Freelancers receive free Connects monthly. The number of Connects you receive depends on your membership plan. If you have a Freelancer basic account, you will receive 10 monthly Free Connects Freelancer Plus accounts. Receive a total of 100 Connects Monthly. You will receive your Connects on the first day of your billing cycle to see when your billing occurs. Click on your avatar and then click settings. Select Membership and Connects. In this section you can review your current plan billing cycle, and Connects balance.
Connects are Upwork's virtual currency for submitting proposals for job postings. Each proposal requires a specific number of Connects, depending on the job's value and competition.
How to get Connects
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Purchase Connects: Connects cost $0.15 each and are sold in bundles or custom amounts. You can buy them in your Upwork settings.
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To purchase additional Connects:
- Go to Settings > Memberships & Connects.
- Choose Buy Connects.
- Once you've selected how many Connects you wish to purchase, choose Add Connects, and Upwork will automatically charge your account.
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To purchase additional Connects:
- Earn free Connects: Upwork occasionally offers free Connects through promotions, bonuses for achieving milestones (like the Rising Talent badge) or winning interviews with established clients.
You can also earn Connects by achieving these badges:
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- Rising Talent: 30 Connects
- Top Rated: 30 Connects
- Top Rated Plus: 30 Connects
If you skip a badge, your Connects are combined. For example, if you become Top Rated without getting Rising Talent, you'll earn 60 Connects.
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The maximum number of Connects you can earn through badges is 90.
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Strategically using Connects
Connects expire after one year from the date of issue, so using them strategically ensures that you can continue bidding on new opportunities.
You'll get your Connects back if a project is canceled or removed from Upwork before a contract is formed. This doesn't apply to expired job postings. Additionally, if a project is removed due to a platform violation or is found to be fraudulent, your Connects will be returned.
Connects are a non-refundable resource used to promote your services. They won't be returned if a client rejects your proposal, chooses another freelancer, or the job expires without a hire.
If you upgrade your Upwork account from Basic to Plus, your free Connects will be adjusted based on the time remaining in your billing cycle. This ensures you receive a fair amount of Connects regardless of when you upgrade.
To access your Connects history, hover over your profile and choose Connects History. Upwork provides a report of your Connects transactions for the past seven, 30, and 90 days. Each month, your unused Connects will roll over, and any unused connects will expire after one year. Your connects will be used in the order you receive them. For example, if you rollover connects from January into February, your January Connects will be used before the February Connects.
