Learn why Upwork may pause a contract, what it means for your project, how to fix it and resume the contract, and whether you can pause contracts yourself.
In this article
- Why did Upwork pause my contract?
- What happens if Upwork pauses my contract?
- What should I do if my contract is paused?
- Can I pause a contract?
Why did Upwork pause my contract?
To help protect both you and those you work with on Upwork, we pause your contracts in certain situations.
One common reason we do this is if there is a problem with your Upwork account. This is likely due to an issue with your billing method, such as an expired or declined credit card.
What happens if Upwork paused my contract is?
We’ll let you and your freelancer know if we pause a contract and if it resumes.
The freelancer won't be able to log more time on your hourly paused contracts. This protects you from accumulating more expenses while you’re clearing up any payment issues, and it protects freelancers from logging time that you may not be able to pay.
What should I do if my contract is paused?
If you have a past-due balance, you can either fix the issue with your primary billing method or add a new billing method to pay your past-due balance. Once your balance has been cleared, we’ll resume your paused contracts.
If your contracts have been paused but your billing method is valid, contact us. We’ll take a look at your account and help you reactivate it. If it is going to take some time to resume, we recommend that you contact your freelancer(s) to let them know that we’re working on a resolution.
Note:
If your contract is paused due to payment issues on Upwork, don’t ask the freelancer to work for you outside of Upwork instead of resolving the issue. This is called circumvention, which significantly increases the risk of fraud and is a violation of the Upwork Terms of Service. If your freelancer asks you to continue working on a paused contract and asks you to pay them outside of Upwork, in most cases you should decline and report it to us (by visiting Contact Support). Please note that this does not apply if you and your freelancer have agreed to leave Upwork and you have paid the appropriate Upwork Conversion Fee to do so, or if the circumvention rules don’t apply to you and your client. Learn more about circumvention rules here.
Can I pause a contract?
Yes. You can pause hourly contracts yourself if you want to stop freelancers from logging hours until you're ready to start working on the project again. It's best practice to let your freelancer know why and when you plan to restart.
Learn more about putting an hourly contract on hold here.
Important:
Upwork Payroll contracts will always show as paused because they use a separate billing system.