r/UpworkOfficial

I've been working with two different clients on hourly contracts. Yesterday, one of the contracts suddenly paused, and when I asked the client about it, she said the credit card she used is expired, and they need to update the info. It was a new contract, so I became a little bit nervous, although the reviews for the client were really positive. Then, today the contract with an older client was also paused by Upwork for the same reason, apparently. They were an older client, and I completely trust them. We have a really good relationship, and I believe this is really an issue that can be solved. Still, it is a strange coincidence. Two hourly contracts are paused by Upwork because of a possible payment issue with a one-day interval. Did this happen to anybody else before? Is August a common card expiration/renewal day in the US? I checked my account health, and everything is OK. And when I was writing this message, the first client said she'll update the card this morning. I'd be really happy if you could share similar experiences. Thank you!

Did anyone get an Offer from AirOps for editorial work? If so, what was your experience? How was your onboarding, and did you get paid?

My concern is not that one isolated message violated Upwork’s policies. It concerns the complete hiring and onboarding sequence:

• AirOps recruited me directly for approximately 20 hours per week for one month.
• AirOps offered and established the $50 hourly rate.
• I accepted the contract, reserved the requested capacity, signed its NDA and completed its external onboarding.
• AirOps told me assignments would begin the following week.
• AirOps never assigned me any paid work.
• I was enrolled in Slack and AirOps trials and began receiving AirOps product marketing after onboarding.
• AirOps later announced that assignments would be ad hoc.
• Slack disconnected the external editing channel when the trial ended and instructed me to upgrade to reconnect.
• AirOps ended my contract two days later.
• AirOps now says no payment was required and that it could reconnect editors without Slack Pro.
• AirOps also says it lacked sufficient work for someone of my “skillset and price range,” even though it recruited me and set that rate.

I’ve asked Upwork to review whether AirOps:

1. Had confirmed paid work when it recruited multiple editors;
2. Created speculative contracts to build an unpaid contractor bench;
3. Accurately represented the anticipated 20-hour-per-week workload;
4. Used contractor onboarding to funnel freelancers into its product, community or marketing ecosystem; and
5. Disclosed the external platform access requirements

Full-stack AI/ML engineer in India.

Almost everyone on Reddit says the platform is finished so I wanted to know is it really so from people here and I pulled my actual numbers for the last 9 months.

Nov–Jul:
- Earned: ~$10,800
- Fees, taxes, connects: ~$2,170
- Take-home: ~$8,600

Decent middle-class income in India. Maybe not in US. Same numbers, different meaning.

The ride wasn’t smooth though. That income took 300+ proposals and a lot of interviews that went nowhere. A big chunk of my fees is just connects burned on bids that never landed.

So which is it:

1. A Western-rates problem? At Indian cost of living, $25/hr is a good living. If you need $80/hr to make rent, you're squeezed. Those are different claims.
2. Survivorship bias? People earning well are not posting. Reddit would look identical whether the platform were healthy or dying.
3. Or just niche? Commodity writing and design look hollowed out by AI. AI/ML is what companies are hiring for. I might be in the one growing category and mistaking that for the platform being fine.

If you're doing okay — what country, what niche, what fee percentage? And if you've left, what actually broke?

I'm a social media marketer. I offer content strategy, content creation, video editing and community management services. My Job Success Score is 100%, I am top rated, and my response rate is 4-8 hours. My total earnings visible on my profile are $10k + .

Over the past 2 years, I've done okay-ish. Lately, however, since May 2026, things have been unbelievably slow. Very few invites, very few profile views, and very few proposal views. I haven't changed much about my profile or how I use Upwork, using the cover letter that consistenly landed me jobs, my profile about section has been the same, my intro the same. I just update my case studies in my portfolio when I have a new nice one with good performance. I want to understand why Upwork is no longer working for me.

I have a few questions for people who are more experienced than I am or perhaps more up to date than I am with how the platform changes :

1. Do keywords and "optimizing your profile for SEO" really matter ? Does it matter if my About section and Work History sections are keyword heavy or not ?
2. What works in a video intro? What has worked for you in the past? Has anyone commented on your video intro in the past ? My profile video is not edited at all, it's just a 2 minute video I took with my phone. But I've gotten compliments on it from clients. Do you think I should change it to something more edited ?
3. How do you structure your cover letters ? What do you put in them ? Mine is super concise and straight to the point and I put in a link to a Loom video and a link to my Canva portfolio and then I attach my case studies as PDFs. I personnalize based on the information in the offer. Do you do something different? Do you have a template you follow ? If yes, would you mind sharing that with me?
4. For people in social media, what do you include in your portfolios ?

Thank you in advance to anyone who took the time to share info with me!

I’m super curious how many of you are still consistently getting work on Upwork, especially those who used to do well on the platform. As I sit here looking over job postings wondering if I'll ever get another gig, I thought to myself, "How many of us are actually getting gigs?"

I used to average around 4 to 6 gigs a month. I'm a dev. Over almost the last two years, I’ve landed only 3 gigs. One last year and two so far this year.

For context, I’m Top Rated Plus, have a 100% JSS, and have earned over $400k on Upwork, so this is a pretty dramatic change from what I was used to seeing.

For those of you still getting consistent work:

• Where are you based?
• For those of us in the U.S., do you blame it on Trump and Tariffs?
• Are you a Developer like me, or a Designer, Writer, Marketer, etc.?
• Are you still getting invites, or are most of your jobs coming from proposals?
• Have your rates changed?
• Do you think it's due to all the changes Upwork made?
• Do you blame AI?

I’m particularly curious whether this varies heavily by industry. For example, are developers seeing the same thing writers are? Are U.S.-based freelancers experiencing something different from freelancers elsewhere?

It's coming up on two years of barely getting any work, and I’m curious whether people who were previously successful on Upwork are still finding work. I’m getting really nervous now.

There are plenty of Upwork communities, but a lot of the discussion seems to assume you already have reviews, completed jobs, and a decent amount of Connects.

I'm wondering whether there's a useful gap for people who are starting from zero, especially freelancers who already have professional experience but no Upwork history.

Things like getting the first few proposals right, figuring out pricing, building proof of work, dealing with Connects, and eventually getting that first contract.

Do you think there's enough of a distinct problem here to justify a dedicated community, or would it just end up repeating the same discussions already happening elsewhere?

I’m a software developer from India, Top Rated on Upwork, with 7 clients and around $7K in total earnings.

From my experience, the time to close a client varies a lot. One client hired me almost immediately at $20/hr, another took a few weeks, and one took a few months before finally converting.

I also have a client who interviewed me about a month ago and still says the hiring process is ongoing.

However, when I Google this, I often see claims that freelancers can expect to close a client within 2–3 days, which doesn’t really match my experience.

For other software developers, and those from India charging around $20/hr:

1. How long does it usually take you to close a client?
2. How many proposals do you typically send before getting hired?
3. Does being Top Rated / having more reviews significantly improve this?

Is 2–3 days actually realistic, or is that too optimistic?

Would love to hear some real numbers and experiences.

I've been a long time upwork freelancer and still have profile in good standing. I left upwork a year back after applying like 60-80 jobs over a period of 2-4 months, with ZERO responses. Out of all the jobs I had applied, 90% did not hire ANYONE. So connects and money just when down the drain on a non-serious client who just put out something to check the market or something else.

If you've clear goal in mind, you will almost always find someone, so no hire with 50+ proposals is lack of intent. On Upwork side, they've no mechanism to curtail this kind of clients while freelancers still end up paying for every apply. The least upwork can do it refund the connects when NO ONE is hired. Client must interview at least 3-5 candidates and provide reason to reject each. If there are no effort from client side, they did not deserve freelancers time and money which should be refunded.

Upwork has become Russian roulette where house always wins.

Whats the status now? Still the same or some acknowledge and reforms from Upwork?

I saw Upwork announced this as part of the their earnings call. Upwork 2.0 per CEO.

Just what we need, more bad AI.

Upwork MCP Server
Connect your AI agent to Upwork. Search talent, post jobs, manage contracts, and get answers from your account — right inside Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and any other AI tool that supports MCP.

Upwork now works with any AI tool that supports MCP

Hey r/UpworkOfficial,

We just launched the Upwork MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, which lets Upwork plug into the AI tools you're already using, like Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and any other MCP-compatible tool, so hiring or getting hired can start right there instead of requiring several browser tabs.

To be clear about what this isn't: it's not AI replacing freelancers, and it's not AI making hiring decisions for you. The actual work, the actual hiring, that's all still real people, still on Upwork, with the same processes and protections that have always been there. This just removes the copy-paste step between "I'm figuring out what I need" and "I found the right person for it."

For freelancers, it means:

• Your AI tool can surface jobs that match your skills, budget, and availability
• Draft a proposal, flag client messages that need a reply, or submit milestone work, all from the same place. You still review and hit send on everything yourself, nothing goes to a client without you approving it first
• Nothing changes about how you get discovered or paid. Same profile, same Job Success Score, same protections

For clients, that looks like:

• Turning a project you're already scoping out in your AI tool into a job post
• Getting a shortlist of qualified freelancers without leaving that conversation
• Reviewing proposals and prepping offers in the same place
• Every action that actually changes something (posting a job, sending an offer) requires your explicit confirmation first. Nothing happens automatically behind your back

A few things worth knowing:

• It's completely optional. Nothing changes if you never touch it
• It's free, no extra cost to clients or freelancers
• Every connection runs through your actual authenticated Upwork account
• Hiring, contracts, and payments still happen on Upwork, not inside the AI tool

This follows our Claude and ChatGPT integrations from earlier this year. The goal isn't to cut people out, it's to make sure that when someone's planning gets far enough with an AI tool, a real person is just one step away.

Learn more here: upwork.com/ai/mcp

For years I've relied on Upwork and its online support. Today I logged on, hit an error, and went to live chat — only to be told I can't get live help unless I upgrade my account, on top of the fees I already pay.

I've found some solid freelancers on the platform over the years. But I also had a project go badly wrong: the freelancer botched it so thoroughly that the file was unusable and my team had to rebuild from scratch. Instead of addressing my project — their errors, the questions they never asked, the 400+ images and supporting data I'd provided to help them succeed — they kept pointing me to other jobs they'd done well. When I turned to Upwork for help, they offered none. The only path they gave me was arbitration.

I settled for half and still left good marks — the freelancer was building their business, and I didn't think one rough project was worth a one-star review if their other clients were happy. I won't make that call again. Fair feedback means honest feedback.

That was the first time I needed Upwork to step in, and they weren't there. So I'm moving to Workana, where the platform is simpler and I can target freelancers by region to work within my time constraints.

I just created my Upwork account, with the help of AI, I was able to find my niche, and got accepted my propposal for 15 usd per hr, I'm really excited about this job and I feel that I actually enjoy it, I am currently adding time manually, for some reason I can't seem to be able use the Upwork timer, I try to open it from the browser and nothing works, still I am being very accurate with my manual time being added like specifying what was I doing and of course, just working time counted

Should I worry? Part of me believes this is too good to be true and other part of me things I deserve this

My client has reviews, and have payment method verified, also it seems that they have been spending a couple of thousand bucks in the platform already

Is there a way to hire freelancers that won’t sabotage your business by sharing the same work with other clients that you paid for ? if so, what are the ways you’d know? or do you just have to trust them based on instinct (worried because I had an horrible encounter almost a year ago that costed my my whole business and now I have to start from the scratch).

Hey everyone,

Just needed to vent a bit and also get some real advice from people who've actually been through this.

I'm a recent BTech grad, skills-wise I'd say I'm in a decent spot — DevOps, cloud computing (mainly GCP), and some backend web dev on the side. Grinded out 800+ questions on LeetCode and got my resume ATS score up to 80+ after multiple rounds of feedback and edits. On paper it feels like I've done the "right" things.

The one thing working against me: I had backlogs in 3rd year of my degree (cleared them by 3rd year 2nd sem), and I think that's quietly killing a lot of my applications before I even get a shot at an interview. Tried for months on the full-time front and it's just been silence or rejections.

At this point I'm considering just trying to get freelance work through Upwork instead of waiting for a "traditional" placement. I know you have to buy connects to bid on jobs, and I'm fine spending like $15-20 to start out.

My actual question for anyone who's used Upwork seriously: does paying for connects actually translate into landing gigs, or is it mostly a money sink for beginners with no reviews/portfolio yet? I'm not expecting guarantees, just want to know if it's a realistic path to get my first freelance win, or if I'm better off putting that money/effort somewhere else (Fiverr, cold outreach, personal projects, etc).

Any honest experiences — good or bad — would really help right now.

Guys, the text in the post was AI-generated. Thanks for reading, understanding :)