What Is InMail on LinkedIn? Credits, Cost and How to Send One (2026)

LinkedIn InMail is a paid message that lets you write to a member you're not connected to, without sending a connection request first. Only paid subscribers can send InMail: each plan comes with a monthly allowance of credits (5 with Premium Career, 15 with Premium Business, 30 with Premium All-in-One or Recruiter Lite, 50 with Sales Navigator), and LinkedIn gives a credit back when the recipient accepts, declines or replies within 90 days. An InMail has an optional subject of up to 200 characters and a body of up to 2,000 characters.

Free members can't send InMail, but they can receive it, and anyone can turn InMail off in their message preferences. Below: how InMail compares with regular messages, how credits work, what one costs, how to send one, and what LinkedIn's own data says about getting replies. Rules and numbers come from LinkedIn Help, checked in October 2026.

InMail vs regular LinkedIn messages vs invitation notes

If the degrees of connection are fuzzy, here's what 1st, 2nd and 3rd on LinkedIn mean.

How many InMail credits do you get?

Credit allowances come from LinkedIn's InMail credits article and InMail FAQ; prices from LinkedIn's plan pages (full breakdown in our LinkedIn Premium cost guide). The rules that matter:

• Renewal. Premium credits arrive on the first day of each billing cycle. Sales Navigator credits renew on the 1st of every month, whatever your billing date.
• Expiry. Unused credits expire after 90 days, which is why they cap at about three months' worth.
• Credits back. Every InMail that is accepted, declined or answered within 90 days is credited back. A pending InMail counts as neither, and quick replies count as responses.
• No top-ups. You can't buy extra credits, and no plan offers unlimited InMail.
• Tied to your plan. The balance drops to zero if you cancel, doesn't follow you when you upgrade, and Premium credits can't be used in Sales Navigator or Recruiter, which have their own.

How much does a LinkedIn InMail cost?

You can't buy a single InMail, so the cost depends on your plan. Divide the monthly price by the monthly credits and you get roughly $8 per credit on Premium Career, $4.67 on Premium Business, $3 on Premium All-in-One, $5.67 on Recruiter Lite and $2.40 on Sales Navigator Core. Because LinkedIn returns the credit when someone accepts, declines or replies, a well-targeted InMail costs less than that in practice.

Don't confuse InMail with Sponsored Messaging, the ad format once called Sponsored InMail. Message Ads and Conversation Ads are bought in LinkedIn Campaign Manager as advertising and have nothing to do with your subscription credits.

How to send an InMail on LinkedIn

On desktop (LinkedIn Help):

1. Go to the profile of the member you want to contact.
2. Click the More button in their introduction section.
3. Select Message [name] from the dropdown.
4. Type a Subject in the New message window (optional, but use one).
5. Write your message in the text box.
6. Click Send.

On the mobile app, open the member's profile, tap Message in the introduction section, add a subject, write your message and tap Send. The compose window shows how many credits you have left.

In Sales Navigator, InMails are sent from Sales Navigator only, not from linkedin.com: from a lead's Sales Navigator profile, from search results or from the Sales Navigator inbox. Bulk sending isn't available, so each InMail goes out individually, and you can attach files up to 200 MB (LinkedIn Help).

If the Message option doesn't appear, the member has turned off InMail in their message preferences.

Can you send an InMail for free?

Not a real InMail, but there are two free routes to people outside your network:

• Open Profile. Premium members can turn on Open Profile, which lets anyone message them without spending a credit. Free accounts can send a limited number of these messages each month (LinkedIn Help). Our guide on how to know if someone has LinkedIn Premium shows how to spot these members.
• A connection request with a note. Free accounts get three personalized notes a month; Premium makes them unlimited.

Do InMails get replies? What LinkedIn's data says

LinkedIn analyzed tens of millions of InMails sent by corporate recruiters between May 2021 and April 2022 (LinkedIn Talent Blog). The main findings:

• Short wins. InMails under 400 characters got a response rate 22% higher than average; those over 1,200 characters, 11% lower. Yet only 10% of InMails were under 400 characters, and 46% were over 800.
• Replies come fast. 65% of responses arrived within 24 hours and 90% within a week. No answer after a week is a strong hint.
• Timing matters a little. InMails sent on Saturday got 8% fewer responses than average and those sent on Friday 4% fewer; Monday was the best day.
• One-to-one beats bulk. InMails sent individually got roughly 15% more responses than those sent in bulk.
• Warm targets answer more. Candidates flagged as Recommended Matches were up to 35% more likely to accept, and members Open to Work had a 37% higher response rate.

This is recruiting data: a sales InMail competes with a lot more noise. But the lessons on length, timing and personalization hold for any cold message.

How to write an InMail that gets a reply

• Subject: short and about them. "Your post on outbound hiring" beats "Quick question" or "Partnership opportunity".
• First line: why them, and why now. A role they posted, a post they wrote, a change at their company.
• One ask, easy to answer in a few words: a yes or no, a time slot, the right person to talk to.
• Under 400 characters when you can. You have 2,000; you don't need them.
• Send Monday to Thursday, and let LinkedIn's automatic reminder (sent within three days) do the first nudge.

Three examples you can adapt:

Subject: Your SDR hiring at Northwind

Hi Emma, I saw Northwind is hiring three SDRs in Paris. When a team grows that fast, ramping new reps on outbound is usually the hard part. We help sales teams do exactly that with [one-line benefit]. Worth a 15-minute call next week to see if it fits?

Subject: Senior data engineer, fully remote

Hi Lucas, your work on [project] caught my eye. We're hiring a senior data engineer at [Company] to build [what], fully remote, [salary range]. Open to a 20-minute chat this week? If the timing's wrong, no worries at all.

Subject: Product Designer application

Hi Mia, I just applied for the Product Designer role on your team. At [Company] I led [project], which [result]. I'd love to show you how I approached it. Would a short call next week work?

For job seekers, our guide on how to message a recruiter on LinkedIn has more templates; for connection requests, see these LinkedIn connection message templates.

Is InMail worth it for prospecting?

For recruiting, and for a handful of high-value prospects you can't reach any other way, yes. For sales prospecting at volume, not really: even Sales Navigator's 50 credits a month come to about two InMails per working day, with no way to follow up until the person replies. Connection requests followed by messages, plus email, reach far more people for the same effort, and every touch can be personalized.

That's the approach useArtemis automates. You build sequences that mix profile visits, invitations, LinkedIn messages and emails, with an AI-written message for each lead, sent from your own LinkedIn account and mailbox at a human pace, and every reply lands in one inbox. Plans start at $69 a month as of October 2026 (pricing).

FAQ

Is InMail free on LinkedIn?

No. InMail credits come only with a paid plan: Premium Career, Premium Business, Premium All-in-One, Sales Navigator or Recruiter Lite. Receiving InMail is free, and messaging a Premium member who has turned on Open Profile doesn't cost a credit.

Can you buy more InMail credits?

No. LinkedIn doesn't sell extra credits beyond your monthly allowance and has no plan with unlimited InMail. You get credits back when recipients accept, decline or reply within 90 days, and unused credits accumulate up to about three months' worth.

What happens if someone doesn't reply to an InMail?

LinkedIn sends them an automatic reminder within three days. If they don't accept, decline or reply within 90 days, you don't get the credit back. You also can't send them a second InMail until they respond to the first one.

Can a free LinkedIn account send InMail?

No. A free account can only message 1st-degree connections, plus a limited number of free messages per month to Premium members with Open Profile. To send InMail, you need a paid subscription.

What's the difference between InMail and a LinkedIn message?

A regular message goes to someone you're already connected to and costs nothing. An InMail reaches someone outside your network without a connection request, uses a paid credit, is labelled "InMail" and can carry a subject line.