Last updated: July 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. Every course below was verified live on LinkedIn Learning this month.
LinkedIn Learning has thousands of courses, and most of them are forgettable. The ten below are the ones we would actually pay a subscription month for in 2026 — each verified live on the platform this week, and cross-checked against LinkedIn’s own published data on its most-taken courses so you are not betting a subscription on our taste alone.
QUICK VERDICT
Bottom line: LinkedIn Learning is worth a month of focused use for workplace skills — Excel, SQL, project management, communication — and weak for deep technical credentials, where Coursera and CFI certificates carry more weight.
- Best for: business and office skills, fast professional refreshers, free 1-month trial learners
- Skip if: you need an accredited or industry-recognized credential — see the certifications section below
- Full disclosure: LinkedIn Learning shut down its affiliate program, so we earn nothing from these picks. Every recommendation on this list is purely editorial.
| Course | Instructor | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Python Essential Training | Ryan Mitchell | Complete beginners and analysts who want real Python fundamentals |
| 2. SQL Essential Training | Walter Shields | Anyone touching data at work |
| 3. Excel Essential Training (Microsoft 365) | Dennis Taylor | Office workers who use Excel daily but never learned it properly |
| 4. Power BI Essential Training | Gini von Courter | Analysts standardizing on the Microsoft stack; a natural next step after the Excel course above |
| 5. What Is Generative AI? | Pinar Seyhan Demirdag | Professionals who need to speak intelligently about AI this quarter |
| 6. Project Management Foundations | Bonnie Biafore | Accidental project managers and coordinators formalizing what they already half-do |
| 7. Becoming a Product Manager: A Complete Guide | Cole Mercer & Evan Kimbrell | Career-switchers targeting an associate PM or product owner role |
| 8. Communication Foundations | Brenda Bailey-Hughes & Tatiana Kolovou | Early-career professionals |
| 9. Time Management Fundamentals | Dave Crenshaw | Overloaded managers and remote workers drowning in open loops |
| 10. Leadership Foundations | Dr. Shirley Davis | First-time managers and team leads within their first two years |
How we picked: we required each course to be live on the platform today (about 40% of the picks on our old 2021 version of this list had quietly died or gone stale — we cut all of them), current enough that the interface or material has not drifted, and backed by either LinkedIn’s own popularity data or an instructor with a verifiable track record.
1. Python Essential Training
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Instructor: Ryan Mitchell · View on LinkedIn Learning
The strongest single programming course on the platform. Ryan Mitchell (author of O’Reilly’s Web Scraping with Python) covers the full modern-Python toolkit — syntax, data structures, object-oriented patterns, and enough of the standard library to write useful scripts by the final chapter. It carries a 4.7 rating on LinkedIn Learning and sits on LinkedIn’s own most-popular list. Two things set it apart from the dozens of Python intros on the platform: Mitchell writes real code on screen rather than narrating slides, and the January 2023 edition is recent enough that you are learning current Python 3, not the legacy patterns that haunt older intro courses. If you want a deeper, project-based path after finishing it, our Python certification guide routing compares the stronger multi-week options.
Who it’s for: Complete beginners and analysts who want real Python fundamentals, not a syntax tour.
2. SQL Essential Training
Instructor: Walter Shields · View on LinkedIn Learning
Walter Shields teaches SQL the way hiring managers actually test it: SELECTs, JOINs, aggregation, and subqueries against a realistic database, in plain language and short chapters. SQL remains the single most transferable data skill, and this is the fastest credible on-ramp on LinkedIn Learning. Shields teaches against a lightweight practice database with no setup wall, so you are querying quickly — and the core SQL transfers directly to the PostgreSQL and MySQL dialects job posts actually list. Finish it before touching any business-intelligence tool; Power BI and Tableau both get dramatically easier when you can shape data yourself.
Who it’s for: Anyone touching data at work — marketers, analysts, product managers — who needs working SQL in a weekend or two.
3. Excel Essential Training (Microsoft 365)
Instructor: Dennis Taylor · View on LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn’s #1 most-popular course, and deservedly so. Dennis Taylor moves from formatting and formulas through PivotTables and lookup functions with zero wasted time. The Microsoft 365 edition tracks the current interface, so nothing on screen looks out of date — a real problem with the Excel courses on other platforms that still show the 2016 ribbon. Taylor has taught Excel on this platform since the Lynda era, and it shows in the sequencing: each chapter answers the question the previous one just raised. Pair it with his long-running Excel Tips Weekly series (also on LinkedIn’s most-popular list) for maintenance after you finish. If you outgrow it, our best Udemy Excel courses picks cover the advanced-formula and VBA tier.
Who it’s for: Office workers who use Excel daily but never learned it properly.
4. Power BI Essential Training
Instructor: Gini von Courter · View on LinkedIn Learning
A compact tour of the full Power BI workflow — connecting data, building reports, publishing dashboards. Gini von Courter keeps it grounded in the free Power BI Desktop, so you can follow along without a license, and she resists the temptation to demo every visual type in favor of the report-building decisions that actually make dashboards readable. It sits fourth on LinkedIn’s own most-popular list, which tracks with how many job descriptions now list Power BI next to Excel. For the analytics career track beyond one tool, see our data analytics courses guide.
Who it’s for: Analysts standardizing on the Microsoft stack; a natural next step after the Excel course above.
5. What Is Generative AI?
Instructor: Pinar Seyhan Demirdag · View on LinkedIn Learning
Under an hour, no code, and still the best-judged AI primer on the platform — what generative models actually do, where they fail, and what that means for creative and knowledge work. It became one of LinkedIn’s most-taken courses because it respects your time. Treat it as the vocabulary lesson before hands-on AI training elsewhere.
Who it’s for: Professionals who need to speak intelligently about AI this quarter, not build models.
6. Project Management Foundations
Instructor: Bonnie Biafore · View on LinkedIn Learning
Bonnie Biafore condenses the PMBOK universe into the parts working PMs use: scoping, scheduling, budgeting, stakeholders, and closing. It doubles as PDU-friendly groundwork if you are circling formal certification. If a recognized credential is the actual goal, the Google Project Management Certificate is the stronger resume line — our Google Project Management Certificate review explains why.
Who it’s for: Accidental project managers and coordinators formalizing what they already half-do.
7. Becoming a Product Manager: A Complete Guide
Instructor: Cole Mercer & Evan Kimbrell · View on LinkedIn Learning
The most complete PM career course on the platform — roadmaps, prioritization frameworks, working with engineers, and the job-hunt itself. Mercer and Kimbrell built their reputation teaching this material online for years, and the LinkedIn edition is the tightest cut of it.
Who it’s for: Career-switchers targeting an associate PM or product owner role.
8. Communication Foundations
Instructor: Brenda Bailey-Hughes & Tatiana Kolovou · View on LinkedIn Learning
Two Kelley School of Business lecturers on the four contexts that decide careers: meetings, email, presentations, and difficult conversations. It is the perennial top soft-skills course on LinkedIn Learning because the advice is specific enough to use the same day — the sections on structuring a point before you speak and on matching formality to medium are worth the hour on their own. Communication courses are where video subscriptions genuinely beat books: watching the delivery modeled matters more than reading about it.
Who it’s for: Early-career professionals, and anyone whose next promotion depends on being heard.
9. Time Management Fundamentals
Instructor: Dave Crenshaw · View on LinkedIn Learning
Dave Crenshaw’s system — gather everything into one trusted place, process it on a schedule, single-task ruthlessly — has held up across every productivity fad of the last decade. One of the few courses in this genre with an actual method rather than motivation.
Who it’s for: Overloaded managers and remote workers drowning in open loops.
10. Leadership Foundations
Instructor: Dr. Shirley Davis · View on LinkedIn Learning
Dr. Shirley Davis (former SHRM executive) covers the transition that breaks most new managers: influence without authority, feedback, and leading through change. Short, current, and refreshingly free of leadership-industrial-complex filler. Pair it with our MasterClass leadership picks if you prefer long-form masterclasses.
Who it’s for: First-time managers and team leads within their first two years.
How to Choose the Right LinkedIn Learning Course
The catalog rewards a plan and punishes browsing. Three questions sort it quickly. First: is the goal a skill or a signal? If you need to do something new next month — write SQL, build a dashboard — pick one Essential Training course and finish it end to end. If you need your profile to show something, prefer a Professional Certificate path over scattered single-course certificates; one completed path reads better than five orphaned completions.
Second: check the release date before you commit. LinkedIn Learning re-records its bestsellers regularly (every pick above is a current edition), but the long tail contains thousands of aging courses the search bar will happily surface. On any course page, the release date sits under the description — for software topics, treat anything more than two or three years old as suspect. That single habit is what our old version of this list failed at: roughly 40% of its 2021 picks had gone stale or disappeared by the time we re-audited it.
Third: match the platform to the stakes. LinkedIn Learning is the right tool for fast, broad workplace competence. The moment a course is meant to change your job title — a data certification, a finance credential, a formal project-management qualification — the subscription model works against you, and a dedicated program from the alternatives below is usually the better spend.
Are LinkedIn Learning Certifications Worth It?
Every course above issues a certificate of completion that displays on your LinkedIn profile in one click — convenient, but recruiters read it as evidence of initiative, not as a credential. LinkedIn Learning certificates are not accredited, and no exam stands behind them.
Two honest upgrades exist. First, LinkedIn now bundles courses into Professional Certificate paths — multi-course tracks like Career Essentials in GitHub and Essential Business Communication Skills — which carry more signal than a single-course certificate because they represent a completed multi-course track rather than one finished video. Second, for credentials that hiring systems actually filter on, a Coursera Professional Certificate (Google, IBM, Meta) or a specialist body like CFI in finance is the stronger line on a resume. We compare the options in our LinkedIn Learning alternatives guide.
Browse Coursera Professional Certificates →
How Much Does LinkedIn Learning Cost?
LinkedIn Learning runs on a subscription, billed monthly or (cheaper) annually, and is also bundled into LinkedIn’s Premium plans — LinkedIn shows your exact regional price only after sign-in, which is why we do not print a number here that may not match your checkout. Every new account gets a genuine 1-month free trial, which is comfortably enough to finish two or three of the picks above. Full plan-by-plan breakdown, team pricing, and the cancel-before-renewal playbook are in our LinkedIn Learning cost guide.
Strong Alternatives to LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning’s breadth is real, but three competitors beat it inside their lanes — and one of them is almost always the better spend if you already know your direction. Our full alternatives comparison goes deeper; the short version:
| Platform | What it does better | Choose it when |
|---|---|---|
| Coursera | University + big-tech certificates (Google, IBM, Meta); financial aid available | You want a credential employers recognize |
| Udemy | Pay per course, own it forever; frequent deep sales | You want one specific skill without a subscription |
| DataCamp | In-browser coding practice for SQL, Python, Power BI | You learn data skills by doing, not watching |
| CFI | Finance-industry certifications (FMVA, CBCA) with real weight in banking | You work in corporate finance or accounting |
Head-to-head comparisons: Coursera vs LinkedIn Learning and Udemy vs LinkedIn Learning. Finance readers: CFI takes code COURSEING20 for 20% off any certification.
Compare course prices on Udemy →
How to Get Real Value From the Free Month
The 1-month trial is long enough to finish two or three full courses if you treat it like a project instead of a browse. A plan that works: week one, take the skill course your next performance review actually depends on (for most office roles that is the Excel or SQL pick above). Weeks two and three, take the career-track course — project management, product, or leadership — and do the exercise files rather than letting them autoplay. Week four, post the certificates to your profile, then make the honest call: if you have a next course queued, the subscription is earning its keep; if you are browsing for reasons to stay, cancel and put the money toward a credential from the alternatives list instead. LinkedIn bills automatically at trial end, so set the calendar reminder the day you sign up.
What Happened to Lynda.com?
Lynda.com — the original professional video-course library LinkedIn acquired in 2015 — was folded entirely into LinkedIn Learning, and the platform still styles itself “formerly Lynda.com.” Old Lynda accounts and course lists migrated over, so if you are searching for a favorite Lynda course, its successor is almost certainly in the LinkedIn Learning catalog under the same or a lightly updated title (several picks above, including the Excel and time-management courses, are direct descendants of Lynda-era bestsellers).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best LinkedIn Learning course overall?
For hard skills, Python Essential Training (Ryan Mitchell) and Excel Essential Training (Dennis Taylor) are the standouts — the Excel course is LinkedIn’s own #1 most-taken course. For soft skills, Communication Foundations has held the top spot for years.
Are LinkedIn Learning certificates worth putting on a resume?
On your LinkedIn profile, yes — they display cleanly and signal initiative. On a resume, treat them as supporting evidence, not a credential: they are not accredited and have no exam. For filter-passing credentials, a Coursera Professional Certificate or a specialist certification like CFI’s FMVA carries more weight.
Is LinkedIn Learning free?
New accounts get a 1-month free trial with full catalog access, and many public libraries offer free access with a library card. After the trial it is a paid subscription, also bundled into LinkedIn Premium plans. Exact pricing shows at sign-in; see our LinkedIn Learning cost guide for the current breakdown.
What happened to Lynda.com courses?
Lynda.com was absorbed into LinkedIn Learning after LinkedIn’s 2015 acquisition. The catalog migrated, and many current bestsellers are updated versions of Lynda-era courses.
Is LinkedIn Learning better than Coursera or Udemy?
Different jobs: LinkedIn Learning wins for short workplace-skill courses inside a subscription; Coursera wins for recognized certificates and university-backed depth; Udemy wins for cheap single-course ownership. Our Coursera vs LinkedIn Learning and Udemy vs LinkedIn Learning comparisons cover the decision in detail.
What is the difference between a certificate of completion and a LinkedIn Learning Professional Certificate?
A certificate of completion is issued automatically for finishing any single course. A Professional Certificate comes from completing a designated multi-course learning path (like Career Essentials in GitHub), so it represents substantially more work and carries more signal. Neither is an accredited credential, but the path certificate is the one worth featuring on your profile.
The Bottom Line
Use the free month deliberately: pick two or three courses from this list, finish them, post the certificates to your profile, and decide from experience whether the subscription earns its keep for you. If what you actually need is a credential, start with the alternatives instead — that is the honest fork in the road, and it is the reason this page recommends both. Our full LinkedIn Learning review has the platform-wide verdict.