What does LinkedIn Premium Career include?
Premium Career is LinkedIn's paid plan for job seekers. LinkedIn's Premium Career page lists 5 InMail credits a month, top applicant jobs, the option to mark an application as a top choice, AI insights on job posts, a 365 day list of who viewed your profile, and access to more than 25,000 LinkedIn Learning courses.
The plan comparison page sets these against a free account. Without Premium you can still search jobs, use Easy Apply where the employer offers it, and message your connections. Premium adds tools for reaching people outside your network and for judging where you stand on a posting.
LinkedIn also sells Premium Business and other plans. This page covers Premium Career, since that is the plan LinkedIn markets to job seekers.
How much does LinkedIn Premium cost?
As checked on November 4, 2026, LinkedIn's Premium Career page listed US$39.99 a month or US$239.88 a year in the US. In Canada it listed C$49.99 a month or C$299.88 a year. The page says prices are estimates that may exclude VAT or GST and promotional discounts, and they are subject to change.
The yearly price works out to US$19.99 a month, or C$24.99 a month in Canada. A job search rarely runs on a fixed schedule, so the monthly plan is the safer choice for most people. You can stop it when you start a new job, and you avoid paying for months you don't use.
Prices vary by region and by offer, so check the page from your own account before you buy.
Which Premium features help a job search?
Three features matter most for job seekers: InMail, applicant insights and the profile viewer list. The rest, such as LinkedIn Learning courses and AI coaching, can help with skills, but they don't get your application in front of a person. Judge the plan on the three that do.
InMail lets you message people you aren't connected to. LinkedIn's InMail FAQ lists 5 credits a month for Premium Career, says credits expire after 90 days, and says you get a credit back if a recipient accepts your InMail. Five messages a month is enough to reach the recruiters for a handful of roles, and too few to reach many.
Applicant insights show how you compare with other applicants. LinkedIn's page on Premium applicant insights says insights appear after a posting has at least three applicants, and your ranking shows only if you're within the top 50%. LinkedIn also says this ranking "is not endorsed by the hiring company."
The profile viewer list shows who looked at your profile over the past 365 days. That can tell you whether recruiters at a company you applied to have looked. It doesn't tell you what they thought, and a viewer may have no link to any job.
What can you do on LinkedIn for free instead?
Most of what a job search needs is free. You can search and apply for jobs, connect with recruiters, and message them once they accept. LinkedIn's page on personalizing invitations says free members can add a note to up to three connection requests a month, each up to 200 characters.
This table lists the Premium Career features from LinkedIn's page, as checked on November 4, 2026, next to a way to get a similar result without paying. The third column is advice.
| Premium Career feature | What LinkedIn's page says you get | What you can do without it |
|---|---|---|
| InMail | 5 credits a month to message people outside your network | Send a connection request, with a note on up to 3 a month |
| Notes on connection requests | A note on every request | Use your 3 free notes on the people who matter most |
| Who viewed your profile | Viewers and trends for the past 365 days | Ask the recruiter whether they have reviewed your application |
| Top applicant jobs and insights | Your rank on a posting, once it has 3 or more applicants | Compare your resume with the posting's requirements yourself |
| LinkedIn Learning | More than 25,000 courses | Use free courses you already have access to |
A free account with a strong profile and a few well placed connection notes covers most of the same ground. The page on how to message a recruiter on LinkedIn has short templates that fit the 200 character limit.
When is LinkedIn Premium worth it?
Premium is worth paying for when you have a short list of target employers and need to reach people there who won't accept a connection request. It is also worth a month if you apply to many roles and want to sort them by where you rank. It helps less if you mainly need a better resume.
Use these questions to decide:
- Do you have at least five specific people you need to reach outside your network? If yes, InMail helps.
- Are you applying to postings with many applicants, where knowing your rank changes what you do? If yes, applicant insights help.
- Is your profile already complete, with a clear headline and skills that match your target jobs? If no, fix that first, for free.
- Can you cancel within the month if it isn't helping? If no, wait.
If your applications aren't getting responses, check the match between your resume and each posting first. The page on why LinkedIn Easy Apply seems not to work covers the screening questions and auto rejections that Premium doesn't change.
What do LinkedIn's Premium statistics mean?
LinkedIn's Premium Career page says subscribers are "2.7x more likely to get hired on average," citing LinkedIn data from January 2022. It also says members who mark a job as a top choice are "2x more likely to receive a message back from a recruiter," citing LinkedIn data from June 2026.
These are LinkedIn's own figures for a product it sells, and the page doesn't explain how they were measured. People who pay for Premium may differ from people who don't, for example by being more active in their search. So read the numbers as a description of subscribers, and avoid treating them as a promise of what Premium will do for you.
How do the Premium free trial and refunds work?
LinkedIn's page on trying Premium for free says trial length "may vary based on region or promotional terms," and you need a valid credit card to start one. The trial turns into a paid plan at the end unless you cancel. If you cancel a free trial, you can't start another for at least 12 months.
Cancelling a trial ends Premium access right away, according to LinkedIn's page on cancelling Premium. For a paid plan, access stays on until the end of the billing cycle. LinkedIn says to cancel at least one day before your next billing date to avoid another charge.
LinkedIn's refund policy says Premium subscriptions "may be refundable within 7 days from the date the subscription is charged without Premium usage." A previous refund may affect eligibility, and purchases made in the iOS app are refunded by Apple. If you used any Premium feature after the charge, don't count on a refund.
Set a calendar reminder two days before the trial ends. That gives you time to decide while the features are still on.
How do you get the most out of one month of Premium?
Treat the month as a sprint with a plan. Before you start the trial, fix your profile, pick 10 target roles and list the person you would message at each company. Then use the month to send InMail, check applicant insights on each posting, and review who viewed your profile.
- Week 1: send InMail to your top five contacts, with one specific question each.
- Week 2: apply to roles where the insights put you in the top half, and tailor each resume.
- Week 3: follow up once with anyone who replied, and prepare for screens.
- Week 4: decide whether another month is worth it, and cancel if not.
Your profile has to hold up when the people you message click through. The LinkedIn profile optimization checklist and the guide to the LinkedIn skills section cover the fixes that cost nothing.
When the messages turn into interviews, the free interview question generator gives you likely questions for the role. The page on questions to ask the interviewer covers the end of the call.