LinkedIn Premium accounts can message people they are not connected to, and lemlist can now do it inside a campaign. This article shows you how to add an InMail step to a sequence, set a daily InMail cap, and read your remaining credits without leaving lemlist.
Limitations
You can only add the InMail message step when at least one connected LinkedIn account is Premium.
You cannot send an InMail as a fallback from the regular LinkedIn chat message step. There is no fallback message for people outside your network — use the InMail message step.
You cannot keep sending once the sender reaches the InMail sending limit configured in lemlist.
You cannot keep sending once the sender runs out of LinkedIn InMail credits.
InMail credits come from LinkedIn, not from lemlist. lemlist reads the balance but cannot add credits.
In RANDOM or DYNAMIC sender campaigns, an InMail on step 1 does not lock the contact to the Premium sender pool for later steps.
In RANDOM or DYNAMIC sender campaigns, an InMail step assigned to a non-Premium sender is skipped for that contact only.
Warnings shown while creating an InMail step never block campaign launch.
Prerequisites
A LinkedIn account connected in lemlist.
At least one connected account on a LinkedIn Premium plan.
A campaign sequence you can edit.
Add an InMail step to your sequence
Open the campaign and go to the sequence where you want to send the InMail.
Click Add step, then select InMail message under the LinkedIn steps. The step appears as soon as lemlist detects one connected Premium LinkedIn account.
Choose the sender in Sender asignation, then write your Subject and Message. The editor works like the LinkedIn chat message step, restricted to Premium senders.
✅ Verify: InMail message appears as a step in your sequence with the sender you picked.
Read the warnings on the step
The step editor shows warning banners at the top. On RANDOM or DYNAMIC sender campaigns they tell you that contacts already routed to a non-Premium account at an earlier step will skip this InMail and continue to the next step. Another warning tells you the action follows your daily sending limit. Both are informational — launch is never blocked.
Set your daily InMail sending limit
In lemlist, open Settings for the sending account.
Open Sending limits.
Find Maximum number of LinkedIn InMails sent by lemlist in 24h.
Use the minus and plus controls to set your daily cap.
✅ Verify: the value next to Maximum number of LinkedIn InMails sent by lemlist in 24h shows your new cap.
How InMail limits and credits work
Sending depends on two things: the daily InMail limit you configured in lemlist, and your remaining LinkedIn InMail credits. Reaching either one raises the same alert lemlist uses for any other sending limit. Sender settings flag which of your connected LinkedIn accounts are Premium, and lemlist shows the sender's InMail credit balance alongside the other LinkedIn limits.
LinkedIn issues a monthly credit allowance per plan. When a recipient accepts an InMail, LinkedIn recredits it, up to a monthly ceiling:
Premium Career: 5 credits per month, recredited up to 15 per month
Premium Business: 15 credits per month, recredited up to 45 per month
Sales Navigator Core: 50 credits per month, recredited up to 150 per month
Recruiter Lite: 30 credits per month, recredited up to 120 per month
Before you launch, check three things: whether the sender is Premium, how many credits it has left, and whether your configured daily cap fits inside the monthly allowance.
How InMail behaves in RANDOM or DYNAMIC sender campaigns
An InMail on step 1 does not permanently bind the contact to the Premium sender pool — lemlist still routes later steps by the campaign's sender rules. If a later InMail step lands on a contact whose assigned sender is not Premium, lemlist skips only that step for that contact and reports "InMail skipped: non-Premium sender". The rest of the sequence continues, so mixed-sender campaigns launch without Premium coverage at every step.
Practical example
A LinkedIn sequence that still reaches prospects who never accept the invite:
Step 1: LinkedIn invitation
Step 2: Wait a few days
Step 3: InMail message from a Premium sender
Step 4: Another LinkedIn or email step
Best practice: Keep your daily InMail cap at or below what the sender can sustain across the month. Credits are monthly, so a high daily cap burns them in the first week.
Troubleshooting
Issue: The InMail message step is not in the campaign builder.
Root cause: No connected LinkedIn account is Premium.
Fix: Open your connected LinkedIn senders, confirm at least one has a Premium subscription, and reconnect the account if its status is outdated.
Issue: The InMail does not send and lemlist shows a sending limit alert.
Root cause: The sender hit the daily InMail cap configured in lemlist.
Fix: Go to Settings → Sending limits, check Maximum number of LinkedIn InMails sent by lemlist in 24h, and raise it only if your monthly credits can cover it.
Issue: The InMail does not send even though the daily cap looks fine.
Root cause: The sender has no InMail credits left.
Fix: Check the sender's credit balance in lemlist, wait for the monthly refresh or for accepted InMails to be recredited, or send from another Premium sender.
Issue: lemlist reports "InMail skipped: non-Premium sender".
Root cause: In a RANDOM or DYNAMIC sender campaign, that contact was assigned to a non-Premium sender on the InMail step.
Fix: Check which senders in the campaign are Premium and adjust sender assignment if you need fuller coverage. Occasional skips are expected by design.
If your case is different
If you need to connect or reconnect a LinkedIn account, see Connect and manage multiple LinkedIn profiles in lemlist.
If you want to build a full multichannel sequence, see How to add LinkedIn steps to your sequence.
If your LinkedIn sender is disconnected or restricted, see Fix LinkedIn disconnections and restrictions in lemlist.
If you want to set your other LinkedIn or email sending limits, see Set account limits.