How Much Is LinkedIn Premium & Is It Worth the Cost?
Does every premium LinkedIn user see the same results?
Some don’t even break even.
Others, meanwhile, see an ROI upwards of 1000%. At Artisan, we’ve closed hundreds of deals with LinkedIn leads.
LinkedIn subscriptions should easily pay for themselves.
But it all starts with understanding the differences between paid plans. And there’s a surprising amount of nuance.
How Much Does LinkedIn Premium Cost?
LinkedIn offers plans ranging from $29.99 to $900 per month. Job seekers pay only $29.99/month for Premium Career. Sales Navigator plans begin at $99.99/month. And subscriptions for recruiters start at $170/month. There are also annual discounts available and free trial periods.
Here’s a quick breakdown of every package:
Monthly pricing:
LinkedIn Premium Career: $29.99/month
LinkedIn Learning: $39.99/month
LinkedIn Premium Business: $59.99/month
Sales Navigator Core: $99.99/month
Sales Navigator Advanced: $149.99/month
Sales Navigator Advanced Plus: Custom pricing
Recruiter Lite: $170/month
LinkedIn Recruiter: $900/month
Annual pricing:
LinkedIn Premium Career: $239.88/year
LinkedIn Learning: $239.88/year
LinkedIn Premium Business: $575.88/year
Sales Navigator Core: $959.88/year
Sales Navigator Advanced: $1,300/year
Sales Navigator Advanced Plus: Custom pricing
Recruiter Lite: $1,680/year
LinkedIn Recruiter: $10,800/year
Note: If you live outside of the US, the prices may vary slightly depending on your currency and official exchange rates. It also depends on your user history.
All LinkedIn Paid Pricing Plans and Features: A Quick Rundown
LinkedIn has a paid plan for everything—job seekers and job search, sales professionals and founders, and freelancers and recruiters—but which one do you actually need?
Here’s (probably) the web’s most concise guide to the different LinkedIn plans:
LinkedIn Premium Career ($29.99/month): Best for job seekers, offering InMail credits, profile views insights, and LinkedIn Learning access.
LinkedIn Learning ($39.99/month): Provides unlimited access to thousands of professional courses created by LinkedIn and verified experts to boost skills.
LinkedIn Premium Business ($59.99/month): Ideal for business networking, offering more InMail credits and expanded company insights.
Sales Navigator Core ($99.99/month): Built for sales teams and professionals, featuring advanced lead searches in Sales Navigator (LinkedIn’s B2B lead database), recommendations, and 50 InMail messages per month.
Sales Navigator Advanced ($149.99/month): Adds CRM integrations and team collaboration tools on top of Core features.
Sales Navigator Advanced Plus (custom pricing): Tailored for enterprises with enhanced automation and deeper CRM syncing.
Recruiter Lite ($170/month): Designed for individual recruiters, with advanced search tools and 30 InMail messages per month.
LinkedIn Recruiter ($900/month): High-end recruiting platform for large teams, featuring 150 monthly InMail messages, AI-powered search, and team collaboration tools.
LinkedIn Free vs. LinkedIn Premium: What’s the Real Difference?
A free LinkedIn account has plenty of perks, but it also comes with limited functionality.
So how do the two differ?
Let’s start with free perks:
What Do You Get with a Free LinkedIn Account?
Many professionals, from C-suite execs to independent freelancers, find that a free LinkedIn account meets their needs. The feature set is pretty solid for a free service.
For C-Suite Executives
Build a personal brand by sharing thought leadership content.
Attract top talent by showcasing company culture and vision.
Network with industry peers and maintain visibility in professional circles.
Track profile viewers, post impressions, followers, and search appearances.
Weekly sharing tracker for collaborative articles.
For Salespeople
Search for potential leads, but with a monthly limit of 1,000 searches.
Engage with prospects by commenting on posts and sending connection requests (up to 100 per week).
Access company pages to research prospects before outreach.
Track profile viewers, post impressions, followers, and search appearances.
For Recruiters
Post jobs and review applications, but without access to advanced applicant insights.
Search for potential hires, but only view full profiles of 1st-degree connections.
Message candidates, but only if they’re 1st-degree connections.
For Professionals (Job Seekers, Employees, Freelancers)
Search and apply for jobs, but without access to salary insights or applicant comparisons.
Join groups and follow companies to stay updated on industry trends.
See profile viewers, but only the five most recent viewers.
Build a personal brand by sharing expert content.
Track profile viewers, post impressions, followers, and search appearances.
A free LinkedIn account also gives access to creator tools — LinkedIn Live, Follow link, and Newsletter. The latter is available for everyone, while the first two you have to earn.
To sum up, standard LinkedIn benefits most roles since many important features come free.
But that’s only true if you don’t plan to scale up.
What Does LinkedIn Premium Offer That Free Doesn’t?
LinkedIn Premium subscriptions provide crucial features for growing sales teams and recruiters and removing the limitations in free versions.
For C-suite Executives (Business Premium)
Advanced analytics on profile views and content engagement.
Expanded network visibility to connect with leads beyond 2nd-degree connections.
Access to industry insights and company trends to stay ahead of competitors.
InMail credits.
For Salespeople (Sales Navigator)
Unlimited searches with advanced filters to identify ideal B2B leads.
Lead recommendations based on your sales preferences and activity.
Real-time updates on lead and account activity for better outreach timing.
InMail credits.
For Recruiters (Recruiter Lite)
Full profile access to potential candidates beyond 3rd-degree connections.
Advanced search filters to refine candidate searches.
AI-powered candidate recommendations to streamline the hiring process.
InMail credits.
For Professionals (Career & Business Premium)
Job insights to see how you compare to other applicants.
Salary insights to understand compensation trends.
LinkedIn Learning access for skill development courses.
InMail credits.
A premium subscription unlocks any door (aka a person’s DM) even if you aren’t acquainted with it. You can browse as many people as you want and send connection requests. It also allows you to integrate your CRM, save leads, add them to nurturing campaigns, and customize analytics.
Now let’s take a closer look at each LinkedIn plan, including its key features and pricing.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Pricing and Features
LinkedIn Sales Navigator plans provide access to LinkedIn's huge database of users. It's arguably the best B2B database on the market. If you're looking for clients, it's the plan for you.
Sales Navigator Core
50+ filters to find potential clients and companies.
AI-powered suggestions for relevant leads.
Identify past colleagues, company followers, and mutual connections.
Key insights about leads using LinkedIn’s proprietary data and Lead IQ feature.
Find warm paths into target accounts through Relationship Explorer.
Keep track of prospects for future LinkedIn outreach.
Price
Free trial for 30 days
$99.99/month or $959.88/year
Sales Navigator Advanced
This plan includes everything from LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core, plus:
CRM Integration to sync leads, flag outdated data, and streamline workflows.
Share leads, notes, and insights with your team.
Visualize key stakeholders in an account with a Relationship Map.
Get real-time decision-maker notifications on job changes and other events.
Price
Free trial for 30 days
$149.99/month or $1,300/year
Sales Navigator Advanced Plus
Sales Navigator Advanced Plus includes everything from Advanced, with the addition of :
Deeper syncing with your CRM for better lead data tracking.
Custom analytics tailored to your organization’s needs.
AI company summaries for faster research.
AI prospecting to find new opportunities faster.
AI-generated InMail drafts for personalized outreach (coming soon).
Pricing: Upon request.
While Sales Navigator provides robust tools for lead generation and management, it doesn’t automate outreach activities. Users must engage manually with prospects and follow up through the platform.
Imagine the insane time commitment it takes to connect 100+ leads every day. That’s why we recommend using automation outreach tools.
Artisan's Ava, for example, is an AI business development representative (BDR) that automates hyper-personalized, multi-channel outreach, including LinkedIn. She filters from a database of 300M+ verified B2B contacts for precise targeting and enriches lead profiles with 65+ data points.
Ava automatically creates lead lists by following your prompts so you don’t need to spend time manually prospecting. Ava also uses a centralized inbox for outreach campaigns and connects LinkedIn and email, allowing you to see all conversations in one place.
If you’ve chosen Sales Navigator, see how Artisan can further improve your outreach by scheduling a demo.
LinkedIn Premium Career: Pricing and Features
LinkedIn Premium Career helps job seekers stand out, connect with the right people, and find more job opportunities faster.
Key Features
Send up to 5 InMail messages per month to reach out directly to recruiters and hiring managers.
See who’s viewed your LinkedIn profile and how you rank in search results over the last 90 days.
Compare your skills and experience with other job applicants to see where you stand.
Get unlimited access to online courses to sharpen your skills.
Use LinkedIn’s practice questions and expert tips to get ready for interviews.
Get personalized profile suggestions for your Headline, About, and Experience sections to improve them.
Price
Free trial for 30 days
$29.99/month or $239.88/year
LinkedIn Premium Business: Pricing and Features
LinkedIn Premium Business is a paid plan designed for professionals, entrepreneurs, startups, and small business owners who want to expand their network, generate leads, and grow their business on LinkedIn.
Key Features
Find potential clients, partners, and leads using specific filters like industry, location, and job title.
View as many profiles as you want, even outside your network.
Send direct messages (15 per month) to people you’re not connected with.
Let anyone on LinkedIn message you without needing to connect first.
See who checked out your profile in the last 365 days.
Get access to 21,000+ professional courses.
Add a CTA button on your profile to drive visitors to your website.
Access data and competitive analysis on relevant businesses.
Price
Free trial for 30 days
$59.99/month or $575.88/year
LinkedIn Recruiter: Pricing and Features
LinkedIn Recruiter allows you to find qualified talent fast with access to a pool of relevant candidates for your vacancy. It comes in two paid plans for small businesses and enterprises.
LinkedIn Recruiter Lite
Recruiter Lite is a simplified version of LinkedIn's recruiting tools, perfect for individual recruiters and small businesses to source and connect with potential candidates within their network. It allows for hiring up to five people a year.
Key Features
Use 20+ filters to find candidates by skills, location, experience, and more.
Reach out to candidates outside your network (30 InMail messages per month).
Save and organize potential hires for current or future openings.
Keep notes and track interactions to manage your hiring process.
Price
Free trial for 30 days
$170/month or $1,680/year
LinkedIn Recruiter
A robust platform for hiring the best candidates beyond your network. This plan is best for medium to large businesses with growing hiring needs and a recruitment process in place.
Key Features
Use 40+ advanced filters, keywords, and Boolean search to quickly prioritize candidates.
Review candidates who are “open to work” first.
Use an AI assistant to create search filters and optimize your search.
Reach out to candidates outside your network (150 InMail messages per seat).
CRM integrations.
Price
Pricing is given on request.
Recruiters can also opt for the following additional tools to spotlight job opportunities and find more relevant candidates:
LinkedIn Career Pages: Adds a new tab to your LinkedIn company profile Life where you showcase your culture to attract more talent. It also unlocks access to Traffic Driver and Company Discovery ads that promote your open roles.
“Jobs + Recruiter” package: A bundled LinkedIn solution combining job postings with access to Recruiter search tools.
Is LinkedIn Premium Worth It?
So is LinkedIn Premium worth it?
The short answer is yes.
The longer answer is it depends on what you’re expecting to get. And how much time you’re willing to invest in building a presence.
Let’s take a deeper dive into real stories—from job seekers to C-suite executives—to see what they think about the different plans.
Is LinkedIn Premium Worth It for Job Seekers?
Heidi Miller, a job seeker, tested LinkedIn Premium Career and found three features particularly useful:
Profile Views: She could see who viewed her profile, helping her gauge recruiter interest in her applications and build genuine connections.
Applicant Comparisons: With 900+ applicants for some roles, she used this to assess competition. For a job with 932 applicants, 314 were senior-level, and 19% had a master's degree like hers. If a job had 500+ applicants on the West Coast, Heidi knew she should skip it due to potential location bias.
AI Assistant: This was Heidi’s favorite feature. Instead of reading 30+ job descriptions daily, she used AI to check fit. For a Webflow role, it flagged the need to highlight her content team management experience. She also asked for resume tips and refined it further with ChatGPT to emphasize leadership, strategy, and project management.
Is LinkedIn Premium Worth It for Professionals?
For this one, I’d like to share my own experience. As a senior freelance writer at Artisan and HubSpot, I subscribed to LinkedIn Premium for two months to see if (and how) it would impact my visibility and engagement.
Profile visits increased by a whopping 385%. Using LinkedIn for free, weekly page visits usually hover around 300-500 pieces.
Impressions went from 500-1,000 per post to 3,000-6,000 per post. One post collected 121,458 impressions.
Likes and comments followed the usual trend, with no spike due to Premium.
The follower conversion rate increased, likely because of the higher profile visits and the content of the posts themselves.
AI profile assistance gave mixed results—manual adjustments worked better.
Every week, I had 4 to 5 warm leads in the pipeline and, frankly, couldn’t take on more projects.
Conclusion? If you’re a creator, consultant, or freelancer looking for prospective customers, Premium is worth every penny.
The content you post matters, too. Don’t treat premium tools as a medicinal cure-all.
Is LinkedIn Premium Worth It for C-Suite Executives?
First, let’s clear up a few misconceptions.
Jeremy Schifeling, a LinkedIn coach and founder of The Job Insiders, debunks three common justifications for the Premium subscription:
Only a few LinkedIn users actually check InMail messages, so he suggests sending cold emails instead.
LinkedIn prioritizes recruiters who pay for premium tools, so paid profiles don’t get a real advantage.
Third, search limits are easy to overcome. Rather than paying, Jeremy recommends creating a second free account to bypass restrictions. This is especially useful for sales teams.
From these stories, it's clear that LinkedIn Premium isn’t flawless. But it does offer some pretty solid benefits.
Let’s wrap up the pros and cons:
Pros
See who viewed your profile and gauge the recruiter's and potential lead’s interest.
Assess competition for job applications.
Get job description analysis and profile/resume optimization.
No restrictions when searching for people or companies.
Access competitor data and LinkedIn Learning courses.
Cons
No significant boost in post likes or comments.
Paid profiles don’t get priority in searches.
Not worth it for creators—Creator Mode offers similar benefits for free.
The price is too high for some users and their needs.
If you’re still doubting, you can go with a free trial for one month to test Premium features before committing.
You can also double your free trial if you unsubscribe a few days before it ends. LinkedIn prompts a churn survey where you can get either a 35% discount or re-try premium for one month if you answer, “It’s no longer useful / I didn’t have time to test it.”
Get More out of LinkedIn Premium
Are you a “casual user” who isn’t looking to grow your network and post once in a while? Don’t waste your money.
If you’re job hunting, prospecting for leads, or recruiting top talent, a LinkedIn Premium account can give you an edge.
The trick is choosing the right plan and making the most of tools like InMail, advanced search filters, and analytics.
For sales teams, it’s imperative to integrate LinkedIn Premium with a CRM and automate outreach through tools like Artisan’s AI-powered BDR. This lets you handle personalized and multi-channel messaging in one place.
Ready to work with a tool that manages your LinkedIn prospecting on autopilot? Get in touch to schedule a demo and see AI BDR Ava in action.
