I Cancelled My LinkedIn Premium — Here’s Exactly What Happened
After two years of paying for LinkedIn Premium, I finally cancelled my subscription last month. I was curious whether I was actually getting value from the monthly fee, and I wanted to test what I’d genuinely miss versus what was just nice-to-have noise. Here’s my completely honest account of the cancellation process, what disappeared, and whether I came crawling back.
For the complete breakdown, I covered everything in our LinkedIn Premium: The Complete 2026 Guide — worth reading first if you are new to this. But this is my personal experience walking through the actual cancellation and living with the consequences for 30 days.
How I Cancelled (The Exact Steps)
The process took me less than five minutes. I went to my Profile, clicked Settings and Privacy, selected Subscriptions, and found my Premium plan. LinkedIn asked me why I was leaving — I selected “Too expensive” because it was honest. Then I confirmed the cancellation. No waiting period, no retention calls. It was done immediately.
What Disappeared Right Away
The moment my subscription ended, I lost access to several features:
- InMail messages — I could no longer send direct messages to people outside my network
- Advanced search filters — my search results became basic again
- Salary insights — the data disappeared from job listings
- Profile visibility controls — I reverted to standard visibility
- LinkedIn Learning access — I lost my courses mid-way through one
- Priority customer support — I was back to standard support only
What I Kept After Cancellation
This surprised me. I kept more than I expected:
- My complete profile — nothing was deleted or hidden
- My connection list — all 3,200+ connections remained
- My past messages and conversations
- My article and post history
- My endorsements and recommendations
- Basic search and messaging with connections
Essentially, I kept everything I created. I just lost the premium conveniences layered on top.
What I Genuinely Missed
After 30 days without Premium, I missed exactly two things:
- InMail messages — I wanted to reach out to three people I didn’t know well enough to connect with first. Without Premium, I had to send LinkedIn connection requests instead and wait for acceptance.
- Advanced search filters — I found myself limited when sourcing connections by specific job titles and company sizes. The basic search felt restrictive.
What I Did NOT Miss
Honestly, most of it:
- LinkedIn Learning felt like feature bloat for me personally
- Salary insights were interesting but not worth the monthly cost
- Profile visibility settings made no real difference to my engagement
- The “Who viewed your profile” data was genuinely useless
The Pause Option I Didn’t Know About
I learned after cancelling that LinkedIn allows you to pause Premium instead. If you’re uncertain, you can pause for up to three months without losing your subscription. I wish I’d done this first.
Did I Re-Subscribe?
I did. After 30 days, I reactivated Premium — but only the basic tier, which costs $39.99 monthly instead of $79.99 for Premium Plus. I specifically wanted InMail back for recruiting purposes. For my use case, that justified the cost. But I now know exactly what I’m paying for and what’s genuinely working.
If you’re on the fence, my honest advice: cancel for a month. You’ll learn more about your actual needs than any feature list will tell you.
