What are LinkedIn's message limits?
LinkedIn states a handful of message limits, and none of the help pages we checked gives a daily cap on messaging your own connections. Its page on messaging connections (shown as updated 4 weeks ago when we checked on 4 November 2026) says you can only message your connections, and that people you aren't connected to need a message request or an InMail. It gives no number. These are the messaging numbers we found on LinkedIn's help pages:
| Limit | What LinkedIn says | Help page |
|---|---|---|
| Messages to 1st-degree connections | No number given | Send messages to connections |
| InMail credits a month | Premium Career 5, Premium Business 15, Premium All-in-One 30, Sales Navigator 50, Recruiter Lite 30 | InMail FAQ, credits page |
| Most InMail credits you can hold | Career 15, Business 45, All-in-One 90, Sales Navigator 150, Recruiter Lite 120 | Same two pages |
| InMail length | 200 characters in the optional subject, 2,000 in the body | Send an InMail |
| Open Profile messages | Limited in a given time period; basic accounts get a limited number each month. No figure | Open Profile settings |
| New message requests from group admins to unconnected group members | 50 a day | General limits for groups |
| People in one group chat | Up to 50 | Create a group chat |
| Pages you can message | Limited every month. No figure | Troubleshoot messaging a Page |
| File attachments | Up to 20 MB in the desktop and iOS steps (the Android steps give no size); none in message requests | Attach files, message requests |
| Voice messages | Up to one minute, from the mobile app | Voice messages |
| Editing or deleting a sent message | Within 60 minutes; a sent InMail can't be deleted | Edit or delete a message |
Some of these pages are old: the group chat and message request pages were shown as last updated two years ago, so read each figure as LinkedIn's most recent written position. The voice limit has its own how-to in our guide to sending a LinkedIn voice message.
How many messages can you send to connections per day?
LinkedIn gives no number for this on any help page we checked, so the daily figures you find elsewhere are estimates. What LinkedIn does say is about the kind of message:
- Its Professional Community Policies ban spam, which they describe as including untargeted, irrelevant, obviously unwanted and "gratuitously repetitive messages".
- The group chat page says group chats are for conversations with your connections and not for mass messaging.
- The message request page says LinkedIn may limit your ability to send messages to members you are not connected to.
Companies that sell LinkedIn tools publish their own figures, and they don't agree. The last column is our arithmetic for five sending days a week (PhantomBuster's figures are already weekly):
| Source (date) | What it says about messages to connections | Per five-day week |
|---|---|---|
| Overloop guide (8 Jul 2026) | First message to a new connection: 10 to 30 a day. Message to an existing connection: 10 to 20 a day. Labelled widely reported, not officially published | 50 to 150; 50 to 100 |
| PhantomBuster (updated 28 Jul 2026) | About 100 a week on free accounts and about 150 on Premium, from its customer data and public reports from September and October 2025 | 100; 150 |
| lemlist help (updated 29 Oct 2026) | Its recommended maximum inside lemlist: 30 messages a day to 1st-degree connections, voice messages included | 150 |
| Salesflow help (updated 12 May 2026) | No strict cap; recommends keeping below 100 to 150 a day | 500 to 750 |
The lowest weekly figure is 50 and the highest is 750, so the top estimate is 15 times the bottom one. Numbers that far apart are estimates of a figure LinkedIn's help pages don't give (checked 4 November 2026), so plan around the low end and treat none of them as permission. lemlist's and Salesflow's figures are settings for their own automation tools, and LinkedIn's automated activity page says it doesn't allow third-party software or browser extensions that automate activity on its website. Our guide to what LinkedIn allows and what gets accounts restricted covers that risk.
How many people outside your network can you message?
Only a few a day by InMail, plus whatever the smaller routes allow. On a free account you can't send InMail at all: LinkedIn's InMail page says basic members can only message their connections directly and must upgrade to Premium. Each route to a non-connection has its own rule:
| Route | Who can use it | Limit LinkedIn states |
|---|---|---|
| InMail | Premium, Sales Navigator and Recruiter subscribers | Monthly credits (table above). On Premium you can't send a second InMail to someone until they respond; on Sales Navigator a second one uses another credit |
| Open Profile message | Any member, to Premium members who have Open Profile turned on | Limited in a given time period. No figure |
| Group message request | Members of the same group | Group admins: 50 new requests a day. No figure for other members, and members other than a group's owners and managers can turn off messages from it |
| Coworker message request | People at the same company | No figure |
| Event attendees | The event organiser, one attendee at a time | No group messages to two or more attendees; attendees can only message attendees they are connected to |
| Page message | Any member, to a Page with messaging turned on | A limited number of Pages a month. Page admins can only message members who wrote to the Page first |
A worked example shows how small the paid route is. Sales Navigator's 50 credits spread over a month of about 20 working days is 2.5 InMails a day. Premium Business's 15 is 0.75 a day, fewer than one. LinkedIn says you can't buy extra credits, but it credits back an InMail that gets a response within 90 days. Our guide to InMail credits, cost and refund rules covers how that stretches the allowance.
Why does LinkedIn say you've reached a message limit?
LinkedIn's help pages and support replies point to one of the capped routes running out, and the error doesn't always name which one: in the threads below, an Open Profile message was refused as an InMail limit, and a support reply about Pages talked about InMail. We read four r/linkedin threads, from May 2024 to January 2026, about hitting limits on Open Profile and Page messages. All were small, with nine or fewer comments each, so treat this as what those posters report:
- In a January 2026 thread, a Sales Navigator user says LinkedIn told them they had reached their InMail limit for the month while sending only a few Open Profile messages, three months in a row.
- A May 2025 poster says Open Profile messages stopped working after fewer than 10 in a single day.
- A May 2024 poster says you could once send 300 to 400 Open Profile messages a week before a profile got flagged, that this then dropped to 100 a month, and that for a few days before posting they could send more than that.
- In an October 2025 thread about Pages, the poster says they hit the error "You have reached the limit for starting new conversations with Pages. Try again later." after sending only two messages to Pages in over a month. A commenter pasted a support reply saying LinkedIn limits InMail, including Open Profile messages, within a period, and that sending resumes at the start of the next month, midnight UTC.
Allowances reported in these threads run from under 10 in a day to about 100 a month, with one 2024 poster recalling 300 to 400 a week in the past, which fits LinkedIn's own wording: limited, with no figure. Salesflow's help page estimates 50 to 100 Open Profile messages a month for most accounts. Match what you see to its cause:
| What you see | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| An error about starting new conversations with Pages | The monthly Page limit, per LinkedIn's Page troubleshooting page | Wait for the new month, or reach a named person at the company |
| An Open Profile message asks for InMail credits | The Open Profile allowance is used up | Wait, and keep Open Profile messages for your best prospects |
| No way to message a non-connection | No InMail credits, or the person has turned InMail off | Check your credits on the My Premium page, or connect instead |
| A message about invitations | The invitation limit: LinkedIn's invitation limit page says reaching it may restrict sending invitations, typically for one week | Wait it out (the page says LinkedIn can't shorten it), then pace connection requests (see the next section) |
| A file won't attach to a first message | Message requests can't carry attachments | Send the file after they accept |
| A message to a connection won't send | Possibly your browser, an extension or a VPN | LinkedIn's troubleshooting page suggests another browser or a private window, disabling extensions, clearing cache and cookies, and turning off a VPN |
How many messages does a normal outreach week need?
Far fewer than any vendor ceiling, if your invitations are paced. This worked example uses the 50 to 75 requests a week that our connection request limit guide suggests, and the 28.5% average acceptance rate in Expandi's 2026 benchmarks (its own platform data: about 13.2 million requests sent through its tool from May 2025 to April 2026). Your acceptance rate will differ.
| Step | 50 requests a week | 75 requests a week |
|---|---|---|
| Accepted at 28.5% | 50 x 0.285 = 14.25, so about 14 | 75 x 0.285 = 21.4, so about 21 |
| First message to each | 14 | 21 |
| One follow-up to each who doesn't reply | Up to 14 | Up to 21 |
| Messages a week, at most | 28 | 42 |
| Per working day (divide by 5) | 5.6 | 8.4 |
That is about 6 to 8 messages a working day before replies in live conversations, under the lowest daily figure in the vendor table. In this example the invitation budget sets the pace. Three things to do this week:
- Write down how many first messages and follow-ups you sent last week, so you know your real pace before you change it.
- Keep InMail and Open Profile messages for the people who matter most, and budget them against your plan: 15 InMail credits a month on Premium Business, 50 on Sales Navigator. You can't buy more InMail credits, and Open Profile has no stated allowance.
- Send one follow-up, then stop. The worked example assumes one, and LinkedIn's spam policy bans gratuitously repetitive messages without defining a number, so fewer repeats is the side to err on.
If a tool sends for you, check what its limit counts. Siela's Lead Finder uses its own ceilings, which LinkedIn hasn't approved: up to 50 people a day on LinkedIn, with at most 100 invitations a week and 12 an hour, and a second AI checks each LinkedIn message before it is sent (how the AI SDR works).
Frequently asked questions
Is there a daily message limit on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn's help pages, checked on 4 November 2026, give no daily or weekly figure for messages to 1st-degree connections. Vendor estimates run from 10 to 20 a day (Overloop) to below 100 to 150 a day (Salesflow). LinkedIn's community policies ban untargeted, obviously unwanted and gratuitously repetitive messages, so who you write to matters more than the count.
How many InMails can you send per month on LinkedIn?
It depends on the plan: 5 credits a month on Premium Career, 15 on Premium Business, 30 on Premium All-in-One, 50 on every Sales Navigator plan and 30 on Recruiter Lite. LinkedIn says extra credits can't be bought, and an InMail that gets a response within 90 days earns its credit back.
Does LinkedIn Premium increase the message limit?
Premium adds InMail credits, which let you write to people outside your network. None of LinkedIn's help pages we checked describes a higher allowance for messages to existing connections on a paid plan. PhantomBuster, a tool vendor, estimates about 150 messages a week on Premium against about 100 on free, from its own customer data.
How many Open Profile messages can you send on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn only says it limits Open Profile messages in a given time period and that basic accounts can send a limited number each month. Posters in small r/linkedin threads report allowances from fewer than 10 in a day to about 100 a month (one 2024 poster recalled 300 to 400 a week in the past), and Salesflow estimates 50 to 100 a month for most accounts.
When does the LinkedIn message limit reset?
It depends on the limit. Premium InMail credits arrive on the first day of your billing cycle, and Sales Navigator credits on the first day of each month in UTC. The Page messaging limit is monthly. For Open Profile, one r/linkedin commenter posted a support reply saying sending resumes at the start of the next month, midnight UTC.
Can a free LinkedIn account message people outside its network?
Not by InMail, which needs a paid plan. A free account can message Premium members who have Open Profile turned on, within a monthly allowance, send message requests to coworkers or members of a shared group, write to a company's Page, or send a connection request and message the person once they accept.
Sources
- LinkedIn Help: Send messages to connections on LinkedIn Messaging (shown as updated 4 weeks ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: InMail Messages FAQ (shown as updated 2 months ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: InMail message credits and renewal process (shown as updated 3 months ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Send an InMail Message (shown as updated 7 months ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: InMail Messages (shown as updated 4 weeks ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Understand InMail credits in Sales Navigator (shown as updated 11 months ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Manage your Open Profile settings as a Premium subscriber (shown as updated 1 year ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Send an Open Profile message on LinkedIn (shown as updated 1 year ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: General limits for LinkedIn groups (shown as updated 1 year ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Settings to allow or prevent messages from group members (shown as updated 3 years ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Create a group chat on LinkedIn Messaging (shown as updated 2 years ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Privately message Event attendees (shown as updated 9 months ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Troubleshoot messaging a LinkedIn Page (shown as updated 2 years ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Messages for LinkedIn Pages (shown as updated 3 months ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Attach files to messages on LinkedIn Messaging (shown as updated 3 months ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Send, receive, and manage message requests (shown as updated 2 years ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Send voice messages in LinkedIn Messaging (shown as updated 1 year ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Edit or delete a sent message within a conversation (shown as updated 1 year ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Troubleshoot message sending issues on LinkedIn (shown as updated 2 years ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Automated activity on LinkedIn (shown as updated 1 month ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Professional Community Policies (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Overloop: LinkedIn limits (published 8 Jul 2026) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- PhantomBuster: LinkedIn Message Limits in 2026 (published 14 Oct 2025, updated 28 Jul 2026) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- lemlist Help: Set account limits (updated 29 Oct 2026) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Salesflow Help: LinkedIn outreach limits (updated 12 May 2026) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Expandi: LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks 2026 (published 19 May 2026) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- r/linkedin thread: reached the limit of InMail sends (January 2026) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- r/linkedin thread: Restrictions on open profile inmail? (May 2025) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- r/linkedin thread: LinkedIn Open Profile Messages (May 2024) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- r/linkedin thread: Company Page Message limit? (October 2025) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Invitation limit reached (shown as updated 1 year ago) (checked 4 Nov 2026)