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LinkedIn limits for recruiters: invitations and InMail

Updated

Most passive candidates can be reached on LinkedIn, and LinkedIn makes the rules. These are the limits on invitations, notes and InMail as LinkedIn's own help pages describe them, what gets an account restricted, and how to keep yours safe. Where LinkedIn doesn't publish a number, we say so.

Invitations: a weekly limit with no number

LinkedIn limits how many invitations you can send, but doesn't say how many. Around 100 a week is the figure automation vendors repeat, PhantomBuster in July 2026 for one, but it's theirs, not LinkedIn's.

Hit the limit and your account can be blocked from sending invitations, usually for a week. According to LinkedIn, withdrawing pending invitations won't lift the block, you can't buy more, and LinkedIn can't shorten the wait.

Three more rules worth knowing:

  • Pending invitations count against you. If many of your invitations are ignored, left pending or marked as spam, you can be restricted. If it's for too many outstanding invitations, the wait can be up to a month.
  • Invitations expire after six months.
  • Withdraw an invitation and you can't invite that person again for up to three weeks.

The note: 200 characters, and three a month on a free account

LinkedIn's help page "Personalize invitations to connect" says a free account can add a personal message to up to three invitations a month, and that each message can be up to 200 characters. Premium members can add one to every invitation, though the limit on how many invitations you send still applies. LinkedIn counts Sales Navigator and Recruiter Lite as Premium subscriptions.

Older help pages say five notes a month and 300 characters. Go by the newest one: three, and 200.

Two hundred characters is two short sentences. Enough to say who you are and why you're writing, not enough to describe a role.

InMail

InMail is how you message people you aren't connected to. A free account can only message its connections, and can't send InMail at all.

SubscriptionInMail credits a month
Premium Career5
Premium Business15
Sales Navigator Core50
Recruiter Lite30
Recruiter150 per seat
  • You get the credit back if the recipient accepts, declines or replies within 90 days. A message left unanswered earns nothing back.
  • One at a time. You can't send another InMail to the same person until they've responded to the first.
  • Length. In Recruiter and Recruiter Lite, the subject line can be up to 200 characters and the message up to 1,900.
  • Credits expire. On Premium they expire after 90 days. Recruiter rolls unused credits over up to four times the monthly allowance, and Recruiter Lite caps your balance at 120.
  • Recruiter also has a daily cap: up to 1,000 InMails per seat, but 200 in the first week.
  • Open profiles cost no credit. Premium members can choose an open profile that anyone on LinkedIn can message for free. In Recruiter, messages to open profiles use no credits, but they're capped at 350 a month per seat. If a candidate has an open profile, you can write to them directly without spending an invitation or a credit.

What gets an account restricted

LinkedIn's help names these in particular:

  • lots of invitations in a short time;
  • lots of invitations ignored, left pending or marked as spam;
  • lots of "I don't know this person" responses;
  • an unusually large number of profile views;
  • suspected automation.

That last one matters. LinkedIn doesn't permit third-party software, including bots, browser extensions and plug-ins, that scrapes, changes the look of, or automates activity on LinkedIn. Its User Agreement forbids bots and other unauthorised automated methods to add contacts or send messages. Automated inauthentic activity can get an account restricted, temporarily or for good.

That includes tools that send invitations and messages for you, Navigent among them. They send from your own account, and the risk to that account is yours. So a tool should start low and stay well clear of the limits.

How to keep your account safe

  1. Send fewer, better invitations. Only to people you have a real reason to contact. A high acceptance rate is your best protection.
  2. Watch the ones that don't answer. Ignored invitations and "I don't know this person" are exactly what LinkedIn reacts to.
  3. Clear out old invitations, remembering you can't re-invite the same person for up to three weeks.
  4. Spread your activity out. Weekdays in working hours, not a hundred invitations on a Sunday night.
  5. Make your profile clear. Name, photo, and a headline that says what you recruit for. It's what the recipient uses to decide whether they know you.
  6. Skip extensions that scrape profiles or click for you.
  7. Stop at a no, and put the person on your do-not-contact list.

How Navigent does it

Navigent's campaigns start at 15 invitations a week per account. After two full weeks above 30% acceptance the limit rises by 10, below 20% it drops by 10, and it never rises more than once a week or above 80. Messages to connections start at 30 a day and stop at 60. Sending happens only on weekdays between 08:00 and 16:00 in the sender's time zone, from one account per campaign, and a reply stops the sequence.

A free LinkedIn account can run the whole sequence as long as the note is off, which it is by default. A paid account is recommended, not required. If a campaign turns the note on, it can be 200 characters at most, and on a free account, once the three notes are used, invitations wait for the next month rather than going out without the note you chose.

See how a campaign is put together on How it works.

Sources

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