An InMail has no standalone price: it is bundled into a LinkedIn subscription, and LinkedIn does not sell extra credits on their own. LinkedIn states "it's not possible to purchase additional InMail message credits outside of the monthly allotment" (LinkedIn Help (opens in a new tab)), and Sales Navigator repeats that "at this time, you can't purchase additional InMail credits" (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)). So the answer to "what does an InMail cost" is really "what does the plan that includes it cost, divided by the credits it gives you."
What is bundled with a plan
The subscription is the unit of purchase. LinkedIn lists InMail as part of paid subscriptions that include Premium, LinkedIn Recruiter and LinkedIn Sales Navigator (LinkedIn Help (opens in a new tab)). The same page also names LinkedIn Campaign Manager, but describes it as an ad management tool for Sponsored Messaging campaigns rather than a member InMail seat, so it is left out of the per-seat credit maths below. Your monthly InMail allowance comes with the seat, not as a separate line item:
| Subscription | InMail credits per month |
|---|---|
| Premium Career | 5 |
| Premium Business | 15 |
| Sales Navigator Core | 50 |
| Premium All-in-One | 30 per month, up to 90 total |
Those allowances are LinkedIn's published figures (LinkedIn Help (opens in a new tab)). The allowance differs by subscription family, so the cost per credit is not the same across subscription types.
What the plans cost
Prices below are LinkedIn's own published USD figures as displayed on 2026-10-19. They vary by currency and billing frequency, and LinkedIn notes that "pricing varies by plan and billing frequency" (LinkedIn Sales Navigator (opens in a new tab)).
Sales Navigator, per license:
- Core: US$119.99 per month or US$1,079.88 per year (LinkedIn Sales Navigator (opens in a new tab)).
- Advanced: US$159.99 per month or US$1,799.88 per year (LinkedIn Sales Navigator (opens in a new tab)).
- Advanced Plus: custom pricing, set through a sales representative (LinkedIn Sales Navigator (opens in a new tab)).
Premium, per seat: LinkedIn's comparison page lays out four columns — LinkedIn (free), Premium Business, Premium All-in-One and Sales Navigator — and its price row reads, under those columns, from US$69.99 per month for Premium Business and from US$89.99 per month for Premium All-in-One, with the Sales Navigator column showing from US$119.99 per month (LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)). That last figure is Sales Navigator's own starting price, not a Premium tier. The same page states that Sales Navigator Core, Advanced and Advanced Plus each provide 50 InMail credits per month, while Premium All-in-One provides 30 credits and Premium Business provides 15 (LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)).
Annual billing changes the arithmetic in your favour. The Core plan's yearly price is the equivalent of a discount against twelve monthly payments (LinkedIn Sales Navigator (opens in a new tab)).
Cost per credit
This next block is illustrative arithmetic built from the published prices above, not a quote from LinkedIn. Sales Navigator gives the same 50 credits on Core, Advanced and Advanced Plus (LinkedIn Help (opens in a new tab)), so the same allowance costs more as you move up a tier:
- Sales Navigator Core at US$119.99 a month with 50 credits works out to about US$2.40 per credit.
- Sales Navigator Advanced at US$159.99 a month, also with 50 credits, works out to about US$3.20 per credit.
The credit allowance is identical; the extra money buys team and CRM features, not more InMail. If InMail volume is your only reason to buy, the entry tier carries the same 50 credits as the top one.
Cost per reply, not cost per send
Cost per send flatters every plan, because not every InMail is answered. LinkedIn gives you a way to correct for that: a credit comes back when a recipient responds. In Sales Navigator, you receive a credit "for every InMail message that receives a response within 90 days of the date sent," and messages without a response do not return the credit (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)).
Keep the next lines illustrative as well, and keep credit counts and money apart. Suppose a sender uses 50 Sales Navigator Core credits in a month and one in five draws a response. That means 50 sends and 10 replies, with 10 credits returned and 40 net credits consumed. The 40 is a credit count, not a cash figure. To turn replies into money, divide the published monthly price by the number of replies: at Core's US$119.99 a month, 10 replies work out to about US$12.00 per reply (119.99 ÷ 10 ≈ 12.00). The effective cost per reply then depends on the response rate, which is a property of your list and your wording, not of the plan. LinkedIn publishes no reply-rate figure you can borrow, so treat any vendor number as unverified for your account.
The honest conclusion: compare plans on credits per dollar, then improve the reply rate so fewer credits are burned on silence.
Comparing InMail cost with other touches
InMail is the paid option in a set of routes that also includes free ones. A message to a 1st-degree connection is free, an Open Profile member can be messaged for free, and a connection request with a personalized note is free but limited to three personalized notes a month on a standard account (LinkedIn Help (opens in a new tab), LinkedIn Help (opens in a new tab)). The free routes should carry the volume; InMail should carry the targets only InMail can reach.
If your team also weighs email, note that none of the sources reviewed here prices email contact data, so a like-for-like comparison is not available from LinkedIn's pages. Do not import an email cost figure to round out the comparison.
The limit to keep in mind
Because credits cannot be bought separately, the credits you can spend come from your plan's allowance, not a top-up. That removes a common fallback: there is no "buy 100 more" button when a campaign overperforms. The allowance is also not a hard monthly send cap — in Sales Navigator unused credits roll over up to 150 total and responses return credits — so plan the balance you hold, not only the monthly grant (LinkedIn Help (opens in a new tab), Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)).
For the allowance and renewal rules behind these numbers, see how LinkedIn InMail credits work. If you are weighing a Sales Navigator seat specifically, the per-tier breakdown is in Sales Navigator pricing, and the value question is covered in whether Sales Navigator is worth it. If you are comparing outreach tools, Visit Clapa.
FAQ
Can you purchase more LinkedIn InMail credits?
No. LinkedIn states additional credits cannot be purchased outside the monthly allotment, and Sales Navigator says the same (LinkedIn Help (opens in a new tab), Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)).
How much does one InMail cost?
There is no single price. Divide the plan's monthly cost by its InMail allowance. On published USD prices, Sales Navigator Core works out to roughly US$2.40 per credit and Premium Business to roughly US$4.67 per credit at the rates shown here.
Is it cheaper to buy a bigger plan?
Not for InMails on Sales Navigator: Core, Advanced and Advanced Plus all carry the same 50 credits per month per user, so a higher tier does not add credits (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)). Across subscription families the allowance does differ (LinkedIn Help (opens in a new tab)), so compare credits per dollar rather than the headline price.
Do answered InMails lower the cost?
They return credits, which stretches the allowance. In Sales Navigator a response within 90 days earns the credit back (Sales Navigator Help (opens in a new tab)).
Sources
- LinkedIn Help, "Send an InMail Message": https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a546814 (opens in a new tab)
- LinkedIn Help, "InMail Messages FAQ": https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a554514 (opens in a new tab)
- LinkedIn Help, "Send messages on LinkedIn": https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a554575 (opens in a new tab)
- LinkedIn Help, "Personalize invitations to connect": https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a563153 (opens in a new tab)
- Sales Navigator Help, "Understand InMail credits in Sales Navigator": https://www.linkedin.com/help/lms/answer/a101030 (opens in a new tab)
- Sales Navigator Help, "Sales Navigator account types and features": https://www.linkedin.com/help/sales-navigator/answer/a104003 (opens in a new tab)
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator, "Compare Plans and Pricing": https://business.linkedin.com/sell/sales-navigator/compare-plans (opens in a new tab)
- LinkedIn, "LinkedIn Sales Navigator vs. Premium": https://business.linkedin.com/sell/sales-navigator/premium-versus-sales-navigator (opens in a new tab)