Upwork FAQs

Upwork Payment Protection adds a level of security to payment processing for hourly and fixed-price projects, allowing clients and freelancers to collaborate on projects with peace of mind.

Hourly Payment Protection for Clients

You can monitor your freelancer's Work Diary to see work-in-progress snapshots and confirm what work is being invoiced to you

If your freelancer logs hours not related to your project you can file a dispute for the previous week's hours. You will be refunded for any hours that do not qualify for Hourly Protection

Upwork Hourly Protection doesnt apply to bonuses, manual time, or fixed-price projects. See the Upwork Terms of Service and Hourly Escrow Instructions for full terms and conditions

Fixed-Price Payment Protection for Clients

You and the freelancer agree on deliverables in the form of milestones and you deposit funds into escrow

Work is submitted for your approval before funds are released from escrow

You can ask for changes to the work or request an escrow refund if necessary

Hourly Payment Protection for Freelancers and Agencies

On hourly contracts, you will invoice your timeby logging it with Upwork Desktop App

As long as your hours meet Hourly Protection criteria you will be paid for the time you invoice

Upwork Hourly Protection doesnt apply to bonuses, manual time, or fixed-price projects. See the Upwork Terms of Service and Hourly Escrow Instructions for full terms and conditions

Fixed-Price Protection for Freelancers and Agencies

Your client deposits funds into escrow before you start working and you submit work for their approval

Funds are automatically released to you 14 days from submission if your client does not approve the work or request changes

You can file a dispute if your client refuses to release the payment for a completed milestone. See the Upwork Terms of Service and Fixed-Price Escrow Instructions for full terms and conditions.

Need help getting started on Upwork? Check out our Online Course for New Freelancers.

In order to foster fairness, reward loyalty, and encourage freelancers and agencies to grow their business on Upwork, Upwork provides payment protection to freelancers and agencies for hours legitimately billed according to the eligibility criteria below.

To qualify for Upwork Hourly Protection, you must

Have anHourly contract

Work with a client with a verified billing method

Use an Upwork account in good standing

Log your hours with the Upwork Desktop App

Be visibly working on contract-related activity in your Work Diary

Annotate your Work Diary with memos or activities labels that describe the activity performed

Maintain adequate and fair activity levels

Stay within the contract's weekly limit

The following cases do not qualify for payment protection

Time segments in the Work Diary thatdon'tmeet all of the qualification criteria above. For example, we exclude segments that are:

Added manually

Idle or empty

Over the weekly limit

Showing the freelancer engaged in non-work-related activity

Missing memos or have inadequately described memos

Payment for anything other than qualifying hours, including

Manual payments, including milestones, bonuses, and other one-time payments

Advanced recurring weekly payments not based on hours billed

Payments from clients who havent verified their billing method

Freelancers or contracts in violation of the Upwork Terms of Service

Instances in which you are aware of, or complicit in, another user's violation of the Upwork Terms of Service

Instances in which you are involved in fraudulent activities or abuse of the Upwork Hourly Protection program

Upwork Hourly Protection is subject to the terms and conditions outlined in the Upwork Terms of Service and Hourly Escrow Instructions.

You may be asked to upload a government-issued ID to confirm your identity on Upwork. In most cases, well be able to verify your identity within minutes. In other cases, we may need more information from you, or ask you to briefly video chat with an Upwork agent. We aim to respond to all inquiries within one business day.

Documents Required

You will need to take a picture of your government-issued ID in order to verify your identity. The acceptable forms of ID vary by country and will be listed on the form.

This ID must include your picture, signature, name, date of birth, and address, with the exception of passports, which don't need your address

Acceptable documents include passport, national ID card (NIC/CNIC), driver's license, NBI Clearance (Philippines only), tax ID, voter ID, postal ID, or any other valid government-issued photo ID that meets these criteria

Note that we cannot accept

Student IDs, employee IDs, library cards,handwritten IDs, temporary IDs, photocopied IDs, military IDs, and health cards

Don't crop, rotate, touch up, adjust colors, or alter the images in any way.

Your government ID should

Be the same person as your Upwork profile photo

Match your Upwork profile address

Match your Upwork profile name

Tips for taking a photo of your government ID

Take a photo of the front of your ID, without flash

Capture the image from above, with your ID on a flat surface

Ensure all four corners of your ID are showing

Take the photo in color (at least 200 dpi)

Upload your photo in PNG, JPEG, PDF, or BMP format

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Links

My country prohibits sharing ID documents with anyone other than law enforcement. What other documentation can I share?

We encourage all Upwork users to comply with applicable laws. In fact, we require you to comply with applicable laws in our Terms of Service. We don't have knowledge of the laws referenced here that make it illegal to provide identification to someone other than law enforcement. If there is a specific law that youd like to direct us to, were happy to look into it.

My government-issued ID is not in English. Is that ok?

Yes, our third-party vendors automated checks will review IDs in any language, and translators are available in the case that a manual review is required.

What happens if I do not pass the verification process?

Freelancers that are required to verify but do not do so will have their accounts placed on hold. The hold will prevent freelancers from withdrawing earnings, submitting proposals to new jobs, accepting direct hires, or showing up in search results. Any active proposals that have been submitted will also be canceled. The hold will not affect your ability to work on existing contracts. Once you successfully pass the verification process, this hold will be removed.

How are you keeping the information I share safe?

To protect your personal information, access to the information you submit to Upwork to verify your identity is stored by Upwork, per our security policy. Upwork agents comply with our privacy policy and the third-party vendor that handles these requests does not store any identification data. We do not sell any of the information you submit to us. After 30 days, the image you submit to verify your identity is deleted.

I live in the EU and I want my info deleted via the GDPR

Any resident of the European Union can request that we delete their information under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Once you request this, Upwork has 30 days to respond to your request. To learn how to make GDPR request to Upwork, click here.

Upwork Help

EU GDPR Compliance

Upwork

Upwork Privacy Policy

Upwork Security Policy

Its simple to keep your profile name up-to-date.

To change your name

Go to Settings Contact Info to edit your name.

To set up payment to your bank account, your name in Upwork must match your name on your bank account

You can't transfer accounts from one person to another

An application is required to join Upwork. Once submitted, we typically take 24 hours to review your application and we will notify you via email if your application is approved or declined. If we find that our marketplace doesn't have opportunities for you based on your combination of skills and experience, your application to join Upwork won't be accepted. We invite you to update your profile and reapply if you feel that you have more relevant skills or experience to add that may have been left off your initial application.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Links

What makes a great profile application?

Creating a 100% complete profile and following the best practices outlined here is a great place to start.

Why didn't Upwork approve my profile?

While we would like to offer every qualified freelancer a spot, admission is highly competitive as Upwork receives more than 10,000 freelancer registrations daily. To help ensure that the freelancers we accept have the best chance at finding opportunities on our platform, we can only accept a small percentage of those who want to join.

Why do you accept some freelancers and not others?

Admission is highly competitive as Upwork receives more than 10,000 freelancer registrations daily. If you feel that the profile you submitted does not accurately represent your skills and experience, you're free to update and resubmit your profile.

I have resubmitted my profile, how long before I'll hear back?

Someone from our team will review your profile and reach back out within 24 hours.

Upwork Help

Create a 100% Complete Freelancer Profile

Sample Profiles and Best Practices

Timing

ACH funds will arrive in your bank account within two to five business days. Processing and clearing times vary widely from bank to bank. Bank holidays can also delay your funds.

Fees

Direct to U.S. Bank / ACH direct deposits are available to any freelancer with a U.S. bank account. Direct deposit is usually FREE for all who qualify. Upwork doesn't charge fees for ACH transfers. For information on adding ACH as a payment method, click here.

Restrictions

You must be listed as an account holder or authorized signer on the bank account. If your name on the bank account doesn't match your name on your profile, click here to learn how you can fix it.

Successful freelancers have profiles that are complete, accurate, and paint a compelling picture of your services, skills, and accomplishments. Your profile is an opportunity to advertise your freelance business to potential clients. A 100% complete profile is required if youd like to achieve Rising Talent status, Top Rated status and access to Premium Services.

You can find your profile completion percentage on the right-hand panel of your Find Work page under My Profile. Check out this post in the Hiring Headquarters to get tips on enhancing your profile.

Enhance Your Profile

Whether and how you complete your profile is up to you, many combinations can be used to achieve a 100% complete profile.

Refer to the following table for profile guidelines

Required (60%)

Optional (40%)

These items are all required to be able to reach 60%. Youcan'tcomplete your profile if youre missing any of these five.

Profile Item

Value

Profile Photo

Profile Title

Profile Overview

Employment History

At Least 1 Skill Tag

60%

Any combination of the following can be used for the remaining 40% of a complete profile.

Profile Item

Value

Portfolio Item

5% each (max 20%)

Employment History Item

10% each (max 20%)

Education

10% each (max 20%)

Profile Video

10%

Linked Account

10% (max 10%)

Certification

5% each (max 10%)

Other Experience

5% (max 5%)

Skill Tests Credit*

10% each (max 30%)

*Skill tests are no longer available. Freelancers who took skill tests previously will not have their profile completion percentages affected by this change.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Links

What happens if Idon'tupload a photo? Can I still get to 100%?

No. Without a profile portrait photo, you can never exceed 50% complete.

Can I use any combination to get to 100%?

There are many ways to get to 100%, but some items are required. To reach 60% youll need a photo, title, overview, at least one employment history item, and at least one skill tag. Any combination of the other choices can then be used to reach 100%.

Below are examples of pathways to a complete profile:

% Complete

Profile Item

+60% (60%)

Profile Photo

Profile Title

Profile Overview

Employment History

At Least 1 Skill Tag

+10% (70%)

AdditionalEmployment History

+20% (90%)

2 X Education

+10% (100%)

2 X Portfolio Items

100%

Complete Profile

% Complete

Profile Item

+60% (60%)

Profile Photo

Profile Title

Profile Overview

Employment History

At Least 1 Skill Tag

+10% (70%)

Profile Video

+10% (80%)

Education

+15% (95%)

3 X Portfolio Items

+5% (100%)

Certification

100%

Complete Profile

What level of profile completion is needed to qualify for Top Rated?

Top Rated status requires a 100% complete profile.

What does linking an account do?

Linking an account provides Upwork with additional information that we use to verify your identity and consider you for our Premium freelancer program, which connects you to the right jobs faster. You can link your public account from the following websites to your Upwork account:

Twitter, StackOverflow, Dribble, GitHub, Behance, and DeviantART

Upwork will not post or interact with these sites on your behalf and will not display the account on your Upwork profile.

Hiring Headquarters

8+ Tips to Help You Create a Profile That Stands Out

Upwork Help

When you're searching for freelancers or agencies, your primary focus should be on finding the right fit for your company and your project. To help you do that, we provide several ways to filter your search results based on things such as hourly rates, skills, and feedback. These filters (and more) are available in the box to the top-right of your search results.

To run a search

Go to Freelancers Find Freelancers

From here, search by keyword or browse by category

After your initial search, use the filters in the box to the left to refine your results further

Click the dropdown arrow in the search box to use the "Advanced keyword search" feature to search for the skills, platforms, and deliverables required for your project.

Need help finding talent or posting a job?Enterprise clients can log into their platform to start a chat with an Enterprise Talent Specialist. For more hands-on assistance, contact your rep to learn more about our program management offering.

The following categories and specializations are available for specialized profiles.

Accounting & Consulting

This list contains specializations within Accounting & Consulting .

Specialty

Description

Accounting

Accounting is the formal record keeping of financial transactions for a business or organization based on the laws and regulations of each country.

Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping is the activity of tracking and maintaining records of a company's financial information and activities.

Business Analysis

Business analysis is the process of identifying needs and finding solutions to business problems.

Financial Analysis & Modeling

Financial modeling involves creating an analysis of the financial results against the budget/forecast as well as modeling the forecast in order to enable business decisions.

Financial Management / CFO

Financial management covers all the planning, organization, and coordination tasks associated with managing financial resources.

HR Administration

HR administration involves managing internal employee databases, maintaining company policy, and implementing general human resource administrative tasks.

Instructional Design

Instructional design involves the design and development of online courses, manuals, tutorials, and other instructional materials.

Management Consulting

Management consulting is the process of helping companies improve their performance and grow.

Recruiting

Recruiting is the process of attracting and appointing suitable candidates for jobs within a company.

Tax Preparation

Tax preparation is the process of preparing tax returns for an individual or business entities.

Training & Development

Training and development is the process of increasing an organization's effectiveness through various training and employee development approaches that focus on increasing individual and team performance.

Admin Support

This list contains specializations within Admin Support .

Specialty

Description

Data Entry

Data entry is the process of entering data into a computer system or updating an existing data table.

Online Research

Online research involves data scraping, datamining, and general use of search engines to collect data from the internet.

Order Processing

Order processing is the process of selecting, packing, and sending items to a shipping carrier.

Project Management

Project management is the process of managing tasks and resources in order to complete a project.

Transcription

Transcription is the process of converting audio and video to text. Examples include interview transcripts or film subtitles.

Virtual Assistance

Virtual administrative assistance involves providing administrative assistance to clients remotely.

Customer Service

This list contains specializations within Customer Service .

Specialty

Description

Customer Service

Customer service is assistance provided by a company to users of their products and services.

Technical Support

Tech support involves providing assistance to consumers of a technical product or service.

Data Science & Analytics

This list contains specializations within Data Science & Analytics .

Specialty

Description

A/B Testing

A/B testing is a process of conducting a randomized experiment with two variants of a unit under test.

Bandits

Multi-armed bandit experiments are a type of split testing that self-optimizes for the desired result as it is being performed.

Data Analytics

Data analysis includes inspecting and modeling data in order to discover useful information and inform decision-making.

Data Engineering

Data engineering is the process of designing, building, and maintaining data infrastructure.

Data Extraction

Data extraction is the process of retrieving data from various sources for further processing or storage.

Data Mining

Data mining is the process of examining datasets for anomalies, correlations, and other patterns.

Data Processing

Data processing is the act of collecting and manipulating data to produce meaningful information.

Data Visualization

Data visualization is involved in the creation and study of visual representations of data.

Deep Learning

Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that involves the use of multilayer neural networks.

Experimentation & Testing

Experimentation involves testing a product or service with the goal of innovation. Testing involves the validation of a product or service.

Knowledge Representation

Knowledge representation involves processing data and information into a form that can be used by a computer to solve a complex task.

Machine Learning

Machine learning involves using algorithms and statistical models to build software that can learn and improve without explicit programming.

Design & Creative

This list contains specializations within Design & Creative .

Specialty

Description

2D Animation

2D animation is creating characters, storyboards, and backgrounds in two-dimensional environments.

3D Animation

3D animation involves creating 3D objects that appear to move in a three-dimensional space.

Actor

Acting is the art of portraying a person or character in a performance such as a movie or play.

Art Direction

Art direction involves overseeing the artistic aspects of a film, publication, or other media production.

Audio Editing / Post-Production

Audio editing / post production includes editing and mixing audio output for speeches, music, videos, and other media.

Audio Production

Audio production refers to recording, producing, and synchronizing sounds with film, television, or video.

Brand Identity Design

Brand identity design involves creating a company's design message via a brand name, logo, and other visuals.

Brand Strategy

Brand strategy is the development of a long-term plan for a brand to achieve specific goals.

Cartoonist

Cartooning is the art of sketching, drawing, editing, and sometimes even animating cartoons.

Creative Direction

Creative direction involves overseeing the creative vision of a company and using it to create digital and print materials.

Editorial Design

Editorial design involves designing the layout and visual aesthetics of books, newspapers, magazines, and online publications.

Exhibit Design

Exhibit design involves the development of an exhibit from a concept to a physical exhibition piece.

Fashion Design

Fashion design involves applying design techniques and aesthetics to clothing and accessories.

Graphic Design

Graphic design involves creating visual media, often using typography, photography, and illustration to communicate ideas.

Illustration

Illustration involves creating visual explanations of concepts or processes for books, magazines, online publications or other media.

Image Editing / Retouching

Image editing and retouching is the process of altering images, photographs, or illustrations.

Motion Graphics Design

Motion graphic design uses graphic design principles in the production of films or videos.

Musician

Musicians make music using their voices or instruments such as guitars, pianos, and violins.

Music Composition

Musical composition is the process of creating or writing a piece of music.

Music Production

Music production is the process of managing the recording and production of music for a band or performer.

Photography

Photography is the art of taking, composing, editing, and processing photographs.

Presentation Design

Presentation design is the process of manipulating the layout, typography, and imagery of presentations.

Scriptwriting

Screenwriting is the process of writing scripts for films, television shows, or video games.

Social Media Strategy

Social media strategy is the process of planning and executing what an organization wants to achieve on social media.

Store Design

Store design is the process of designing and constructing retail space using CAD software.

Videographer

Videography is the art of recording professionally composed video footage, often for film or marketing.

Video Editing / Post-Production

Video editing post-production refers to the process of editing video footage, including adding titles, music, and sound.

Video Production

Video production is the process of creating video content through writing, shooting, and editing video footage.

Vocalist

A vocalist sings the vocal portion of a song, often backed by accompanying instrumentals.

Voice Talent

Voice talent are persons who perform voice-overs for radio, television, films, or presentations.

VR & AR Design

Augmented reality (AR) adds digital elements to a live view, and virtual reality (VR) refers to complete immersion experience.

Engineering & Architecture

This list contains specializations within Engineering & Architecture .

Specialty

Description

3D Modeling

3D modeling is developing a mathematical representation of an object's surface in three dimensions.

3D Rendering

3D rendering is the process of converting 3d wireframe models into 2D images automatically.

3D Visualization

3D visualization is the process by which graphical content is created using computer software.

Architecture

Architecture is the design of buildings and other structures, often using 3D CAD software.

BIM Modeling

Building information modeling (BIM) involves creating digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of buildings.

Biology

Biology is the study of plants, microbes, fungi, animals, and other living organisms and the mechanisms that govern life.

CAD

Computer-aided design (CAD) is the process of using computers to create, modify, optimize, or analyze a design.

Chemical Engineering

Chemical engineering is concerned with developing and designing chemical manufacturing processes.

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of identifying the substances that make up matter, and the investigation of their properties.

Civil Engineering

Civil engineering is the design and maintain infrastructure projects in the public and private sector.

Electrical Engineering

Electrical engineering studies the application of electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism.

Electronic Engineering

Electronics engineering is a subset of electrical engineering that specializes in design and production of electronics.

Energy Management & Modeling

Energy management and modeling involves building computer models of energy systems for analysis and improvement.

Engineering Tutoring

Engineering tutoring involves helping students learn engineering concepts so that they can pass their homework, classes, and exams.

Jewelry Design

Jewelry design is the profession of designing and creating rings, lockets, bracelets, earrings, necklaces, and other jewelry.

Landscape Design

Landscape design is the profession of combining nature and culture to create attractive landscapes.

Oil & Gas Engineering

Oil and gas engineering is the process of extracting oil and natural gas from reservoirs.

Process Engineering

Process engineering is the application of principles which transform raw materials into products.

Quantity Surveying

Quantity surveying is the process of managing construction costs, documentation, and contracts.

Structural Engineering

Structural engineering is the subset of engineering that deals with human made structures, such as large buildings or bridges.

Sourcing & Procurement

Procurement is the process of finding, or sourcing, suppliers to gather raw materials an organization needs for products and services.

HVAC & MEP Design

HVAC (heater, ventilation, air conditioning) and MEP Design (mechanical electrical, plumbing) focus on building design and construction.

Hydraulics Engineering

Hydraulic engineering involves applying fluid mechanics to solve problems related to the flow and storage of water and other fluids.

Industrial Design

Industrial design is concerned with developing concepts and designs for products intended for mass production.

Interior Design

Interior design is the art and science of designing the interior of a room or building.

Logistics & Supply Chain Management

Logistics and supply chain management is the management of the flow of goods and services from origin to consumption.

Mathematics

Mathematics is the science of numbers in relationship to shape, quantity, space, and change.

Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical engineering is the field of designing, constructing, and using machines, especially in relation to manufacturing.

PCB Design

PCB design is the process of designing printed circuit boards, which are used for physical device routing.

Physics

Physics is the science concerned with studying matter and its behavior through space and time.

Product Design

Product design is the process of creating a new product or service for an organization.

Science Tutoring

Science tutoring involves helping students learn science and math concepts so that they can pass their homework, classes, and exams.

Solar Energy

Solar energy is renewable energy from the sun that is converted into thermal or electrical energy.

Wind Energy

Wind energy is a renewable energy collected from the wind that is converted into electrical energy.

IT & Engineering

This list contains specializations within IT & Engineering .

Specialty

Description

Database Administration

Database administration includes all actions that a database administrator performs to ensure that a database is always available.

DevOps Engineering

DevOps engineering involves helping software developers, system operators, and other staff collaborate and enable the rapid deployment of products.

Information Security

Information security focuses on preventing unauthorized access, use, or destruction of information for an organization.

Network Administration

Network administration is the process of maintaining an organization's networking infrastructure.

Network Security

Network security covers the policies, technologies, and practices an organization uses to monitor the misuse of a computer network.

Solutions Architecture

Solution architecture involves defining and describing an architecture of a system in terms of a discrete business operation or activity.

System Administration

System administration is the management of IT infrastructure, hardware, and software systems.

Systems Architecture

Systems architecture is the process of designing models that define the structure and behavior of a system.

Systems Compliance

Systems compliance ensures that computer systems comply with legal requirements and minimize harm to consumers due to violations of law

Systems Engineering

Systems engineering is concerned with designing and managing complex systems over their entire lifecycle.

Legal

This list contains specializations within Legal .

Specialty

Description

Business & Corporate Law

Corporate law concerns the formation and running of corporations and other businesses. Business law covers acquisitions, mergers, founding, and shareholder rights.

General Counsel

A general counsel is the chief lawyer of a company. They manage general matters, work with specialists and, if applicable, manage a business's legal team.

Immigration Law

Immigration law focuses on laws and regulations which govern immigration into and emigration or deportation from a country.

Intellectual Property Law

Intellectual property law focuses on securing and enforcing legal rights to creative works and inventions.

International Law

International law is concerned with the customs or treaties that are recognized by nations as binding in their relations with one another.

Labor & Employment Law

Labor and employment law is the field of law which focuses on employee rights and protections and the relationship with trade unions.

Paralegal

A paralegal performs legal work under the direct supervision of a lawyer.

Regulatory Law

Regulatory law concerns the interpretation of and compliance with regulations based on legislation.

Securities & Finance Law

Securities & finance law deals with anything that can be traded on a secondary market, such as stocks, bonds, options, or mutual funds.

Tax Law

Tax law focuses on the constitutional, statutory, and regulatory rules of taxation.

Sales & Marketing

This list contains specializations within Sales & Marketing .

Specialty

Description

Business Development

Business development involves pursuing strategic opportunities for a company, such as cultivating partnerships or identifying new markets.

Campaign Management

The process of executing marketing campaigns and measuring and reporting on their effectiveness.

Community Management

Community management involves advocating for a brand on any platform that customers may be found, and acting as a bridge between the brand and consumers.

Content Strategy

Content strategy is the process of planning, developing, and managing content to support the objectives of an organization.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing includes all marketing that use digital technologies, such as computers, mobile phones, and the internet.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is the use of email to promote products or services, and to develop relationships with potential customers.

Lead Generation

Lead generation is used in marketing to identify and cultivate potential customers for an organization.

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is the process of using software to automate marketing actions, allowing organizations to be more effective.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategy is concerned with designing plans to promote and sell a product or service.

Market Research

Market research focuses on gathering information about consumer needs and preferences to determine market strategy.

Public Relations

Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing is the discipline of increasing a website's visibility in search engine results through paid and organic marketing.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is the discipline of increasing traffic to a website from organic search engine results.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is the process of using social media to promote products and services.

Telemarketing

Telemarketing is the process of contacting prospective customers to sell products or services.

Translation

This list contains specializations within Translation .

Specialty

Description

Language Localization

Language localization is the process of adapting a product or document content to meet the language, culture, and other requirements of a specific local market.

Language Tutoring

Language tutoring involves helping students learn and speak a foreign language.

Legal Translation

Legal translation is the process of taking legal text in one language and producing legal text in another language.

Medical Translation

Medical translation is the practice of translating documents for marketing, training, clinical, and regulatory purposes, into another language.

Technical Translation

Technical translation is the process of translating texts on technology or on the application of science and technology, into another language.

Translation

Translation is the process of translating words and meaning from one language into another language.

Web, Mobile & Software Development

This list contains specializations within Web, Mobile & Software Development .

Specialty

Description

AR / VR Development

Augmented reality (AR) development is the process of adding computer-generated simulations that integrate the real world. Virtual reality (VR) development is the process of creating a realistic and immersive simulation of a three-dimensional environment.

Automation QA

Automation testing is writing scripts and using software to test apps for load, performance, and stress metrics.

Back-End Development

Back-end development focuses on the server side of an application, which includes support for retrieving data from the database.

CMS Customization

The process of customizing a content management system (CMS), which allows for the creation and modification of digital content.

CMS Development

The process of developing a content management system (CMS), which allows for the creation and modification of digital content.

Database Development

Database development is the process of working with database technologies to improve a company's IT architecture.

Desktop Software Development

Desktop software development involves creating desktop computer software for operating systems such as Mac, Windows, or Linux.

Ecommerce Development

Ecommerce development involves building, maintaining, and delivering ecommerce platforms and solutions.

Emerging Tech

Emerging technologies cover any tech currently under development which may potentially alter business, cultural, or social environments.

Firmware Development

Firmware development involves developing computer software that provides control for a device's hardware.

Front-End Development

Front-end development involves developing the user interface for hardware or software using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Full Stack Development

Full stack development is involved with both the front and back end of a website or application.

Functional QA

Functional testing involves creating and running tests that ensure all components of a piece of code or software are operating correctly.

Game Development

Game development is the process of creating video games for consoles, mobile devices, and desktop computers.

Mobile App Development

Mobile app development is the process of creating apps for mobile devices.

Mobile Design

Mobile design involves designing the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) for mobile applications.

Mobile Game Development

Mobile game development is the process of creating video games for mobile devices.

Product Management

Product management is the process of developing the strategy and roadmap, and defining the feature requirements.

Prototyping

Prototyping is the process of creating a sample or model of a product in order to test it.

Scripting & Automation

Scripting & automation refers to writing code used to automate processes that would otherwise need to be executed step-by-step by a web developer.

Scrum Master

A scrum master is the facilitator for an agile development team who makes sure the team follows agile processes and practices.

Software Development Tutoring

This category contains training and educational resources for aspiring coders and software developers.

User Research

User research is the process of understanding user behavior, needs, and motivations through qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

UX/UI Design

UX/UI design refers to user experience and user interface design, and is concerned with the design of interfaces for software and machines.

Web Design

Web design is the process of designing the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) of a website.

Writing

This list contains specializations within Writing .

Specialty

Description

Business Writing

Business writing focuses on proposals, reports, and other forms of written communications for a company's internal or external audiences.

Career Coaching

Career coaching is the process of helping professionals make informed decisions about their career choices.

Content Writing

Content writing involves researching, editing, and writing for businesses and organizations.

Copywriting

Copywriting involves generating written materials for advertising, publicity, lead-generation, and sales.

Creative Writing

Creative writing involves writing fiction and non-fiction, scripts, web content, and other creative works.

Editing & Proofreading

Editing involves making changes and suggestions that improve the quality of a piece of writing. Proofreading finds and corrects errors in writing.

Ghostwriting

Ghostwriting involves writing books, articles, speeches, or other texts that are credited to another person as the author.

Grant Writing

Grant writing involves applying for a financial grant provided by the government, corporation, foundation, or trust.

Technical Writing

Technical writing involves creating documentation for technical fields, such as computer hardware and software.

Writing Tutoring

Writing tutoring is the process of helping students develop their writing skills.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Links

What's the difference between a specialized profile and the profile I already have?

On each specialized profile youll set:

A title, overview, and rate

Which portfolio and work history items show (general has all, specialized shows just the relevant ones of your choosing)

More detail about the type of skills you have within a job category

What stays the same on a specialized profile and the general profile I already have?

The rest of the parts of the profiles (except those listed above) will be the same across profile views:

Educational background, employment history, certifications, other experience, languages, availability

Portfolio project details (youdon'thave to show all projects on specialized profiles, but their titles, attachments, and other details will be the same everywhere they appear)

Job Success Score

If you edit a shared part of your profile, the changes will show across on all profile views.

How will a client know I have a specialized profile?

Your profile will contain an indicator that you have other specialized profiles, and the client will have the option to switch between those versions when viewing your profile (similar to how you switch between versions when editing your profile).

How do I send someone a link to my specialized profile?

While viewing your specialized profile, you can use theCopy link button to send a unique link to your specialized profile. This link is unique to each of your specialized profiles.

Upwork Help

Create a Specialized Profile

With a specialized profile, you cantailor your unique skills to your audience on Upwork and create variations of your profile that showcase your experience within specific categories. For example, you can separate out the work you've done as a mobile game developer from your work as a translator or graphic designer.

Specialized Profile Categories Here's an explanation of specialized profiles from our Product Manager.

Create a Specialized Profile

You have the option to Add specialized profilein the profile editor ( Find Work Profile ). To see a preview of how your specialized profile will look to clients, selectView.

Edit a Specialized Profile

You can always update or edit your profile information.

Unpublish: Hides your specialized profile so only you can see it

Delete:Completely removes your specialized profile (cannot be recovered)

Edit: Each section of a profile will have an Editor Addoption that allows you to make updates and changes. You can switch between profiles at the top to edit the parts that are customized to that profile view.

Switch Specialty:Perhaps you want to switch your profile listing from "Accounting" to "Bookkeeping." Under profile settings, select the option toSwitch Specialty, then confirm with theUnpublish & Continuebutton. The wizard will guide you through the update.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Links

What's the difference between a specialized profile and the profile I already have?

On each specialized profile youll set:

A title, overview, and rate

Which portfolio and work history items show (general has all, specialized shows just the relevant ones of your choosing)

More detail about the type of skills you have within a job category

What stays the same on a specialized profile and the general profile I already have?

The rest of the parts of the profiles (except those listed above) will be the same across profile views:

Educational background, employment history, certifications, other experience, languages, availability

Portfolio project details (youdon'thave to show all projects on specialized profiles, but their titles, attachments, and other details will be the same everywhere they appear)

Job Success Score

If you edit a shared part of your profile, the changes will show across on all profile views.

How will a client know I have a specialized profile?

Your profile will contain an indicator that you have other specialized profiles, and the client will have the option to switch between those versions when viewing your profile (similar to how you switch between versions when editing your profile).

How do I send someone a link to my specialized profile?

While viewing your specialized profile, you can use theCopy link button to send a unique link to your specialized profile. This link is unique to each of your specialized profiles.

Upwork Help

Once you find a project you're interested in, you can use your Connects balance to submit a proposal. Most freelancers take this opportunity to introduce themselves and tell the client why they'd be a good fit for the role.

To submit a proposal

Click the Submit a Proposal button on the job post page

Set your Hourly Rate or Bid on fixed-priced projects

Write an introductoryCover Letter for the project

Answer any screening questions the client may ask

Add attachments, such as work samples, to your proposal

Click the Submit a Proposal button.

To learn more about creating winning proposals and succeeding on Upwork, download our free eBook or check out the Hiring Headquarter articles below.

Related Links

17 Tips for Boosting Your Success on Upwork

Submitting a Winning Proposal on Upwork

How to Create a Proposal that Wins Jobs

Reports offer simple ways to track how many hours your team logs and payments you have made. They also help you see what your team members are working on currently. The following reports are available on Upwork:

Report

Available On

Description

Weekly Summary

Basic, Plus, Business, Enterprise

Weekly billing summary of your spend that includes hours, fixed-price, and other payments.

* This report is only available via email on Upwork Basic

Transactions

Basic, Plus, Business, Enterprise

Record of your payments that can be exported as a CSV file or used to bulk download payment invoices.

Work Diary

Basic, Plus, Business, Enterprise

Summary of your freelancers' activity and time logged using the Upwork Desktop App.

* This report is only available in the Contract Room on Upwork Basic

Budgets

Plus, Business, Enterprise

Spending by activity code set against a budget specified by you.

Timesheet

Plus, Business, Enterprise

Time logged by your freelancers and hours billed, broken down by day, week, or month.

Time by Freelancer

Plus, Business, Enterprise

Time logged by your freelancers and hours billed, including activity and memos, over a weekly, monthly, or year-to-date schedule.

Time by Activity

Plus, Business, Enterprise

Time logged by your freelancers and hours billed based on activity, over a weekly, monthly, or year-to-date schedule.

Custom Export

Plus, Business, Enterprise

Configurable report to export hours and charges during a selected time period as a CSV file.

Purchase Orders

Enterprise

Spending by purchase order set against an available balance with projected spend.

Talent Report

Enterprise

Overview of existing talent clouds and contract history and spend.

Insights

Enterprise

Experience owner dashboard for tracking overall spend and company activity on Upwork.

To find your reports

Go to Reports and choose the report that suits your needs.

Clients can use these tools in combination with Work Diaries to stay informed. Rememberreports are great for looking at your contracts in aggregate and tracking the big picture, but they will never take the place of talking directly with your freelancers and agencies to manage their individual contracts.

You must have hourly contracts with billable hours in order to take advantage of most reports. (Transactions and Dashboard include all types of payments.)

Time over the weekly limit is excluded.

Manual changes may take a few hours to reach all reports. Time logged with the Upwork Team App will appear more quickly.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I access the Transactions report on Basic?

To access the Transactions report:

Hover your mouse overReports on the navigation menu

Click on Transactions to open this report

Adjust the date range to view transaction history

Can I access freelancer Work Diaries on Upwork Basic?

While the Work Diary no longer appears in your Reports tab, you still have access to view it, and all contract details, on a contract by contract basis in the Contract Room. You can access the Contract Room from two places:

Jobs My Jobs My Contracts for active contracts

Jobs All Contracts for all active and closed contracts

Upwork has a number of security protocols in place to allow users to report suspicious activity on our site. We encourage you to report any activity that looks suspicious or seems inappropriate.

Flag a Job Post

Flag a Freelancer Profile

Report a Client

Report a Freelancer

Flag a Job Posting

See a job or invitation that looks suspicious or inappropriate? Please flag it for our review.

To flag a job as inappropriate

Click the Flag as inappropriate link located at the upper right of every job and public profile on Upwork

Select a reason you think the posting is inappropriate

Click Submit

This sends a notification directly to Upwork, allowing us to investigate and take the appropriate measures. Please note, we cannot respond to all notifications, but do review each one carefully. We will not share your identity with the user you flagged.

Flag a Freelancer Profile

Please flag any profile you see that contains violations of our identity policy, such as fake names, logos as portraits, and duplicate accounts.

To flag a freelancer

Click the Flag as inappropriate link at the top of the freelancer's profile or job application

Select a reason you think the profile is suspicious

Click Submit

When you flag a profile

A support representative will review the profile and take action as appropriate

We will not share your identity with the user you flagged

Report a Client

If you ever come across inappropriate or suspicious client behavior, please save evidence of your experience and get in touch with us as soon as possible.

It is time to contact Customer Support when a client

Asks you to pay money to get a job, including things like reimbursable site registration fees and assurance deposits

Requests you contact them directly via email, chat, or other means before they invite you to interview or hire you on a contract

Inquires about your contact information, such as your email address, chat IDs, or phone number before the interview stage

Offers to pay you directly via PayPal, Western Union, or another method outside of the Upwork finance system

Tells you to start working before they hire you to an official Upwork job contract

Tries to blackmail you for good feedback

While the suspicious activities listed above are clear-cut cases of times when you should contact us, other situations may require you to make a judgment call. Be cautious of clients who ask you to:

Take a test that looks like work for free

Create custom samples of your work for free

In these situations, ask yourself, "If the client asked every candidate to submit this kind of test, would there be any point in hiring someone?" If the answer is no, please report the client by flagging the post as inappropriate or contacting Customer Support by clicking here.

If the test seems appropriate but is going to take a significant amount of time, ask the client to hire you for a small trial contract, known as a test drive, instead.

Report a Freelancer

If you believe your freelancer has violated Upwork's Terms of Service, please contact Customer Support by clicking here to report the inappropriate behavior. In general, when you contact Customer Support please be prepared to provide a clear account of the situation and any proof you have, such as chat transcripts and email messages.

The Weekly Summary is a week-by-week break down of your spending available to clients on Upwork Plus, Business, and Enterprise. It includes all payments on hourly contracts, escrow deposits for fixed-price contracts, and other manual payments. It is broken down into three sections: Weekly Summary, Timesheet, and Fixed-Price and Other Payments.

Note: All times are based on UTC so payments and reports are consistent.

permissions You can hover over the pie chart to check the spend on individual contracts or activities.

TheWeekly Summaryoverview panel displays spend by contract type. Time logged using the Upwork Desktop App is listed under Timesheet, while time added manually by your freelancer/s can be seen under Manual time. Escrow deposits, weekly salary, bonuses, and other manual payments will be listed underFixed-price and other.

The Timesheet panel displays the day-by-day breakdown for the time your freelancer logged the previous week. A yellow triangle next to the timestamp indicates that your freelancer added manual time on that day. You can click the timestamp to review your freelancer's work diary.

The Fixed-price and other panel displays escrow deposits on fixed-price contracts as well as other manual payments, such as a one-time contract bonus or recurring weekly salary.

Weekly Billing Email Reports

Company account owners on all membership plans, including Upwork Basic, will receive a copy of theWeekly Summary via email. Full email reports are only available for the company owner. Please see the screenshots below for example email reports.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Weekly Summary different than my Weekly Billing Email?

In addition to everything included in theWeekly Summary, the Weekly Billing Email also includes Featured Job purchases. Neither report includes payment processing and administration fees.

Who has view access to the Weekly Summary?

Team members with "Hiring - Full" or "View Work Diaries" can access theWeekly Summary. Users with Work Diary access can only view the time logged and do not have visibility into spending.

Who receives the Weekly Billing Email?

A version of the Weekly Billing Email is sent to the Company Owner, Admin, and Hiring Managers. The full report is sent to the Company Owner, while an overview is sent to any team member with Admin permissions. Users with "Hiring - Full" access will receive the breakdown for their assigned teams only.

If you would like to refund time on an active contract for the current week, you can remove the time from your Work Diary and your client will not be billed for the removed hours.

Note:You can only delete time in the current weeks Work Diary. The previous weeks Work Diary is no longer editable after Monday at noon UTC.

To delete time youdon'twant to bill to your client

Go to the My Jobs Work Diary and select the contract

Find the block of time you want to delete and click the checkbox below it

Click the Delete button

If you would like to refund a payment from a previous billing period or on a closed contract, you have the ability to issue a refund for 180 days after the payment is received. Once you issue a refund, you can't reverse it, and your account will reflect the refund immediately.

Note: Your client must have been billed before you can issue a refund.

To issue a refund

Go to My Jobs All Contracts and click the contract title. If the contract has ended, select the Include closed contractscheckbox at the top of the page

Click the Give a refund button from the (...) options menu

Choose the amount to be refunded and click Give Refund

You may only refund an amount that is less than or equal to the lowest of the following

Net total transactions on the contract in the last 180 days

Available balance in your Upwork account, including pending transactions and submitted milestones

Once you submit a refund

Upwork creates a credit on your client's account and a debit on your account for the balance of the refund

The credit becomes available on the client's account right away

The refunded amount (including refunded fees) is deducted from your lifetime earnings with the client for determining your relationships service fee

To check any refunds that you have given

Click the Reportstab, and then click Transaction History

Types of Errors:

Unable to Load Messages error or Messages panel fails to load at all (no error displayed)

Unable to Authenticate User error

Unable to Load Messages

Receiving Upwork messages requires WebSocket technology. If you try to access your messages and see a loading spinner that never resolves, or an error that linked you here, it appears your system is unable to make a WebSocket connection to our servers.

Testing WebSocket Connectivity

You can use the websites listed below to test your browsers WebSocket connectivity. Be sure to use the same browser you use to access Upwork. These websites will determine if your browser and computer are enabled for WebSocket communications.

http://websocketstest.com/

https://www.websocket.org/echo.html

If you are unable to use Upwork Messenger even after successfully testing with these websites, please contact us via the desktop app. If you find that WebSocket is blocked, see the suggestions below.

If possible,please run the following diagnostic in theChrome console before contacting us to help our team assist you.

In the Chrome browser, go to a page experiencing the issue( Messages ).

Press Ctrl+Shift+I (on PC) or CMD+Option+I (on Mac) or View > Developer Tools > JavaScript Console and then choosethe Console tab.

Click Ctrl-Alt-D and wait until the tests complete, then create a screenshot if there are any errors.

Software That Blocks WebSocket

Some virus scanners, firewalls, and other software products are known to interfere with WebSocket connections. Below are software known to block WebSocket connections and steps to work around the problem.

ZoneAlarm Firewall

Unblocking Upwork.com Message Tab

Open ZoneAlarm Antivirus and select the AntiVirus and Firewall panel.

You will get two options: Basic Firewall and Applications control. Click on Configuration of Applications control configuration.

Click on the See Programs button to get a list in a new window.

Locate the browser that you use to access Upwork.com. Click on each option for that browser and set "allow."

Unblocking the desktop Upwork desktop app

Not blocked by ZoneAlarm

AVG

Unblocking Upwork.com Message Tab

Open AVG, go to the home window, and select the firewall panel.

Go to the General options and choose Interactive mode.

Go to Applications and add a new rule to allow incoming and outgoing connections to your browser.

Unblocking the desktop Upwork desktop app

Open AVG, go to the home window, and select the firewall panel.

Click on the Settings icon in the right bottom corner.

Select the Applications option from the left menu.

Click Add and then Select to choose the location of the Upwork desktop app or enter the full path to the file from the keyboard. Once selected or entered, click create.

Select the Allow option from the action drop down, then click the OK button.

Click OK again in the next window to save the changes.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus

Unblocking Upwork.com Message Tab

If you have interactive mode enabled and are asked to allow or block https://www.upwork.com/, just select Allow access to the whole site. Otherwise:

Open the Kaspersky interface.

Go to Web Policy Management.

Select your user profile and click on Configure Restrictions.

Select the Internet tab, click on Add Exclusions, and click the Add button.

Type https://www.upwork.com/ and click the Add button.

Unblocking the desktop Upwork desktop app

Open the Kaspersky interface.

Go to Web Policy Management.

Select your user profile and click on Configure Restrictions.

Select the Applications tab and click on Add application list.

In the Add New Exclusion rule window, go to the File or folder section, and click Browse. Select the folder containing upwork.exe or enter the full path.

Other Software

We have also had reports of some earlier versions of the software below breaking WebSocket communications

Avast

Bitdefender

IOrbit Malware Fighter

Internet Download Manager

Superfish Visual Discovery

Please contact your software vendors support to determine how to configure the software to allow WebSocket communication.

Unable to Authenticate User

Upwork Messages requires browser cookies to connect with your account. If your browser blocks cookies, you must add tl.upwork.com to the exceptions or trusted sites list to access your Messages tab. Or you can enable cookies.

To add tl.upwork.com to your list:

Chrome

Click the Chrome menu and choose Preferences

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Show Advanced Settings link (or type cookies in the Search Settings box at the top)

Click the Content Settings button

In the Cookies section click the Manage Exceptions button

Add tl.upwork.com, set to Allow, click the Done button

Firefox

Click the Firefox menu and choose Preferences

Choose the Security tab

Click the Exceptions button

Add tl.upwork.com and click the Allow button

Edge

Click the Edge menu and choose Open with Internet Explorer

In Internet Explorer click the settings (gear) icon and select Internet options

Click the Security tab and select Trusted sites

Click Sites and enterhttps://tl.upwork.com

Click Add

Close Internet Explorer and restart your Edge browser

Note: If you are using a browser other than Chrome, Firefox, or Edge, and need assistance enabling cookies or adding Upwork as a trusted site, contact the browsers customer help center or support team directly.

At times a freelancer or agency might want to change the feedback they left for you. In order to edit their feedback, they must contact you and request your permission to do so.

Please be very careful about enabling feedback changes because it gives a freelancer or agency the ability to raise or lower your score, as well as change any comments. You will have 14 days to consider the request and such changes are only allowed one time, per contract.

To allow feedback changes

Go to the Freelancers Hires.

Click their contract title to see all the details.

In the Terms & Settingssection, click the Enable freelancer to change feedbacklink.

Due to the double-blind feedback system, the option to enable changes will not be available until after they have left feedback for you, or until the 14-day feedback period closes, whichever comes first.

Please note that changes can only be made to public feedback. Private feedback remains on file, and cannot be edited.

The Job Digest email is one of the perks of the Top Rated and Rising Talent programs. Jobs are featured based on your skills, job history and proposal history. We welcome your feedback on how we can improve the digest.

Throughout the week, freelancers and agencies in these programs can expect to receive email alerts that clients posted great job opportunities on Upwork. The digest is only sent when there is a great possible match available publicly in the marketplace and youll receive no more than three digests per week.

The most successful freelancers and agencies on Upwork win more work by actively searching for jobs and submitting proposals. The job digest surfaces jobs you may not have seen that fit your profile and history to help you take advantage of unnoticed opportunities.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Upwork decide which projects to send me?

Jobs are included in the Job Digest when

The title, category, and required skills match past jobs you have searched or submitted proposals for in the last 3 months

The subcategories and descriptions are similar to jobs you have searched or submitted proposals for in the last 3 months

The job type (fixed-price/hourly) matches jobs you have searched or submitted proposals for in the last 3 months

The job keywords contain keywords you searched or submitted proposals for in the last 3 months

What kind of projects can I expect to see in the digest?

The jobs that appear in your digest are public jobs with no hires at the time that they are sent to you, and have fewer than 10 recommended freelancers who have submitted proposals.

Most of the jobs youll receive in your digest have been newly posted. We will only send you older jobs if the client has been actively reviewing proposals in the past few days.

Why havent I received the Job Digest?

You may not receive one every day or even every week. If you are currently in the Top Rated or Rising Talent program, set yourself as available for work, and check to make sure you are opted in to receive it in your email settings.

Already discussing next steps with your client? Speed up the process by creating and sending them a contract for consideration. Your client can then approve the terms and send you a final offer for acceptance. This is similar to the rehire function the client already has, but it allows you to propose new terms for the next contract.

Propose a New Contract to an Existing Client

You can propose a new contract in three places

Messages (all past clients)

My Jobs (if you have a current contract with the same client)

My Jobs All Contracts (all current and past clients)

Go to one of the pages above, find a contract, or room with that client, click the (...) options menu and choose "Propose New Contract." You can only submit one proposal per client at a time.

Proposing a new contract is not permitted for

Clients without at least one payment on a contract with you

Enterprise clients

Notifying the Client

Anytime you propose a new contract we automatically notify your client by both emailing them and sending a note via Upwork Messages. They will also see it listed for review in their "Pending Contracts."

Your client then has several options: they can approve the proposal, make a counteroffer, or decline the proposal.

Withdraw a Proposed Contract

Proposed contracts can't be edited, but they can be withdrawn (and replaced with a new, revised version, if necessary).

Go to My Jobs

Select the proposed contract in the Pending Contracts section

Click the Withdraw button to delete the proposal

This article refers to requesting a refund directly from a freelancer or agency. If you need to request an escrow refund on a fixed-price contract (funds in escrow, but not yet released to the freelancer or agency), or file a dispute on an hourly contract, they are different processes.

In cases where youd like money back from a freelancer or agency, you can request a refund through Upwork within 180 days of the payment.

Logged hours for the current week cannot be refunded until you have been billed. Please consider resolving any time-logging issues with your freelancer or agency prior to closing the contract. Your freelancer or agency may remove current week's hours to avoid getting charged, but they cannot edit their Work Diary once the contract is closed.

To request a refund

Go to Jobs My Jobs and click the title of the contract

Click the () options menu and select Request a refund

Complete the request form and click Send Request

If you have hired an agency and would like a refund, please contact customer support.

If you close the contract while waiting for a refund, you'll still only have the usual 14 days to leave feedback. If you wait longer than that, you'll lose your ability to leave public feedback on the contract. The freelancer or agency can enable feedback changes if you leave feedback and want to change it later.

Based on your request, your freelancer or agency can then choose to issue a full refund, a partial refund, or no refund at all. Even without a formal request, they can proactively initiate a refund through Upwork on any contract, active or ended, as long as:

The refund is within 180 days of the payment

The refund amount is not more than what they earned on the contract

They have funds available to cover the refund

If your refund request is approved by the freelancer or agency

The refund is automaticallycredited back to your billing method immediately.

It may take 3-5 business days for the credit to be available to you on that billing methods account.

You can check any refunds that you have received by going to Reports Transaction History.

If a refund reduces the freelancer or agency's earnings to $1 or less on the contract, the contract will no longer show on both your work histories and any feedback will be removed from your feedback ratings. It can take up to 12 hours for this information to update.

Note: If your original payments came from multiple billing methods, well automatically apply a single credit to your Upwork account that can be used to cover future invoices. Alternatively, you can contact our customer support to request that we issue split credits to all the original billing methods that you used rather than to your Upwork account balance. Funds billed to one method cannot be refunded to another.

If the freelancer or agency refuses your refund request or does not reply

Hourly Contracts

If the freelancer or agency declines to give a refund or youdon'thear back at all, you may still be able to dispute the charges. Timing is important here, however. You must file any dispute by Friday after a billing week closes. For example, you receive the weeks invoice on Monday at noon UTC. You have from then until Friday at midnight UTC to review those hours and file a dispute, if needed. Click here to learn more about filing an hourly dispute.

This means you can only dispute the current invoice, not past invoices. If you miss this window, you and your freelancer or agency should work together to resolve any issues and possibly discuss your refund request. If you are unable to reach an agreement please reach out to Support. Mediation assistance is available within 30 days of the last payment on your contract.

Fixed-Price Contracts

Fixed-price contracts are paid as work is submitted and approved. If you need to close a job with funds remaining in escrow, you may request an escrow refund. Dispute assistance is available if the last payment on a Fixed Price contract was within the previous 30 days or as long as funds are held in escrow.

Dispute Center

You may review or update mediation cases by logging into your Upwork account and going to the Dispute Center

If youre having trouble withdrawing your earnings from Upwork, please see below for further information.

Im unable to withdraw my earnings

There are a number of factors that could be preventing you from withdrawing your earnings at this time:

In order to withdraw your earnings from Upwork, you must set up a withdrawal method and enter your tax information. For security reasons, when you set up a new withdrawal method, it will become available for use 3 calendar days after it has been added

All earnings on Upwork are subject to review and security periods before they can be withdrawn. You can check the date that your funds will be available from your Transaction History report

If there are any restrictions on your account, you may be unable to withdraw funds until the restriction has been lifted. Please refer to the relevant notification and instructions to resolve the limitation

For agencies, the agency is responsible for all payments to the agencys members. Payments from agencies to agency members are not protected or facilitated by Upwork. Please speak to your agency owner or agency finance manager to resolve any payment issues

If you receive an error message when processing a withdrawal please click here for information on any site issues that may be affecting the Upwork platform. If there are no site issues and your withdrawal cannot be processed please contact support for further assistance

I have not received my withdrawal

If your withdrawal was successfully processed and has not been received, Upwork can assist in locating the funds. Please refer to the information below for help with the specific method you used to withdraw funds.

Note: Public holidays in the U.S. and your own country can delay withdrawals. Click here for further information.

Direct to Local Bank

Direct to local bank withdrawal requests are processed within one business day. Payments should arrive at your bank within four business days.

Upwork can trace a missing payment for you at no charge, however, you must wait eight full business days after the withdrawal date to initiate the trace. To request a payment trace, please contact support and include a screenshot of your bank statement or online transaction history from the time the withdrawal was made up to the time you submit the request.

ACH Direct to U.S. Bank

We process ACH Direct to U.S. Bank deposit requests within one business day. ACH payments should arrive at your bank within two to five business days. Some banks impose a waiting period on funds from incoming transfers. Please ask your bank how long it will take for your funds to clear.

Upwork can trace a missing ACH payment for you at no charge, however, you must wait five business days after the withdrawal date to request the trace. If your funds have not arrived after this period, please contact support to request a payment trace.

Wire Transfer

We process wire transfer requests the next business day.

If the transfer is successful, the funds could hit your account within minutes of being processed. However, depending on the country and bank, it could take several days to arrive because of banking complexities. Some banks impose a waiting period on funds from incoming (and especially international) wire transfers. Please ask your bank how long it will take for your funds to clear.

Upwork can trace a missing payment for you at no charge, however, you must wait eight full business days after the withdrawal date to initiate the trace. If your funds have not arrived after this period, please contact support to request a payment trace.

PayPal

If you haven't already, please check that your PayPal account is fully activated and verified. You can verify by linking your credit card, debit card, or bank account to your PayPal account. Please log in to your PayPal account and follow the instructions to complete the verification process. You are responsible for making sure that PayPal provides the services you need before you transfer money.

In most cases, your withdrawal from Upworkwill transfer to your PayPal account immediately. However, there are occasions when it may take up to 24 hours. If it has been more than 24 hours, please contact PayPal support and provide them with the email address that funds were sent to. If they are unable to locate the payment, please contact Upwork support for further assistance.

Payoneer

When you request a payment through Upwork to your Payoneer account, you should receive a notification from Upwork within 24 hours.

If you don't get an Upwork notification of your transaction in 24 hours:

Log into your Payoneer account to confirm receipt of funds

Check your email filters, such as your spam, trash and/or junk folders for these notifications and add both Payoneer and Upwork to your email contacts

Check the email address connected to your Payoneer account for a notification that they have transferred the funds to your account

If the above steps did not resolve the issue, please contact Payoneer support and provide them with the email address that funds were sent to. If they are unable to locate the payment, please contact Upwork support for further assistance.

M-Pesa

If you haven't already, please check that your M-Pesa account is fully activated and complete the necessary verification process. You are responsible for making sure that M-Pesa provides the services you need before you transfer money. Please note M-Pesa is currently only available to users in Kenya.

Most M-Pesa transactions will transfer to your M-Pesa account immediately, but some may take up to 24 hours on weekdays or next business day on weekends. If it has been more than 24 hours and one business day, please contact support for further assistance.

My withdrawal was returned

If your withdrawal fails and the funds are returned to your Upwork account, you will be notified by email. We will cover all fees resulting from an Upwork error. If the transfer fails because you provided incorrect information, the funds will be returned to you minus the following costs:

Original withdrawal fee

Any return fees incurred by Upwork

Any additional fees or penalties your provider may assess

If you returned a PayPal transaction back to Upwork and it's not showing in your Upwork account, that's because returned funds from PayPal don't automatically get routed to you. To remedy this problem, please contact support and provide the Unique Transaction ID number sent to you by PayPal when you sent your PayPal funds back to your Upwork account. We will trace your transaction and credit it back to your account. We can't return the PayPal transaction fee because that fee covers processing expenses.

There may be a couple of reasons why we removed your job post, but our system is set up to let you know why it happens when it does. If, for some reason, you didnt receive notification from Upwork about your missing job post, here are three possible reasons why:

You reposted a job and the original job posting was still open.

You posted a job using the exact job title you used before. For example, when youre posting for the same job as a fixed-price and as an hourly job. To do this, simply make a small change to the title of one of the postings so they are not exactly the same.

The job posting violated the Upwork Terms of Service.

The agency job success score is calculated using the same formula for freelancers. But instead of contracts of just one freelancer, we look at all contracts of the agency's exclusive and non-exclusive agency contractors, ensuring that agencies and agency members have one consistent score.

All exclusive agency freelancers who have enough contracts to qualify for a JSS will see their agency score listed on their profile. Agency owners are responsible for the all work of their agencies and agency freelancers, so their profiles will reflect the collective JSS of their agencies rather than their own account ratings if their account is set to agency exclusive.

Frequently Asked Questions

If I remove an exclusive agency contractor, will that affect my JSS?

Your agency's score will not automatically change when an exclusive agency contractor leaves your team. The Upwork system takes snapshots of your six, 12 and 24-month history in the marketplace and calculates a score for each. The best score out of these rolling windows is displayed on your profile and updated about every two weeks. Once this freelancer's work falls out of the best time window, it will no longer be reflected in the agency's score. Similarly, adding freelancers with high scores may not automatically increase your agency's score because only contracts done for the agency will count towards your score.

Upwork has three programs that offer eligible freelancers special perks and opportunities. The purpose of each program is a little different:

Rising Talent : To help you build your business reputation on Upwork more quickly

Top Rated : To highlight your impressive reputation on Upwork and help you continue your success

Premium Services : To provide the highest prioritization by Upwork when we highlight freelancers for projects (when project criteria have been met)

The tables below show how you can become eligible for each as well as the associated perks.

Eligibility Criteria

For a chart ofprogram eligibility and perks for agencies, click here.

Criteria

Rising Talent

Top Rated

Premium Services (Invite only)

Job Success Score (JSS)

No JSS

90% or higher *

Invitation Only

Eligible freelancers will receive invitation by email.

Taking advantage of Premium Services does not affect Rising Talent or Top Rated status.

User Type: Freelancer or non-exclusive agency member(Agencies have different criteria )

Freelancer Profile: 100% complete

Account Status: No Terms of Service violations in the last 3 months

Relevant Proposals: Submit proposals to projects relevant to your skill set

Knowledge Check: Passed the Upwork Readiness Test (link in email invitation)

Work History: First contract on Upwork was more than 90 days ago

Earnings: $1,000 or more on Upwork in the last 12 months

Invitation: To take advantage of Premium Services

Accept and pass interview

* To receive and keep Top Rated status, freelancers have a Job Success Score of at least 90% (or have been in Rising Talent status) for 13 of the last 16 weeks.

Perks

Perks

Rising Talent

Top Rated

Premium Services (Invite only)

Program badge on Upwork profile

If Rising Talent or Top Rated, continue to receive those perks.

30 free Connects (one-time bonus)

Phone, chat, and ticket support from a specialized customer support team

Reduced fees (starting at 10%) on Featured Jobs

Prioritized by Upwork when we highlight freelancers for projects (when project criteria has been met)

Priority

High priority

Highest priority

Prioritized for promotion in Upwork emails and marketing pages

Priority

High priority

Highest priority

Customized Job Digest emails highlighting top opportunities on Upwork

Opportunities to chat with Upwork during online office hours, and to participate in events in select cities

If also Rising Talent or Top Rated, continue to receive those perks.

Option to periodically remove one jobs feedback from profile and Job Success Score

For a chart of program eligibility and perks for agencies, click here.

Upwork has three programs that offer eligible agencies special perks and opportunities. The purpose of each program is a little different.

Rising Talent : To help you build your reputation on Upwork more quickly

Top Rated : To highlight your impressive reputation on Upwork and help you continue your success

Premium Services : To provide the highest prioritization by Upwork when we highlight freelancers for projects (when project criteria have been met)

The tables below show how you can become eligible for each as well as the associated perks.

Eligibility Criteria

For a chart ofprogram eligibility and perks for non-agency freelancers, click here.

Criteria

Rising Talent

Top Rated

Premium Services

Agency Qualifications

Agency Job Success Score ( JSS )

No JSS

90% or higher *

Invitation Only

Eligible agency members will receive invitation by email.

Taking advantage of Premium Services does not affect Rising Talent or Top Rated status.

Agency Size

2 or more members

2 or more members

Agency Member Profiles: at least 60% complete (on average across all agency members)

Agency Owner Profile: 100% complete

Account Status: No agency member Terms of Service violations in the last 3 months

Relevant Proposals: Submit proposals to projects relevant to your skill set

Knowledge Check: Passed the Upwork Readiness Test (link in email invitation)

Work History: Agency's first contract on Upwork was more than 90 days ago

Agency Earnings: $10,000 or more in the last 12 months

Agency Member Qualifications

Invitation: To take advantage of Premium Services

Accept and pass interview

* * To receive and keep Top Rated status, agencies must have a Job Success Score of at least 90% (or have been in Rising Talent status) for 13 of the last 16 weeks.

Perks

Perks

Rising Talent

Top Rated

Premium Services

Program badge on Upwork profile

If also Rising Talent or Top Rated, continue to receive those perks.

60 free Connects (one-time bonus)

Phone, chat, and ticket support from specialized customer support team

Prioritized by Upwork when we highlight freelancers for projects (when project criteria has been met)

Priority

High priority

Highest priority

Prioritized for promotion in Upwork emails and marketing pages

Priority

High priority

Highest priority

Customized Job Digest emails highlighting top opportunities on Upwork

Personalized profile tips to help effectively market your freelance services

Via email

Via email

Online office hours and opportunities to attend or host local events in select cities

If also Rising Talent or Top Rated, continue to receive those perks.

Option to periodically remove one jobs feedback from profile and Job Success Score

* For Rising Talent agencies, the badge appears on the agency profile and profiles of exclusive agency members without Job Success Scores.

** For Top Rated agencies, the badge appears on the agency profile and profiles of exclusive agency members with Job Success Scores. Exclusive members without Job Success Scores will display the Rising Talent badge.

For a chart ofprogram eligibility and perks for non-agency freelancers, click here.

Keeping your availability updated can help you to access the most relevant jobs and helps you avoid the frustration of dealing with invitations when you're not looking for more work. You may want to take a moment to update your availability when you accept new work, a contract ends, or your life outside Upwork gets too busy.

To set your availability

Go to Find Work

Click the icon next to Availability in the My Profile panel

If available, set hours per week you can accept

If not available, set an available on date (best estimate)

This article relates to the Selfie Identity Review process only, for information on other types of identity verification click here.

We routinely ask freelancers and clients to verify their identities to help keep Upwork safe. If you received a request linking you to these instructions, you have been chosen to participate in our Selfie Identity Review process.

What does this mean for you? We need you to take a moment and send us two photos. One, a selfie of you holding a valid, government-issued ID (see more details on accepted IDs below). And two, a photo of only your ID. Once we receive your photos, we will review them and get back to you in 3 to 4 days. Please send the two photos as PNG, JPEG, or PDF files. While the verification process is simple, its important that you follow the instructions below.

Selfie & ID Preparation

My Requests

On a blank piece of white paper write your name, todays date, and your ID ticket request number. Note: Your ID ticket request number can be found in or in the email notification you received

Hold both this paper and your ID in one hand so we can clearly see both

Take a selfie of you, your ID, and your handwritten note. Important: All three elements (you, your ID and your writing) must be clearly visible without cropping or editing

Then place your ID on a flat, well-lit surface and take a photo of it

Selfie Image Requirements

Do not edit the image in any way

The photo needs to include your full face, head-on, with no distortions, shadows or reflections of light. If someone takes the photo for you, make sure they take it from up close and include as little background as possible (remember, no cropping is permitted)

Dont wear sunglasses, hats, or anything else that obstructs your face. If possible, remove glasses (even clear ones) to avoid problems with glare

Make sure we can clearly see your face and the written information on the paper.

ID Requirements

Your ID must include your picture, signature (if applicable), name, date of birth, and address, with the exception of passports, which don't need your address

Your ID must be valid and issued by your national or regional government (not an employer or school)

Do not edit the image in any way

When you take the photo of your ID, make sure the photo is clear and close enough to read without cropping or editing

Upload instructions

Step 1

Click on the secure link we sent you to use in our Selfie Identity Review request.

Step 2

When we request your Government-issued ID card or passport in the document submission process, you can submit your photo of it. A scanned image is not required in this case. Follow the forms instructions to upload the image of only your ID, then choose Submit.

Step 3

Upload your selfie image (PNG, JPEG, or PDF file) as an Additional verification document. Select Other for Document type. For the Date issued field, you can enter any date in this case. Then choose Submit.

Please allow 3-4 business days for your results.

You can submit deliverables and send files up to 95MB through Upwork Messages.

If you need to send larger files to your client, there are a number of file-sharing options out there, and the clients you're working with may have their own way of doing it. Some companies even have policies about how and where files can be shared. If youre not sure how your client wants you to deliver your work, get in touch with them to find out.

Completing your profiledoesnt just give clients the info they need, it also helps Upwork match you with more relevant projects and it is required if you want to achieve Rising Talent status, Top Rated status or access Premium Services.But what does a top-notch profile look like?

Start your profile by choosing work categories that are most relevant to your skill set and set an hourly rate that reflects your skills and experience level. You can search Upwork to get an idea of what freelancers in similar industries are billing. Then, consider these tips to help enhance your profile and ensure it showcases your experience and expertise in the best light.

In this article, you'll learn how to...

Create a profile to showcase your skills

Select a professional profile picture

Highlight your expertise in the title and overview

Create an outstanding introduction video

Feature your work in your portfolio

Emphasize your experience with certifications

Include your employment history

Update your educational experience

Showcase your skills

Upwork has an extensive list of standardized skills that can help you quickly identify your strengths and connect you with relevant projects. These skills also help clients find you more easily.

Kat C., Las Vegas/NV Example: Skills section for Translations ( Yufei F., Martinsburg/WV )

You may see that clients in your niche look for freelancers by the service they want (i.e. logo design, web design) rather than the tools needed (i.e. Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop).Take note of which keywords potential clients include in their project descriptions to help focus your own profile.

Select a profile photo

Clients want to feel they can trust a freelancer before they engage them for a project and your profile photo is an important part of the equation. If a picture is worth a thousand words, what does your profile picture say about you?

To help attract clients and stand out from the crowd, keep these tips in mind when selecting your perfect profile picture.

Find your best light Shady areas outdoors without direct sunlight or on a cloudy day are a great lighting choice. Inside, avoid overhead light, which creates harsh shadows, and instead look for natural light.

Simplify the background Look for a plain and light background that is clear and uncluttered. A solid, not-too-bright wall, such as the side of a concrete or brick building, or a simple outdoor background might work well.

Focus on your face Face the camera straight on or with your shoulders at a slight angle. Crop the image so you only include your head and the top of your shoulders. Dress in professional attire and remember to smile! Clients find smiling freelancers more warm, friendly, and trustworthy.

Get ready for the photoshoot Have someone take your photo for you, or set up a tripod and take the photo yourself, and select the highest resolution to help ensure a crisp photo. Consider taking multiple photos, in several locations and with different poses, so youll have a variety to choose from.

Visit our blog for more tips on choosing an awesome profile photo

Highlight your expertise

Coming up with a title may seem simple, but its a potentially powerful tool thats often overlooked by freelancers. Why is it so important? Because when a client finds your profile in search, your title is the first thing theyll see.

Examples: How a freelancers title and overview show up in search results.

Your overviewisn'tentirely visible until someone checks out your profile, but since its at the top of your profile its also a highly visible part of your marketing. Use it to introduce yourself and pitch your services.

Example: Title and overview of a freelancer in Web & Software Dev ( Fred T., Seattle/WA )

Visit our blog for more tips on creating your title and overview

Create an introduction video

It can be difficult to establish a personal connection through a written profile, but that profile is an important factor when it comes to finding new clients. Adding an introduction video to your profile can be a great way to quickly build a bond with prospective clients by providing a more interactive preview of your unique characteristics and what itll be like to work with you. Need inspiration before you get started?

Check out these stellar intro videos from some of your fellow freelancers

Pavel Pomerantsev Front-End Developer

Czarina de los Reyes-Guevara Customer Service Manager

Chris Warren Motion Graphics Artist

Visit our blog for more tips on creating a stellar profile video

Feature your best work

Use your portfolio to draw a potential client's attention and showcase the quality of your work plus the value of your expertise.

Choose pieces that reflect your niche and help prove your specialization. If your skillsaren'tparticularly visual, try to find creative ways to explain the challenge behind each sample and how your work had an impact.

Example: Portfolio of a freelancer in Web & Software Dev ( Fred T., Seattle/WA )

Visit our blog for more tips on building a successful porfolio

List your certifications

Listing the certifications youve earned can help prove your specific knowledge or abilities, particularly if they relate to specific systems or software your clients may look for.

Example: Certifications section for Data Science ( Kat C., Las Vegas/NV ).

To help connect with clients who may be looking for language skills that are not your native language, consider adding certifications that reflect your proficiency in that language helps boost your chances of making a connection.

Add your employment history

Adding relevant details about your employment history can help clients understand your background, both on and off Upwork.

You can start by adding a brief description of your responsibilities and accomplishments in your previous roles; pay particular attention to projects that relate to the type of projects you are looking for now.

As your freelance business grows, consider adding new entries for a few of your most impressive projects to help reconfirm your credibility.

Example: Employment history for Translations ( Karine S., Gordon/GA )

If youdon'thave a traditional employment history, consider adding your freelance business as a one line item, with a brief description summarizing your focus. You can use bullet points to highlight achievements and illustrate your specific expertise.

Include your education and other experiences

Your knowledge doesnt just stem from your previous work experience! Your education and other activities such as volunteer positions, mentorship programs, online courses, and other extracurricular activities can also help shape what you do and how you present yourself online.

Consider including a detailed description of each relevant education item by listing the institutions name and program in chronological order, beginning with the most recent one.

You can also add informal education and activities in the Other Experiences section. This may include research projects, competitions, or other interests that could help illustrate your value.

Example: Other experiences for Data Science ().

Additional tips to make your profile stand out

You may find inspiration viewing other freelancers profiles, but remember to make your profile original and unique.

Consider the following additional tips:

Make your profile about your clients. How can you help them?

Be consistent with your strongest skills and leverage all profile sections to back up your skills (title, skills, overview, work history)

Help establish trust and confidence by completing all sections

Be concise and straightforward in your language

Proofread each section carefully and update your profile regularly

Track your reputation by taking action on non-active contractsand if you are Top Rated, exercising more control over your JSS score

Update your profile visibility if your profile has been switched to private due to inactivity

Link other professional accounts in your profile settings to help Upwork match you better to jobs

Keep a perfect responsiveness score by replying quickly to invitations and messages

Update your profile to available when you are, so you receive invites. When youre not, set your profile to not available to avoid the nuisance of responding anddon'trisk hurting your responsiveness score

And before you publish your profile, ask friends to give you feedback. Another good tactic is to read your profile out loud: Its a great way to see if your profile flows well, has a nice rhythm, and sounds like you.

Two-step verification (also known as two-factor authentication) adds an extra layer of security that helps protect your account at login. The two steps are (1) your password and (2) a six-digit code sent to your contact method (phone or email). This makes it hard for anyone whoisn'tyou to gain access to your account.

To enable phone verification

Go to Settings Password & Security

Choose Enablenext to Phone Verification

Enter your country code and phone number. Well text you a verification code

Enter the six-digit code and Submit to verify and enable two-step phone verification

To disable phone verification

Go to Settings Password & Security

Choose Editnext to Phone Verification

Choose Delete next to your Security Phone Number

Confirm to delete and disable two-step phone verification

Security question vs. phone verification

Both are types of two-step verification and both help you keep your Upwork account safe. We ask you for your security question or for a verification code at different stages throughout the Upwork experience. Your security question is generally used to access specific parts of your account and phone verification is generally used at login, but either could be required when our security systems detect a login attempt or other operation that appears high-risk. To help protect your account, we recommend setting up both.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if I don't have access to my phone?

You can opt for emailed verification codes when youdon'thave your phone handy orcan'treceive the code right now. This code will be sent to the email address we have on file for your account. This way theres still two steps of security (password and code). Since only you have access to your phone or email account, only you will be able to get the security code either way.

Reports give you information on your earnings, hours, and payments. You can use reports to audit your overall work on Upwork and to export or print summaries of your activity. Several different reports are available depending on what you are trying to measure. Similar to the Upwork weekly billing cycle, reports are tracked using UTC.

To find your reports

Go to Reports and choose the report that suits your needs

Manual changes may take a few hours to reach all reports. Time logged with the Upwork Desktop App will appear more quickly.

These reports include all contracts and payments

Transaction History Itemized history of all earnings and payments

Timelogs Week-by-week reporting for payments and hours logged

Earnings by Client Earnings breakdown by year, quarter, or month, by contract

Lifetime Billings by Client Total earnings over the lifetime of your contracts, by client

Certificate of Earnings Downloadable PDF of last 12 months earnings

These reports focus on hours only

Weekly Timesheet Summarizes the hours worked for each client during a given week

Timesheet Details Report of the work you did during a selected time period

Time Analyze Downloadable summary of your hours and activities

Your contracts with an agency won't show earnings in any report because they're paid to the agency, not you. But you will still have full access to reports of your hours. The agencys business managers can access the full reports.

At times, a client might want to change the feedback they left for you. In order to edit their feedback, they must contact you and request your permission to do so.

To enable changes

Go to My Jobs All Contracts

Check the Include closed contracts box and

Click the title of the contract to get to the details page

Go to Terms & Settings and click the Enable client to change feedback link

Once you enable your client to change their feedback on a contract, your client will have 14 days to make any changes, either positive, negative, or neutral in outcome. The window for making changes stays open the full 14 days and your client can make multiple changes during this period.

Due to the double-blind feedback system, the option to enable changes won't be available until after they have left feedback for you, or until the 14-day feedback period closes, whichever comes first.

Please note that changes can only be made to public feedback. Private feedback remains on file, and cannot be edited.

Freelancer Plus is a monthly subscription for $14.99 (USD) that is designed to help you more effectively market your services, submit proposals, and stand out from the crowd.When you upgrade to a Freelancer Plus plan, you'll experience the following benefits:

Be discoverable by keeping your profile active, even if you take a break

Be competitive with insight into competitor bid range on jobs

Engage and apply with 70 Connects per month

Stand out with a customized profile URL

Keep your earnings confidential

To upgrade to Freelancer Plus

Go to Settings Memberships & Connects

Click the View or Edit Membership Plan

Click the Upgrade button on the Plus plan

Frequently Asked Questions

When will my plan be billed and my Connects be added?

Your plan will be billed every month on the same date. The day you upgrade to a Freelancer Plus plan your billing cycle date is reset. Your Connects will refresh monthly according to this new billing cycle.

How many Connects can I roll over each month?

A freelancer can roll over up to 140 unused Connects each month.

Do Connects ever expire?

Connects expire one year from the date of issue. However, you can only roll over 140 Connects per billing cycle (agencies can roll over as many as 160).

What's the difference between Freelancer Basic and Freelancer Plus?

The Freelancer Basic plan is your default free plan. The Freelancer Plus plan includes a monthly allotment of Connects, membership perks, and visibility into competitor bids.

How do I downgrade my membership plan?

To downgrade from Freelancer Plus to Freelancer Basic:

Go to Settings Memberships & Connects

Click the View or Edit Membership Plan

Click the Switch to Basicbutton on the Basic plan

Freelancers in Ukraine

For wire transfers to Private Entrepreneur bank accounts in Ukraine in particular, please refer to this Hiring Headquarter article for more information.

Freelancers in Russia and other countries where applicable

For any wire transfers to registered Private Entrepreneur bank accounts such as those in Russia, Belarus, and other countries, download this Confirmation of Services form, fill it out, and email this filled-in document to [email protected]. They can assist with processing and provide a copy of the signed version of the Upwork User Agreement, if needed.

The Upwork Desktop App is a collaboration and time tracking tool. But like any tool, it has its limitations. If your Work Diary isn't showing your time the way you'd expect, you can read through common issues and how to resolve them below.

Common Issues

Related Links

You forgot to log time with the Desktop App

We encourage all users to toggle on their time tracker prior to starting work. If you forgot, contact your client to explain and ask for permission to add the time to your Work Diary manually.

You were tracking time, but there are blank periods in your Work Diary

In some situations, you may be logging time, but your Work Diary will have blank or empty segments. This happens, because the Desktop App stops tracking time when you've gone idle or recognizes that there is no trackable activity, such as keystrokes or clicks.

If you were working during a period when the Desktop App recognized you were idle, you should discuss adding the time manually with your client.

You logged time on the wrong contract

Unfortunately, each contract has a separate Work Diary. There's no way to move time from one contract to another while keeping the logged data, such as screen captures, intact.

You should talk to your client about deleting the time from your Work Diary and adding it as manual time to the correct contract. If your client has disabled manual time, you can remove the time from the wrong contract and discuss with your client about turning on manual time or releasing a bonus payment to cover the time you worked.

Your anti-virus software is interfering with the Desktop App

Some anti-virus or anti-malware products may prevent the Upwork Desktop App from connecting properly our server. This can cause unexpected behavior, such as missing screen captures or preventing the cache of data logged from uploading at all.

You can test this by temporarily disabling the anti-virus program or adding the Upwork Desktop App to a whitelist of allowable programs. You should refer to your anti-virus provider's user manual or support site on how to do this.

If you still encounter caching issues after changing your anti-virus configuration, you may consider disabling the anti-virus program while using the Desktop App or using an anti-virus program that is compatible with the Desktop App.

The Desktop App went into caching mode and didn't reconnect

Caching mode allows you to log time and continue to work through minor internet connectivity issues or during Upwork site maintenance windows. Usually, the time you cache with the Desktop App will be automatically uploaded as soon as your connection to Upwork is reestablished.

The cache can hold approx. 4 hours at a time. You must reconnect to upload your time before the end of the workweek. Click here to learn more.

You accidentally logged non-working hours

If you accidentally logged time with the Desktop App for time spent on leisure or non-work activities, you should immediately delete the time from your Work Diary. Logging time for activity not related to work is considered inappropriate and is likely to lead to a dispute or conflict with your client.

Depending on when the time was logged, and when you noticed it, you have a few options.

If you have enabled desktop notifications in the Desktop App settings, you can simply click the trash icon on the screen capture notification to remove history for that work period. If you've already stopped working, you should also toggle time tracking to OFF.

If you missed the desktop notification, and the time was logged during the current workweek, simply delete the time from your Work Diary.

If you no longer have the ability to edit the time in your Work Diary, you can issue a refund to your client.

You accidentally deleted a screen capture for work activity

Unfortunately, we're unable to recover activity for deleted screen captures. You should reach out to your client to discuss adding manual time or the possibility of releasing a bonus for the time you worked.

Screen captures are appearing blacked out in your Work Diary

On the Windows and Linux versions of the Upwork Desktop App, there is a feature under the advanced settings calledStop Tracker on Screen Lock. If enabled, the Desktop App will be prevented from capturing the screen while your computer is locked. It will resume capturing once the computer has been unlocked or your screen saver has been deactivated.

If you worked in the 10-minute period before or after your computer was locked, your Work Diary may show a blank screen capture since it was unable to take a screen capture for this activity period. You activity for this time period will still be uploaded as normal.

To avoid having a blank screen capture in your Work Diary, you can:

DisabledStop Tracker on Screen Lock in your advanced settings

Change your screen saver or screen lock settings to allow for additional time

Upwork

Download the Desktop App

View Your Work Diary

Upwork Help

Use Your Work Diary

Add Manual Time

Delete Time

Before engaging a freelancer or agency, youll need to add a Billing Method to your account. There are three billing methods available to clients.

Credit Card

Upwork accepts Visa, Discover, Mastercard, and American Express. We do not accept virtual, prepaid, or gift cards. To learn more about adding a credit card to your account, click here.

PayPal

Clients with a verified PayPal account have the ability to use PayPal as their billing method. To learn more about verifying and linking your PayPal account, click here.

Bank Account (ACH)

Qualifying clients in the U.S. may use their bank account as billing method. To learn more about qualifying for this billing method, click here.

To add a billing method

Go to Settings Billing Methods

Click the Add Billing Method button

Tip: Adding more than one billing method may help avoid account disruption in case a transaction fails.

When clients send out invitations and freelancers don't reply, it can be a frustrating experience that makes those clients less likely to hire anyone. To help set proper expectations, we include an indicator on your profile and My Stats that shows your typical response time.

< 24 hour response time:You accept or decline most invitations within the first day.

<3 dayresponse time:You accept or decline most invitations within several days.

3 day response time:You don't accept or decline most invitations within several days.

Blank response time:We don't have enough data to calculate your response timeright now.

We can't calculate or show this indicator until you've had enough invitations. The indicator will disappear again if you haven't had enough invitations recently.

One of the best ways you can demonstrate your professionalism to your clients and potential clients is to reply quickly to job invitations. Replying doesn't necessarily mean accepting. Declining jobs you don't want and informing us about spam are equally important. You can set your profile to private if you are busy, on vacation, or cannot reply to invitations for any other reason.

Invitations that are withdrawn by a potential client within the first 24 hours don't count against your responsetime, even if you didnt get a chance to reply. Clients withdraw invitations for a number of reasons, including because they changed their mind, hired someone else, or had the job closed by Upwork.

Typically, freelancers wait for the client to end a contract, make any final payments, and leave feedback.

To end your contract

Go to My Jobs

Click the contract's title

Select the(...) options menu

ClickEnd contract

For fixed-price contracts, funds inescrow will be automatically released back to the client if you end the contract.

Once you end a contract

The system will lock your Work Diary and you can no longer record time.

Your client will be billed as normal for any hours logged.

You and your client may leave feedback.

You may offer a refund for any payments made within the last 180 days.

Reminder:All Upwork users have theability to end a contract at any time, though it is always best if everyone is aware of what's going on and in agreement about it.

This article provides information to freelancers in the United States (U.S.) and United Kingdom (U.K.) who want to submit proposals to U.S. or U.K. only jobs. If you have been asked to verify your location for other reasons, please click here.

Clients who want to work with freelancers located either in the United States or the United Kingdom can post jobs that only allow freelancers in these locations to submit proposals. If your profile states your location is in the U.S. or the U.K. we'll need to confirm your location before you can submit proposals to those jobs. These jobs will be available only in the U.S or the U.K.not both.

Verifying Your Location

In many cases, verification happens automatically, behind-the-scenes.

If you're not verified automatically, you'll be prompted to upload an image of your ID when you open a location-restricted job post.

To confirm your location

Confirm your name

Select a form of ID to upload and click Upload Your ID

Select an image of your ID and click Upload

Important: To confirm your location, the name on your ID document must match your Upwork account name. If the name on your ID does not match your Upwork account name, please contact support for assistance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Links

I am based in the U.S/U.K. but I travel frequently. Can I still submit proposals to these jobs?

The process allows for periodic travel, so if we've been able to confirm you are in the U.S. or the U.K. you'll still be able to submit proposals for jobs where the client is requesting only U.S. or U.K. freelancers, even if you travel. It will then be up to you and your client to determine whether your travel schedule affects your ability to meet their job requirements.

How does location verification work for agencies?

For U.S.- or U.K-based agencies, each agency member must verify their location to gain access to these jobs. Only those who have confirmed they are located in the U.S. or U.K. will be able to submit proposals for jobs where the client is requesting only U.S. or U.K. freelancers. When submitting proposals on behalf of other team members, both the person submitting the proposal and the team member named in the proposal must verify they are in the U.S. or U.K.

Non-U.S. or U.K. agency members, including business managers, will not be able to submit proposals for jobs with location selection, even on behalf of their team members who have completed location verification.

How does Upwork protect my personal data?

Any ID documentation that you submit will be encrypted and securely processed. If youre located in the U.K., you can submit a GDPR request to Upwork to access, update, or delete your data. Click here to learn more.

Upwork Help

Location + Government ID Verification

Upwork

GDPR

Congratulations! Once your application to join Upwork has been accepted ( Why might my application to join not be accepted? ), you can submit proposals to jobs right away, but you'll have a better chance at getting hired if you do a few things to help you get started:

Complete the Getting Started Checklist (on the Find Jobs page)

Check out our Online Course for New Freelancers

Complete your freelancer profile (including skills, portfolio, and certifications), which serves as your Upwork resume and is your most powerful tool for getting hired

Download our free eBook " Build a Business You Love: Freelancing Tips from the Pros "

Related Links

Hiring Headquarters

8+ Tips to Help You Create a Profile That Stands Out

Upwork Profiles: Why a Great Title and Overview Can Make a Difference

A How-To Guide for Your Perfect Profile Picture

Get Your Profile to the Next Level with an Intro Video

4 Ways to Create a More Successful Portfolio Regardless of Your Skill Set

You can be a freelancer, agency, and a client on Upwork. You will use the same account to log in to Upwork but will have separate user profiles. You will be able to easily switch between them as needed.

Note: You can't have two separate freelancer accounts. But we're working on specialized profiles to allow you to better highlight your different talents.

If you're a freelancer or agency manager now, but would like to hire others as a client

Go to Settings My Teams and choose the Create New Accountbutton at the bottom.

Choose New Client Account

Once set up, use the account menu at the top-right of your screen to switch between using Upwork as a client, freelancer, or agency

If you're a client now, but would like to do work as a freelancer or agency

Go to Settings My Info.

Click the Create New Account link at the bottom

Select New Freelancer Account

Once set up, use the account menu at the top-right of your screen to switch between using Upwork as a client, freelancer, or agency

Upwork officially supports the latest versions of the following browsers.

Desktop

Android

iOS

Google Chrome version 71 or higher

Apple Safariversion 12 or higher

Google Chrome version 71 or higherMicrosoft Edge version 44 or higher Mozilla Firefox version 64 or higher Apple Safari version 12 or higher

Enable TLS

All users, regardless of browser, must enable TLS protocols to securely access the Upwork website and app. Upwork has disabled SSL protocols as outdated and insufficiently secure. This is generally only an issue on older Windows systems.

If you are on a Windows PC and have a fast and stable Internet connection but still experience SSL error messages when visiting Upwork.com or a full cache in the Upwork desktop app, please check that you have TLS protocols enabled. Upwork has disabled SSL protocols as outdated and insufficiently secure (for example, SSL is vulnerable to POODLE attacks ). All Windows users must have TLS protocols enabled to securely access the Upwork website and app.

To Enable TLS on Windows

Open your Control Panel, select Internet Options, then click the Advanced tab.

Scroll down to the Security section of the Settings list. Uncheck the boxes to disable all SSL protocols and check the boxes enable all TLS protocols.

Login Issues

Account Blocked

If you have too many failed attempts in a short time period, your account will be blocked as a security measure. Visit Upwork.com and log in from there to unblock your account.

Connection Error

If you see this error message, please try again in a few minutes. If you continue to see this, please email [email protected] or [email protected].

Upwork Maintenance

Upwork is temporarily down for maintenance occasionally. Please visit Status.Upwork.com to check the site status.

App Screens Not Loading

If you experience any of the following issues

User info cannot be downloaded

Connecting status doesnt go away

No internet connection

Please follow these instructions

Confirm you are on a working internet connection (cellular or wifi)

Confirm you have the latest version of the Upwork mobile app. Clients can check theGoogle Play store here or theiTunes App Store here. Freelancers can check the Google Play Store here or the iTunes App Store here

Remove the app from the devices memory (force stop/quit), reopen the app, and try again

If the problem persists, email [email protected] or [email protected]

Most sections of a job edited can be edited. However, you cannot edit the job category or change your job from Hourly toFixed-Priced (or vice-versa). To change the job category or update the payment type, you'll have to close your job and repost your job.

To edit your job

Click the Jobs tab.

Locate the job you want in your Open Jobs and click Edit Posting in the (...) options menu.

To cancel or close your job

Click the Jobs tab and locate the job you want to close in your Open Jobs.

Click Remove Posting in the (...) options menu and follow the instructions. You can always come back and repost the job and hire a freelancer or agency who submitted a proposal.

To change a job's visibility

Click the Jobs tab.

Locate the job you want in your Open Jobs and click Make Public or Make Private in the (...) options menu.

Public jobs appear in freelancers' job searches. Choose this so that they can find your job on their own. You may also opt to allow your job to be visible on search engines.

Private, invitation-only jobs don't appear in searches, so you'll need to take the time to find and invite the freelancers and agencies you need.

If you change visibility from Public to Private you may still get a few proposals. This is because a freelancer may have saved your job's URL, the URL may have already loaded in their RSS feed reader, or the job post is still appearing in search engines outside of Upwork (it usually takes about a day for them to remove your job after a visibility change).

When a contract ends, clients usually leave you feedback as part of that process. As a freelancer, you also can leave public feedback about your experience with the client.

To leave feedback for a client

Go to My Jobs

Find the contract in the Ended Contracts section you wish to leave feedback on

Click the Give Feedback button on your contract

The feedback period is 14 days from the end of a contract. The system is double-blind, which means that feedbackwon'tbe visible until both parties provide it for each other. If only one party leaves feedback, it will be posted after the 14-day period has expired.

If the 14-day feedback period expires before you are able to add comments, you can contact the client and ask them to allow you to add feedback late. Youll be notified once the option to leave feedback is available.

Sync your job search

Your job feed and search results will have the same job listings in the app and on Upwork.com

Your saved searches on the mobile app will automatically sync to Upwork.com so that you can run those saved searches and see the results from your job feed

When you save a job from your mobile app, those same saved jobs will appear on your Saved Jobs list on Upwork.com

Browse jobs by category or use limited filters. More filters are in development

Submit proposals

A client won't be able to tell whether the proposal was submitted via the mobile app, mobile web, or desktop. We do encourage you to be as thoughtful about how you are crafting your proposals on mobile as you are on desktop, including adding attachments, as needed

Wedon'tprovide a list of your submitted proposals from the mobile app. To check this, please visit Upwork.com from your desktop or mobile web browsers

The mobile app saves your work automatically. To resume your proposal after an interruption, you can simply go back to the job and tap on the Continue Proposal bar to resume where you left off. At this time, you can only resume your draft from the same mobile device

Not available for agencies. Agency business managers and agency freelancers can submit proposals from Upwork.com

Troubleshooting

Profile has Not Been Accepted

Youcan'tsubmit proposals before your profile is accepted during the registration process. Please follow the steps on Upwork.com to complete your profile.

No Connects Available

If you no longer have a Connects balance, please log in to the desktop site to purchase additional Connects.

Bring Your Own Talent (BYOT) or Bring Your Own Freelancer (BYOF) is a fast and simple way to add your existing freelancers to Upwork. It centralizes your independent freelancer relationships, collaboration, reporting and payments in one place.

To invite your freelancer:

Go to the Freelancerstab

Choose Bring Your Own Freelancer

Complete the invitation form

Your freelancer will receive an email with your contract terms. They can click on the Get Started link in that email to create an Upwork account, accept your offer, and be instantly added to your team. They will not be required to fill out a profile and will not be included in the marketplace unless they choose to take that extra step.

Please note that your freelancer will be charged the standard Upwork Service Fee. Most clients talk with their freelancers to negotiate contract terms before sending an invitation, taking any fees into consideration.

Bring Your Own Freelancer (Enterprise)

Bring Your Own Freelancer (BYOF) is a fast and simple way to add your existing freelancer and agency relationships to Upwork. It centralizes all your freelancer and agency relationships, collaboration, reporting and payments in one place, and expedites starting work with pre-approved contracts and onboarding tasks.

There are benefits for freelancers as well:

Get paid faster (within days of completing the work)

Simplify processing when getting started and invoicing the client

To participate:

Go to the Freelancerstab

Choose Bring Your Own Freelancer

Complete the invitation form

Your freelancer will receive an email with your request (which may also include an optional contract offer). They can click on the Get Started link in that email to create an Upwork account, create a basic profile, complete administrative tasks (if applicable), and then be added to your Talent Cloud. They will not be required to fill out a complete profile (but may choose to take that extra step).

Please note that your freelancer will be charged a BYO service fee as specified in your Enterprise agreement. This will be stated with the contract offer after the freelancer accepts the invitation. Most clients talk with their freelancers to negotiate contract terms before sending an invitation, taking any fees into consideration.

In some cases, Upwork may place a temporary restriction on your account shortly before the credit card associated with the account expires. This action is taken to ensure an active, valid billing method is kept on file in order to satisfy Upwork Hourly Protection terms. We will notify you by email if this happens.

You can lift the restriction by updating your card details, adding a new billing method, or by setting a different billing method as your primary billing method.

To update your card details

Go to Settings Billing Methods

Click the (...) options menu and select Edit

Enter the updated details, then click Save Changes

Note: Credit card numbers cannot be updated. If your card number has changed, please add it as a new billing method.

To add a new billing method

Go to Settings Billing Methods

Select Add Method

Enter your billing method details and follow the instructions on-screen to complete the setup

The instructions for adding a new billing method will differ slightly depending on which method you are adding. Click the links for further information on setting up a credit card, a PayPal account, or a bank account (qualifying U.S. clients only) as your new billing method.

To set a different primary billing method

Go to Settings Billing Methods

Select Set as primary from the (...) of the method you want to update

Adding certifications to your profile that you've earned outside of Upwork is a great way to show off your skills and qualifications.

To add a certification

Go to Find Work Profile

Scroll down to the Certifications section and click the Add button

Select a verifiable certification from the list and follow the instructions provided

By completing the verification process, your profile will feature the official certification logo, a 'verified' badge on your certification, and which can help you access opportunities that match your level of skill.

If you try to enter a certification not on the list, youll have the opportunity to Suggest a Certification. Occasionaladditions will be made to the Add form as well as to the list below.

Name

Provider

Adobe Certified Expert

Adobe

Appcelerator Titanium Certified Application Developer

Appcelerator

Appcelerator Titanium Certified Mobile Developer

Appcelerator

BlackBerry Certified Builder for Native Application Development

BlackBerry

BlackBerry Certified Builder for Web Application Development

BlackBerry

Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE)

Cambridge English

Cambridge English: Business Vantage or Higher

Cambridge English

Cambridge English: First (FCE)

Cambridge English

Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE)

Cambridge English

Cisco Certified Design Associate

Cisco

Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician

Cisco

Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert

Cisco

Cisco Certified Network Associate

Cisco

Cisco Certified Network Associate Security

Cisco

Cisco Certified Network Professional

Cisco

CompTIA A+ Certification

CompTIA

CompTIA Network+ Certification

CompTIA

CompTIA Project+ Certification

CompTIA

CompTIA Security+ Certification

CompTIA

Duolingo Proficiency Exam in English

Duolingo

Google Ads Display Certification

Google

Google Ads Mobile Certification

Google

Google Ads Search Certification

Google

Google Ads Shopping Certification

Google

Google Ads Video Certification

Google

Google Analytics Individual Qualification

Google

Associate Android Developer

Google

Hubspot Marketing Software Certification

Hubspot

Hubspot Contextual Marketing Certification

Hubspot

Hubspot Design Certification

Hubspot

Hubspot Agency Partner Certification

Hubspot

Hubspot Inbound Certification (2017 Version)

Hubspot

IELTS - English Proficiency Exam

IELTS

Linux Professional Institute Certification - Level 1

Linux Professional Institute

Linux Professional Institute Certification - Level 2

Linux Professional Institute

Linux Professional Institute Certification - Level 3

Linux Professional Institute

Magento 2 Certified Associate Developer

Magento

Magento 1 Certified Developer

Magento

Magento 1 Certified Developer Plus

Magento

Magento 2 Certified Professional Developer

Magento

Magento 2 Certified Professional Developer Plus

Magento

Magento 1 Certified Front End Developer

Magento

Magento 2 Certified Professional Front End Developer

Magento

Magento 2 Certified Professional JavaScript Developer

Magento

Magento 2 Certified Solution Specialist

Magento

Microsoft Certified Professional

Microsoft

MongoDB Certified DBA Associate

MongoDB University

MongoDB Certified Developer, Associate

MongoDB University

Oracle Certified Associate

Oracle

Oracle Certified Associate - Java

Oracle

Oracle Certified Expert

Oracle

Oracle Certified Expert - Java

Oracle

Oracle Certified Master

Oracle

Oracle Certified Master - Java

Oracle

Oracle Certified Professional

Oracle

Oracle Certified Professional - Java

Oracle

Red Hat Certified Engineer

Red Hat

Red Hat Certified System Administrator

Red Hat

Salesforce Certified Administrator

Salesforce

Salesforce Platform App Builder

Salesforce

Salesforce Platform I Developer

Salesforce

Salesforce Platform II Developer

Salesforce

Zend Certified Engineer

Zend

Zend Framework Certified Engineer

Zend

To add team members to your agency, you will need to upgrade to an Agency Plus membership.

To add someone to your agency

Go to Settings Members & Permissions

Select Invite a New User and fill in the form, including choosing roles and permissions

Select Invite User. The person will receive a notification to join your team and can accept or decline your invitation

To remove someone from your agency or change their permissions

Close out all of the user's current contracts and proposals.

Go to Settings Members & Permissions

Select the Remove from Team checkbox for the correct user or adjust their permissions

Select the Update Permissions button