LinkedIn account types 2024: detailed comparison of all LinkedIn premium plans 

9 mins

In total, there are nine different LinkedIn account types 

Wondering how much does LinkedIn Premium cost? Or if it’s worth it for you and your sales team?

If you’re looking for the exact LinkedIn premium price, scroll below to get an overview of the different account types and the cost of each.

But in reality, it’s a bit more complicated than that.

Technically, you can use a free LinkedIn account at no cost to get most things done. But if you want to scale your business, you’ll want to cover the LinkedIn premium cost, it’s going to be worth it.

First, here are nine different LinkedIn account types, and their LinkedIn premium price:

  • Free LinkedIn Account (basic)
  • LinkedIn Premium Career: $29.99/month
  • LinkedIn Premium Business: $59.99/month
  • LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core: $99.99/month
  • LinkedIn Sales Navigator Advanced: $149.99/month
  • LinkedIn Sales Navigator Advanced Plus: Custom pricing
  • LinkedIn Recruiter Lite: $170/month
  • LinkedIn Recruiter: $835/month
  • LinkedIn Learnings: $19.99/month

But as mentioned above, the LinkedIn Premium pricing differences isn’t the main thing you should be looking at here.

Instead, keep in mind that each version of LinkedIn premium comes with different features, offerings, objectives, and more.

Now that you know how much does LinkedIn Premium cost, it’s time we learnt about their offerings, differences, and use cases. 

Let’s take a look at the types of LinkedIn accounts in detail without further ado. We’ll be covering how each account type works, what it offers, and of course, all of the LinkedIn premium costs and pricing models.

But before we dig in, have you joined our LinkedIn Outreach Family Facebook group yet? You can learn all the insider tips and tricks to social selling, LinkedIn, and outreach. Join now!

Free LinkedIn account

A free LinkedIn account is a great start if you’re a beginner. 

But since it’s completely free, it comes with a few limitations.

A free account helps you grow your network, connect with people in your industry, and find old friends and alumni.

Free vs. paid account

Here are some limitations of having a free LinkedIn account type:

  • You can’t send messages to people you’re not connected to
  • You can’t always see who visits your profile
  • Your searches are limited
  • A free LinkedIn account is unsuitable for recruiters and business owners using LinkedIn for hiring due to its limited search and outreach capability 

As a rule of thumb, if you’re doing a lot of outreach, lead generation, and booking sales calls from LinkedIn with a free account, you might want to consider paying the LinkedIn premium cost.

Because, over time, you’ll start feeling the limitations of a free account.

LinkedIn Premium account types

LinkedIn Premium is an often thrown-around term. But the truth is, it’s an umbrella term with multiple LinkedIn account types under it. 

So which account type should you choose? You must consider your main objective. 

For example, if you’re a salesperson looking to generate leads and target very specific ones, you could try the Sales Navigator Core or Advanced. Similarly, if you want to grow your business by onboarding new people, then LinkedIn Recruiter may be your calling. 

But how much does LinkedIn Premium cost, you ask?

Well that depends on a specific account type and its features. 

In the following sections we compare the use cases, pricing, and differences for each LinkedIn account type. 

Ready?

Before that, here’s a quick comparison table for a sneak peek into every LinkedIn Premium account:

Premium Plan Premium Career Premium Business Sales Navigator Core Sales Navigator Advanced + Plus Recruiter Lite Recruiter 
InMail 5/month 15/month 50/month 50/month 30/month 150/month
Advanced search X X Yes Yes 20+ filters 40+ filters
Unlimited people browsing  X Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Profile viewer insights 365 days 365 days 90 days 90 days 90 days 90 days
CRM Sync and integrations X X X Yes X X
ATS Integrations X X X X X Yes 
Unlimited LinkedIn Learning access Yes Yes Yes X Yes Yes
Business insights X Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
LinkedIn Premium Price $29.99/month $59.99/month $99.99/month $149.99/month $170/month $835/month

Now, let’s analyze these LinkedIn premium costs in detail, as well as what kind of features they offer for the price.

LinkedIn Premium Career: $29.99/month – To get hired quickly

A LinkedIn Premium Career account is perfect for you if you’re looking to stand out from the crowd for potential recruiters or if you want to grow your network by connecting with like-minded people. 

As per a recent survey by LinkedIn, job seekers with a LinkedIn Premium Career account get hired 2x faster than the ones that don’t. 

linkedin premium cost

Here’s everything you get with a LinkedIn Premium Career account missing in a free account:

  • Access profile viewers over the last 365 days

linkedin premium price

  • Get unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning and upgrade your skills to stand out
  • Get 5 InMail credits each month and use them to reach recruiters or actively-hiring business owners
  • Get Applicant Insights to understand how you rank from other applicants

The best part? LinkedIn Premium Career is the cheapest of all LinkedIn account types and costs $29.99/month with a month’s free trial. 

LinkedIn Premium Business: $59.99/month – For sales professionals generating leads

LinkedIn Premium Business is ideal for sales professionals and business owners on the hunt to connect with high-quality leads or partners on LinkedIn. 

how much is linkedin premium

Did you know InMail is almost thrice as effective as emails or cold calls? With a LinkedIn Premium Business account, you can send InMails to your dream clients or partners and get instantly noticed. 

Here’s everything you get with a LinkedIn Premium Business account:

  • Everything included in LinkedIn Premium Career
  • 15 InMail credits each month perfect for reaching out to potential clients or partners who you’re not connected with
  • Unlimited browsing to find prospects faster 
  • Key Business insights, such as competitor analysis, industry news, and other company analytics.  

LinkedIn Premium Business costs $59.99/mo which is more affordable than Sales Navigator. However, some businesses may find the number of InMails provided each month limiting.

Regardless, it’s a great investment if you need advanced browsing and business insights which you cannot get with a Premium Career or Basic LinkedIn accounts. 

If you’re into building a personal brand using LinkedIn, we recommend you read 5 steps to becoming an influencer on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core: $99.99/month – Best for sales teams and business owners looking to scale social selling

When it comes to making the optimum use of LinkedIn, there’s no match to the LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

The LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core account is a go-to for sales reps to find leads, connect, and build healthy relations from the get-go.

It also suits startup business owners with a limited budget but need a premium LinkedIn selling experience. 

Here’s everything Sales Navigator Core offers to improve social selling and lead quality:

  • 50 InMail credits each month, which is perfect for sales teams sending outreach messages
  • Advanced filters and a Sales spotlight to churn out your dream clients on LinkedIn 
  • Save lead information to keep track of people and companies you’re reaching out to or targeting 
  • Set up alerts and notifications to get notified on lead activities on LinkedIn. For example, when they change jobs, post an ad, etc.
  • Get lead recommendations delivered each week based on your previous searches

Is this worth the LinkedIn premium pricing?

The only downside to the Core account is it does not offer a functionality to scrape and export your lead lists into a CSV file. 

But with a LinkedIn automation tool like Expandi, you can scrape lead lists and automate outreach in a wink.

So, if you’re constantly doing outreach and lead generation, LinkedIn Sales Navigator price could pay for itself.  

What if you’re looking for something more advanced?

LinkedIn Sales Navigator Advanced: $149.99/month – An upgraded version of Sales Navigator Core for sales teams

The LinkedIn Sales Navigator Advanced, just like its name, is an upgraded version of the Core account as it offers additional sales functionalities for teams and business owners. 

A LinkedIn Sales Navigator Advanced account gets you:

  • Everything under LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core except Job seeker and LinkedIn Learning subscriptions
  • LinkedIn Teamlink that detects warm introduction opportunities with prospects on LinkedIn, for example, it identifies prospects who are first-degree connections of your teammates 
  • Smartlinks for an advanced outreach experience that helps track prospect interactions with its auto-generated sales presentations 
  • Advanced reporting to access valuable sales insights

One major cons of this LinkedIn premium account is the lack of CRM integration for the price point.

You could try the LinkedIn Sales Navigator Advanced account if your goal is to increase collaboration and step up your outreach processes, considering you do not require a CRM sync.

Read more: How to manage multiple LinkedIn accounts for outreach

While this LinkedIn Premium price is $149.99/mo, it still offers plenty of features to supercharge your lead generation and outreach. While this LinkedIn premium pricing might seem expensive at first, as long as you land just 1 client per month with this account type, it’ll be paying for itself.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator Advanced Plus: Custom pricing – Suitable for larger enterprises

LinkedIn Sales Navigator Advanced Plus is the ultimate social selling tool LinkedIn offers with enterprise sales teams in mind. 

linkedin pricing plans

For example, if your company uses a CRM and needs data synced to enable social selling and collaboration on LinkedIn, choose the Advanced version over Core or Plus.

With Advanced Plus, you get:

  • Everything from Sales Navigator Advanced 
  • CRM sync to auto-save LinkedIn activities and search for leads already present in your CRM
  • Advanced CRM integrations for Salesforce Data Validation and Contact Creation and Microsoft Dynamics

For this account type, there is no LinkedIn premium pricing mentioned. Instead, you’ll have to contact the LinkedIn sales team and see if it’s a right fit for your business.

If LinkedIn is your ultimate sales channel, then investing in a custom-made Sales Navigator account for your business may be the best decision you could make, regardless of how much does LinkedIn Premium cost. 

LinkedIn Recruiter Lite: $170/month – For individuals with small to mid-scale hiring efforts

LinkedIn Recruiter Lite suits recruiting teams, HR professionals, and business owners hiring at a smaller scale and that are comfortable with minimal LinkedIn Recruiter features, such as:

  • 30 InMails per user each month for a maximum of 10 users
  • 20+ advanced search filters to drill drown the perfect candidates to reduce hiring time
  • Unlimited browsing up to third-degree connections and LinkedIn Learning
  • A multi-user dashboard for team collaboration and boost shared hiring 
  • InMail and Job analytics reports
  • View who visited your profile over the last 90 days
  • Save candidate searches and set up alerts for their LinkedIn activities up to 10 daily or weekly

linkedin premium plans

This LinkedIn premium pricing starts at $170/mo or $1,680/year for a single license. One drawback of this pricing model, however, is that this account type doesn’t come with Applicant Tracking System (ATS) integration, which many recruiting teams use to speed up hiring.

LinkedIn Recruiter: $835/month – For staffing firms and corporate companies’ hiring at a large scale

LinkedIn Recruiter premium accounts are of two types Recruiter Professional Services and Recruiter Corporate.

linkedin premium cost

Since this LinkedIn premium pricing starts at $835/mo, it’s ideal more for big recruiting firms and staffing teams. It also saves time as it promotes collaboration and cuts down hiring time with options like message sharing, multi-user dashboard for collaboration, and note-taking. 

Here are the LinkedIn Recruiter plans’ features that are missing in Recruiter Lite:

  • Recruiter Professional Services allows up to 100 InMails a month, while Recruiter Corporate allows 150 InMails
  • Lite’s candidate search alerts are limited up to 10, while the Recruiter allows 50 alerts daily or weekly
  • You can bulk send up to 25 messages at once
  • Recruiter data is solely owned by you and not LinkedIn
  • ATS integration with 28+ tools

This LinkedIn premium pricing type is custom. Meaning, LinkedIn doesn’t explicitly mention  its costs. However, online reports and research suggests that LinkedIn Recruiter pricing starts at $835/mo, making it suitable for corporations and enterprise teams with larger budgets.

LinkedIn Learning: $19.99/month or free with some Premium accounts – To develop individual and team skills

LinkedIn Learning offers a pool of high-value 21,000+ courses curated and taught by industry professionals. It focuses on interactive, hands-on learning and is worth the investment if you’re looking to upgrade your teams’ or your skills. 

The platform’s courses are spread across fields like creative, business, technology, and design. 

linkedin premium price

Finally, this LinkedIn premium cost starts from $19.99/mo and offers a free 7-day trial.

With this LinkedIn premium account type, the platform offers a completion certificate post-course that you can add to your LinkedIn profile.

Which LinkedIn Premium Account Type Is Right For Me?

Now, to recap, wondering how much is LinkedIn premium and which account type is right for you?

First, the answer to your question about the LinkedIn premium pricing is that it depends on the specific account type.

In total, there are nine different LinkedIn premium types, each with different features, use cases, and pricing plans.

And as you’ve noticed, picking the right LinkedIn account type depends on your goals and needs.

If lead generation is your goal, try a Sales Navigator plan that fits your budget. But what about other goals? The only way is to compare each plan and re-visit our in-depth comparison.

In other news, there’s one goal that’s common for recruiters as well as sales teams. That’s generating LinkedIn leads on auto-pilot with less effort and time. 

That’s what Expandi is for!

With Expandi, you can set up smart outreach sequences based on several conditions and actions. Doing so helps you target an audience using the LinkedIn Sales Navigator or other LinkedIn pricing plans (including the free version) and use Expandi to book meetings automatically. 

Want to learn more?

Get a free, 7-day trial or book a demo to talk to an expert on how to make the most of LinkedIn.

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