What Is InMail? (vs. Regular Messages)

Are you trying to work out what InMail is, and whether it is any different from an ordinary LinkedIn message? The confusion is understandable. LinkedIn sells InMail credits as part of every Premium plan, and InMail is easy to mix up with message requests, Open Profile and LinkedIn's message ads, which all reach people outside your network too. We wanted one page that gets the rules right, taken from LinkedIn itself.

Most people assume InMail is just LinkedIn's name for its messages, or a fancier version of the same thing. It isn't. When we went through LinkedIn's help pages in November 2026, the difference came down to one question: are you connected to the person? If you are, messaging is free. If you are not, you usually need InMail, which costs a credit, has a shorter limit and can be switched off by the person you are writing to.

In this article we'll cover what InMail is and how it differs from a regular message, how many credits each plan gives you and how to get them back, the free ways to reach people outside your network, and how to write an InMail that gets a reply. Read on to find out more.

What is InMail on LinkedIn?

InMail is a message you send to a LinkedIn member you are not connected to. It is a paid feature: each one uses a credit from a Premium, Sales Navigator or Recruiter plan, and free accounts cannot send it. The person you write to can also choose not to receive it.

LinkedIn's help page on sending an InMail message, last updated around April 2026, puts it plainly: InMail "allows you to directly message another LinkedIn member that you're not connected to", and "if you have a Basic (free) account, you must upgrade to a Premium account to use InMail".

The point of it is reach. A regular message only goes to people you already know on LinkedIn. InMail lets a recruiter write to someone who isn't job hunting, a founder write to a buyer, or a job seeker write to a hiring manager, without waiting for a connection request to be accepted.

So the real question is how it differs from a normal message, which is where most of the confusion sits.

What is the difference between InMail and a regular LinkedIn message?

A regular message is free and only reaches your 1st-degree connections. InMail costs a credit and reaches people outside your connections. InMail is also shorter, and the person you are writing to can switch it off entirely, which they cannot do for messages from their connections.

Here is the difference in one table, built from LinkedIn's help pages on sending messages, sending InMail and managing the messages you receive, all read on 9 November 2026.

The 8,000-character limit for messages to connections comes from our guide to every LinkedIn character limit; the InMail limits are from LinkedIn's InMail page.

"1st-degree" just means someone you are connected to. If the 1st, 2nd and 3rd labels on profiles are new to you, our page on what the connection degrees mean walks through each one and what it lets you do.

One more thing that isn't InMail: the ads that turn up in your inbox. LinkedIn's help page on Sponsored Messaging, updated in November 2026, describes them as message ads and conversation ads that businesses pay for through Campaign Manager, LinkedIn's ad tool, charged "on a cost-per-send basis". LinkedIn's opt-out page calls them "a form of native advertising", not messages.

So if InMail is what you need, the next question is how many you get.

How many InMail credits do you get with LinkedIn Premium?

It depends on the plan: Premium Career gives 5 credits a month, Premium Business 15, Premium All-in-One 30, Sales Navigator Core 50 and Recruiter Lite 30. Unused credits carry over, but only up to a ceiling, and you cannot buy extra credits on a Premium plan.

LinkedIn's help page on InMail credits and renewal, updated in the first week of November 2026, gives both numbers for each plan:

In other words, credits stack up to about three months' worth (four on Recruiter Lite) and then stop. LinkedIn's InMail FAQ, updated around September 2026, says the same thing another way: "InMail message credits expire after 90 days."

A few rules from the same pages catch people out:

1. You cannot top up. LinkedIn's InMail page says it is "not possible to purchase additional InMail message credits outside of the monthly allotment", and no plan offers unlimited InMail.
2. Credits stay inside their product. Premium credits cannot be used to send InMail in Sales Navigator or Recruiter.
3. Cancelling wipes them. When a Premium subscription is cancelled, your balance goes to zero, and credits do not move across when you upgrade to another plan.
4. Renewal dates differ. Premium credits renew on the date you first signed up; Sales Navigator credits renew on the first of every month.

Those plans cost real money: Premium Career starts at $39.99 a month in the US, as we found when we priced every LinkedIn Premium plan. That makes it worth knowing how to get your credits back.

Do you get InMail credits back if someone replies?

Yes. Any InMail that is accepted, declined or replied to within 90 days of being sent is credited back. The only InMail that costs you for good is one that gets no response within 90 days. LinkedIn counts a quick reply as a response too.

That wording is from LinkedIn's credits and renewal page, updated in November 2026. Two older LinkedIn pages, the InMail overview and the FAQ, only say you get a credit back "if a recipient accepts your InMail". We have gone with the newest page, which is also the most specific, but it is worth knowing the older wording is still live.

The same page adds two rules about following up:

• You cannot send a second InMail to the same person until they respond to the first.
• LinkedIn sends the recipient a reminder within three days of your InMail.

So the cost of an InMail is really the cost of being ignored. A clear, short message that someone can answer in one line, even with "no thanks", pays for itself. More on writing one below.

Can you message someone on LinkedIn without InMail?

Yes, in three cases: the person is a Premium member with Open Profile switched on, you are both in the same LinkedIn Group, or they are your current coworker. None of these uses an InMail credit. Otherwise, a connection request with a note is the free route.

LinkedIn's help page on sending messages lists all three:

A few details from LinkedIn's own pages:

• Open Profile has a monthly limit for free senders. LinkedIn's Open Profile settings page, last updated around 2025, says "members with basic or free accounts can only send a limited number of open profile messages each month". It does not say how many, and we have not found a LinkedIn page that does.
• Message requests are quietly declined. LinkedIn's message requests page, about two years old, says the sender is not told if a request is declined, and requests cannot carry attachments.
• Invitation notes are short. LinkedIn's page on InMail versus personalised invitations, last updated around 2023, says free accounts can send up to five notes of up to 200 characters, and Premium members unlimited notes of up to 300. It does not say over what period the five apply.

If you are a Premium member and want to be reachable, the Open Profile settings page gives the desktop route: click Me, then View Profile, then the Edit icon in your introduction section. Open the dropdown next to the gold Premium badge, switch on the Open Profile toggle, and click Save. It is a separate setting from showing the badge, so you can display Premium without opening your inbox.

The flip side of all this is that people can choose not to receive InMail at all.

Can you stop receiving InMail on LinkedIn?

Yes. You can switch InMail off in your settings, and nobody can then InMail you. You cannot do the same for messages from your connections; the only way to stop one of those is to block the person.

LinkedIn's help page on opting out of InMail, about two years old, gives the desktop route:

1. Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
2. Select Settings & Privacy and click the Data Privacy tab on the left.
3. Click Messages under Who can reach you.
4. Switch the toggle to No next to Allow others to send you InMail?

On the app, LinkedIn's page says to tap your profile photo, then Settings, then the Data and privacy tab, and follow the same last two steps. The newer manage your messages page, updated around October 2026, describes the same Messages screen as holding a toggle "next to each type of message".

This matters for senders too. LinkedIn's InMail page says you "can't message a member if they've chosen not to receive InMail", whatever plan you are on and however many credits you have.

How do you write a LinkedIn InMail that gets a reply?

Keep it short, say why you are writing to that person in particular, and ask for something easy to answer. LinkedIn's own advice is to be brief, mention what on their profile made you write, share anything you have in common, and give them a reason to reply.

That advice comes from LinkedIn's InMail best practices page. It is about five years old, which is older than we would normally use, but it is still LinkedIn's current guidance and nothing newer from LinkedIn replaces it. It also notes that LinkedIn "doesn't provide templates". We have no data of our own on InMail replies, so treat what follows as LinkedIn's advice plus common sense, not a tested result.

Five steps, in order:

1. Check you need InMail at all. If you share a group, or they have Open Profile, write to them for free. If they are 2nd-degree, a connection request with a note may be enough.
2. Use the subject line. It is optional, so use it to say in a few words why you are writing, well under the 200-character limit.
3. Open with them, not you. Name the post, role or shared connection that made you write. That one line is what separates you from a template.
4. Ask one small question. Advice, an opinion or a referral is easier to answer than a meeting request, and any reply, even a polite no, gets your credit back.
5. Make your profile worth checking. A stranger deciding whether to reply may well look you up first, and your headline sits right under your name.

How we checked how LinkedIn InMail works

Every rule on this page comes from LinkedIn's own Help Centre, not from other guides. On 9 November 2026 we read LinkedIn's help pages on InMail, sending an InMail, InMail credits and renewal, the InMail FAQ, sending messages, message requests, Open Profile, opting out of InMail, managing the messages you receive, invitation notes, Sponsored Messaging and InMail best practices, in a browser that was not signed in to LinkedIn.

LinkedIn shows only a rough age on its help pages ("Last updated: 3 days ago"), so the dates in this article are approximate, worked back from the day we read them. Where two LinkedIn pages disagree, as they do on when a credit comes back, we have followed the newest and said so. Where LinkedIn does not publish a number, such as the monthly limit on Open Profile messages from free accounts, we have left it out rather than borrow a figure from elsewhere. Prices come from our LinkedIn Premium pricing check of 3 November 2026.

There is no study data behind this page. It is a reference page, and we will update it whenever LinkedIn changes how InMail works.