To help you find freelancers who may have the experience and knowledge you need, look for Upwork’s talent badges on freelancer and agency profiles, proposals, and projects. You can also filter for badges in talent searches.
These badges highlight freelancers and agencies with a history of success on Upwork or proven expertise, earned through great reviews, top performance, or an expert screening process. You can find them across experience levels, categories, and geographies.
Rising Talent
The Rising Talent badge highlights some of the best new members in the Upwork marketplace.
Rising Talent freelancers have great potential based on strong backgrounds in their fields and early success with their Upwork clients. Rising Talent agencies either have strong backgrounds or were started by Top Rated freelancers.
Freelancers who have been inactive on Upwork for a while may also get the Rising Talent badge if they start taking clients on Upwork again and demonstrate success.
To qualify for the Rising Talent badge, freelancers must have:
- A 100% complete profile with signs of great experience prior to joining Upwork
- Positive performance on Upwork — submit high-quality proposals, be selected for jobs, and complete projects on time and as promised
- Up-to-date availability status for new jobs
- Been active in the past 90 days or joined in the last 30 days
- Followed the Upwork Terms of Service
In addition, agencies who receive the Rising Talent badge must also maintain:
- Two or more team members, including the agency owner
- 100% complete agency profile
- 100% complete agency owner profile
- 60% or higher average profile completeness across the agency
Top Rated
The Top Rated badge highlights freelancers and agencies who’ve built a strong reputation on Upwork through positive feedback from their clients. They represent the top 10% of talent on Upwork.
We check member eligibility every two weeks to ensure that we highlight those who are currently recognized by their clients for outstanding performance.
To qualify for the Top Rated badge, freelancers must have:
- Demonstrated consistent high-quality work with multiple clients
- An outstanding Job Success Score (at least 90%) or maintained Rising Talent status for at least 13 of the last 16 weeks
- An up-to-date and complete freelancer or agency profile
- Up-to-date availability status for new jobs
- A strong earnings history
- Had their first project on Upwork more than 90 days ago
- Been active on Upwork during the past 90 days
- Followed the Upwork Terms of Service
In addition to the criteria already listed, agencies must have:
- A 100% complete agency owner profile with photo
- An agency profile with a logo, overview, and services offered
- All agency member profiles must be at least 60% complete on average
Top Rated Plus
The Top Rated Plus badge highlights freelancers who’ve built a strong reputation on Upwork through positive feedback from their clients.
In the past 12 months, these freelancers had total earnings over $10,000 USD and worked or are actively working on one or more large* contracts without negative outcomes.
Agencies who are Top Rated Plus had total earnings over $20,000 USD in the past 12 months and worked or are working on one or more large* contracts without negative outcomes.
*Large contracts:
The criteria for a “large contract” is specific to the contract category. We base these amounts on the opportunities currently available on Upwork. For example, in certain categories, a large contract might mean $5,000 USD but in others it might be $30,000 USD.
To qualify for the Top Rated badge, freelancers must have:
- Demonstrated consistent high-quality work with multiple clients
- An outstanding Job Success Score (at least 90%) for at least 13 of the last 16 weeks
- An up-to-date and complete freelancer or agency profile
- Up-to-date availability status for new jobs
- A strong earnings history, with total earnings over $10,000 USD in the past 12 months
- Followed the Upwork Terms of Service
Agencies must have earnings of over $20,000 USD in the past 12 months to qualify.
Note:
Upwork also offers an Expert-Vetted badge in selected work categories that only displays to clients using Upwork’s Enterprise solutions. Expert-Vetted freelancers represent the top 1% of talent and have gone through a thorough screening process that evaluates technical expertise and soft skills. Learn more about Upwork Enterprise.
