LinkedIn Recruiter Lite costs about $170 a month on monthly billing, or about $1,680 a year if you pay annually. LinkedIn Recruiter (the full Corporate version) and Recruiter Professional Services aren’t priced publicly; you get a quote, and buyers report Corporate seats costing roughly $8,000 to $12,000 per seat per year. Prices vary by country and change, so check LinkedIn before you buy.
For most solo recruiters and small agencies, Recruiter Lite is the realistic option. The full Recruiter is built for bigger teams. Here’s what you get for the money and whether you need it at all.
There are three main tiers, and only the cheapest has a public price.
| Recruiter Lite | Recruiter Professional Services | Recruiter Corporate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | About $170/month, or about $1,680/year | Quote only | Quote only (buyers report roughly $8,000 to $12,000 per seat per year) |
| InMails per month | 30 | 100 | 150 per seat |
| Built for | Solo recruiters, small teams, hiring managers | Agencies | Large in-house and agency teams |
| Seats | One per account | Multiple | Multiple, with team collaboration |
These figures come from LinkedIn’s public Lite price and third-party buyer data checked in October 2026. Treat them as a guide, not a quote, and expect VAT on top in the UK.
Recruiter Lite gives you better search filters, 30 InMails a month and a simple way to save and track candidates.
The limits: one seat per account, fewer InMails than the full version, and no team features. For a solo recruiter, that’s usually fine.
The full Recruiter adds more InMails, more search power and team features, which is why it’s priced for bigger teams.
The subscription is only part of the bill. Watch out for extra InMails, job posts and integrations.
Recruiter Lite is built for finding candidates. Sales Navigator is built for finding customers.
If you’re a recruiter doing your own business development, Sales Navigator can be useful for finding hiring managers and tracking target companies. For finding candidates, Recruiter Lite is the better fit. Plenty of solo recruiters start with neither, and add one once they know they’ll use it every day.
Not always. A lot of small agencies get most of the value from a free or Premium LinkedIn account, a well-kept database and a couple of job boards.
Before you pay, ask yourself:
Whatever you use, don’t leave the candidates you find sitting in LinkedIn. Get them into your own CRM, where you own the data and can find them again. Giig’s LinkedIn Chrome extension on Giig Plus (£45 per user/month +VAT, no contract) pulls candidates, contacts and companies straight in.
The main alternatives are your own database, CV databases on job boards, Google X-ray searches and AI search over your own CRM.
There’s more in this guide to candidate sourcing.
Worth a read next: free CV search tools.
About $170 a month on monthly billing, or about $1,680 a year (around $140 a month) on annual billing, based on LinkedIn’s public pricing in October 2026. Prices vary by country, and UK buyers will pay VAT on top, so check LinkedIn’s own page before you buy.
LinkedIn doesn’t publish a price for Recruiter Corporate or Recruiter Professional Services. You get a quote from their sales team. Buyer reports put Corporate at roughly $8,000 to $12,000 per seat per year, depending on the deal and the number of seats.
Recruiter Lite is a single-seat plan with 30 InMails a month and decent search filters. The full Recruiter adds 150 InMails per seat, more powerful search, bulk messaging, team collaboration and more reporting. Lite suits solo recruiters; the full version suits larger teams.
It can be, if you search LinkedIn every day and InMails help you reach candidates you can’t find elsewhere. If you mostly work from your own network and database, a free or Premium account plus a good CRM may be enough. Try it monthly before committing to a year.
Recruiter Lite includes 30 InMails a month. Recruiter Professional Services includes 100, and Recruiter Corporate includes 150 per seat. You can buy extra InMails if you run out.
Your own candidate database, searched properly, is the cheapest. Job board CV databases, Google X-ray searches and AI search over your CRM also work well. Giig’s CRM is free for one user, so you can build a searchable database before paying for LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Recruiter Lite is the sensible choice for most solo recruiters and small agencies, and the full Recruiter is priced for bigger teams. Before you pay for either, make sure you’re getting the most out of the candidates you already have, and save everyone you find into your own database.
Want a database you actually own? Start on Giig for free. No credit card, no contract.
