How to Withdraw a LinkedIn Connection Request (2 Ways)
My Network, Manage, Sent, then Withdraw. The person is not notified, but you can't invite them again for up to three weeks. Desktop and mobile steps.
Every connection request you send stays in your Sent list until the person accepts, ignores it or you take it back. If you prospect on LinkedIn, that list grows fast, and a long pile of unanswered invitations is one of the reasons LinkedIn gives for restricting an account. Here is how to withdraw a LinkedIn connection request, what happens afterwards, and which ones are worth withdrawing.
How to withdraw a connection request on desktop
- Click My Network at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
- In the Invitations section, click Show all if you have pending invitations you received, or Manage next to "No pending invitations" if you don't.
- Open the Sent tab under Manage invitations.
- Click Withdraw next to the person's name.
- Confirm by clicking Withdraw again in the pop-up window.
How to withdraw a connection request in the mobile app
- Tap the My Network tab in the navigation bar.
- Tap Invitations to see the ones you received and sent.
- Tap the Sent tab.
- Tap Withdraw next to the invitation, then confirm in the pop-up.
These steps come from LinkedIn's own Withdraw an invitation help page, which only describes withdrawing invitations one at a time from the Sent list.
Does the person know you withdrew the request?
No. LinkedIn says the recipient is not notified when you withdraw an invitation, and the reminder emails LinkedIn would otherwise send them stop as well.
One thing to know before you click: a withdrawal is final. LinkedIn states that withdrawn invitations can't be restored.
How long before you can send a new request to the same person?
Up to three weeks. According to LinkedIn, once you withdraw an invitation, you won't be able to send a new one to the same member for up to three weeks.
Withdrawing closes the door for up to three weeks. Withdraw your oldest requests, not the one you sent this morning with a typo in the note.
That last case is the classic trap. If you sent a request with a mistake, withdrawing it to send a corrected version right away won't work. Either leave it or accept that the corrected one will have to wait.
Your posts already get people to react. Makelead invites them, writes the first message and follows up, within 200 invitations per rolling 7 days.
Why clean up pending requests before a prospecting campaign
| With a long backlog of pending requests | After cleaning up | |
|---|---|---|
| Your acceptance rate | Dragged down by old requests that will never be accepted | Reflects the campaign you are running now |
| What LinkedIn sees | Lots of invitations sent, few answered | A backlog that matches your real activity |
| Your own tracking | Hard to tell which wave worked | Each batch can be compared with the last |
The second row matters most. LinkedIn's page on invitation restrictions lists invitations that are ignored or left pending among the causes of a restriction, and says that if you have too many outstanding invitations, you may have to wait up to one month before sending another. If that has already happened to you, read what to do when your LinkedIn account is restricted.
Cleaning up your backlog is not a reason to send more, though. How many requests you can safely send per day and per week is covered in our guide to the LinkedIn invitation limit.
Which requests should you withdraw?
Start with the oldest
The Sent tab shows how long ago each request went out. In our experience, a request that has gone unanswered for several weeks rarely gets accepted later, so those are the ones to withdraw first. LinkedIn doesn't publish a safe number of pending invitations, so rather than aim for a magic figure, make it a weekly habit: withdraw the oldest batch before you send a new one.
Better than withdrawing: get answered faster
A request that gets a reply doesn't sit in your Sent list. Two things help most. The first is a short note explaining why you are reaching out, which LinkedIn itself recommends; the LinkedIn invitation note generator keeps it within the character limit. The second is the right target, which starts with knowing your connection degrees, as explained in what 1st, 2nd and 3rd mean on LinkedIn.
If you send requests through Makelead, the volume stays within 200 invitations over any rolling 7 days and 100 per day at most, and once someone accepts, the first message is written from their first name, job title, company and location.
Your posts already get people to react. Makelead invites them, writes the first message and follows up, within 200 invitations per rolling 7 days.