Is LinkedIn Premium Worth It for Students? (Honest Answer)
Is LinkedIn Premium worth it for students? We break down what you actually get, what it costs, and whether there are better ways to spend your money on your job search.
Is LinkedIn Premium Worth It for Students?
Every student job hunting eventually hits the same wall: LinkedIn pops up a banner saying "See who viewed your profile" or "Message this recruiter directly" — and suddenly you're wondering whether LinkedIn Premium is worth it for students.
Short answer: probably not. Long answer: it depends on how you're using LinkedIn and what you're actually trying to accomplish.
Here's an honest breakdown of what LinkedIn Premium Career gets you, what it actually costs, and whether there are smarter ways to spend that money when you're job hunting on a student budget.
What LinkedIn Premium for Students Actually Includes
LinkedIn Premium Career — the tier most students would consider — runs around $39.99/month. For a student who just finished finals and hasn't landed a job yet, that's real money. Here's what you actually get:
InMail Credits (5/month)
InMail lets you message people outside your network. Sounds useful. In practice, cold LinkedIn messages from students get low response rates — most recruiters are already flooded with messages through regular channels, and five messages a month doesn't move the needle.
"Who Viewed Your Profile" (Full List)
Free LinkedIn only shows you the last five profile viewers. Premium unlocks the full list. This can be useful if you're actively monitoring who's checking you out after you apply somewhere — but it's passive data, not action.
LinkedIn Learning
Unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning courses. If you're actively trying to pick up a new certification or skill, this is one of the more tangible benefits. That said, there are solid free alternatives (YouTube, Coursera free tiers, official documentation) for most in-demand topics.
Job Insights
See how your profile compares to other applicants and access hiring activity data for specific job postings. Sounds great until you're a student seeing "you're in the bottom 25% of applicants" for every role — which is mostly just demoralizing rather than actionable.
Open Profile Badge
A small gold badge on your photo that signals you're a Premium member. Whether this impresses anyone is debatable.
What LinkedIn Premium Doesn't Do for Students
This is the part the LinkedIn sales page buries.
It doesn't make recruiters reach out to you. You still need a strong profile, the right keywords, and a clear headline for that to happen. Premium just adds a badge.
It doesn't get your application seen faster. When you apply through LinkedIn Easy Apply, your application still lands in the same stack as every other candidate. The Premium badge doesn't bump you up any queue.
It doesn't increase your InMail response rate. Cold outreach on LinkedIn converts poorly for students without an established professional reputation. Five messages a month isn't a meaningful competitive edge.
It doesn't help you apply to more jobs. If your job search bottleneck is the number of applications going out — which it almost always is — LinkedIn Premium does nothing to fix that problem.
It doesn't fix your resume or cover letter. Premium surfaces data about how you compare to applicants; it doesn't improve the underlying application itself.
When LinkedIn Premium Is Actually Worth It for Students
There are specific scenarios where the investment makes sense:
- You're networking into one specific target company and need to reach out to five or more employees who aren't in your network
- You're in a field where LinkedIn is the dominant sourcing channel — investment banking, management consulting, and certain corporate roles where recruiters actively headhunt on LinkedIn
- You're getting a lot of profile views and want to follow up on companies that are clearly checking you out
- You already have an offer and want to use the salary insights to benchmark before negotiating
For most students applying to jobs broadly across industries and company sizes? You're spending $480 a year to see a bigger list of who visited your profile and get five cold messages nobody responds to.
The Real Problem LinkedIn Premium Doesn't Solve
The average job search for a new grad involves submitting 50–150+ applications before landing an offer. That's just where the market is right now — entry-level postings are down significantly from a few years ago, and every open role is flooded.
That volume is the real challenge. And the real drain isn't finding jobs — it's the hours spent copy-pasting your address into every form, re-uploading your resume for the dozenth time, and typing out "Why do you want to work here?" for a company you barely remember applying to.
LinkedIn Premium gives you analytics. It doesn't do the work.
That's exactly what Chiaro is built to fix.
Is LinkedIn Premium Worth It for Students? Here's What to Do Instead
Before dropping $40/month on profile analytics, consider what actually moves the needle: more applications going out, faster.
Chiaro is a free-to-try iOS app that auto-fills and auto-submits job applications on your behalf — directly to the employer's applicant tracking system (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, and more). You swipe on jobs from real companies. Chiaro fills out the application and submits it. You track your interviews and offers in one dashboard.
The math:
| Tool | Cost | What it does |
|------|------|--------------|
| LinkedIn Premium | ~$40/month | Shows you who viewed your profile |
| Chiaro | Free 7-day trial, then ~$20/month | Submits applications to real jobs while you sleep |
If you're a student trying to land more interviews, the question isn't really "is LinkedIn Premium worth it for students?" — it's "how do I get more quality applications out without burning out?"
LinkedIn Premium helps you see data. Chiaro helps you ship applications.
FAQs
Is LinkedIn Premium free for students?
LinkedIn does not offer a free version of LinkedIn Premium for students. There was a LinkedIn Learning student benefit available through some universities at various points, but LinkedIn Premium Career — the job search tier — is a paid product at approximately $39.99/month. Some accounts receive promotional offers for one to two months free, so it's worth checking your LinkedIn account for active promos before paying full price.
Does LinkedIn Premium help you get a job faster?
LinkedIn Premium gives you data and InMail credits, but it doesn't automatically speed up your job search timeline. Getting hired faster typically comes down to applying to more relevant positions, having a keyword-optimized resume, and following up strategically — none of which LinkedIn Premium directly helps with.
Is LinkedIn Premium worth it for entry-level job seekers?
For most entry-level job seekers, the answer is no. The Premium features — InMail, profile viewer data, competitive benchmarking — are most valuable for experienced professionals who are being actively headhunted. If you're in the mass-application phase of your job search, your money is better spent on tools that help you submit more applications efficiently.
What's better than LinkedIn Premium for students?
If you're a student job hunting aggressively, a job application automation tool does more to move the needle than LinkedIn Premium. Chiaro auto-fills and submits applications on your behalf so you can apply to dozens of jobs in the time it used to take to fill out three manually. It tracks your applications, interviews, and offers in one place — no spreadsheets required.
How do I cancel LinkedIn Premium?
Go to your LinkedIn account → Me → Settings & Privacy → Subscriptions & Payments → Manage Premium account → Cancel subscription. Do this at least 24 hours before your billing renewal date to avoid being charged for the next month.
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Stop filling out the same application 50 times.
Chiaro automates your job search — auto-filled, auto-submitted applications to real job postings, tailored to your profile. You swipe. Chiaro applies.