LinkedIn is one of the most popular professional networking platforms, with over 800 million members worldwide. Many people use LinkedIn to connect with professionals in their industry, recruiters, potential clients, and more. One common way to grow your LinkedIn network is by sending connection requests to new contacts.
But what happens if the person you sent the request to doesn’t accept or deny it right away? Do LinkedIn connection requests that you’ve sent expire after a certain period of time?
The short answer
No, sent LinkedIn requests do not expire. There is no time limit on connection requests you’ve sent out – they will remain pending until the recipient either accepts or rejects them. Even if a connection request sits unanswered for weeks, months, or even years, it will not expire or disappear from the recipient’s inbox unless they choose to delete it.
Looking at the numbers
To illustrate this further, let’s look at some example numbers:
- You have 500 LinkedIn connections currently
- Over the past month, you’ve sent out connection requests to 100 new people
- So far, 60 of those 100 requests have been accepted, adding 60 new connections
- 30 requests are still pending, with no response from the recipient yet
- 10 requests were rejected or deleted by the recipient
In this scenario, the 30 pending requests you’ve sent out do not have an expiration date. They will continue to sit in those recipients’ inboxes indefinitely, until a response is made. Even if it takes months or years for the recipient to accept or reject the requests, they will not disappear. Your “sent” connection requests do not expire.
Why sent requests don’t expire
There are a few reasons why LinkedIn does not set expiration dates on sent connection requests:
- Reciprocation – If connection requests expired, recipients would no longer be able to easily reciprocate connection attempts. Many people like to wait to accept invites until they’re ready to connect back.
- Reminders – Keeping pending requests in the inbox serves as a reminder for recipients to either accept or reject the request when they’re ready to take action.
- Sender intent – Removing expired requests would go against the sender’s original intent of connecting. Keeping them pending preserves that intent.
- No urgency – There’s no reason to force urgency on accepting/rejecting connections. Leaving requests open-ended allows people to respond on their own time.
Essentially, LinkedIn wants to keep all connection attempts visible until the recipient makes a decision on them. That’s why there’s no expiration date for sent invitations to connect.
The recipient’s options
While sent LinkedIn requests won’t disappear on their own, the recipient does have a few options when it comes to managing them:
- Accept – They can accept the request to connect. This will add the sender to the recipient’s connections list.
- Reject or delete – The recipient can reject the request or delete it from their inbox. This removes the pending request.
- Ignore – Recipients can also simply ignore the request, leaving it in their inbox indefinitely.
- Mark as spam – LinkedIn members have the option to mark unwanted connection requests as spam. Too many spam markings against one sender could result in restrictions.
So while sent LinkedIn requests won’t expire on their own, recipients can actively accept, reject, delete, or mark them as spam to manage their inbox. The request will remain pending otherwise.
Limits on sent connection requests
While sent LinkedIn requests may not expire, there are some limits in terms of how many pending requests you can have at one time:
- LinkedIn Free users can have up to 100 pending connection requests at a time
- LinkedIn Premium users can have up to 500 pending connection requests
These limits encourage senders to follow up and continue to build relationships with new connections, rather than endlessly sending requests. However, as long as you stay under the limit, your requests will never expire.
Following up on pending requests
Since sent LinkedIn requests do not expire, it’s a good idea to follow up if you haven’t received a response after a certain period of time. Here are some tips for following up on your pending requests:
- Follow up after 2-3 weeks if no response
- Send a friendly personalized message referencing your original request
- Check the recipient’s LinkedIn activity – if inactive they may not have seen your request yet
- Consider connecting in real life at an event, meeting, etc. to prompt a response
- Ask for a referral introduction through someone in common if possible
Essentially, treat your pending requests like you would any other non-responsive outreach attempt. A little friendly persistence and some personalized touches can often get a positive response!
Auto-reminder emails from LinkedIn
In addition to your own follow up, LinkedIn also provides an auto-reminder system to nudge connections to respond to your request. Here’s how it works:
- If your connection request has been pending for over a week, LinkedIn will send an email reminder to the recipient.
- If there is still no response after another 2 weeks, a second reminder email will be sent.
- After 35 days total, a third and final email reminder goes out.
- If still no response, no further reminders are sent – but your request remains pending.
So about once a month, LinkedIn will automatically remind recipients to respond to your outstanding requests. This helps keep you top of mind even without direct follow up.
Revoking sent requests
While sent LinkedIn requests won’t expire, you do have the option to revoke them anytime. Here’s how:
- Go to your LinkedIn homepage and click “My Network”
- Select “Manage invitations” under the Manage tab
- You’ll see a list of your pending invitations – locate the one you want to revoke
- Click “Revoke invitation” to withdraw your connection request
The recipient will no longer see your revoked request in their inbox. You can always send a new connection request in the future if you change your mind.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that LinkedIn connection requests have no expiration date – once sent, they will remain pending indefinitely unless the recipient responds or you revoke it. While too many unanswered requests can be annoying for recipients, LinkedIn’s system preserves senders’ intent and keeps doors open for future relationship-building.
With polite persistence, regular follow up, and LinkedIn’s auto-reminders, you can eventually turn those pending requests into valuable connections. The key is not depending on an expiration date that doesn’t exist!
