At a glance
| Feature | Job Puffin | LinkedIn Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Paid plan | From $12 a month billed quarterly, or $15 month to month | Premium Career $39.99 a month, or $239.88 a year ($19.99 a month) |
| Free plan | 50 job assessments with every feature, no card, no time limit | LinkedIn itself: the search, the postings and applying, without the Premium insights |
| Ranks a whole LinkedIn search against your CV | Every posting in the search scored, and the inbox sorted best first | A filter for jobs where you would be a top applicant, judged on your profile against the posting and the other candidates |
| Scores one posting against your CV | Out of 100 on seven criteria, each with its reason, and a word on whether to apply | An AI insight on how well you fit a posting you open, with tips for the application |
| Explains why a job scored as it did | A sentence on each of the seven criteria, and the posting quoted for a dealbreaker | Tips on the fit and where your background gives an advantage; no criteria or scores its site describes |
| Checks your dealbreakers | Your musts checked against the posting's own words; a broken one is flagged with the quote | Not a feature its site describes |
| Job tracker | A pipeline from shortlist to closed, with notes and a timeline | Saved and applied jobs are listed; no stages or notes |
| CV builder and tailoring | Works from the CV you already have | An AI writing assistant for your profile, not your CV |
| Fills in applications | Never applies for you: every application is your own | Easy Apply on LinkedIn's own postings; nothing on company sites |
| Drafts a message to the hiring team | A first message to the people named on the posting, ready for you to send | Five InMail credits a month, and AI drafts of the message |
LinkedIn Premium's plans and features as its own site described them on 29 October 2026, prices in US dollars before tax. They change, so check LinkedIn Premium's pricing before you buy, and tell us if something here is out of date.
What LinkedIn Premium Career is
Premium Career is LinkedIn's subscription for job seekers. On the search it adds filters for jobs where you would be a top applicant, among the top half of candidates by LinkedIn's reckoning of your profile against the posting and the other applicants, and a way to mark a posting as a top choice so the hirer sees it. On a posting it gives an AI insight on how well you fit, with tips for the application.
The rest is about standing out: five InMail credits a month to message people outside your network, AI drafts for those messages, a year of who viewed your profile, an AI assistant for writing your profile, and LinkedIn Learning's courses.
What Job Puffin does that Premium doesn't
Premium's judgement is one posting at a time, and it is LinkedIn's judgement of your profile.Job Puffin judges the whole search against your CV: the Chrome extension sends every posting on the results page in one click, each is scored out of 100 on seven criteria with a sentence on each, and the inbox lists them best first. You read the top of the list, not every description.
It also checks your musts. A posting that contradicts one in its own words, an office five days a week when you need remote, a contract when you want permanent, is flagged with the quote and sorted below the rest, rather than scored as a middling fit. A top applicant filter tells you where you would be noticed; it does not tell you whether you would want the job.
The jobs you pursue go into a pipeline with notes, and Job Puffin drafts a first message to the people named on the posting, for you to send however you like. It never messages anyone for you.
What it costs
Job Puffin Plus is $15 a month, or $12 a month billed quarterly, for 300 assessments a month; Pro, with unlimited assessments, is $24. Premium Career is $39.99 a month, or $239.88 for a year, which is $19.99 a month paid up front for twelve months of a search that may be over in three.
LinkedIn's free account is enough for Job Puffin: the search, the postings and applying are all free, and the extension reads them as they are. Job Puffin's own free plan scores 50 jobs with every feature and no card.
When Premium still makes sense
- You want to message recruiters and hiring managers outside your network, by InMail.
- Being seen is the problem: you want to know who is looking at your profile and to be marked as a top applicant on the postings you apply to.
- You want LinkedIn Learning's courses alongside the search.
Which to choose
If your search is slow because recruiters are not finding you, Premium is built for that, and the two sit together: Job Puffin on the search, Premium on the profile. If it is slow because you are reading hundreds of postings to find the few worth applying for, Job Puffin does that work on the free account for well under half the price, and the first fifty jobs are free, so you can see on your own search whether the ratings hold up.
Questions
- Do I need LinkedIn Premium to use Job Puffin?
- No. Job Puffin's extension reads the results of a search on a free LinkedIn account. Premium changes what LinkedIn shows you and who can see you; it changes nothing about what Job Puffin does.
- Is Job Puffin cheaper than LinkedIn Premium?
- Yes, at the time of writing. Premium Career is $39.99 a month, or $239.88 for a year; Job Puffin's paid plans start at $15 a month, or $12 a month by the quarter, and the first 50 assessments are free.
- Does LinkedIn Premium rank jobs against my CV?
- In part. It filters for jobs where you would be a top applicant, judged on your profile against the posting and the other candidates, and gives an AI insight on your fit for a posting you open. Job Puffin scores every posting in the search on seven criteria, with the reasons, and checks your dealbreakers.
