InMail, credits and automation
InMail lets you message someone you are not connected to, in exchange for a credit. Automation tools can queue and send those messages for you. Neither fixes the underlying issue: you are paying to interrupt a person who has never heard of you. Below you will find how credits work, what automation adds, and where it goes wrong. Icebreakly sends no InMail. It puts you in front of the same people without spending a credit, in the comments under their own posts.
LinkedIn InMail automation is the use of software to queue and send InMail, LinkedIn’s paid messages to people outside your network, from a Premium, Sales Navigator or Recruiter account. The tool fills in a template for each recipient and spaces the sends so the monthly credit allowance lasts. It can save typing. It cannot add credits, and it cannot change how a busy executive reads a message from a name they have never seen.
The mechanics matter more than the tooling, because credits are scarce and silence is expensive.
At the time of writing LinkedIn lists 5 InMail credits a month for Premium Career, 15 for Premium Business, 50 for Sales Navigator Core and 30 for Recruiter Lite. Unused credits carry over up to a ceiling set by the plan, and the balance drops to zero if you cancel.
When the recipient responds within 90 days, LinkedIn gives the credit back. Accepting, declining and replying all count as a response. Silence does not. So the real cost of InMail is the cost of being ignored.
Premium members can set their profile to open, which lets any member write to them without a credit. Check for it before you spend one. It is easy to overlook when you are working through a list quickly, and every credit saved is one you can keep for somebody harder to reach.
An InMail carries a subject of up to 200 characters and a body of up to about 1,900. You will rarely want that much room. LinkedIn’s own published advice favors short messages, and so does anyone reading on a phone between meetings.
As listed in LinkedIn’s help center at the time of writing. Plans and allowances change, so check before you budget.
| LinkedIn plan | InMail credits each month | Most you can accumulate |
|---|---|---|
| Premium Career | 5 | 15 |
| Premium Business | 15 | 45 |
| Sales Navigator Core | 50 | 150 |
| Recruiter Lite | 30 | 120 |
| Free account | None | None |
Icebreakly is not in this table because it sends no InMail and uses no credits. Commenting on a post costs no credits on any LinkedIn plan.
Paid messages get more scrutiny, not less.
A procedure for the people you were about to spend credits on. Icebreakly does the commenting. Every invite and every message is sent by you.
Take this month’s InMail targets and put their LinkedIn profile URLs in one place. A Sales Navigator Core seat comes with 50 credits a month, so the list is probably 50 names or fewer.
If a profile is open, you can write to that person without a credit. Mark those. A free message still lands better from a familiar name, so they can go through the warming steps as well.
Paste in the URLs and choose a Voice. Icebreakly monitors each person and drafts a comment whenever they publish. A chief revenue officer posts about a reorganization on Monday, and a considered response in your words is waiting for your approval by Tuesday.
One comment changes little. A dozen, each on a different post and each saying something specific, makes your name familiar. The tracker shows the count and the stage for every lead, so you can see who has moved from Stranger to Familiar to Trusted.
A lead who knows you from the comments will often accept an ordinary invite, which costs nothing. Add a note about the thread. Once you are connected, you can message them without credits.
Some executives never post. Comment warming has nothing to work with there, and an InMail, written by hand and kept short, is a reasonable use of a credit. Spend your allowance on those people and nobody else.
Which one fits depends on whether your targets post, and how soon you need them.
Your targets do not post, you need to reach them this week, or you recruit at volume and your plan’s credits exist for exactly that. An InMail tool is the right choice there. Icebreakly cannot send one for you.
Your targets post regularly and you have weeks, not days. You would rather be recognized than pay for each interruption, and too many of your credits are going on people who then say nothing.
Your list is mixed. Warm the active posters with comments and reach them later with a free invite. Hold your credits for the quiet ones. Fewer, better-chosen InMails also means fewer wasted credits.
It is software that sends InMail messages from your account on a schedule. InMail is LinkedIn’s paid way to message people you are not connected to. An automation tool fills in a template for each recipient and paces the sends against your monthly credit allowance.
No. Icebreakly does not send InMail, direct messages or connection requests, and it does not track InMail credits. It comments on your chosen leads’ LinkedIn posts in your voice and tracks how familiar each lead has become. Any InMail you send, you send yourself in LinkedIn.
It depends on the plan. At the time of writing LinkedIn lists 5 a month for Premium Career, 15 for Premium Business, 50 for Sales Navigator Core and 30 for Recruiter Lite. Free accounts get none. Unused credits carry over up to a cap that varies by plan.
Yes. LinkedIn credits the InMail back if the recipient responds within 90 days of you sending it. Accepting, declining and replying directly all count. If they never respond, the credit is spent.
Yes, in one case. Premium members can turn on Open Profile, which lets any LinkedIn member message them at no charge. Outside that, messaging a non-connection needs a credit, or an accepted connection request first.
InMail arrives uninvited in a private inbox from a name the reader does not know. A comment appears under something they chose to publish, where they are already paying attention, and it shows how you think before you ask for anything. Repeat that over a few weeks and you are a familiar name. It does depend on the person posting. For people who never post, InMail remains the practical route.
Longer. An InMail takes a minute to send. Warming takes weeks, because it relies on the lead posting and on your comments adding up. Icebreakly treats about five touches as Familiar and about twelve as Trusted. You are trading time for a much warmer reception.
Icebreakly has a free 7-day trial, a Standard plan at $49 a month for 100 monitored leads, and a Pro plan at $99 a month for 300 leads across three LinkedIn accounts. It is not a replacement for Sales Navigator’s search. Some teams keep Sales Navigator to find people and use Icebreakly to warm them.
Take the people you were going to InMail, add them to a comment campaign, and let them get to know your name first. The trial is free for 7 days.
