What Is a LinkedIn InMail Credit (and How Do Refunds Work)?

By Elena Marsh, Strategy & Algorithm. Last updated: 2026-05-28

What is a LinkedIn InMail credit?

A LinkedIn InMail credit is the unit LinkedIn uses to charge for sending a direct message to someone the sender is not connected with (a non-1st-degree contact). Sending one InMail consumes one credit from the sender's monthly pool.

Regular messages between 1st-degree connections do not consume credits; credits only apply to messages sent across the network boundary. Credits are granted with paid LinkedIn plans (Premium Career, Premium Business, Sales Navigator Core and above, Recruiter Lite and above), refresh monthly per seat, and cannot be transferred between seats on a team plan. The credit is what makes InMail different from a normal LinkedIn message: paid postage for crossing the connection line.

How many InMail credits do you get per plan?

The monthly allotment depends on the tier, and the numbers have stayed stable through 2026.

Sales Navigator sits at 50 per month across all three tiers; the higher tiers add CRM sync and team features, not more credits. Recruiter seats carry the largest pools because the product is built around cold outreach to candidates. Allotments are per seat and reset on the subscription billing date, not the calendar month.

Do LinkedIn InMail credits roll over?

Yes, with a cap. Unused credits roll over to the following month up to a maximum total of 150 per Sales Navigator seat, and rolled-over credits must be used within 90 days.

For a Sales Navigator Core seat, that means a rep who sends nothing for one month walks into month two with 100 credits available (50 new plus 50 carried); a second idle month caps the pool at 150, and any credits unused past 90 days expire. Recruiter seats have their own higher caps tied to the larger monthly grant. The system rewards a steady send cadence over hoarding, because the rollover window is finite.

When does LinkedIn refund an InMail credit?

LinkedIn refunds the credit to the sender's pool when the recipient replies to the InMail within 90 days of receipt, regardless of whether the reply is positive, negative, or an auto-reply. This is the rule most explainers skip and the one that materially changes the math.

A few specifics worth knowing: any reply inside the 90-day window triggers the refund (a short "not interested" reply refunds the credit just like a long positive one); the recipient simply opening or ignoring the message does not refund the credit; deleting an unopened InMail does not recover it; and Sponsored InMails (Message Ads) run on a separate paid-media billing model that does not touch the credit pool.

The refund mechanic effectively rewards targeting. Two reps with identical 50-credit allotments will send very different total volumes over a quarter because their refund rates diverge.

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

A regular LinkedIn message is sent between 1st-degree connections and costs nothing; an InMail is sent to a non-connection and consumes a credit. InMails also unlock a subject line and can reach members the sender has no path to via mutual connections. Regular messages assume the connection already exists.

The 90-day refund rule applies only to InMails, because regular messages were never billed in the first place.

What is a good InMail response rate to aim for?

LinkedIn reports average InMail response rates in the 10 to 25 percent range, with the upper end achievable through tight targeting and short, specific copy; cold email by comparison averages 1 to 5 percent across most B2B benchmarks. The InMail advantage on per-message reply rate is real, but it sits on a much smaller monthly volume than email or connection requests can sustain.

For context, across 316,703 LinkedIn outreach sequences run on the verified API, Reachium's data shows a 28% average connection acceptance rate, with 29% of accepted connections replying (about 8% of all sent requests). InMail wins on per-message efficiency for the right targets; connection requests win on total replies per month for a working outbound motion.

Is sending an InMail worth it versus sending a connection request?

For systematic outbound, connection requests usually beat InMails on replies per dollar; for surgical, time-sensitive, or out-of-network sends, InMails are the only path. Spend credits on 3rd-degree-or-deeper prospects with no warm path, C-suite targets where acceptance rates collapse but InMail still gets read, time-sensitive plays (event launches, displacement windows), and candidates a recruiter needs to reach before a competing offer closes. Run connection-request sequences for the default 2nd-degree list and any volume that exceeds the 50-credit monthly cap.

The volume math is the part most teams undercount. A Sales Navigator Core seat caps monthly InMail volume at 50 plus refunds. A connection-request sequence on the verified API runs in the hundreds per account per month at safe daily volumes. Across 161,569 connection requests, Reachium's data found acceptance peaked at 34% for accounts sending 10 to 19 invites per day, then fell to 30.6% at 20 to 29 per day, which is the LinkedIn volume tax that bounds the channel. For the deeper head-to-head, see InMail vs connection request in 2026.

How can I send more InMails than my plan allows?

LinkedIn does not sell a la carte credits, so there are three official ways to expand the pool: upgrade the seat tier (Premium Business to Sales Navigator, or Sales Navigator to Recruiter), add more seats on a team plan (credits do not pool across seats, but capacity scales with seat count), or improve targeting so the 90-day refund returns more credits.

The reframe most teams settle on: most accounts that hit the InMail ceiling are spending credits on sends that a personalized connection request would handle for free. Shifting the 2nd-degree slice of the list onto a connection-request sequence frees the credit pool for the targets that genuinely need it (3rd-degree, C-suite, time-sensitive). The credit pool is not the constraint; the channel split is. Whether the underlying Sales Navigator subscription earns its cost turns on lead-list quality, not on credit volume.

FAQ

Can I buy extra InMail credits beyond my plan allotment?

Not directly. LinkedIn does not sell a la carte InMail credits. The supported ways to expand the pool are upgrading the seat tier (for example Premium Business to Sales Navigator), adding more seats on a team plan, or improving targeting so the 90-day reply refund returns more credits.

Do InMail credits expire?

Yes. Rolled-over credits must be used within 90 days of the month they were granted, and the total pool is capped at 150 per Sales Navigator seat. Credits sitting idle beyond the 90-day window expire automatically.

Does messaging an Open Profile member consume an InMail credit?

No. Members with Open Profile enabled (a Premium feature) can receive messages from anyone on LinkedIn at no credit cost. Open Profile is rare across the user base, so this is a small carve-out in practice, not a workaround for the credit cap.

Are sponsored InMails and Message Ads the same as regular InMail credits?

No. Sponsored InMails (now Message Ads inside LinkedIn Campaign Manager) are a paid-media product billed per send through an advertising budget, not the credit pool, with a different format, compliance profile, and reporting layer than the credits attached to Premium, Sales Navigator, or Recruiter seats.

What is a good InMail response rate to aim for?

LinkedIn quotes average InMail response rates in the 10 to 25 percent range, with the upper end requiring tight ICP targeting and short, specific copy. That is roughly three to five times the typical cold-email response rate, but the absolute monthly volume is constrained by the credit cap.

Sources

• LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Compare plans
• LinkedIn Help: Understand InMail credits in Sales Navigator
• LinkedIn Help: InMail messages overview
• Reachium
• Linked Insider: InMail vs connection request in 2026
• Linked Insider: LinkedIn outreach benchmarks 2026
• Linked Insider: The LinkedIn volume tax
• Linked Insider: Do you need Sales Navigator?