Sales Navigator or classic LinkedIn: what changes for search, quotas and InMail

This article lists what changes depending on the type of LinkedIn account you connect. The platform works with a classic, Premium or Sales Navigator account. The account type changes search, several daily quotas and access to InMail.

Have your account type recognised

The platform sets its limits based on the account type it sees. As long as the account has never been refreshed, it treats it as a classic account.

To have it recognise Premium or Sales Navigator, open "My account", "Social networks" tab. In "My LinkedIn account", click "Refresh". The "Premium" or "Sales Navigator" badges appear, and the "Daily budgets" are set according to the account type. This section also shows the state of the Sales Navigator session and your InMail credits. Refreshing costs no credits.

The values that change

Some limits do not change with the account type:

• 100 invitations per week;
• 80 messages and follow-ups per day;
• 100 automatic profile reads per day (campaigns, Autopilot, crawl);
• 100 post reads per day.

After an account is connected, the invitation limit rises in steps: 5 per day in the 1st week, 10 in the 2nd, 15 in the 3rd, then the account's limit from the 4th week.

Prospect search

In the "Search" tab of "Prospects", the "Search API" choice offers "Classic" and "Sales Navigator". Sales Navigator is only offered if your account has it.

A search costs no credits. It uses "search lines": 1,000 per day with a classic account, 2,500 with Sales Navigator. This budget is shared with the Autopilot. One search returns at most 1,000 results with Classic, and 2,500 with Sales Navigator (1,000 for companies).

With a classic account, LinkedIn returns nothing beyond three job titles separated by "or". The job title and the keywords are combined with "and". Sales Navigator does not have this limit. With a classic account, keep your searches short, and save several of them if needed.

The Sales Navigator session can expire while the LinkedIn account stays valid. The screen then shows "Sales Navigator session expired". No credit is used. Reconnect LinkedIn, or click "Search in Classic" in the meantime.

Invitations and profile reads

On a classic account, invitations with a note are turned off by default, because LinkedIn allows very few of them. Acquisition campaigns then send invitations without a note. Permission to send invitations with a note is set in "Daily budgets".

On a Premium or Sales Navigator account, the note is at most 300 characters. A note that is too long is refused, never cut. In the "To approve" queue, an "N / 300 characters" counter (or 200) shows it before approval.

The platform reads a LinkedIn profile to create or complete a prospect record. Automatic reads stop at 100 per day, whatever the account. Your manual actions, such as "Refresh profile" on a record, continue up to 100 per day with a classic account and up to 200 with Sales Navigator.

Fetching a profile costs no credits. The action counts toward the daily profile read budget.

InMail

InMail is a LinkedIn message sent to a person outside your network. It requires an account that has InMail credits, such as Premium or Sales Navigator.

Campaigns do not send InMail. Neither does the assistant's "Campaigns" tab. InMail only exists as a direct action from a prospect's record, in the "Interactions" block. You fill in a "Subject" and a "Message", then you confirm. The result shows "Sent" when the action went out. Sending costs no credits on the platform.

In practice

1. Open "My account", "Social networks" tab, and click "Refresh" in "My LinkedIn account". Check the badge shown.
2. In "Daily budgets", read the invitation and message limits applied to your account.
3. In "Prospects", "Search" tab, choose the "Search API": "Classic" or "Sales Navigator".
4. With a classic account, limit each search to three job titles.

With the assistant, "Command" tab:

How many people can I reach today?

"Search" tab:

Find fintech CTOs in France, 50-200 employees, on LinkedIn.

The assistant reads your account's capacity for the day before it proposes a pace. Each search uses the account's search line budget.