LinkedIn Recruiter InMail Credits: Official Email Option

Every recruiter with a LinkedIn Recruiter seat knows the feeling: it is the 20th of the month and your InMail credits are already gone. Recruiter Lite gives you 30 per month. Corporate gives you 100 to 150 per seat. Extra credits cost around $10 each.

Here is what many sourcing teams miss: Recruiter has an official option that delivers your message by email instead of through the InMail system. It sits inside the compose window, one selector away from the InMail everyone clicks by default. You just need the candidate’s email address saved on their profile.

This guide shows how it works, with the one detail that trips people up, what it changes for a team that sources every week, and how to organize the preparation around it. One thing stays constant throughout: every message leaves from your own Recruiter account, sent by you.

Why InMail credits run out before the month ends

InMail is the default way to contact anyone outside your network in Recruiter, so every cold outreach uses a credit. A sourcer working two or three roles easily contacts 100 to 300 new candidates a month. With 30 credits on Recruiter Lite, the math breaks in the first week.

LinkedIn refunds a credit when the candidate replies within 90 days, which helps good writers recycle part of their allowance. But typical InMail response rates sit between 10 and 25 percent, so most credits never come back. For the full price breakdown per plan, see our LinkedIn InMail cost guide.

The result: teams either slow their outreach mid-month or pay for extra credits. LinkedIn’s own compose window offers a third option.

The send-as-email option in the Recruiter compose window

When you open the message window in Recruiter, look at the line under “Initial message”. By default it reads “Send immediately via InMail”. Click it, and a “Send as” selector appears with two choices: InMail or E-mail.

Pick E-mail and LinkedIn delivers your message to the candidate’s email address through your Recruiter seat. The credits counter next to the Send button shows the credit impact the account applies to that send.

The option is documented in LinkedIn’s own Recruiter help center, and it works on both Recruiter Lite and Recruiter Corporate. The only related feature reserved for full Recruiter plans is Email Connect, the deeper Outlook and Gmail integration. The condition is simple: the candidate’s email address must be saved on their profile in Recruiter.

Replies stay attached to the candidate too. LinkedIn shows the response on the candidate’s profile in Recruiter, and the thread can continue in your email client.

Send your first message by email in four steps

Step 1: find the candidate’s email address

For candidates outside your network, the profile usually shows no address. You need to find it elsewhere. Email finder tools for recruiters check public data, company patterns, and verification services to return a deliverable address. Quality matters more than price here: a wrong address means a silent bounce, not a delivered message.

Step 2: add the email to the profile in Recruiter

Open the candidate in Recruiter and add the address to their contact info (the small @ line under their headline, or directly while composing). LinkedIn saves it to the profile for your whole team.

Now the detail that trips everyone up: refresh the page after saving the address. In our tests, the E-mail option only appears in the compose window once the profile has been reloaded. If you skip the refresh, you will stare at an InMail-only window and conclude the option does not work.

Step 3: pick E-mail in the Send as selector

Open the compose window, click the “Send immediately via InMail” line, and select E-mail. Write your message as usual: subject, body, template variables if you use them. LinkedIn’s own scheduling option works too.

Step 4: check the counter and send

Before you click Send, glance at the credits indicator at the bottom of the window. It shows how your account treats this message. Then send it, as you would any other message from Recruiter.

A message template that works well on this channel, because it reads like a normal email rather than a LinkedIn blast:

Subject: Your work on [specific project/team] at [Company]

Hi [First name], I came across your profile while researching [specialty] people at [Company]. I am hiring a [Role] for [Client or Team], and your experience with [specific skill] is exactly the profile the team is missing. Would you be open to a 15-minute call this week? Happy to share the full brief by reply either way.

What the email option changes for a team that sources every week

Take a concrete scenario: an agency recruiter contacts 200 new candidates a month on a Recruiter Lite seat.

Enrichment does not find every address. Depending on the market, expect a verified email for 50 to 70 percent of profiles. For those candidates, the email option applies. For the rest, your InMail credits remain the way to reach them. Which route you take changes what limits you: budget, response rate, or email find rate.

There is a response-rate angle too. A recruiter email with a clear subject line lands in the candidate’s regular inbox, which some candidates check more often than their LinkedIn messages.

Other cases where LinkedIn does not charge a credit

The email option is the most scalable lever, but four other documented cases are worth knowing. Candidates with an Open Profile can be messaged without a credit on any plan, and you can find them with the right Recruiter search filters and Spotlights. Your 1st-degree connections can always be messaged directly. People who applied to one of your jobs can be contacted as past applicants without a credit. And every InMail answered within 90 days refunds its credit, so better targeting and better copy pay you back.

Group members and event attendees can also be messaged without credits on a Premium account. It works, but it is slower to use for recruiting than the email option, and it depends on candidates being in the right groups.

Organize it: enrichment and outreach in one sequence

Doing this by hand for every candidate gets old fast: find the email, paste it into Recruiter, refresh, compose. The good news is that most of that loop is preparation, and preparation can be organized in one place.

In Leonar, you build a two-step sequence. Step one enriches the candidate’s email through a waterfall of 10+ data providers, and you only pay when a verified address is found. Step two is the outreach itself. If a verified address came back, the email step runs on its cadence from the sequence. If not, the sequence creates a LinkedIn task instead: the draft is prepared and shown on the right day, and you send it yourself from Recruiter, whether as an InMail, as a message sent as email, or as a 200-character connection request note. LinkedIn steps are tasks you complete yourself on LinkedIn.

Replies to email and WhatsApp land in a unified inbox, so follow-ups do not scatter across tools. The same sequence can then chain follow-up steps on whichever channel the candidate answered.

The honest limits of the send-as-email option

Be clear-eyed about the trade-offs before you move your whole outreach to this channel.

The method depends entirely on email quality. A guessed or stale address bounces silently, and unlike an undelivered InMail, nobody warns the candidate. Stick to verified addresses and keep your bounce rate under control, both for reach and for your sending reputation.

Volume discipline still applies. This option changes how the message is delivered, not how it is received. Two hundred thoughtful, targeted messages a month will outperform two thousand generic ones on any channel, and sloppy volume can hurt the very deliverability the method relies on.

For European sourcing, remember that a candidate’s professional email is personal data. Legitimate interest covers targeted recruiting outreach in most cases, but honor opt-outs immediately and say who you are and why you are writing.

Use the email option where it fits

The send-as-email option is documented by LinkedIn and reaches the candidate in a calmer inbox. Find the email, save it to the profile, refresh the page, and pick E-mail in the Send as selector. Keep your InMail credits for the profiles you cannot enrich.

If you want less manual work around that loop, run a sequence that enriches first and prepares the message second. That is exactly what Leonar was built for.

To go deeper on the workflow around this option, learn how to export candidates from LinkedIn Recruiter with LinkedIn’s own options into your CRM, or compare full InMail costs per plan to see what each route means for your team.

Save time on every follow-up

Use only the options shown in your account.

Centralize multichannel outreach, prepare follow-ups, and keep control of the actions available in each account.

Frequently asked questions

Does the send-as-email option use InMail credits?

LinkedIn documents the send-as-email option as a message delivered to the candidate's email address rather than through the InMail system. The compose window shows the credit impact of each message before you send it, so check the indicator next to the Send button in your own account.

Does the send-as-email option work on Recruiter Lite?

Yes. The send-as-email option is available on both Recruiter Lite and Recruiter Corporate, as long as the candidate's email address is saved on their profile. Only Email Connect, the deeper Outlook and Gmail integration, is reserved for full Recruiter plans. It is not available on Sales Navigator or regular Premium.

Is sending InMails as emails allowed by LinkedIn?

Yes. This is a built-in option of the Recruiter compose window, documented in LinkedIn's own Recruiter help center. It is one of the delivery options LinkedIn offers, not a workaround, and you use it from your own account like any other message.

How do I find a candidate's email address?

Use an email finder or enrichment tool. Dedicated tools check dozens of data sources and verify addresses before returning them. In Leonar, an enrichment waterfall queries 10+ providers and you only pay when a verified address is actually found.

Where do replies arrive when I send an InMail as an email?

LinkedIn shows the reply on the candidate's profile in Recruiter, and the conversation can also continue in your email client. You keep the history attached to the candidate record either way.

What happens if the email address is invalid?

The message bounces like any normal email, and the candidate never sees it. That is the main risk of the method, and the reason to use verified addresses from a serious enrichment source rather than guessed patterns.