Okay, bit dramatic but… I’ve fallen on very hard times recently. I’m a 24 years old girl and due to family debt that I’m somehow left paying off I’m totally broke… like I can (barely) afford my rent and that’s it. I haven’t been shopping in weeks, I’m just living off of rice and pasta. I don’t go out, I buy nothing. Anyway, I started to do a lot of research to find out how to make money in my spare time. Started offering services via Facebook (Dog sitting, baby sitting etc).

All attempts were unsuccessful so I resorted to UpWork where I spent my last 10 dollars. I was extremely enthusiastic as I do have a nice skillset for the types of jobs offered there. I dutifully set up my profile, and subsequently spent all my connects on the best suited jobs I could find. I put so much time and effort into all of my proposals and only chose jobs I was genuinely capable of doing. Most of them were unopened but I can understand when there’s many too candidates. However my main problem is that a lot of potential jobs turned out to be scams in my opinion, or at the very least turned out to be very different from the original offer.

For example, I applied for a transcribing job which offered 50 usd per hour. They accepted me, sent me a contract and I saw it was 50 usd per hour of transcribed audio. Of course that was a huge difference in money but I literally have nothing right now and can’t turn down a job. Plus I already spent all my connects. Anyway, so far I’ve done about 20 minutes of transcribed audio and it’s taken me about 3 hours plus all the back and forth trying to communicate with them and learning all the extremely specific rules. Most recently the programme has completely crashed and all the free time I delegated to this task has gone to waste as their communication is terrible and they’re “too busy” to set me up again with the task I was working on.

I’m so annoyed I spent my last 10 dollars on this, I would’ve been better off buying some chicken…

Sorry this is just a rant, it’s my own silly fault but I’m really disappointed with the way UpWork functions… or rather doesn’t.

Fuc*in' platform of exploitation.

Just... I don't know what to add. Just sharing

We are a small business in the US and want to find some Facebook users to help engage with our Facebook content about our bedding products (most of the time, just likes). Does Upwork allow recruiting workers for this service? Any insights would be appreciated.

Never seen it to cross 1k in boosting, damn.

A client told me he is leaving a company. He didn’t close the project as he said the company might still need me so he’ll hand over my contact details to them.

Overall, the client is highly satisfied with my work and he specifically mentioned it in his message.

If I ask him that I will be available to help him with similar projects in the new company if he need my help, will it be against Upwork’s ToS as the new company might not be on Upwork?

This makes me believe that dead internet theory is real. The client clearly mentioned 4 times "don't sent proposals if you're not invited" but there's still 21 proposals. Bots maybe?

I've noticed Upwork has been so weird lately, Clients post a job and then don't get online again. Freelancers spending $30 connects for a job that pays $10. I thought I'd be able to make some side income here if not a career but the platform is truly scary now.

On a different note, I wish there were more clients like this one, So that freelancers don't waste their connects unnecessarily.

The client has viewed my proposal, but hasnt messaged me.

Also a recruiter requested to check my CV on google docs so this confirms they've viewed my proposal.

The gig is still open, but i have other gigs I want to apply to.

Have you done this before? Any tips would help

Also I'm counting my pennies right now so any little helps

I’m a web developer trying to decide what’s worth focusing on right now.

Would you rather:

**1. Build digital products** — templates, SaaS boilerplates, micro-apps, etc. with AI tools and sell them on Gumroad/Lemon Squeezy.

**2. Freelance** — focus on Fiverr/Upwork, get clients and build websites/apps for them.

The first seems more scalable and can become passive income, but getting traffic and the first sales seems really difficult. Freelancing is more predictable, but you’re basically trading time for money.

If you were starting from zero today, where would you put your next 2–3 weeks of effort? Which has the better risk/reward in your experience?

I don't mean to insult or make assumptions but posting for a senior business analyst with a fixed 50$ price seems weird no?

Has anyone come across something like this before? Is this normal practice?

I'm asking because I'm new to Upwork and I want to avoid any misconceptions.

We’re paying for Connects, paying to boost proposals, and spending hours writing personalized applications. Meanwhile, AI algorithms influence how proposals are evaluated and shown to clients.
I’ve submitted 30 proposals and haven’t received a single view. Not even one.
What’s the point of bidding if clients aren’t even seeing our proposals?
Are we freelancing anymore, or just paying for lottery tickets?
Has anyone else experienced this recently? Is Upwork still worth investing money in?

They were optional but very helpful with positioning.

So I just opened to see my stats, 0 viewed, 3 sent 1 interview 1 hire...

And BTW the hire is not from invite job, it was normal job post to which I applied...

I don't know what am I doing wrong can someone guide me and help me with this, this is my profile not even 20$ gigs getting approved

I was able to access Upwork earlier today, use the time tracker, and submit a work report to my client without any issues. However, when I tried to open Upwork this afternoon, I suddenly couldn't access the website anymore.

I'm getting this error message: Error 1015: You are being rate limited. The owner of this website (www.upwork.com) has bann3d you temporarily from accessing this website.

I've already tried clearing my browser's cache and cookies, and I also tried accessing Upwork on my phone, but I'm getting the same error.

I'm really confused and worried because I'm not aware of doing anything that violates Upwork's Terms of Service. I've just been doing my regular work and using the time tracker as usual.

Has anyone experienced this before? How long did it take for you to regain access? Is there anything I can do to fix this?

I'd really appreciate any advice or help. Thank you!

I recently have created a wise account, i am from India, and after creating the account it automatically shows advanced plan in the settings, but free at the same time, is it the default state?? has anyone else seen it?? please let me know!!

Hi,

There's no shortage of posts on the deteriorating freelancer marketplace. Rather than add another anecdote to an oversaturated market of complaints about market saturation, I wondered if anyone has looked at this from their data?

Much of their data is publicly accessible, so here's my quantitative look at the extreme proposal competition by geography and high-level job category.

Caveat: This is a point-in-time snapshot (October 22, 2026), not a longitudinal study. There seems to me no obvious way to query the data in realtime, and the analysis excludes direct hires and Enterprise projects, so consider this my personal exploration of their open marketplace. It'll be imperfect data in pursuit of a more precise understanding of just how effed things are.

Over a quarter of jobs have over 20+ active proposals. Certain domains like Data Science/Analytics, Web Development and IT index even higher. Clients in Oceania (Australia?) and Americas are dealing with higher bid concentrations.

Has anyone ever attempted to build a live dashboard scraped from their market data? Seems like this would be a useful tool to all freelancers to identify opportunities and see how this changes throughout the year.

I’m hiring a few freelancers on upwork and want to include a rider (like IP transfer in other countries, not showing raw files, requiring written release to show portfolio samples and waiting for the game to be released so they don’t do accidental spoilers). Are there any lawyers that specialize in riders for these types of platforms?

My Upwork account was suspended in August 2025, and I still don’t know the exact reason. At the time, I was travelling between the UK and Spain for a few months before returning to Canada, so I’m wondering if the location changes triggered a security/verification issue.

I’ve submitted a few short appeals but haven’t had any luck.

Hello everyone

Earlier today I received a payment through Upwork. As usual, I tried to withdraw the money right away using my computer. As it has happened before, it asked me to confirm my identity by sending a notification to my phone. When I clicked on “Send notification” I did get one in my phone. However, when I tried to open it, it showed a 404 message (attached SS). I waited for about 20–25 minutes and I tried again but the same happened. I decided to download the Upwork app to my personal phone (I had tried using the work phone) and repeated the process, but once again, when I tried to open the notification, I was shown the same 404 error. After that (and several hours later), I tried to withdraw the money using the app. The first time, it asked me for my password; after entering it, the “Next” button would turn gray  and not do anything else. I waited for a couple of minutes on that screen, restarted the app and followed the same procedure, just for the app to show me my security question. I answered it but the button turned gray again. I contacted support, and they confirmed there aren’t any restrictions on my account and that my identity has already been verified. However, they also said “there isn’t a documented workaround for this error” and that they would redirect me to the proper team to determine the next steps.

So,

a. Has anyone ever experienced the same issue?

b. If so, how long did it take to solve it?

I have my account set for automatic withdrawals every week, and the next one is due on the 27th of this month. Hopefully, the issue will be solved by then.

Thank you.

As you all already know the situation going on in Upwork where you spend tons of hard earned money on connects only to get ghosted by clients , fake jobs and so called availability badge ...on the other side upwork keeps making money out of freelancers situation

Its time we get united and boycott buying more new connects for at least some months this sub has 39k freelancers if only 15k freelancers start a chain of doing it we can still make a big change or at least put a pressure on Upwork in doing changes which are beneficial for freelancers ...they are exploiting Thier connect feature to earn big profit and in return freelancers get nothing the only solution or way to make them focus on our problems is by boycotting new connect buying which is one of the biggest revenue generater for upwork and that is in our HANDS !

START TODAY ! IT'S IN YOUR HANDS

LIKE , REPOST , COMMENT on this so it reaches more freelancers and to show support or tell you are in !

I started a new agency on upwork a few weeks ago, and couldn't get any work (may he I haven't applied enough) but the platform seems terrible rn. Do you think it would be reasonable to keep spending on it or not?

I have put $65 till now for membership and connects, and I feel like I should at least get one job that covers them, but I don't want to enter that trap of spending more money. Do you have any suggestions? And if I wanted to shift outside upwork, which place is best?