Understanding Upwork Fees

Who Pays Upwork Fees

The primary responsibility of paying Upwork fees lies with the freelancer. This is automatically deducted from the payment made by the client for a job, task or project.

Freelancer Service Fee Structure

Upwork has a sliding fee structure which operates as follows:

• For the first $500 billed with the client, the fee is 20%.
• For lifetime billings with the client between $500.01 and $10,000, the fee reduces to 10%.
• For lifetime billings with the client that exceed $10,000, the fee further reduces to 5%.

Example

Let’s pretend you just completed a job that paid $600. The first $500 of that payment would be subjected to a 20% fee, leaving you with $400. The remaining $100 is subjected to a 10% fee (since it’s over the $500 threshold), leaving you with $90. Therefore, from your $600 job, you’d receive $490 after Upwork fees.

Fees Can Be Included In Your Rate

One approach used by successful freelancers is to include this fee in their pricing model when proposing a rate to a client.

Please note, this description of the fee structure applies only to the initial contract between freelancers and clients. The processing fees associated with payments and currency conversion are applied to clients or depending on the payment method chosen by freelancers.

Client’s Additional Fees

If you are working with clients who have not worked on Upwork before, they are subject to a one-time a $25 client company fee. Apart from this, Clients are also responsible for paying payment processing fees for their payment transactions.

Keep in mind that Upwork’s fee structure can change, so it’s always a good idea to check their current terms and conditions.