Upwork no longer charges a flat freelancer fee. Since 1 May 2025 the Freelancer Service Fee is variable — 0% to 15% per contract, shown when you submit a proposal or receive an offer, and locked for that contract once it begins. Enter the fee on your own contract below (10% is pre-filled only as a starting example), or switch to the client view for the Marketplace Fee. Fees checked 29 October 2026 against Upwork’s own Help Center (sources under the calculator).
The maths: service fee = amount billed × fee %. You receive = amount × (1 − fee %). Amount to bill = target ÷ (1 − fee %).
The “effective hourly rate” row reads your take-home target as an hourly rate and shows the rate to bill for it at your fee %. The fee is fixed once a contract begins, but it can differ on your next contract — re-check it on every proposal and offer. Connects, memberships and withdrawal costs are separate and are not included here.
The maths: Marketplace Fee = payment × fee %. Total you pay = payment + fee. A separate one-time Contract Initiation Fee applies per new contract and is not included in this total — see Upwork’s fees terms for your contract’s figure.
Both sides pay on the same work: the freelancer’s Service Fee comes out of the billed amount, and your Marketplace Fee is added on top of it. The Marketplace Fee is not refundable, even if a payment is later reversed or refunded.
Freelancer: the Freelancer Service Fee ranges from 0% to 15% per contract, is set per contract and is fixed once the contract begins (Upwork Help Center, “Learn about the Freelancer Service Fee”). This replaces both the old tiered 20%/10%/5% schedule and the flat 10% charged from May 2023 to April 2025 — there is no single current percentage, which is why this calculator asks for your contract’s rate. Client: on the free Basic plan the Client Marketplace Fee is up to 7.99% on all payments, reduced to 3% for eligible US clients paying from a bank account; Business Plus is higher (Upwork Help Center, “What is the Client Marketplace Fee?”). Sources: support.upwork.com — Freelancer Service Fee · support.upwork.com — Client Marketplace Fee. Fees can change — check the official pages before pricing a large contract.
Upwork’s variable 0% to 15% Freelancer Service Fee — what you receive, what to bill for a target take-home, and the client Marketplace Fee on top.
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Work out Upwork fees the way Upwork now charges them: the Freelancer Service Fee is variable at 0% to 15% per contract — not the old flat 10% — so enter the rate on your own contract to see what you receive and what to bill for a target take-home, or switch to the client view for the Marketplace Fee on top. Fees checked 29 October 2026 against Upwork’s own Help Center.
A freelancer bills $1,000 on a contract with a 10% Freelancer Service Fee: the fee is $1,000 × 10% = $100 and they receive $900. Working backwards, taking home $900 at a 10% fee means billing $900 ÷ 0.90 = $1,000 — and Upwork’s own example makes the same point hourly: to take home $20 an hour at a 10% fee, bill $22.22 an hour. On the client side, paying out that $1,000 on the Basic plan adds a Marketplace Fee of up to $1,000 × 7.99% = $79.90, a total cost of $1,079.90 before any one-time Contract Initiation Fee. Official sources: Upwork Help Center, “Learn about the Freelancer Service Fee” (https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211062538-Freelancer-Service-Fees) and “What is the Client Marketplace Fee?” (https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/4660220468499-Client-Marketplace-and-Contract-Initiation-fees) — fees checked 29 October 2026.
Freelancer Service Fee = amount billed × your contract’s fee percentage, where the percentage is set by Upwork per contract between 0% and 15% and fixed once the contract begins. You receive = amount × (1 − fee %). Amount to bill for a target take-home = target ÷ (1 − fee %). Client Marketplace Fee (Basic plan) = payment × fee percentage, up to 7.99%, reduced to 3% for eligible US clients whose billing method is a bank account; the client total is payment + fee. The 10% pre-filled in the freelancer view is an example starting point only — Upwork publishes a range, not a single rate, so the honest input is the rate on your contract.
It is variable: 0% to 15% per contract. Upwork sets the rate for each contract based on marketplace factors, shows it to you when you submit a proposal or receive an offer, and locks it for the life of that contract once it begins. The flat 10% charged from May 2023 to April 2025, and the tiered 20%/10%/5% schedule before that, no longer apply to new contracts.
Because Upwork does not publish one rate — it publishes the 0% to 15% range and tells each freelancer their exact rate per contract. Pre-filling 10% gives you a starting example (it is also the typical Enterprise rate), but you should replace it with the figure from your proposal, offer or contract details for a real answer.
Divide your target by (1 − fee %). At a 10% fee, taking home $900 means billing $1,000, and taking home $20 an hour means billing $22.22 an hour — the worked example in Upwork’s own Help Center article. The reverse section does this sum for any target and rate.
On the free Basic plan, a Client Marketplace Fee of up to 7.99% on all payments — fixed-price and hourly contracts, Project Catalog projects, bonuses and more — reduced to 3% for eligible US clients paying from a bank account. Business Plus clients pay a higher Marketplace Fee. A separate one-time Contract Initiation Fee also applies per new contract. The Marketplace Fee is not refundable, even if a payment is reversed.
Yes. If you bring a client to Upwork yourself on a Direct Contract, the Freelancer Service Fee is a reduced 5% — and 0% while you hold an active Freelancer Plus membership. If you cancel the membership, the standard 5% applies from then on, with no retroactive charge.
No. Connects — the credits you spend submitting proposals — memberships such as Freelancer Plus, and any withdrawal or currency-conversion costs are separate from the service fee and are not in these totals. Price them into your rate separately if they matter to your margins.
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