LinkedIn Job Posting Cost 2026: Free vs. Promoted, with a Team-of-3 Example

Posting a job on LinkedIn is free for one open role at a time; a promoted post has no fixed price, you set a daily or total budget and pay per click. LinkedIn's own example is $10 a day for 30 days, so $300 or less per role, and LinkedIn names no minimum budget. A team of three with three open roles therefore plans for about $900 a month at that example budget, plus the screening time that no option includes (LinkedIn pricing page and billing help, checked 30 October 2026).

LinkedIn job posting cost at a glance (October 2026)

LinkedIn publishes no rate card for promoted jobs, so the table lists what LinkedIn does state and marks everything else as outside figures.

How promoted-post billing works

You set a daily or total budget. LinkedIn recommends a figure from job title, location and market activity, and you can go below it at the price of less reach. The cost per click is simply total spend divided by candidate views, and it cannot be known until the job is live; it moves daily with demand, which is why two similar posts bill differently. LinkedIn never charges more than your budget (excluding tax), and unused daily budget rolls over to the next day.

• Not billed: your own views, repeat views by the same person, views by people who are not signed in, and views by LinkedIn employees.
• When you are charged: every 30 days from the first post, when the balance reaches $500, and after a job closes. The pricing page says within 48 hours of closing, the billing help says within 24 hours; plan for the shorter one.
• Daily budget keeps running: a post with a daily budget does not end by itself; it bills until you close it, and every promoted post closes after six months at the latest.
• No way back to free: a promoted post cannot be switched back. To repost the same title within seven days you have to promote it again.
• Failed payment: all affected promotions stop and you must repost.

business.linkedin.com

LinkedIn Talent Solutions product page, as of September 2026.

Worked example: a team of three with three open roles

Assumptions (replace them with your own after a first week): three roles, each at LinkedIn's example budget of $10 a day for 30 days, so $300 per role and $900 in total. A cost per click of $3, which is our assumption because LinkedIn names none, gives about 100 clicks per role. One click in twelve becomes an application, about 8 per role, and a quarter of those are qualified, about 2 per role.

The ad cost is only part of it. Screening 25 applications, shortlisting and interviewing is your team's time, and none of the three LinkedIn options covers it. If one assumption moves, the cost per hire moves with it: a click price twice as high halves the applicants for the same money.

What an ad does not include: extra costs

• Recruiter and InMail. The post price does not include a Recruiter seat or InMails; those are separate contracts. Market reports put Recruiter Lite at roughly $140 to $170 per seat and month, see our LinkedIn Recruiter pricing guide.
• Screening and ATS. Applications arrive as a pile, not a shortlist. Time per application is your largest hidden cost.
• Job Slots. Sold as a contract; ask for the price per slot and the renewal terms before you sign.
• Tax. LinkedIn quotes budgets excluding tax; your invoice adds VAT where it applies.

When searching costs less than advertising

An ad reaches people who are looking or who are shown the post. For a narrow role the matching people mostly are not looking, so the same money buys little. Sprad turns this around: you describe the person in plain language, and Atlas checks every profile against your requirements instead of matching keywords, which is why a Quick Search returns in seconds and a deep search takes a few minutes. One search covers LinkedIn, XING, GitHub and your own talent pool, and outreach by LinkedIn and e-mail runs from one inbox, so nobody is contacted twice.

The same team on Sprad: a web search costs 2 credits per displayed profile and never more than the run's budget. A Normal run is 100 credits for up to 50 qualified profiles, which is about 9 € at the Base credit price of 0.09 €. Twelve Normal runs a month for three recruiters are 1,200 credits, about 108 €, for up to 600 profiles. Or take three Recruiter Lite seats at 237 € a month with 500 profiles each included. Those are profiles, not answers: you still write to them, and the outreach agent is an add-on of 2,000 credits per account on Lite (about 180 € a month) and included for one account per Atlas Recruiter seat. In the Recruiting area of the PeopleSearchBench, Atlas ranks first with 73.5 out of 100, ahead of Juicebox at 65.7 (published by Lessie, October 2026; other systems' scores as published in the benchmark, Atlas measured with the benchmark's open test procedure).

Fair limits: Sprad has no AI call notetaker and no placement reporting, the deep search takes a few minutes, and Atlas Recruiter at 299 € per seat costs more than some seat tools. Compared with separate Recruiter licences at LinkedIn and XING, Sprad costs 30 to 80 percent less, depending on how many licences you still carry. See people search and the pricing models for sourcing software.

When the ad stays the cheaper choice

For high-volume roles in retail, logistics or entry-level hiring, active job seekers arrive on their own, a total budget caps the spend, and a free post may already be enough. If a role gets more applications than your team can read, extra outreach adds effort, not outcome. The balance shifts to direct search when the profile is narrow and the people are passive. The comparison of AI recruiting tools shows which tool fits which part of the funnel.

FAQ

Is posting a job on LinkedIn free?

Yes, for one open post at a time with basic targeting. A promoted post is paid per click against your budget (LinkedIn pricing page, 30 October 2026).

How much does a promoted LinkedIn job cost?

There is no rate card. LinkedIn's example is $10 a day for 30 days, which is $300 or less, and it names no minimum. Your actual cost per click is only known once the job runs.

When does LinkedIn charge my card?

Every 30 days from the first post, when your balance reaches $500, and after the job closes (LinkedIn billing help, 30 October 2026).

Can I turn a promoted post back into a free one?

No. Close it and post a new free one; repeating the same title within seven days needs a promotion again.

What are the extra costs besides the ad?

Recruiter seats and InMails, Job Slots on contract, tax, and above all the time to screen applications. On Sprad, extras are credits beyond the free 100 a month and the outreach add-on of 2,000 credits per account on Lite.

Is there a cheaper way for a team of three?

For high-volume roles a capped ad or a free post is often cheapest. For narrow roles, three Recruiter Lite seats at 237 € a month or a few credit-based searches usually cost less than three promoted posts at the example budget, as long as you factor in the outreach work.

What are Job Slots?

A contract that lets you keep several roles open, billed upfront, quarterly or monthly. LinkedIn shows no public price.