The LinkedIn Premium Free Trial Is Worth Testing—But Only If You Know What to Look For
LinkedIn Premium costs $39.99 per month, and most professionals won’t know if it’s worth their money until they’ve actually used it. That’s the point of the free trial—and why you should approach it strategically rather than passively clicking through features you’ll forget about immediately.
A LinkedIn Premium free trial typically lasts 30 days and gives you full access to paid features without charging your card upfront. The catch: you need to enter payment information to start it, and you’ll need to actively cancel before day 30 or you’ll be charged. This post breaks down what you actually get, what’s genuinely useful, and what deserves your attention during those 30 days.
What LinkedIn Premium Actually Includes
LinkedIn Premium comes in several tiers (Career, Business, Sales, and Recruiter), but the standard Career tier—the one most professionals use—includes these core features:
- InMail messages: Send direct messages to people outside your network without a connection request. Most plans include 5-15 InMails per month depending on tier.
- Advanced search filters: Narrow LinkedIn’s user database by company, job title, skills, years of experience, and seniority level.
- Salary insights: See estimated salary ranges for specific roles and companies in your location.
- Who viewed your profile: See a list of people who’ve checked you out in the past 90 days (limited to recent viewers on free accounts).
- Profile strength recommendations: Get specific suggestions to improve your profile’s visibility.
- Job application tracking: Monitor which job applications are read by recruiters.
- Learning courses: Access LinkedIn Learning’s video courses on professional skills.
Beyond features, Premium also gives you a “Premium” badge on your profile, which some research suggests increases profile views and recruiter interest—though the effect isn’t dramatic.
Where LinkedIn Premium Delivers Real Value
Not all Premium features are equally useful. Here’s where the money actually matters:
If you’re job hunting: The combination of advanced search filters and job application tracking becomes genuinely useful. You can search for “Product Manager, Series B-C funding, San Francisco Bay Area, artificial intelligence” and see which recruiters have opened your application. This narrows the noise and helps you identify which search terms actually attract hiring managers in your field.
If you’re doing outreach at scale: InMail messages bypass the connection request barrier and get opened at roughly 2-3x the rate of connection request messages. For salespeople, recruiters, or anyone running a prospecting campaign, this moves the needle. Testing InMail against regular connection requests during your trial is worth your time.
If you’re evaluating market rates: Salary insights let you see what your role actually pays in different companies and geographies. A data analyst might learn their role pays $85K-$95K at mid-market companies but $120K-$145K at FAANG companies. This data strengthens your negotiating position in conversations with recruiters.
Learning courses are included, but they’re useful mainly if you actually complete them—which requires discipline most professionals don’t have during a trial period.
How to Structure Your 30-Day Test
Don’t just wander through Premium features randomly. Here’s a focused approach:
Week one: Run three advanced searches that match your actual needs. If you’re hiring, search for candidates matching your ideal profile. If you’re job hunting, search for roles you’d actually apply for. Document how many relevant results you find versus what was available on free LinkedIn search.
Week two: Send 3-5 InMail messages to people you’d legitimately want to connect with—potential customers, hiring managers, or collaborators. Note the response rate and quality of replies. Compare this mentally to how responses to connection requests usually go for you.
Week three: Deep-dive the salary data. Look up your own role and a tier above and below your current position. Check 3-4 companies you’ve worked for or want to work for. Write down what you learn about your market value.
Week four: Run one final search with filters you couldn’t use before. Assess whether Premium makes a genuine difference to how you’d use LinkedIn going forward.
The Cancel Before Forgetting Part
Set a phone reminder for day 27 of your trial to check whether you’re actually going to cancel. This sounds obvious, but LinkedIn Premium’s billing works because most people don’t. If you’re not convinced the features add value to your specific work, cancel immediately. You don’t get a refund for a trial period, but you won’t be charged after cancellation.
If you do find value—say InMail responses boosted your recruiting pipeline or you got a salary bump from using their data in negotiations—then the $39.99 monthly cost becomes a reasonable investment. Just track how much you’re actually using it past month two. Many professionals pay for Premium and then ignore it for months.
A Practical Reality Check
LinkedIn Premium is genuinely useful if you’re actively job hunting, recruiting, or running sales outreach. It’s less useful if you just post occasional thoughts and check your feed. The free trial tells you which camp you’re actually in.
If you’re doing work that puts you in front of many LinkedIn users and you need better filtering or outreach tools, the trial is worth starting. If you’re mainly a lurker who occasionally comments, the standard free tier probably covers your needs.
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