. How to spot Open Profiles, how to enable the setting yourself, and four templates are in LinkedIn Open Profile: free InMails and how to enable it.
How to send InMail on LinkedIn in 4 steps
LinkedIn and Sales Navigator have separate inboxes, and with a Sales Navigator subscription you send InMails from Sales Navigator only, not from LinkedIn.com. So here are both routes, as LinkedIn describes them.
On LinkedIn with Premium (desktop)
- Go to the profile of the member you want to message. You can also search for the member and start a new message from the messaging page.
- Click the More button in their introduction section and select Message [name of the member].
- In the New message pop-up, type a subject (optional, up to 200 characters) and your message (up to 2,000 characters).
- Click Send. In the mobile app, tap Message in the introduction section instead.
Source: LinkedIn Help: Send an InMail Message, retrieved 29 September 2026.
In Sales Navigator
- Sign in to Sales Navigator, click Messaging in the top menu, then the edit icon to start a new message. Or open the lead's Sales Navigator profile and click Message. If the profile is locked, click Unlock full profile first.
- Add a subject line (up to 200 characters) and your message (up to 1,900 characters). The right rail shows the lead's profile and shared experiences you can pick up in your text.
- Optional: edit your signature (up to 150 characters, counted against the message limit) or attach a file of up to 200 MB.
- Click Send. With Save you can store the recipient as a lead at the same time.
LinkedIn makes three things clear here: you cannot send InMails in bulk to multiple leads in Sales Navigator, InMail templates are not available there at this time, and your current credit count is displayed in the compose window. Source: LinkedIn Help: Send an InMail message in Sales Navigator, retrieved 29 September 2026.
5 LinkedIn InMail templates: short, question first
An InMail gives you 2,000 characters. Do not use them. The recipient does not know you, reads on a phone and decides in seconds. Put the question first, say why this particular person, and stop. Names and companies in the templates are placeholders. Whether your own draft is too long, too generic or too salesy is something the free Message Check tells you in a few seconds.
1. Sales
Subject: Quick question about your field sales team
Hi Jonas, would a short call about first meetings for your field reps be useful? You just posted two openings for that team, and this is exactly the phase where we help sales teams book meetings faster. If it is already solved on your end, a quick no is all I need.
2. Recruiting
Subject: Team Lead Data Engineering, Hamburg
Hi Lena, may I send you the key facts on a role that matches your profile? Team Lead Data Engineering in Hamburg, hybrid, a team of six. If the timing is wrong, a short no is perfectly fine.
3. Job application
Subject: Your Product Owner opening
Hi Miriam, is the Product Owner role weighted more toward discovery or delivery? I saw your posting, bring five years of B2B SaaS, and would like to tailor my application to the part that matters most to you.
4. Partnership
Subject: Shared customers in industrial machinery
Hi Tobias, would you be open to comparing notes on shared customers? We sell to the same audience as you do, with a different building block, and I can see two concrete overlaps. Twenty minutes is enough to tell whether it is worth pursuing.
5. Follow-up
Subject: Back to my question from last week
Hi Jonas, is the topic of first meetings still on your list? You replied "Interested" and then things went quiet, which I fully understand. If another time works better, just tell me when.
Before you follow up, know what LinkedIn allows. On Premium you cannot send another InMail to the same person until your first one has been answered. In Sales Navigator a second InMail before a reply is possible, but it uses another credit. Sources: InMail message credits and renewal process, Unable to follow-up with InMail Messages and Understand InMail credits in Sales Navigator, retrieved 29 September 2026.
InMail or connect: when each one pays off
A connection request costs nothing and opens a lasting link: once accepted, you see each other's posts, can message freely and view the full profile. An InMail costs a credit, but you don't wait for anyone to accept, and your message is in the inbox immediately, with a subject line and an automatic reminder within three days. Our knowledge base article What is the difference between InMails and invites? sums it up: connecting is a mutual confirmation, InMail is the direct route to people who do not know you.
That leads to a simple rule:
- Connect when you want the person in your network long term, when you share connections, or when your request can wait. Send the invite, wait for acceptance, then write a short opener.
- InMail when you have a concrete question for a concrete person and need an answer this week: a role, an offer, a partnership. Also when the person does not accept invitations from strangers but has left InMail open.
- Both when you are working through a whole audience. Open Profiles get the free InMail, everyone else gets the connection request. You spend no credits on people you can reach another way, and you leave nobody out.
All our guides on InMail are collected in the InMail knowledge base.
What CompLeadly does with InMails
CompLeadly is a desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux that runs locally on your computer through your own IP address. For InMail it brings three functions you would otherwise handle by hand:
- Auto InMail. You save a LinkedIn people search or a Sales Navigator search as an audience, set subject, text, a date range and a daily limit, and CompLeadly messages the profiles one after another. Connected profiles and profiles without a photo can be skipped. Guide: Tutorial: Auto InMail function.
- InMails to Open Profiles without credits. CompLeadly distinguishes between free InMails to Open Profiles and paid InMails from your balance. We recommend two separate Auto InMail steps in your workflow: one for Open Profiles only, one for your credits only, so you always see when credits are being spent. More in the CompLeadly knowledge base.
- Collect replies. Answered InMails go into the reply table, declined and unanswered ones are stored in separate audiences; an InMail counts as unanswered after a period you set, 10 days is the recommendation. The unanswered ones become a connection request; in Sales Navigator a second InMail is also possible, but it uses another credit. Guide: InMail answer collector feature.
On pace, think craft rather than blast: raise your daily InMail count slowly and, in our experience, stay under 40 per day. Why that matters for Open Profile InMails is explained in LinkedIn InMail limit. Auto InMails are included in the Basic, Premium and Premium Plus plans; the ten-day trial runs without a credit card. See every function on the features page and the plans on the pricing page.
In sales
You build the audience from a Sales Navigator search, a saved search or a lead list (your own Sales Navigator license required) or from the regular people search. CompLeadly visits the profiles, sends Open Profiles the free InMail and everyone else a connection request, then an opener after acceptance and a follow-up after x days without a reply. Your 50 Sales Navigator credits are saved for the decision makers without an Open Profile.
In recruiting
The same math applies to candidates: 30 credits in Recruiter Lite cover a handful of positions, not a pipeline. A people search, a Sales Navigator search or, with a Recruiter package, a Recruiter Lite search becomes an audience in CompLeadly. Candidates with an Open Profile get the InMail without credits, the others a connection request with an opener. Anyone who does not respond ends up in a dedicated follow-up audience through the answer collector. More on the page CompLeadly for recruiters; what a Recruiter subscription costs is in LinkedIn Recruiter cost.
As a job seeker
You want to reach recruiters and team leads at your target employer directly, but Premium Career gives you only 5 credits a month. Create an audience in CompLeadly from the people search, for example every recruiter and engineering manager at one company, and send the Open Profiles among them a short InMail like template 3. Connect with the rest, with a note. Your five credits go to the people where they really count.
Frequently asked questions about LinkedIn InMail
Do LinkedIn InMail credits expire?
Yes. According to LinkedIn, InMail credits expire after 90 days. Until then, unused credits roll over into the next month up to your plan's cap: 15 on Premium Career, 45 on Premium Business, 90 on All-in-One, 150 in Sales Navigator and 120 in Recruiter Lite. If you cancel Premium, your balance drops to zero.
Do I get InMail credits back?
Yes, when the recipient responds. On Premium, every InMail that is accepted, declined or answered within 90 days is credited back, quick replies included. In Sales Navigator you get the credit back for every InMail that receives a response within 90 days. If the InMail stays unanswered, the credit is gone.
Can you automate LinkedIn InMail?
Yes. With CompLeadly's Auto InMail function you message a saved audience from LinkedIn or Sales Navigator one profile at a time, with a date range and a daily limit. InMails to Open Profiles go out without credits, and CompLeadly collects the replies in a table. Raise the daily limit slowly.
How many characters can an InMail have?
On LinkedIn and with Premium, up to 200 characters in the optional subject line and up to 2,000 characters in the body. In Sales Navigator and Recruiter the body is limited to 1,900 characters; in Sales Navigator a signature of up to 150 characters counts toward that limit.
Can I send InMail to everyone on LinkedIn?
No. Members who have chosen not to receive InMail in their message preferences cannot be reached by InMail. You also need a Premium plan with credits or an Open Profile on the recipient's side. In Sales Navigator, locked profiles have to be unlocked first.
