At Upwork, one of our key goals is to provide a robust marketplace for freelancers and clients to connect with each other and build strong, productive relationships. As a freelancer or agency, you'll use Connects to reach out and let clients know you're interested in their project.
Freelancing is your business, and like any business owner, you have to make investments to sell your products or services. When business is conducted in person, you might take a prospective client to lunch, spend money on a special presentation, or travel to the client’s business or home to discuss the work. With these steps, you are not only marketing your services, you are also showing potential clients that you are serious about your business and invested in building a working relationship with them. Connects are an investment toward your freelance career.
Get Connects
There are three ways to get Connects on Upwork.
Monthly FREE Connects
Each month, freelancers receive free Connects to help reach out to more clients.
Freelancer Basic accounts receive 10 free Connects each month, and Freelancer Plus accounts receive 70 Connects each month (including 10 FREE!).
Connects are given out each month on the first day of your billing cycle. To see when your billing cycle is, go here and view your "current billing cycle." The first date there is the date you will receive your monthly Connects. For example, if your current billing cycle is listed as Oct. 11, 2022 - Nov. 10, 2022, you will receive your Connects on the 11th of each month.
Buy Connects
Connects cost $0.15 (USD) each and are sold in bundles or a custom amount of your choice. To purchase additional Connects:
- Go to Settings
- Select Memberships & Connects
- Click Add More Connects
Once you’ve selected the bundle you wish to purchase, click Add Connects and your account will automatically be charged.
Earn Connects
We like to help freelancers succeed on Upwork and one way is by occasionally rewarding free Connects. While we can’t share all the details of when Connects are given out (we don’t want dishonest people to “game” the system), here’s what we can share:
- You’ll receive 40 free Connects when you register for Upwork for the first time
- You’ll receive 30 free Connects if you earn a Rising Talent badge
- You’ll receive free Connects (the number can vary) when you win an interview with an established client on Upwork. (To prevent gaming, we aren’t sharing all the details of what we consider “established.” In general, it’s a client who has hired and spent on Upwork in the past.)
- You’ll get a one-time Connects bonus if you complete an Upwork Skill Certification
Redeem a Connects Reward
From time to time, we will offer free Connects as part of a limited promotion. You may receive one of these offers in an email, as part of a partnership, or from an event you've attended. In these cases, you’ll receive a promo code to redeem the Connects. To use a promo code:
- Go to Settings
- Select Memberships & Connects
- Click Add More Connects
- Select an amount
- Enter your coupon or promo code
- Choose Apply
That's it! Enjoy your reward!
Use Connects
You can use Connects to let clients know you’re ready to work on their project in several ways. You can:
- Submit proposals to a specific job post. The number of Connects you need to use varies per job, and there are some jobs where you won’t need to use Connects at all. We’ll show you the amount in the job posting, so you’ll know how many Connects you’re using when you submit your proposal.
- Boost your proposal to put it at the top of the client’s list. You can use extra Connects to make your proposal stand out more to clients and let them know how serious you are about wanting their specific project. You can choose the number of Connects to bid but the winning amount will vary because you’re bidding against other freelancers. To learn more about how boosted proposals and the bidding process work, go here.
- Turn on your availability badge. The availability badge lets clients know that you’re available right now for work. It is shown to the general marketplace when clients look for freelancers. The weekly number of Connects needed for the badge fluctuates based on demand. You can control the amount of Connects you use for the badge by setting the maximum Connects that you’re willing to use each week. Connects will be used in the order you get them and unused ones will expire after one year.
NO CONNECTS ARE NEEDED...
- When a client invites you to bid.
- When a client sends you an offer.
- When a client purchases your Project Catalog project.
- When you send a proposal within an Enterprise Talent Cloud.
Manage Connects
Connects are a valuable resource. Before using your Connects to submit a proposal, we recommend that you:
- Carefully review the job post to make sure it matches your skills and availability.
- Make sure you have enough time to submit a quality proposal.
- Check to see if the client has hired anyone yet — sometimes clients don’t close a job right away after hiring.
- Review the client’s history — do they usually hire right away and have previous freelancers enjoyed working with them?
- Consider the number of freelancers who have already submitted proposals and whether the client is interviewing others yet. While you can still submit to a project that already has many applicants or is in the interview stage, it may be more difficult to get the client’s attention.
If you’ve been awarded Connects for winning an interview, you might notice some are issued as refunds. That’s because when you get the 10 Connects for winning an interview, some of those are the Connects you used to submit your proposal for the job. Those Connects are refunded and then we add the rest as awarded Connects. For example, if you used 6 Connects to submit a proposal and win an interview, you’ll see 6 Connects “refunded” and 4 “awarded.”
Returned Connects
Sometimes, a project may get canceled or a job may be removed from Upwork without a hire. In the following cases, these Connects will be returned:
- If a project is canceled by the client before a contract is made, Connects you used on that proposal will be returned. This does not apply to expired job posts.
- If we remove a project’s post because we believe it violates our Terms of Service, Connects you used on that proposal will be returned.
If you have applied for a job and it’s no longer available because of a violation or wasted Connects on a job proposal that turns out to be fraud, we will return your Connects. In these cases, Connects are credited back to your account for reuse — not for a refund of their cash value.
PRO TIP: When you use your Connects, you are investing in the opportunity to promote your services to prospective clients. Your Connects are not returned if the client chooses another freelancer, lets the job expire without hiring, or if you withdraw your proposal from a project. Think carefully about a project before reaching out!
Connects Balance and Limits
To check your Connects balance, go to Find Work. Your balance is shown on the right.
To help you review and manage your monthly Connects use, we provide a report of your Connects transactions for the past 7, 30, and 90 days. To view your history, hover over the Reports tab on your home page and choose Connects History.
Each month, your unused Connects will roll over. Connects will be used in the order you get them and unused ones will expire after one year.
A Note on Prorated Connects
If you choose to upgrade your account from Basic to Plus, your free Connects will be prorated. This means that we'll allocate them based on time, or specifically, on how many days have already passed during your billing cycle.
By prorating free Connects, we can be sure that you always get a fair amount, no matter when you make changes to your plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Connects required to submit a proposal can be seen on the project details page. Required Connects is shown at the top-right under the Submit Proposal and Save buttons.
Yes, you can purchase or earn an unlimited amount of Connects. Remember, Connects expire after a year without use, but we’ll notify you before your Connects are due to expire. You can’t return Connects for money back, either.
No, we are not awarding Connects in cases where you are invited to interview for a job post without submitting a proposal first.
The Connects reward for winning an interview go to the entity that submitted the proposal. If it was submitted under the agency, the reward goes to the agency. If it was submitted under an individual freelancer account, then the free Connects are awarded to the freelancer.
Connects are given out each month on the first day of your billing cycle. To see when your billing cycle is, go here and view your "current billing cycle." The first date there is the date you will receive your monthly Connects. For example, if your current billing cycle is listed as June 21, 2023 - July 20, 2023, you will receive your Connects on the 21st of each month. We will send you an email and an Upwork notification once they are applied to your account.
All of your Connects will rollover (unless they expire). There is no limit on the amount of Connects you can hold.
Connects expire one year from the date of issue.
For freelancers, Connects are sold in bundles of 10, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 150, 200, 250, or 300. Agencies have the option to buy those bundles, as well as bundles of 150 or 300 Connects. If you’d like to purchase a specific amount not offered in a bundle, you can also use the custom input field. You can’t purchase less than 10.