When you have a project to complete and need a skilled professional to help, posting a job for free is the first step. You give us some details, then we show your post to freelancers and agencies who can send you proposals. Then you choose who to interview and hire. We’re here to walk you through it.
How Upwork works
Hiring freelancers helps you get more done. Whether you’re looking for a fellow expert who can help you take on more work or are looking to outsource a project you know nothing about, we’re here to walk you through the process.
Our online marketplace allows you to find helpful, skilled people to make your project a success. Post your job on our work marketplace and wait for the proposals from talented people around the world. Once you've found your expert, you can talk timing, availability, and prices before moving forward. Whether you are posting for a one-time project or need to build a team of professionals for ongoing collaboration, we’re here to help.
When you work through Upwork, we’re with you through:
- Payment Protection for hourly and fixed-price jobs
- A platform dedicated to helping you build your business
- Technology for communication, including messaging and video calls
- 24/7 customer service options
How to post a job
To post your job, go to Jobs > Post a Job. We will ask you a series of questions to help make sure the right professionals see your job post. Don’t worry, you don’t need to have all the answers and can always edit your job post later.
Posting a job is simple, quick, and free. But before you begin here’s what you’ll need:
- An idea around what work you need done
- A description of the work, or a few questions you could ask a freelancer
- A general idea of what your budget should be (we will provide suggestions of what people typically charge)
- A billing method, like a credit card. Posting a job is free, but we will verify your billing method to prevent scams.
Your draft will be saved if you need to come back to it later, even if you switch between devices. For example, you can post the job on your phone and edit later anytime, even if you switch to a desktop.
The job title is the overview of what you need and appears as a title. It’s a good idea to put a job title or industry (if it’s important) here. It’s what the freelancer will read first. We’ll select the keywords in your title to match you with the right professionals.
Good examples include:
- Content writer needed for fitness blogs
- Programmer needed for Children's Game App
- German-English translator needed for technical documents
- Need legal assistance to file patent in EU
- AR experience needed for virtual product demos
Adding skills helps us narrow down your search results to the right type of freelancers. Select options from the skills suggested or type your own. You can add up to ten skills, but aim for three to five for best results.
Choose how big or intensive your project will be. Remember, you can always edit the job post later if you change your mind or the work changes. The best part about building a trusted team is the ability to scale up and down, when needed.
- Large: This is best for projects that will run for an extended period, such as those that may take over a year to complete. Ongoing work that you'll need to work on over time, or up to a year or more, is described as large.
- Medium: Medium projects fall in the middle, typically lasting multiple months. A medium project might be something like coding a website from scratch.
- Small: This is best for tasks that can typically be completed in a few weeks or less, like analyzing a data report or creating a logo.
Then you’ll choose the level of expertise you need from entry, intermediate, and expert level freelancers. Some people are just getting started on the platform while others have been freelancing for years. This question helps us match you with freelancers within your budget.
Sometimes, depending on how much collaboration is needed, you may choose to work with someone in the same country as you. Choose if you’d like U.S. based freelancers or are open to freelancers from around the world. If you choose the U.S., you can even specify the state or time zone.
Choosing your budget can be intimidating. Don’t worry, you are always able to edit later. Plus, freelancers will send you proposals with how much they would charge for your project, so the budget you choose now is not necessarily final. You get to choose later exactly how much you will pay.
Hourly: Setting an hourly rate means that you will be charged hourly for the work. You’ll always be in control by setting limits of how many hours per week the freelancer can work. Setting a range here will help freelancers know if the project is right for them, and they will submit competitive bids that you’ll be able to review after the job is posted.
Project budget: A project budget is a rough estimate of the total project cost. You’ll later be able to set up different steps of the project, called milestones. Milestones let you break down that total cost into steps, and you add them after the job post when you send an offer. You’ll pay your freelancer by each milestone after they submit work. You can always change the project budget later, but a general idea of how much you’d like to spend helps freelancers decide if the project is right for them. The freelancers will submit competitive bids that you’ll be able to review after the job is posted.
Need help choosing between an hourly and project budget? See more details here.
It’s okay if you don’t know much about the specifics of the work you need done. Here, you’ll add any details you do know. Tell us what you want, and don’t worry about getting it perfect.
Freelancers can always send you questions in their proposals and you can connect later to interview them and discuss the details. This is just a starting point. However, the more detail you can include here, the better!
Good details to include:
- Scope of the work
- How fast you need it delivered
- Whether they’ll work with your team closely or work independently
- If there’s potential for more work
- What you don’t understand about the job and how they can help
- Required experience
- Helpful links and references to explain the desired style
Freelancers will see this description section second, after the title, and it helps them decide if the job fits their expertise.
Freelancers put lots of consideration into the proposals they send you. If you put a lot of effort into your job post, it’s likely you’ll get a lot of effort back from freelancers. Don’t abandon your proposal if you feel it’s not “just right.” You can always come back and adjust it!
Remember, it’s free to post a job. You’ll set up a billing method, but you won’t pay until it’s time to pay your freelancer. Posting a job isn’t necessarily a commitment to hiring. You’ll be able to view proposals from interested freelancers and interview candidates before moving forward with a contract.
What happens next
Start getting excited. Soon, you’ll get your shortlist of qualified professionals and see just how easy it is to find someone who gets you and your goals.
You’ll be shown a list of freelancers who may be a good fit for your project and fit your budget. You get free invites to send to the ones you like. Your job post will also be shown to freelancers who will send you proposals. You can relax, knowing that you’ll soon have a list of interested professionals ready to work.
Posting a job is free. We ask you to add your billing information upfront to help prevent scams, and freelancers are more eager to apply to jobs that have a billing method already verified.
You won’t be charged until you’re ready and have entered a contract with the freelancer you choose to work with. Our hourly and fixed-price payment protection holds the payment until you approve the work you receive.
Learn more about Upwork’s payment protection here. Learn more about what we charge when you work with freelancers on Upwork’s Marketplace here.
PRO TIP:
Reputable freelancers are more likely to apply to jobs with verified billing methods. Plus, clients with verified billing methods tend to hire three times faster than those without.
Millions of companies, big and small, use Upwork to get great work done. Join them today by posting your first job.
Frequently Asked Questions
Freelancers on Upwork range from entry-level to expert but in general, if you require more experience or need a specialized skill set, you should expect to pay more for your project. If you pay by the hour, the job post form will show you estimated rate ranges for different experience levels (based on projects in your category) that you may want to consider, and doesn’t require you to have a set budget in mind. Paying a fixed-price for your project or each deliverable allows you to suggest a price for the specified work, but the budget range is completely up to you since the cost is based on the scope of your project.
Hourly contracts are billed weekly, automatically, based on the verifiable hours your freelancer or agency works. You can set a limit on the number of hours per week. You can also add a flat weekly payment that you will pay out on top of the hours worked and paid.
For fixed-price contracts, you pay as you go when you receive the work. You control the frequency and size of payments. Initial deposit is collected at the time of hiring to prevent scams, then you’re able to review the work before the payment is released.
Yes, if you’re a U.S. client looking for exclusively U.S.-based freelancers. Choose “Only freelancers in the U.S. can apply” on the job post form.
Alternatively, you can use the location drop-down to specify a country. These alternatives help talent and agencies know if they’re right for you, but your job post will still technically be accessible to independent talent and agencies everywhere. But who you choose to hire is up to you.
You can add or remove any location preferences or U.S.-only restrictions even after the job post is live if you change your mind.
If you’re getting an error message when you try to post, please try using a different browser or clearing your browser cache/cookies. If that doesn’t work, please contact us through the chatbot. We’re here to help.
It can take up to a few hours for your job post to appear. This gives our team time to review more job posts and hold ones that are incomplete, duplicate, etc.
No, posting duplicate versions of the same job isn't permitted. You can, however, repost a job you previously posted or hire multiple people from the same job post. Learn more here.