LinkedIn 30K connections limit

LinkedIn applies a 30,000 limit to the number of 1st-level connections you can make.

You can have an unlimited number of followers but this hard limit of connections applies to everyone. Why?

• The backstory to the 30K limit
• The practical issues with a 30K limit

The backstory to the 30K limit.

The limit is in place because of the way that LinkedIn’s levels of connection work, and the organisation’s desire/need to monetise the network.

The simplified way to look at it is to say that if there were no limit on the number of connections you had, you could potentially connect with the whole LinkedIn database and reach everyone through your posts.

On the other hand, applying a limit means that LinkedIn can then charge you for the ability to search for anyone or for your content to break past your regular network.

The more technical answer here relates to a patent that Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn’s founder) and a business partner acquired for about $700,000.

Patent US6175831B1 was filed in January 1997, granted in January 2001, and is often called the original “social network patent”.

The fascinating side note is that the patent was snatched up narrowly ahead of Mark Zuckerberg. Had Zuck prevailed, Facebook would have been quite a different platform.

Here’s some of what that patent sets out:

• The friend request: You have a database of people linked by named relationships (“friend”, “colleague”, etc.). The other person has to confirm or deny each link, so connections are mutual.
• Invites that grow the network: You grow by inviting people into your network. They in turn import contacts, spread the word, and connect with others, and the whole database gets bigger. Every link is mapped, the system can show how you’re connected to someone through people you both know. LinkedIn’s 1st/2nd/3rd connections follow directly from this.
• Your network as the product: The mappings of relationships are important for search, and they inform things like “People you may know”. If you want to get a job or hire people, the mappings become valuable.

One of the most knowledgeable independent LinkedIn experts in the world – Kevin D Turner – talked about this subject at the UpLift Live 24 conference. You can get access to all the conference talks via the UpLift Live Recordings page.

Patent US6175831B1 expired 20 years after it was filed, in January 2017, so anyone can now use the basic “mutually confirmed connections” model.

LinkedIn are still in the driving seat, though, as the platform has been around since 2003 and now has a reported 1.4 billion members. See my LinkedIn membership tracker to see my more meaningful estimate of how many actual active users there are.

Even though I rely on LinkedIn for my income, a small part of me would love to see a meaningful competitor join the market. I doubt that will happen, and most white-collar jobs will probably be gone soon anyway (but let’s not get too dark here).

The practical issues with a 30K limit.

At the time of writing, I have a little over 10K connections on LinkedIn, and a little over 48K followers. I’ve explained the differences between followers and connections in another piece.

Having been highly active on the platform since 2017, I’m not going to reach 30K connections (the official limit as confirmed in this LinkedIn help article) until we’re close to the heat death of the universe, so I’m not personally affected by the limit.

However, the limit can still affect us because it has an impact on whether we can connect with people who have big networks.

I recently posted an example of this from a snippet of my own profile:

If you visit my profile, you’ll see that LinkedIn shows I have 500+ connections. Scroll down the profile and you’ll see my much larger follower count.

Terminology is important here. Remember: you’re allowed to have 30K connections but an unlimited number of followers.

So, if I have 48K followers, does that mean I’ve reached the 30K connections limit?

Well, no. As above, I have only about 10K connections. BUT, LinkedIn doesn’t reveal that connection number, as anything above 500 is always reported generically as “500+”.

This means that someone looking at my profile has no idea of how many connections I really have, but seeing a relatively high follower count might lead them to conclude that I must have 30K and therefore they wouldn’t be able to connect with me.

This isn’t true in my case, but it will be in the cases of other people with chunky followings.

When someone reaches 30K connections, LinkedIn will display the Follow button on their profile, with the Connect button moving into the More menu. This isn’t a telltale sign, though, because a lot of people choose to display the Follow button by default anyway.

You can make your own choice about displaying a Follow or Connect button as default via this Settings & Privacy page. Look for the “Make follow primary” slider to make a change. I assume the slider is hidden or disabled if you have 30K connections, as the Follow button has to be shown as primary in that case.

Even though you can’t connect with someone who has 30K connections, there shouldn’t be anything stopping you from sending them an invitation. That invitation sits in a sort of LinkedIn purgatory, where the recipient can’t accept it until such time as they have removed someone from their existing 30K 1st-level network. It’s basically a “one in, one out” system when you’re maxed out like this.

People with LinkedIn Premium can receive free messages from anyone, because of a default Premium feature called Open Profile.

This means that if you’re trying to reach someone who has a Premium account, and the size of their network means you don’t think you’re going to be able to connect with them, you could instead send them a free message via their profile.

If you’re in this position as someone trying to message another person who has a big following, I would also recommend trying to grab their attention via a comment on one of their posts. If you do this well, then any message you send via the person’s profile has a slightly greater chance of being seen as genuine rather than some spammy attempt to sell something.

Let’s wrap up.

LinkedIn is different from other social media because of this model of 1st/2nd/3rd connections and the 30K connections limit. It means you need to be mindful when trying to connect with someone who has a very large following, but there are ways and means around that.

Despite having a decent following, my account’s 1st-level network is still only at about one-third of capacity. So, feel free to ask to connect and let’s talk about nerdy LinkedIn stuff.