Quickly finding the right talent is essential. That's why we give you several ways to find talent and to filter your search results based on hourly rates, skills, feedback, availability, languages, and more. Some filters may be dynamic and offer you options that apply to your search criteria.
Search for talent from any page
Start a search by entering keywords, professional job titles, or a freelancer’s name in the talent search bar at the top of any page, or go to Hire talent > Search for talent.
Once you’re on the search page, you can:
- Select Advanced search for advanced keyword search using Boolean logic
- Browse freelancers by category
- Choose filters in the sidebar. You can filter for multiple things at once, such as by freelancers or agencies, talent badges, hourly rates, and freelancers who offer consultations, for example.
Freelancer lists
You can find your saved lists of freelancers and previous hires in the Hire talent tab dropdown selections. (To save talent, select the heart icon on their profile.)
Project Catalog projects
You can also search for freelancer projects that meet your needs in Project Catalog. To navigate there from your home page, choose Project Catalog from the search bar dropdown selections and enter keywords. Learn more about how to find a project.
Frequently Asked Questions
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 going to Hire talent > Search for talent or by entering keywords into the search box. Once you start typing in the search box, you can select one of the autosuggestions in the dropdown to help you find what you need faster.
Once you're on the search page, you can use Advanced search, browse talent, or refine your results with filters. You’ll see filter options on your initial search results page, and you can select multiple filters for each search.
Boolean search works by applying complex logic to keywords and keyword strings. Our Advanced Search function automatically applies Boolean operators to your searches.
To find a specific freelancer, type their name directly in the search box. This functionality is currently supported only on desktop.
If the agency profile is public, you can type the agency name directly into the Talent search box to find freelancers who are exclusive to the agency or who have defaulted their profile to that agency. If you open the associated freelancer’s profile, you’ll see the agency listed under “Associated with,” and you can select the agency name to see the agency profile.
However, freelancers can work both as an agency freelancer and independently. If a freelancer who does both has not defaulted their profile to the agency, they will not show in the agency search.
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.
Search results from the talent search page are specific to your search query, while results in Proposal Manager are recommendations based on the specifications of your job post. To search from job post specifications from the talent search page, choose jobs in the search box and select the desired job from the “Open Jobs” portion of the dropdown menu.