You are about to send a connection request or an InMail to a prospect. Before you spend the credit or invest time writing a longer message, you want to know one thing: does this person have LinkedIn Premium? That single detail changes your approach. It tells you which channel to use, how to frame the message, and how active the person likely is on the platform. Knowing how to spot LinkedIn Premium on any profile takes about five seconds once you know what to look for. This article shows you exactly where to look, what it looks like across different devices and LinkedIn surfaces, what the different Premium tiers actually signal, and how to use that information when you are running outreach at any volume.
The Gold Badge: The Fastest Signal That Someone Has LinkedIn Premium
The gold badge is the most direct answer to how to know if someone has LinkedIn Premium. LinkedIn displays a small gold “in” icon next to a Premium member’s name whenever their profile appears anywhere on the platform. You do not need to do anything special to see it. It is right there, in plain view, the moment their profile or name loads on your screen.
What It Looks Like and Where It Appears
The badge is a small gold square with a lowercase “in” inside it, styled in gold rather than the standard LinkedIn blue. It sits immediately to the right of the person’s name. You will see it in four main places:
- Profile page header: The badge appears directly next to the name at the top of their profile, just to the right of the display name, visible as soon as the page loads.
- LinkedIn search results: When you run a search, each result card shows the person’s name. If they have Premium, the gold badge appears inline next to the name within that card.
- Messaging window and inbox: When you open a conversation thread with someone who has Premium, the badge appears next to their name at the top of the conversation panel.
- Hover cards: When you hover over someone’s name in your feed, in comments, or in connection suggestions, a hover card appears with their basic info. The gold badge is visible on that card too.
Desktop vs. Mobile: Where the Badge Sits
On desktop (the browser version of LinkedIn), the badge appears directly to the right of the name in the profile header. It is small but visible without scrolling or clicking anything. On mobile, the badge shifts slightly. On the LinkedIn iOS and Android apps, the badge can appear below the name in the profile header rather than directly beside it, depending on the screen size and how the name wraps. The badge itself looks the same, but if you are checking on a phone, look a line below the name if you do not see it right away beside it.
In search results on mobile, the badge appears in the same card layout as desktop but is slightly smaller due to the condensed card format. It is still visible but easier to miss if you are scrolling quickly.
Does the Badge Show for All Premium Tiers?
Not all Premium accounts look the same. LinkedIn has four distinct paid tiers, and each has a slightly different badge treatment:
- Premium Career: Displays the standard gold “in” badge. This is LinkedIn’s entry-level paid plan, primarily aimed at job seekers.
- Premium Business: Also displays the gold “in” badge. It looks identical to Premium Career on the surface. The only way to know which specific plan someone has is if they tell you or if you have access to additional signals (more on that in the next section).
- Sales Navigator: Displays a distinct gold badge, but it has a slightly different icon style compared to Career and Business. On some interface versions, it shows a small compass or navigation icon in gold. The visual treatment still reads as “gold badge” but is noticeably different from the standard Premium badge when you compare them side by side.
- LinkedIn Recruiter: Uses a similar gold visual treatment to Sales Navigator. The badge distinguishes it from the free tier clearly, and in some views the Recruiter icon has a different fill or shape. Like Sales Navigator, it is still recognizably “not the standard blue LinkedIn badge” at a glance.
One thing worth knowing: the gold badge is on by default for Premium users, but LinkedIn gives members the option to turn it off. A Premium user who has hidden their badge will not show any visible indicator. This is not common, but it means the absence of a badge does not always mean no Premium subscription.
Open Profile: The Other Premium Signal Most People Miss
Most people checking for LinkedIn Premium look for the badge and stop there. That misses something more useful: the Open Profile setting. Open Profile is a feature available exclusively to LinkedIn Premium members. When a Premium user enables it, anyone on LinkedIn can send them a free InMail message regardless of whether they are connected. No InMail credit required. No connection request needed first.
What Open Profile Means for Your Outreach
If a prospect has Open Profile turned on, you can send them a direct message for free even if they are a complete stranger. This is a real operational difference. InMail credits cost money. They are limited per month depending on your subscription tier. Spending one on someone who has Open Profile enabled is an unnecessary cost. The message would have been free.
The Open Profile indicator appears in two places on a profile:
- Below the name and headline: On some profile layouts, particularly on desktop, you will see the text “Open Profile” displayed as a small label near the top of the profile, below the headline or within the profile action buttons area.
- In the message button area: When you go to message someone who has Open Profile, LinkedIn sometimes surfaces this before you start writing. The prompt or button may indicate that you can send a free InMail.
The label is not as visually prominent as the gold badge. You do have to look for it, but once you know where to look, it takes about two seconds to spot.
Open Profile vs. InMail Eligibility: What Is the Difference?
These are two different things and it is worth being clear about both.
InMail eligibility refers to whether LinkedIn’s system allows you to send a paid InMail to a specific person. Some free account holders and some Premium users have settings that restrict InMails. Open Profile is a separate toggle that Premium users can enable. When it is on, it bypasses the InMail credit system entirely, making the message free for the sender.
A person can be a Premium user without Open Profile enabled. In that case, messaging them outside of a connection still costs an InMail credit. And a person can be a free LinkedIn user (no Premium) and still be reachable via InMail if your subscription allows it, but that costs a credit. Open Profile specifically removes that cost for whoever is trying to reach the Open Profile user.
How to Check Before Messaging
The practical habit is straightforward: before you hit “Send InMail,” visit the person’s profile. Scroll just below their name and headline and look for the Open Profile label. If it is there, send a free InMail. If it is not there, either send a connection request or spend an InMail credit with intention.
What You Can Infer About Someone Based on Their Premium Tier
The badge tells you someone is paying for LinkedIn. The tier tells you something about why they are paying, and that changes how you should approach them.
Premium Career: Job Seeker or Career-Focused Individual
Premium Career is LinkedIn’s lowest-cost paid plan. Its features center on job applications, specifically the ability to see how you compare to other applicants, access to LinkedIn Learning courses, and visibility into who viewed your profile. People on Premium Career are most often in active job search mode or trying to build their professional profile for career advancement.
For B2B outreach, this matters. Someone on Premium Career is probably not in a position to make purchasing decisions. They may be between roles, looking for a new job while still employed, or focused on personal career growth rather than business development. That does not mean they are unreachable or unworthy of a message, but it does mean your pitch should account for where they are. If your product or service is relevant to job seekers or career development, Premium Career users are a logical audience. If you are selling B2B software to decision-makers, they are a lower-priority signal.
Premium Business: Professional Actively Investing in Networking
Premium Business includes expanded LinkedIn search beyond the free search limit, the ability to see who viewed your profile in full (going back further than the free tier allows), and unlimited people browsing. Someone paying for Premium Business is using LinkedIn as a business development or networking tool. They are not just there for job searching.
This is a higher commercial intent signal than Premium Career. These are people who have decided LinkedIn is valuable enough to pay for as a professional network. They are more likely to be active on the platform, more likely to read messages, and more likely to engage with relevant outreach.
Sales Navigator: They Are Running Outreach Themselves
Sales Navigator is the most commercially significant badge you can see on a prospect’s profile. It is an expensive tool, typically several hundred dollars per month per seat, and its entire purpose is prospecting. Someone with a Sales Navigator badge is actively using LinkedIn to find and contact potential clients or partners. They know exactly how the outreach game works because they are playing it.
This has two implications for how you write to them. First, they will see through any generic template immediately. They review inbound messages critically because they write outbound messages themselves. Second, a peer-to-peer angle lands better than a vendor-to-prospect angle. Referencing their outreach context, acknowledging they are in the same sales world, or getting straight to a specific and relevant point will outperform a boilerplate introduction. Be direct. Be specific.
LinkedIn Recruiter: Talent Acquisition Professional
A LinkedIn Recruiter badge means the person is using LinkedIn specifically for hiring. LinkedIn Recruiter is a specialized product for talent acquisition teams, and it costs significantly more than Premium Business or even Sales Navigator. Someone with this badge is almost certainly in a recruiting or HR role, or they are a founder or executive managing hiring directly.
If you sell tools, services, or anything relevant to talent acquisition, this is a clear signal. If your offer has nothing to do with hiring, sourcing, or HR, this badge should lower this person’s priority in your outreach queue.
Why the Tier Matters for Message Framing
The frame of your message should reflect what you know about where that person is investing their LinkedIn attention. Writing to someone with Sales Navigator as though they have never thought about LinkedIn outreach is a fast way to get ignored. Writing to a Premium Career user about enterprise software procurement is just as misaligned. The badge is free information about the person’s context. Use it.
Where to Look for the Premium Badge Across Different LinkedIn Surfaces
Knowing the badge exists is one thing. Knowing exactly where to look on each surface is what saves you time when you are moving through a list of 50 prospects in a session.
On the Profile Page (Desktop)
On a desktop browser, open any profile. The badge appears to the right of the person’s name in the top section of the profile, above the headline. It is small, approximately the size of a standard favicon, and gold in color. You do not need to scroll down. It is in the first thing that loads on the page.
If the name is long and wraps to a second line, the badge stays on the first line immediately after the last character of the name. It does not move to a new line.
In LinkedIn Search Results
Run any search on LinkedIn, whether by name, job title, company, or keyword. Each result card shows a thumbnail photo, name, headline, and location. The gold badge appears directly next to the name within the card. You can scan a full page of 10 search results in seconds and identify Premium users without clicking into a single profile. This is useful when you are prospecting and want to flag Premium users before building your outreach list.
In LinkedIn Messaging and Inbox
When you open a direct message thread with someone, their name appears at the top of the conversation panel along with their current job title. The Premium badge shows up next to their name here too. This is useful if you are going back through old conversations and want to flag who currently has Premium. The badge reflects their current subscription status, not what they had when you first messaged them.
In “People You May Know” and Alumni Sections
LinkedIn surfaces prospects in several organic recommendation sections: “People You May Know,” the alumni search tool on university pages, and “People Also Viewed” on profiles. The Premium badge appears in these cards too. This matters if you are prospecting via LinkedIn’s recommendation engine rather than just active search.
What If There Is No Badge? Reading a Non-Premium Profile Correctly
No badge does not mean the person is inactive, less credible, or a lower-quality prospect. Many senior executives, founders, and highly active LinkedIn users stay on free accounts. LinkedIn’s free tier allows posting, commenting, connecting, and messaging within your network without paying anything. Some people have simply decided the paid features are not worth it for how they use the platform.
What you can look at instead to gauge activity on a free account:
- Recent posts: If someone has posted in the last two to four weeks, they are active on the platform and are likely checking notifications and messages.
- Endorsements and recommendations: Recent endorsements or recommendations suggest ongoing professional engagement on LinkedIn.
- Profile completeness: A fully filled-out profile with a current photo, detailed experience, and recent activity is a better activity signal than any subscription badge.
- Comment activity: If you can see them commenting on posts in your feed or in shared groups, they are active regardless of their subscription status.
Using Premium Signals as an Outreach Filter at Scale
At the individual level, checking for a Premium badge is a five-second step. At scale, across 100 or 500 prospects at a time, turning that signal into a systematic filter changes how efficiently you allocate outreach resources, specifically InMail credits and connection request volume.
Why Premium Users Deserve Priority in Your Queue
LinkedIn Premium users pay between roughly $40 and $170 per month depending on the tier. The act of paying for the platform says something specific: they consider LinkedIn worth investing in. That predisposition makes them more likely to check their notifications, read their messages, and engage with relevant outreach. Free users can absolutely be just as responsive, but as a probabilistic filter, Premium is a reasonable proxy for platform engagement.
Sales Navigator users in particular represent the highest-engagement segment you will encounter. They log in regularly because their tool is subscription-based and tied to active prospecting or account management workflows.
Building a Prospect List Filter Around Premium Indicators
LinkedIn’s own Sales Navigator has built-in filters that can surface Premium users. Within Sales Navigator’s advanced search, you can filter leads by account type and engagement signals, which includes identifying users who are themselves using Sales Navigator. This is one of the fastest ways to build a list of high-intent, platform-active prospects without manually checking each profile.
When you are building outreach lists outside of Sales Navigator, such as from a CSV import or a third-party data source, you can note Premium status manually during profile review. A simple tagging system works: flag each contact as Premium (badge visible), Open Profile (free InMail available), or Standard (free tier, no visible badge). This lets you route your outreach correctly from the start.
In your prospect CRM, noting Premium status helps with one specific tactical decision: InMail vs. connection request. Open Profile users get a free InMail. Non-connected Premium Business or Sales Navigator users without Open Profile are good InMail candidates if the message is tight and relevant. Free-tier users get a connection request with a short note, since you cannot send them a paid InMail unless you have the credits and the connection attempt fails.
If you are managing outreach across multiple LinkedIn accounts, tracking Premium signals per prospect inside a unified CRM, like Dealsflow’s Prospect CRM with warmth scoring, lets you prioritize InMail credits toward non-connected Premium users with Open Profile and route connection requests toward everyone else. The outcome is fewer wasted credits and more booked calls from the same outreach volume.
When Premium Status Should Not Change Your Outreach Approach
Filtering too hard on Premium status is a mistake. The majority of your ICP probably does not have a Premium subscription. If you only contact Premium users, you are cutting yourself off from a large portion of qualified prospects who simply do not pay for the badge.
Premium status is a prioritization signal, not a qualification filter. Use it to decide how to contact someone (InMail vs. connection request) and how to frame the message (peer-to-peer for Sales Navigator, more educational for Premium Career). Do not use it to decide whether someone is worth contacting at all. The message quality, the relevance of your offer, and the specificity of your targeting matter far more than whether someone pays for Premium.
Conclusion
Checking for LinkedIn Premium comes down to two visual signals: the gold badge and the Open Profile indicator. Both are visible without clicking anything extra, both take under five seconds to spot, and both tell you something specific and useful before you write a single word of your outreach.
The gold badge tells you the person is an active LinkedIn investor. The specific tier, if distinguishable, tells you their context: job seeker, business networker, or fellow sales operator. The Open Profile indicator tells you the message is free, so there is no reason to spend an InMail credit. And the absence of any badge tells you to judge activity by other signals, like recent posts, profile completeness, and comment behavior.
Put these together and you have a fast, repeatable pre-outreach check that routes your messages correctly, protects your InMail budget, and gives you the framing you need before you start typing. That is the whole system. Five seconds per profile, consistently applied, adds up to a meaningfully better use of your outreach resources over any month of prospecting.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What does the LinkedIn Premium badge look like?
The LinkedIn Premium badge is a small gold square icon with a lowercase “in” inside it, displayed in gold rather than the standard LinkedIn blue. It appears directly to the right of the person’s name on their profile page, in search result cards, in the messaging window, and on hover cards. It is the same shape as the standard LinkedIn logo but distinguishable by its gold color.
2. Can someone hide their LinkedIn Premium badge?
Yes. LinkedIn gives Premium subscribers the option to turn off the badge display. A member who has disabled it will not show any visible Premium indicator on their profile. This means the absence of a gold badge does not confirm that someone is on a free account. It is uncommon for users to hide the badge, but it does happen, particularly among users who prefer not to signal their subscription status publicly.
3. Does LinkedIn Premium show in search results?
Yes. When you run a search on LinkedIn, each result card includes the person’s name, headline, and location. If the person has Premium and has not hidden their badge, the gold “in” icon appears inline next to their name within the search result card. You can scan a full page of results and identify Premium users without opening individual profiles.
4. What is LinkedIn Open Profile and how do I see it?
Open Profile is a setting available only to LinkedIn Premium subscribers. When enabled, it allows anyone on LinkedIn to send that person a free InMail message, even without a connection. The indicator appears on the profile page, usually below the person’s headline or near the message and connect buttons. You can also see it when you initiate a message: LinkedIn will indicate the message is free before you send it if Open Profile is active.
5. Can I message a LinkedIn Premium user for free?
Only if they have Open Profile enabled. Open Profile is a Premium feature that allows anyone to send a free InMail. Without it, messaging a non-connection (Premium or not) requires either a connection request or a paid InMail credit. The Premium badge alone does not give you free messaging access. Open Profile is the specific feature that removes the credit cost.
6. What is the difference between Premium Career and Premium Business badges?
Visually, the badges look the same: both show the gold “in” icon next to the person’s name. The difference is in what the plans are built for. Premium Career targets job seekers, with features like applicant comparison tools and LinkedIn Learning. Premium Business targets professionals focused on networking and business development, with expanded search and fuller profile view history. You cannot tell which plan someone has just from the badge. You would need them to tell you, or infer it from their profile context.
7. Does Sales Navigator show as a Premium badge?
Yes, but it looks slightly different from the standard Premium Career or Premium Business badge. Sales Navigator has its own distinct icon treatment in gold, which in some LinkedIn interface versions shows a slightly different symbol or fill compared to the standard badge. It is still clearly a gold, non-standard badge, and it indicates a Sales Navigator subscription rather than a standard Premium plan. If you are familiar with what the standard Premium badge looks like, the Sales Navigator version is noticeably different on close inspection.
8. How do I know if someone’s Premium has lapsed?
There is no lapsed-Premium indicator on LinkedIn profiles. If someone cancels their Premium subscription, the gold badge simply disappears from their profile. There is no historical badge or “formerly Premium” marker. If you checked a profile weeks ago and saw a badge, and now it is gone, it is most likely that the subscription was cancelled or the badge display was turned off.
9. Should I prioritize outreach to LinkedIn Premium users?
Premium status is a reasonable prioritization signal, not a hard qualification filter. Premium users are more likely to be active on the platform since they are paying for it, which improves the odds that your message gets seen. Sales Navigator users specifically are a high-intent signal worth prioritizing. That said, most of your ICP is probably not Premium. If you filter exclusively to Premium users, you will miss a large portion of qualified prospects. Use Premium status to inform how you contact someone (InMail vs. connection request) and how you frame the message, not to decide whether they are worth contacting at all.