Upwork MCP limits the number of requests you can make each minute, each hour, and each day.
This article explains the limits, what happens when you reach one, and how to stay below them.
In this article
- How do rate limits work?
- What are the current limits?
- What counts as a request?
- What happens if I reach a rate limit?
- How do I stay below the limits?
- Do other Upwork rules still apply?
How do rate limits work?
Each MCP action belongs to one of five categories. Each category has a limit for each minute, each hour, and each day. All three limits apply at the same time. Upwork accepts a request only if you are below all three limits.
- Scope of a limit: Upwork counts requests for your Upwork user account.
- Reset of a limit: The time periods are fixed, and the daily period starts at 00:00 UTC.
- Accounts: At this time, the limits are the same for all accounts. Your membership plan, earnings, spend, and Job Success Score do not change the limits.
- Categories: Upwork counts each category separately. Requests in one category do not count toward the limits of a different category.
Upwork can change these limits at any time. This page will always show the current values.
What are the current limits?
The table shows the current maximum number of requests in each category.
| Category | Examples | Per minute | Per hour | Per day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search and discovery | Searching for jobs or talent; browsing job listings | 15 | 150 | 750 |
| Profile viewing | Viewing freelancer or company profiles | 5 | 75 | 250 |
| Other read operations | Reading contracts, proposals, offers, account information, or organization information; or any other action, not covered by a separate category, that only reads data | 20 | 250 | 750 |
| Job posts, proposals, offers, and invitations | Posting jobs, submitting proposals, sending offers, or sending invitations | 20 | 60 | 150 |
| Other changes | Editing records, managing contracts or milestones, responding to offers, and all other actions, not covered by a separate category, that create, update, or delete data | 4 | 15 | 40 |
What counts as a request?
Each action that your AI client performs on Upwork counts as one request.
One prompt can cause many requests. For example, you tell your AI client to find 10 jobs and summarize each job. To complete this, the AI client can make one search request and then 10 read requests.
- Pages of results: Each page of results is one request.
- Failed requests: A request that returns an error can count toward your limits.
- Rejected requests: A request that Upwork rejects because of a limit does not count toward your limits.
See How do I stay below the limits? for more details.
What happens if I reach a rate limit?
Upwork rejects the request and returns an error. There is no other impact on your account. It is normal to reach a limit occasionally, and there is no penalty if you do so.
Your AI client may show the error message or a summary of it. For example:
error_code: SENSITIVE_RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED
reason: Rate limit exceeded for this tool. Wait before retrying.
retry_after_seconds: 5
status: errorIf you reach a limit, take these steps:
- Wait until the limit resets. A per-minute limit resets every minute. An hourly or daily limit takes longer.
- Tell your AI client to stop. Do not let the AI client send the same request again immediately. Repeating a request does not make it succeed sooner.
- Continue to work in other categories. The limit you reached has no effect on them.
Enforcement
Upwork takes action if your usage stays far above these limits or if you try to bypass them. If this happens, Upwork can throttle, suspend, or terminate your MCP access. See Section 7 of the Upwork API and MCP Terms of Use.
If Upwork sends you a notice about your MCP usage, follow the instructions in the notice.
How do I stay below the limits?
One prompt can cause many requests, so write each prompt carefully. Follow these guidelines for best results:
- Search first, then view: First, ask for a short list of search results. Then view only the profiles you need. Profile viewing has the lowest read limit: five requests per minute.
- Be specific: One accurate search uses fewer requests than many general searches.
- Do not poll: Do not make automations that look for changes every few minutes.
- Divide large tasks: Other changes permits 40 requests each day. If you have more than 40 changes, complete them on different days.
Do other Upwork rules still apply?
Yes. MCP rate limits are in addition to other Upwork rules and do not replace them.
- Platform limits: Connects, invitation limits, and other account limits apply to MCP actions in the same way as on Upwork.com.
- Activity outside MCP: Activity on Upwork.com does not count toward your MCP limits.
- Terms: The Upwork API and MCP Terms of Use apply to all MCP activity. The Upwork Terms of Service also apply.
For the full policy, read Section 7, Rate Limits and Abusive-Usage Controls, of the Upwork API and MCP Terms of Use.