LinkedIn Growth5 min read
What Is a LinkedIn Top Voice? The Badge, Explained Honestly
What is a LinkedIn Top Voice? It is an invite-only blue badge from LinkedIn's editorial team for consistent experts. Here is how it works and how to earn it.
By Animesh Kudake, Co-founder, Apna Project
The short version
- A LinkedIn Top Voice is the blue badge LinkedIn's editorial team gives to a select group of experts and leaders for consistent, original, credible content.
- It is invitation only. You cannot buy it or apply directly, though anyone can submit a nomination through LinkedIn's form.
- It is not paid, and it is not permanent. LinkedIn reviews the list twice a year and can add or remove people at any time.
- The older gold Community Top Voice badge, earned automatically through collaborative articles, was retired by LinkedIn in October 2024.
- You do not need a badge to get its benefits. The habits that earn one, consistency and credibility, grow your reach with or without it.
Are Top Voices paid? No
A common assumption is that Top Voices are paid or sponsored. LinkedIn's documentation describes it purely as a recognition program, with no payment to receive the badge and no reward for holding it.
That is worth internalizing because it shapes the right strategy. Since there is no shortcut and no transaction, the only way toward the badge is the slow one: build genuine authority in a niche over months. Anyone selling you a fast track is selling something LinkedIn does not offer.
How people actually get selected
Because selection is editorial and invite-only, nobody can promise you the badge. But the pattern among people who earn it is not mysterious, and it lines up with how the platform rewards content in general.
They post consistently in a clear lane, so the algorithm and human readers both learn what they are known for. If you want the mechanics behind that, we covered them in how the LinkedIn algorithm works. They earn real engagement, not vanity metrics, which is the harder and more durable version we wrote about in how to increase LinkedIn engagement. And they stay clean on community policies, because the badge is partly a trust signal and LinkedIn will not attach it to accounts that bend the rules.
You can also submit a nomination through LinkedIn's nomination form, for yourself or someone else. Nominations are reviewed but carry no guarantee, and LinkedIn suggests not overdoing them. Think of a nomination as raising your hand, not as an application that gets processed.
Should you chase it?
Our honest take: pursue the habits, not the badge.
The badge is a fine thing to want, and it does signal credibility when someone lands on your profile. But you do not control the selection, the list turns over, and orienting your whole strategy around a decision made by an editorial team you cannot reach is a recipe for frustration. The people who earn it almost never set out to; they built authority and the badge followed.
The good news is that the work required for a Top Voice badge is the same work that grows your presence with or without one. Consistent, credible contribution in a niche pays off in reach, trust, and conversations regardless of whether a badge ever appears. A lot of that contribution does not even require your own posts. We made that case in how to grow on LinkedIn without posting: showing up thoughtfully in other people's comment sections builds recognition in exactly the audiences you care about.
Where we fit, said plainly
We build a LinkedIn commenting tool, and the honest reason it is relevant here is that consistency is the hardest part of everything above. The Top Voice pattern is really just consistency plus credibility sustained over a long time, and most people run out of energy long before they run out of ideas.
Commenti drafts comments in your voice so the daily habit of engaging where your audience is stays sustainable, and it runs with daily caps, pacing, skip filters, and an approve mode so you stay the editor rather than a bot. We are careful with the language: this is built to reduce the effort and the risk of showing up daily, not to manufacture a badge or promise immunity. LinkedIn's User Agreement prohibits third-party automation, and Commenti operates in that gray zone, which we would rather state than paper over.
No tool earns you a Top Voice badge, and any that claims to is lying. What consistency can do is keep you visible and credible long enough that recognition, in whatever form, has a chance to find you. Start there, and treat the badge as a happy accident rather than the plan.
Frequently asked questions
What is a LinkedIn Top Voice?
A LinkedIn Top Voice is a member awarded a blue badge by LinkedIn's editorial team in recognition of consistent, original, expert content. According to LinkedIn's Help pages, it is an invite-only program, reviewed and renewed roughly twice a year, and reserved for a select group of experts, leaders, and public figures across industries.
How do you become a LinkedIn Top Voice?
You cannot apply directly. LinkedIn's editorial team selects Top Voices based on consistent original posting, subject-matter expertise, adherence to community policies, and influence in your industry or market. Anyone can submit a nomination through LinkedIn's form, but nominations are reviewed and do not guarantee selection.
Are LinkedIn Top Voices paid?
No. LinkedIn's Help documentation describes Top Voices as a recognition program and lists no payment, either to receive the badge or as a reward for holding it. Selection is based on the quality and consistency of your content and your standing in your field, not on any fee or sponsorship.
Is being a LinkedIn Top Voice worth it?
The badge signals credibility and can raise trust when people land on your profile, which has real value in professional settings. It is worth pursuing only as a byproduct of good habits, though. Chasing the badge directly is a poor goal, because you do not control selection and the underlying work matters more.
Written by the team building Commenti on real LinkedIn growth data. Found an error? Tell us and we’ll fix it. Accuracy beats winning.
Co-founder, Apna Project
Co-founder at Apna Project, where he helps founders and agencies turn ideas into products. Writes here on LinkedIn growth and what actually earns attention in a comment section. Commenti is the LinkedIn comment automation tool by Ampliflow.
What is a LinkedIn Top Voice? It is the blue badge that LinkedIn's editorial team hands to a select group of experts, leaders, and public figures, in recognition of consistent, original, credible content in their field.
The short answer matters because a lot of advice about the badge is wrong. You cannot buy it, you cannot apply for it directly, and it is not something you keep forever once you have it.
Here is how the badge actually works, straight from LinkedIn's own Help documentation, and how to think about it if you want one.
The blue badge, defined
The current LinkedIn Top Voice badge is blue, and it is invitation only. LinkedIn's editorial team identifies and selects recipients; there is no button that grants it to you when you hit some threshold.
According to LinkedIn's Help page on Top Voices, the team looks at signals like consistent content creation, originality, subject-matter expertise, adherence to community policies, and influence within local markets or industries. In plain terms: post regularly, say things that are actually yours, know your subject, follow the rules, and matter to a specific audience.
Two more facts worth knowing. The list is assessed and renewed roughly twice a year, and LinkedIn can add or remove members at its discretion outside those windows. So the badge is a rolling recognition, not a lifetime title.
The gold badge is gone
If you have read older guides, you may have seen a second, gold Top Voice badge. That one worked completely differently, and it no longer exists.
The gold Community Top Voice badge was awarded automatically to people in the top tier of contributors to LinkedIn's collaborative articles, and it lasted about 60 days before expiring. LinkedIn retired that program in October 2024, discontinuing the ability to earn gold badges through collaborative articles.
We mention this because plenty of "how to get Top Voice" content still tells people to grind collaborative articles for the gold badge. That path is closed. The only Top Voice badge you can earn today is the blue, invite-only one.