Learn how to respond to client invitations on Upwork, send proposals or messages, and understand what happens after you accept — all without using Connects.
In this article
- What is an invitation to apply?
- How do I respond to an invitation to apply from a client?
- What happens after I accept an invitation and send a proposal?
- How do I send a message to the client to discuss the project?
- Do I need to use Connects to accept an invitation?
- How do I unblock a client I previously declined or blocked?
What is an invitation to apply?
An invitation to apply is a message sent directly from a client asking you to discuss their job and submit a proposal — it means something about your profile caught their attention. It's up to you whether to send a proposal, decline the invitation, or ignore it. Declining a job invitation (regardless of the reason) does not impact your chances of receiving future invitations.
Good to know:
Sometimes, we need to remove invitations from your messages if there’s an issue with the client or job. When that happens, you’ll see this notification:
How do I respond to an invitation to apply from a client?
Note: In some cases, the steps to respond to an invitation may look different than what you see below. You may have to answer questions from the client by completing a video interview with Uma™, Upwork’s Mindful AI, as part of your proposal instead of doing a cover letter. Learn more about Uma-powered interviews.
- Go to Find Work > Proposals and offers
- In the Invitations to apply section, select the job’s title
- From there, you can either:
- Accept and send a proposal: You can accept the terms as offered or propose new terms in your proposal. You can also include a cover letter, additional attachments to prove your expertise, and a message for the client
- Decline: Select a reason. You can send a message to the client letting them know why you're passing on the invitation. Do not give the client your contact information when you decline (this is against our Terms of Service)
- Ignore: This moves the invitation into your archived area. While you can accept or decline it later, ignoring an invitation does NOT count as a response
You can also open invitations directly from your notifications — look for them in the bell icon on your navigation bar.
Note for agencies:
If you work in an agency, you’ll be placed in a message room with the client and your agency business manager. If you submitted the proposal and you are the business manager of your agency, you and the client will be the only ones in the message room. The agency owner will only be invited to the message room if there’s no business manager available.
What happens after I accept an invitation and send a proposal?
After you accept an invitation and send a proposal, the client may or may not respond. If they do, the invitation or proposal becomes an active proposal and a message room is created for you and the client to continue discussing the project.
You or the client may have additional questions for each other and can communicate through Upwork Messages. The client may want to do a voice or video interview using Upwork’s tools in messages as a next step. They may also respond to your proposal with an offer.
How do I send a message to the client to discuss the project?
- Go to Find work > Proposals and offers
- In the Active proposals section, choose the job’s title
- Write your message to the client and choose Send
Important:
- To help our users connect as safely as possible, we require that you do not request or share any contact information and keep all direct communications on Upwork until you start a contract. This means you cannot share your contact information in your profiles, proposals, job postings, invites, or other pre-hire contacts.
- All introductions, interviews, and project scoping communications need to use Upwork's collaboration tools.
- Once a contract is in place, you can choose to share your contact information and use other tools to manage your project, too.
Do I need to use Connects to accept an invitation?
No, if a client sends you an invitation to apply for their job, responding to that invitation (either by accepting or declining) does not cost any Connects.
How do I unblock a client I previously blocked?
When you decline a client’s invitation on Upwork, you have the option to block them from sending you future invites or offers:
If you change your mind later and want to work with that client, follow these steps to reconnect and work together again:
- Submit a proposal to their job post. If the client doesn’t have an active job post, they’ll need to create one
- Confirm the unblock. When you submit the proposal, you’ll see a message like this: "You have previously blocked this client. Submitting a proposal will unblock them." This confirmation lets you know the block will be lifted. The client can now send you a new offer or hire you through the proposal you just submitted.