The short answer is no, LinkedIn Premium does not offer unlimited messages. LinkedIn limits the number of messages that can be sent even for Premium subscribers. However, Premium members do get increased messaging allowances compared to free members.
LinkedIn has different tiers of Premium subscriptions – Premium Career, Premium Business, Sales Navigator Professional, Sales Navigator Team, and Recruiter Lite. Each tier offers progressively more messaging capabilities. But none provide unlimited, unthrottled messaging.
Messaging Limits for Free LinkedIn Members
Free LinkedIn members have significant restrictions on how many messages they can send:
- Can only message 1st-degree connections for free
- Limited to sending 30 messages per month to 1st-degree connections
- Cannot send any InMail messages to 2nd and 3rd-degree connections
- Cannot send connection requests with customized messages
These tight restrictions mean free members realistically can only have limited messaging conversations with a small subset of their network. This nudges users towards upgrading to Premium.
Messaging Limits for Premium Career Subscribers
Premium Career is LinkedIn’s basic paid subscription plan. It removes some of the messaging restrictions for free members:
- Can send messages to anyone in your network, not just 1st-degree connections
- 300 messages per month to your network
- 30 InMail credits per month to message people outside your network
- Customized messages with connection requests
Premium Career greatly expands who you can message and how many messages you can send. But there are still hard limits in place. The 300 messages per month cap means you cannot have unlimited conversations.
Messaging Limits for Premium Business, Sales Navigator, and Recruiter
Higher tiers of Premium like Premium Business, Sales Navigator, and Recruiter offer more messaging capabilities:
- 700 messages per month with Premium Business
- 1000 messages per month with Sales Navigator Professional
- 1800 messages per month with Sales Navigator Team
- 1800 messages per month with Recruiter Lite
Again, while these are expanded limits, they are still capped. Heavy messaging users will hit these monthly caps. And InMail credits are still capped at 30-50 per month on these tiers.
Why Unlimited Messaging Is Not Allowed
There are a few reasons why LinkedIn does not offer unlimited messaging, even on premium accounts:
- Prevent spam and abuse – Unlimited messages would allow bad actors to spam users.
- Drive premium subscriptions – Message limits nudge free users to upgrade to access more capabilities.
- Resource constraints – Storing and indexing unlimited messages would require heavy infrastructure.
- Feature parity – Most social networks like Facebook also cap messaging.
While heavy messaging users may want unlimited capabilities, LinkedIn believes capping messages provides the best experience for the majority of users.
What To Do If You Hit Message Limits
If you frequently hit your account’s monthly message limit, here are some options:
- Upgrade to the next Premium tier to get a higher limit.
- Be more selective in who you message to stay under the cap.
- Re-think your messaging strategy to be more focused.
- Wait until the next month when your allowance resets.
- Use InMail credits for critical messages outside your network.
Alternatively, consider messaging users through an alternate channel like email or phone instead.
The Value of Premium for Messaging
While Premium does not provide unlimited LinkedIn messaging, it does offer expanded capabilities vs free accounts. Depending on your messaging needs, upgrading can provide good value:
- Wider reach – Message anyone in your network, not just 1st-degree connections.
- More messages – 10x to 60x more messages per month depending on tier.
- InMail credits – Pay per message to contact anyone, even outside your network.
- Open profile messaging – Visitors can message you even if not 1st-degree connections.
For recruiters and sales professionals who rely heavily on messaging, Premium can be well worth the cost despite the limits.
The Future of Messaging on LinkedIn
It is unlikely LinkedIn will ever offer unlimited messaging for all users. However, here are some potential improvements we could see:
- Higher tiers offered for extremely heavy messaging users.
- Dynamic throttling based on account history instead of fixed limits.
- Higher InMail credit allowances at lower pricing.
- More control over incoming messages for high-volume accounts.
While unlimited messaging is improbable, continued incremental expansions of capabilities benefit both LinkedIn and users.
Key Takeaways
- No LinkedIn plan provides unlimited messaging, but Premium tiers offer expanded limits vs free accounts.
- Messaging is capped to prevent spam abuse and drive premium subscriptions.
- If you frequently hit messaging limits, reconsider your strategy or upgrade plans.
- Premium offers value like wider reach and more messages, but still has defined caps.
- LinkedIn is unlikely to ever offer unlimited messaging to all users.