Who is charged the upwork fee? the client or the contractor?

Understanding Upwork Fees

Hello!

The Upwork fees are primarily charged to the freelancer, but they do also impact the client indirectly.

Freelancer’s Fee:

The fee works on a sliding scale which decreases the more a freelancer works with a specific client. This is how the percentage system works:

• For the first $500 earned from a client, Upwork charges a 20% fee.
• From $500.01 to $10,000, the fee decreases to 10%.
• For amounts exceeding $10,000, the fee is reduced to 5%.

Client’s Fee:

The clients are charged what is called a ‘payment processing and administration fee’. This is typically 3% on top of the payment made to the freelancer. Therefore, if a client pays $100 to a freelancer, they will actually be charged $103 by Upwork. This additional charge by Upwork covers the processing of payments and the use of the platform features.

Please let me know if you have any more questions!