Can you get more than 50 InMails?

InMails are a valuable resource on LinkedIn that allow you to directly contact other members, even if you’re not connected. With a free LinkedIn account, you only get a limited number of InMails per month – usually around 5-10. But LinkedIn Premium accounts offer up to 50 InMails per month. This leads many LinkedIn users to wonder – is it possible to get more than 50 InMails in a month?

What are InMails?

InMails allow you to directly contact LinkedIn members outside of your network. With a free LinkedIn account, you can only message people who are in your 1st degree network (you’re directly connected). InMails remove this limitation, letting you reach 2nd and 3rd degree connections, or even members you have no existing connection with.

Some key facts about InMails:

• Allows you to directly contact any LinkedIn member via private message
• Free accounts get 5-10 per month, Premium gets up to 50
• Recipients can reply directly back to your InMail
• Higher response rates than cold outreach emails
• Appear directly in recipient’s LinkedIn inbox

InMails are commonly used for sales prospecting, recruiting new employees, networking, and making professional introductions. They provide a way to cut through the noise and directly engage your target audience on LinkedIn.

InMail Limits for Each Account Type

LinkedIn places monthly limits on how many InMails you can send based on your account type:

As you can see, the maximum number of InMails per month available is 50, which comes with the Premium Business and Premium Sales accounts.

So out of the box, 50 InMails is the limit. Next, let’s look at whether there are any ways to increase this limit.

Purchasing Additional InMails

LinkedIn does provide an option for Premium account holders to purchase additional InMails in packs of 10, 25, or 50. This suggests that it is possible to get more than 50 InMails in a month by purchasing extra.

However, there are a couple caveats:

• Additional InMails expire after one year – they cannot be perpetually stacked up.
• There appears to be a limit of 100 purchased InMails on top of your base 50. So the max seems to be 150 in a given month.
• Unused purchased InMails do not roll over month to month. You lose any you don’t use within the year.

So in summary, purchasing extra InMails enables you to go over 50 in a month, up to a limit of 150. But any extras you buy will expire after 12 months, so it does not raise your perpetual monthly limit beyond 50. You have to continually repurchase extras each month to consistently go over 50.

Reciprocity Limit

There is one other limit to be aware of with InMails, although it likely impacts fewer users. LinkedIn enforces a reciprocity limit that states you can’t send more InMails in a month than you can receive.

For example, let’s say you’re on the Premium Business plan with 50 InMails. If you have your profile set to only receive 30 InMails per month, then your send limit would also be capped at 30.

This impacts paid account holders who have intentionally set very low InMail receipt limits, such as recruiters trying to avoid spam. For most users, it’s unlikely you would hit this reciprocity limit. But it’s useful to know it exists.

InMail Limits for Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is LinkedIn’s premium sales tool designed for prospecting and connecting with leads. It includes additional InMails per month beyond the base Premium account limits.

Here are the InMail allowances with Sales Navigator accounts:

So with Sales Navigator, you can reach up to 150 InMails per month. And as before, you can purchase additional InMail packs on top of that, up to a limit of around 300 total.

Sales Navigator essentially removes the reciprocity limit, since the InMail allowances are so high. But the expiry and monthly rolling limits still apply.

InMail Limits for Recruiters

For recruiters and talent acquisition professionals, LinkedIn offers Talent Recruiter accounts with expanded InMail capabilities tailored for prospecting and outreach.

These are the standard InMail limits based on the Recruiter account type:

As you can see, recruiters can send hundreds or even thousands of InMails per month depending on the plan. Most recruiters would purchase extra packs on top of these base limits too.

So for recruiters and talent professionals, it’s very possible to send thousands of InMails per month. The reciprocity limit rarely comes into play at such high volumes.

Use Cases for High InMail Volumes

While most LinkedIn members will never approach the 50 InMail per month limit, there are some specific use cases where high InMail volumes are valuable:

• Recruiters – For sourcing and contacting candidates at scale.
• Sales Prospecting – For high volume outreach to leads.
• Staffing Agencies – Contacting candidates for multiple open positions.
• Marketing Agencies – Promoting content or offerings to targeted lists.
• Researchers & Analysts – Connecting with sources for interviews/quotes.

High InMail accounts generally provide the best value for teams doing broad outreach campaigns vs individuals doing selective outreach. Bulk InMails at scale provides efficiency.

But it’s also worth remembering that quality trumps quantity. Thoughtful, personalized InMails often see better response rates than spray-and-pray campaigns.

Best Practices for Managing High Volumes of InMails

If you do end up with hundreds or thousands of InMails to work with each month, here are some tips to use them effectively:

• Segment your lists into targeted groups for more personalization.
• Craft unique value propositions tailored to each segment.
• Track open and response rates to refine your outreach.
• Consider mixing in some 1st degree connections where possible.
• Follow up any strong leads who don’t initially respond.
• Set limits on your team’s usage to avoid waste.
• Analyze your ideal customer/candidate profile.
• Test different subject lines and messaging.
• Leverage insights from Sales Navigator where applicable.

With high InMail volumes, you have more license to experiment and optimize your approach. But it still pays to use them strategically vs just blasting everyone possible.

Limits on Recipient Side

One final consideration is that recipients of InMails can set their own limits on volumes received. So even if you have thousands to send, a recipient may cap how many they opt to receive.

Some options recipients have to manage InMail volume:

• Limiting InMails to 1st degree connections only.
• Restricting InMails to their Member Picks list.
• Setting a max number per month (usually 100 or 500).
• Opting out of InMails entirely except from connections.

So your ability to actually reach someone can still be limited, regardless of how many InMails you have available. You may be better off mixing in some 1st degree outreach for known warm prospects.

But for cold outreach at scale, InMails are still your best option on LinkedIn due to the direct access they provide.

Conclusion

To recap, here are some key takeaways on InMail limits:

• The base limit for personal accounts is 50 InMails per month.
• You can purchase additional packs to go over 50, up to around 150 max.
• Sales Navigator accounts can reach 150 base, and up to around 300 with extras.
• Recruiter accounts often get 1,000+ base InMails and routinely send thousands.
• Recipients can limit how many InMails they receive from non-connections.
• For sales & recruiting, high InMail accounts enable broad outreach.
• But personalized InMails see the best response rates.

While 50 per month is the standard limit, with the right premium account and additional purchases, it is possible to send hundreds or even thousands of InMails. This enables high volume outreach campaigns, but should still be paired with segmentation, testing, and personalization for best results.