It depends on what you're trying to do.
LinkedIn Premium costs between $30 and $60 per month depending on the plan. That's $360 to $720 per year. For some people, it pays for itself in a week. For others, it's a complete waste of money.
The difference comes down to your specific use case. Let's break it down honestly.
What LinkedIn Premium actually includes
LinkedIn has several paid tiers, but the two most common are:
Premium Career ($30/month)
Designed for job seekers. You get:
InMail messages. Send messages to people you're not connected with. You get 5 per month. Useful if you're reaching out to recruiters or hiring managers.
Who viewed your profile. See the full list of people who checked out your profile in the last 90 days. The free version only shows the last 5.
LinkedIn Learning. Access to thousands of online courses. Good if you actually use them, wasted if you don't.
Top Applicant insights. See how you compare to other applicants for jobs you've applied to.
Premium Business / Sales Navigator ($60 to $100/month)
Designed for sales professionals and business development. You get everything in Career plus:
More InMail messages. Up to 50 per month depending on the plan.
Advanced search filters. Filter by company size, seniority, function, and more.
Lead recommendations. LinkedIn suggests people who match your target audience.
CRM integrations. Connect with Salesforce, HubSpot, and other tools.
When Premium is worth it
You're actively job hunting. If you're in a serious job search, the "Who viewed your profile" feature and InMail access can make a real difference. Being able to message hiring managers directly and seeing which companies are checking you out is valuable. The $30/month pays for itself if it helps you land even one interview faster.
You're in B2B sales. If your job is to find and contact prospects on LinkedIn, Sales Navigator is almost essential. The advanced search filters and lead tracking features save hours of manual prospecting. At $100/month, it needs to generate real pipeline to justify the cost, but for active sales teams, it usually does.
You use LinkedIn Learning regularly. If you'd otherwise pay for an online learning platform, LinkedIn Learning being bundled with Premium is a nice bonus. But only if you actually complete courses.
When Premium is not worth it
You're a casual LinkedIn user. If you log in a few times a week to scroll and occasionally engage, Premium adds almost nothing. The features are designed for power users, not casual browsers.
You want a better feed. This is a common misconception. LinkedIn Premium does not improve your feed. You still get the same algorithm, the same suggested posts, the same engagement bait. Premium changes who you can contact, not what you see.
You think it will grow your audience. Premium doesn't help your posts reach more people. It doesn't boost your content. It doesn't give you any algorithmic advantage for visibility. Your posts perform the same whether you pay or not.
You're not using InMail. InMail is the core feature of Premium. If you're not sending messages to people outside your network, you're paying for a feature you don't use.
You just want the gold badge. The "Premium" badge on your profile looks nice, but it doesn't meaningfully change how people perceive you. Nobody decides to work with someone because they have a gold badge.
Free alternatives that solve the real problems
Before paying for Premium, ask yourself what problem you're actually trying to solve:
"I want to reach people outside my network." Instead of paying for InMail, try the warm-up approach: comment on their posts for 2 to 3 weeks, then send a connection request with a personalized note. This has a higher response rate than InMail anyway.
"I want to see who views my profile." The free version shows your most recent viewers. For most people, that's enough. The full list from Premium is nice, but rarely changes your strategy.
"I want a better LinkedIn feed." Premium doesn't fix this. MyFeedIn does. Create custom feeds of the people you actually want to see. No algorithm. No noise. This solves the feed problem that most people incorrectly think Premium will fix.
"I want to grow my LinkedIn presence." Growth comes from consistent engagement and quality content, not a paid subscription. Spend the $60/month on a good writing tool or content coach instead.
The honest recommendation
Get Premium if: you're actively job hunting, doing B2B sales, or sending more than 5 outreach messages per month to people outside your network.
Skip Premium if: you want a better feed, more visibility, or audience growth. These problems have better (and often free) solutions.
Try the free trial first. LinkedIn offers a 1-month free trial for Premium. Use it to test whether InMail and the profile viewer features actually change your results. If they don't, cancel before the trial ends.
Don't pay for Premium hoping it will make LinkedIn better. Figure out your specific problem first, then find the right tool for that problem. Often, it's not Premium.