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The two doors, and what each one costs
A connection request is free but capped. LinkedIn doesn't publish the number. Senders consistently see a ceiling of about 100 invitations per rolling seven days, and that window resets seven days after your first request, to the hour. Not on Monday morning.
~100
connection requests per rolling seven days, the ceiling most senders observe
Source: FirstSales, 2026
An InMail skips the connection entirely. It costs a credit, unless the person has an Open Profile. How many credits you get depends on your plan:
- Premium Career: 5 a month
- Premium Business: 15 a month
- Sales Navigator Core: 50 a month, rolling over up to 150
- Recruiter Lite: 30 a month
Here's the part most people miss. Every InMail that gets a response within 90 days is credited back, and accepting or declining both count. Only the ignored ones burn the credit for good. So a relevant InMail is close to free. A lazy one is expensive.
Why the connection note stopped working
For years the default was simple: send a request with a personalized note. The data says that habit is fading. Expandi's H2 2026 report, built on 13.2 million connection requests across 13,302 accounts, found that only 3.0% of connection notes get a response. And it's sliding. The note reply rate went from 3.5% in May 2025 to 2.2% by April 2026.
2.2%
reply rate on connection-request notes by April 2026, down from 3.5% a year earlier
Source: Expandi, State of LinkedIn Outreach H2 2026
Acceptance itself is fine. The same report puts it at 28.5% on average, and 10.4% of messages sent after connecting get a reply. So the lesson isn't “stop connecting.” It's that the note is a bad place to pitch. The request gets you in. The message after it does the work.
Hi Sarah, I help SaaS companies scale pipeline with a proven outbound system. Would love to connect and share how we could help Acme grow!
Most people read that as a pitch in a trench coat. Send the request blank, or with one plain line about them, and save your real opener for when they accept.
Open Profiles: the free InMail almost nobody uses
Some Premium members switch on Open Profile. That means anyone can message them, with no connection and no credit. Click Message on their profile. If the chat window says “Free Message” at the top, you're in.
That matters twice. You skip the weekly invitation cap for those people entirely. And you reach them today, not whenever they get around to clearing their pending invites.
A simple rule for choosing
- 1Open Profile? Send a free InMail. Short, specific, no attachment.
- 2Closed profile with a strong signal, like a new role, a hiring post or something they wrote this week? A paid InMail is worth it. A relevant message gets answered, and the credit comes back.
- 3Closed profile, no signal? Send a connection request with no pitch in the note, and have the first real message ready for the moment they accept.
- 4Already saw your name, because you viewed their profile or liked a post? Connection request. Familiar names get accepted more.
Whatever door you use, keep it short. Expandi found the best reply rates on messages of 151 to 200 characters. That's two sentences, three at most.
Hey Mark, saw you're hiring 5 SDRs this quarter. How are you planning to ramp them? We help teams skip most of the warm-up. Worth swapping notes?
What to send the moment they accept
Accepted requests go stale fast. Connect on Tuesday and message the following Thursday, and they've already forgotten who you are. Send the first message the same day they accept, while your name is still sitting in their notifications.
Make it about the reason you connected. Not a “thanks for connecting,” and not your deck.
Thanks for connecting, Priya. Your post on moving budget from ads to partnerships stuck with me. Did outbound survive the cut, or is it all partner-led now?
Then follow up if they go quiet. Two or three touches, a few days apart, each with a new angle.
How Bazooka handles thisWhat it does on LinkedIn, step by step.
Bazooka makes this choice for every lead. Each prospect gets a profile view first, from the account that will reach out. Open profiles get an InMail. Closed profiles get a connection request, and the first message goes out the moment they accept, written from research on their profile, posts, company page and website.
It runs on LinkedIn accounts Bazooka provides, each with its own IP and browser, paced at 11 to 14 connection requests and 70 to 80 profile views a day per account. The AI closer picks up every reply, follows up and books the call. And the routing learns from your results, so if InMails to open profiles reply more in your market, more leads go that way.
Questions people ask
Do InMail credits come back if someone replies?
Yes. InMails that get a response within 90 days are credited back, and a decline counts as a response. Only ignored InMails use up the credit.
Should I add a note to my connection request?
Not a pitch. Notes get a response about 3% of the time and that number is falling, per Expandi's 2026 data. Send it blank or with one line about them, then open properly once they accept.
How do I know if a profile is open?
Click Message on their profile. If the window says “Free Message,” you can send without a credit or a connection.
Sources
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