Quickly finding the right talent for your project is essential. That’s why we provide you with several ways to find talent and to filter your search results based on hourly rates, skills, feedback, and more. Some filters are dynamic and may offer you options that apply to your search criteria. You can also easily find talent you’ve worked with before and save talent profiles to review later.

Search for talent from any page


You can begin a search for talent using the search bar at the top of any page. Search keywords or job titles of the professionals you’re looking for.

Pro tip:

If you’re feeling stuck, try searching the title of your job post.

Once you’ve done that initial search, you can use the search bar above your results for additional searches. You can also refine your search by choosing Advanced Search to use advanced keyword search, or by selecting search filters.

Filters


You can also add additional filters from the choices beside the listings. Selecting filters helps you narrow down your search. You can apply various filters simultaneously, including:

  • Talent quality: You can filter for talent who have earned one of our talent badges through success on the platform and proven skills
  • Hourly rate: You can search for freelancers who have an asking rate that aligns with your budget
  • Location: Choosing a similar location can be important if you're looking for similar hours or regional knowledge

You can also search for freelancers or agencies, talent who are open to contract-to-hire, specific skills, languages, and more.

Talent tab

You can also use the Talent tab to search for talent or find saved talent lists. If you’re looking to hire someone you or your company has worked with before, this is the best place to find them.

Go to the Talent tab and view the dropdown suggestions. Choose the one you want or choose Search to begin a general search and get suggestions

  • Search will take you to the Discover page, where you can browse suggested freelancers based on your recent job posts or scroll down and search by category
  • In the dropdown selections, you can choose to view Your Hires, Company Hires, BYO Talent (which shows talent your company has brought to Upwork), and Saved talent

Saving talent

You can add a freelancer or agency’s profile to your Saved talent by selecting the heart icon on their profile.

Pro tip:

You can search for Expert-Vetted freelancers right from your Enterprise Dashboard. Expert-Vetted talent represent the top 1% of freelancers on Upwork.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does search work? What are the best practices?

The Upwork search algorithm uses both platform-generated data, such as number of completed projects and client feedback, and freelancer-generated information, such as descriptions of their offered services.

Search for talent by one of the following ways:

  1. Enter your target keywords into the Talent search box
  2. Use Advanced Search to refine your keywords. Learn more about Advanced Search
  3. Browse talent on the Discover page
  4. Find Expert-Vetted talent by category right from your Enterprise Dashboard. Learn more about Expert-Vetted talent

Once you start typing in the Talent Search box, you can select one of the autosuggestions in the dropdown to help you find what you need faster.

If you type in your published job post title in the search box, you can select it from the auto-suggestion dropdown to conduct a search using the specifications you included in your job post.

How does Boolean Search work? Is it the same as Advanced Search?

Boolean search works by applying complex logic to keywords and keyword strings. Our Advanced Search function automatically applies Boolean operators to your searches.

How do I find talent in a specific location?

Use the location filter to search locations, such as region, country, or city. You can also find freelancers in your desired time zone by using the global time zone filter.

If you are a U.S. client and want to see only U.S. freelancers, select the “U.S. only” filter in the sidebar first, then filter further by state, city, and time zones.

What’s the difference between the results from using the search bar and choosing Search to go to the Discover page?

Search results from a keyword search in the search bar are specific to your search query, which may not include your specific job post, while results on the Discover page are recommendations based on the specifications of your job post.

Was this article helpful?

0 out of 0 found this helpful
{"global":{"message":"","icon":"info","start":"","end":""},"responsive":[{"message":"","country":"All","usertype":"all","icon":"info","start":"","end":""},{"message":"","country":"All","usertype":"all","icon":"info","start":"","end":""}]}