Professional network · Pricing guide
Most people should stay on free LinkedIn. Pay for Premium Career only during an active search that needs InMail, and only on monthly billing: two months cost $80, while the annual plan costs $239.88 up front. [1] [13]
Add Omnitwine as a preferred source on Google| Plan | Per month (monthly) | Per month (annual) | What you get | Is it worth it? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn Premium Career | $39.99 | $239.88 upfront, $19.99 a month equivalent | 5 InMails a month and who viewed your profile | Only during an active search, and only if there are people you need to reach who aren't in your network. A search rarely lasts a year: two months on monthly billing costs $80, a third of the $239.88 annual plan.[1] |
| LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core | $119.99 | $89.99 a month equivalent ($1,079.88 a year) | 50 InMails a month, lead search and lists | For salespeople whose pipeline lives on LinkedIn. At about $2.40 per InMail on monthly billing it's the cheapest way to send them, and pointless if you don't do cold outreach.[2] |
| Happenstance Pro | iPhone app $29.99 a month | $288 upfront, $24 a month equivalent, billed yearly on the web | Searches your own contacts, email and LinkedIn to find warm introductions | Worth it if your network is large and you want a mutual contact to introduce you. It can only find people you're already a step away from.[3] [4] |
| Omnitwine | Free | Free | AI matches with members for jobs, gigs, investment and hires, each with a reason; a member directory for signed-in members, listing every member's name, email and LinkedIn | Nothing to pay, and it takes no cut. Tell its AI what you're looking for (a job), and it connects you with the members on the other side who fit, beyond your existing network. Both of you decide whether to connect. How useful it is depends on who has joined in your field.[5] [16] [17] |
For most people, yes. Free LinkedIn does the things that actually lead to jobs and work: a profile recruiters can find, applying to jobs, connecting with people, and messaging anyone you're connected to. Premium doesn't change your profile's quality or your experience, which is what recruiters judge you on. Where free genuinely falls short is cold outreach: you can't message people outside your network (that's what InMail is for), and you see only part of who's looked at your profile. [1]
For hiring, free works for small needs. You can keep one job post open at a time; it stays active for 14 days and typically gets 10 to 30 applicants before LinkedIn pauses it unless you pay to promote it. For a single local role that's often enough; for anything competitive, it isn't. [10]
Premium sells access more than results. Its headline features, InMail and seeing who viewed your profile, help only if your plan depends on reaching people who don't already know you. [1]
The annual plans look like a bargain (Premium Career is half price if you pay for a year upfront), but most people use Premium for a job search or a hiring push that lasts weeks, not a year. Pay monthly, cancel when you're done, and switch to annual only if you know you'll use it all year. [1]
Company pages are free, and a single job post is free but limited. Beyond that, LinkedIn charges for promoted posts by the view, with billing run against a daily budget you set, and Recruiter seats are sold through LinkedIn's sales team with no public price. For occasional hiring, set a total budget on each promoted post before you start, because billing runs every 30 days from the first post. [12] [10] [9] [11]
Bibliography
