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LinkedIn Sales Navigator (2026): what it is, key features, and how to use it

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is LinkedIn's paid prospecting tool for B2B sellers. It adds a lead and account search with 50+ filters, saved searches with alerts on job changes, lead lists, 50 InMail credits a month, and on higher plans TeamLink and CRM sync. Core starts at US$119.99 a month per seat.

It is a strong tool for a rep working a territory by hand and a weak one for pulling lists into email or a CRM. Below: what each feature does, how to build a search that works, how teams connect it to Clay and HeyReach, LinkedIn's rules on scraping, and when you can skip it.

By Garrett Wolfe, founder of OneGTM (Clay Artisan Solutions Partner) and former GTM engineer at Unify. Updated .

Key takeaways

  • Sales Navigator adds lead and account search, alerts, lists, and InMail on top of your LinkedIn account. Each seat is tied to one person.
  • Plans: Core, Advanced, and Advanced Plus. TeamLink starts at Advanced, CRM sync at Advanced Plus (LinkedIn compare plans page, checked November 8, 2026).
  • Build searches from an account list first, then search for people inside it.
  • There is no CSV export or list API. Exporters and outreach tools that run on your session break LinkedIn's User Agreement and put the account at risk.
  • If your lists are built in bulk for email, people search APIs usually do the job without a seat.

What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is LinkedIn's paid prospecting tool for B2B sellers. It sits on top of your normal LinkedIn account and gives you a separate search for leads (people) and accounts (companies), with more filters than free LinkedIn search, plus lists, alerts, InMail credits, and on the higher plans CRM integration.

LinkedIn sells it in three plans: Core, Advanced, and Advanced Plus. Each seat belongs to one person's LinkedIn profile. Everything you save, from searches to lead lists to notes, lives inside LinkedIn, which matters later when you want that data somewhere else. Prices and plan differences are on the Sales Navigator pricing page.

Who Sales Navigator is for

LinkedIn itself positions Core for individual sellers, Advanced for sales teams, and Advanced Plus for teams that run an integrated CRM. In practice the people who get the most out of a seat are account executives and SDRs who work a defined territory or account list by hand: they check their alerts in the morning, look at who changed jobs or posted, and send a few thoughtful connection requests or InMails.

It fits less well when one person needs to build lists of thousands of contacts for email, or when an ops team wants LinkedIn data flowing into a CRM or warehouse on a schedule. Sales Navigator was built for a seller looking at a screen, and its limits show up quickly once you try to use it as a data source.

Key Sales Navigator features

This is what you get, checked against LinkedIn's Sales Navigator product page and compare plans page on November 8, 2026.

  • Lead and account search filters. LinkedIn lists 50+ filters, including function, seniority level, years at company, and experience for leads, and company filters such as headcount, industry, and location for accounts. You can search leads only within a saved account list, which is the most useful filter in the product.
  • Saved searches and alerts. Save a search and Sales Navigator surfaces new people who match it. Alerts tell you when a saved lead changes jobs or roles, and on Advanced and up when people at an account engage with your company's content or ads, or when a colleague updates a shared list.
  • Lead and account lists. Custom lists group leads and accounts so you can work them, add notes, and on Advanced share them with your team.
  • TeamLink. On Advanced and Advanced Plus, TeamLink shows when a colleague is connected to a lead, so you can ask for a warm introduction instead of writing cold.
  • InMail credits. Every plan includes 50 InMail credits a month for messaging people you are not connected to. Per LinkedIn's InMail help page, unused credits carry over up to 150 and expire after 90 days, and an InMail that gets a reply within 90 days refunds its credit.
  • CRM sync. Advanced Plus connects to Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle and others, so you can create leads and contacts in the CRM from Sales Navigator and see LinkedIn data inside CRM records. Core and Advanced do not include this.
  • AI research. Account IQ and Lead IQ summarize a company or a person, and Message Assist drafts outreach. LinkedIn's comparison table ticks Account IQ and Lead IQ on every plan, while its product page lists Account IQ under Advanced and Advanced Plus, so check the plan you are buying.

How Sales Navigator fits an outbound stack

Sales Navigator has no CSV export and no public API for list building. The only built-in way to move leads out is the Advanced Plus CRM integration. Teams that run outbound at volume usually connect it to the rest of the stack in one of these ways:

  • Search URL into a LinkedIn outreach tool. HeyReach and similar tools import a Sales Navigator search URL or lead list and run connection requests and messages from it. HeyReach vs Expandi and LinkedIn automation tools compare the options.
  • Exporter into Clay or a CRM. Browser extensions such as Evaboot, Wiza, and Lix pull a search into a CSV with emails, which then goes into Clay for enrichment and scoring. LinkedIn scrapers covers these tools and their risks, and Clay pricing covers what the enrichment step costs.
  • Skip the seat for list building. People search APIs and databases can recreate most Sales Navigator filters without touching anyone's LinkedIn account. Sales Navigator alternatives lists them with pricing.

Know LinkedIn's rules before you pick a route. Its prohibited software page says LinkedIn does not permit third-party software, including browser extensions, that scrapes or automates activity on its website, and Section 8.2 of the User Agreement bans scraping and automated messaging. Members who use these tools risk having their accounts restricted or shut down. Exporters and outreach tools that run on your session are widely used anyway, so if you use them, keep daily volumes modest and never put a seller's main account at risk for a list you could have bought.

When you don't need Sales Navigator

You can skip the seat when your outbound is mostly email and you already have a contact data provider, when lists are built by an ops person or in code rather than by the rep who sends, or when you only need LinkedIn data in bulk. In those cases you pay per seat for a search you then have to work around.

At OneGTM we build most LinkedIn lists without a seat, through people search APIs in Deepline and AI Ark, then run LinkedIn outreach in HeyReach. When a client already has Sales Navigator, HeyReach imports their saved search URL, so the seat they pay for still gets used. If you want a second opinion on your setup, B2B prospecting tools shows the wider stack, or book a call below.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator FAQ

What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is LinkedIn's paid prospecting tool for sellers. It adds lead and account search with 50+ filters, saved searches with alerts, lead and account lists, 50 InMail credits a month, and on higher plans TeamLink and CRM integration. It runs on your own LinkedIn account and is sold per seat.
How much does LinkedIn Sales Navigator cost?
As listed on LinkedIn's compare plans page on November 8, 2026: Core is US$119.99 a month or US$1,079.88 a year, Advanced is US$159.99 a month or US$1,799.88 a year, and Advanced Plus is priced by quote. Prices differ by currency and can exclude tax. See the full Sales Navigator pricing breakdown.
Is LinkedIn Sales Navigator worth it?
It is worth it for a rep who prospects by hand on LinkedIn every day and uses the alerts, saved searches, and InMail. It is usually poor value if the main goal is pulling large lists into email or a CRM, because it has no list export or API and caps how far you can page through a search.
Can you export leads from Sales Navigator?
Sales Navigator has no CSV export for lead or account searches. Advanced Plus can add leads and accounts to a connected CRM. Teams that want a spreadsheet use third-party exporters or have a LinkedIn outreach tool import a search URL, and those tools run on your LinkedIn session, which LinkedIn's User Agreement prohibits.
How many InMails do you get with Sales Navigator?
Every Sales Navigator plan gets 50 InMail credits a month. Unused credits carry over up to a total of 150 and must be used within 90 days, and you get a credit back for each InMail that receives a response within 90 days. You cannot buy extra credits.
Is there a free trial of Sales Navigator?
Yes. LinkedIn offers a free trial of Core and Advanced that turns into a paid subscription one month after it starts. You need a payment method, and you are only eligible if you have no paid LinkedIn subscription and have not used a LinkedIn free trial in the past 365 days.
Do you need Sales Navigator for LinkedIn outreach?
No. A LinkedIn outreach tool can message people from any list, and people search APIs can build that list without a seat. Sales Navigator helps most when a person is doing the searching and messaging by hand.

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