In this article, you'll learn how to send an offer from a job post to a freelancer or agency on Upwork. You can review and update project details before sending an offer, and the freelancer has seven days to accept, request changes, or decline. Offers can be modified or withdrawn if not yet accepted. New clients can send up to ten offers per day, with potential limits increased over time. - AI helped create this summary
Once you’ve found the right freelancer or agency for your project, hiring them is simple.
Important to know:
Keep in mind that you are entering into a contract with your freelancer or agency, so it’s important to check that the project description and rate (or total amount and milestones) are up-to-date and complete.
To hire a freelancer or agency
- Go to Your Dashboard
- Open the posting you wish to hire on
- Locate the freelancer or agency you’d like to hire
- Choose the Hire button
- Send an offer
Once you’ve selected Hire, you can update the offer to include the project title, description, and payment terms.
For agencies, your offer is sent to a single member of the agency. All contracts with an agency member will be paid to the agency, not the freelancer named on your contract — the agency’s payments to their team are handled privately outside of Upwork.
After the offer is sent to the freelancer or agency, they can take one of several actions.
They could:
- Accept the offer, and you will have a contract
- Request changes to the offer directly from the offer. (This feature is not available to all freelancers yet)
- Message you to discuss alternative terms
- Decline your offer and withdraw their proposal
Each time you submit an offer, the freelancer or agency has seven days to accept your offer or request changes to it before the offer expires. If they request changes, the offer will remain open and still expire in seven days unless you respond to their request with a revised offer. If you send a revised offer, a new seven day time period starts for the revised offer.
You can confirm that your new contract is active by going to your dashboard and checking the list of contracts. If it is an hourly job, your freelancer can’t log time until the start date.
Note:
New clients or those who have not yet actively engaged and paid freelancers can send up to ten offers per day. We may increase your limit once you are a more established client on Upwork.
Change or withdraw an offer
We understand that sometimes things change. If you change your mind after making an offer, you can withdraw or change it — if the freelancer or agency hasn’t already accepted it. This includes changing from hourly to fixed-price, or fixed-price to hourly. If your offer has already been accepted, you will need to end the contract under Your Dashboard.
To change or withdraw your pending job offer
-
Go to Jobs > All Contracts
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Find their pending offer and choose "See Offer"
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Go to (...) > "Modify Offer"
- Select Continue
Resend a canceled offer
If you withdraw an offer by mistake, change your mind, or the freelancer accidentally declines it, you can easily send a new one.
- Go to your conversation with the freelancer in your messages
- Find the message that contains the offer and select View offer
- Open the offer’s menu (...) and choose Make new offer
- Update the offer terms and select Send offer
Frequently Asked Questions
Hourly contracts are billed weekly based on time that your freelancer logs in their Work Diary. In most cases they are covered by Upwork Hourly Protection.
Fixed-price contracts are billed by milestone and are based on deliverables. You make a payment in advance — we hold it in escrow and release it to your freelancer as they complete milestones. They’re covered by Upwork Fixed-Price Protection.
To learn more about the differences, go here.
In general, we charge 5% on all client payments. We offer a discounted rate of 3% for clients who pay with a U.S. checking or savings bank account via ACH.
We also charge a one-time Contract Initiation Fee for each new contract. We charge this fee when you make your first payment to the freelancer, whether it is an hourly, fixed-price, or bonus payment. For fixed-price contracts, you will pay this fee when you fund the first milestone.
Learn more about fees here.
New clients or those who have not yet actively engaged and paid freelancers can send up to ten offers per day. We may extend your limit once you are a more established client on Upwork.