Upwork Connects calculator: what a proposal, a month and a hire really cost
Connects cost $0.15 each. Work out what your proposals cost per month and per hire, how many free Connects you get, and which spending you can cut.
Short answer: one Connect costs $0.15, so a proposal that asks for 12 Connects costs $1.80. The price per proposal is rarely the problem. The total is. Forty proposals a month at 12 Connects is 480 Connects, or $72, and in our data 36% of Upwork jobs come from clients who have never hired anyone. Put your own numbers in below.
Upwork Connects calculator
- Connects used
- 480
- You pay per month
- $70.50
- One proposal
- $1.80
- Connects cost per hire
- $36.00
About $25.92 of this month's Connects would go to clients who have never hired anyone. At $0.15 a Connect, before tax. Cost per hire counts every Connect at full price, free ones included.
What Connects are, and what Upwork charges
Connects are the tokens Upwork charges for sending a proposal. They also pay for ads: boosting a proposal, the availability badge, a boosted profile. Upwork's help center prices them at $0.15 each, sold in bundles or as a custom amount.
Two things trip people up. You can only buy them in a web browser, not in the app. And you need a verified billing method even if you plan to pay out of your Upwork earnings. Upwork never refills your balance automatically, so every purchase you see in your history was one somebody made.
How many Connects a proposal costs
There is no fixed number. Upwork works it out per job from the project's size and scope, demand in the market and how busy the post is, and the number can move while the job is open. The figure on the job post right before you submit is the one you pay. We don't record it, so this page can't give you an average. What follows is arithmetic at the listed price:
| Connects per proposal | One proposal | 20 a month | 40 a month | 80 a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | $0.60 | $12.00 | $24.00 | $48.00 |
| 8 | $1.20 | $24.00 | $48.00 | $96.00 |
| 12 | $1.80 | $36.00 | $72.00 | $144.00 |
| 16 | $2.40 | $48.00 | $96.00 | $192.00 |
| 24 | $3.60 | $72.00 | $144.00 | $288.00 |
Before free Connects and tax. $0.15 a Connect is Upwork's listed price.
If you boost a proposal, that is a separate bid on top. Boosts are an auction for the promoted slots, and per Upwork's boost article you pay your bid if you hold a slot when it ends, or if the client opened your proposal while it was promoted. Knocked out with no click, you only pay the base cost.
Free Connects: what you actually get each month
| Source | Connects | Catch |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancer Plus | 100 a month | 90 to 100 in the first month; paid plan |
| Basic plan monthly offer | 10 a month | Only some eligible accounts; not guaranteed |
| New freelancer offer | 50 once | After a first purchase or joining Plus, if it was shown to you |
| Rising Talent, Top Rated, Top Rated Plus | 30 each | Up to 90 if you skip a level |
| First successful boost | 10 once | The boost has to finish in a chargeable position |
From Upwork's "How to buy and earn Connects", November 15, 2026. Offers vary by account.
More detail on every one of these, and on the promo codes that don't work, is in free Upwork Connects and promo codes.
When you get Connects back, and when you don't
People expect a refund when a client goes quiet. That isn't how it works. Upwork's refund rules return the base proposal cost in two cases only: the client cancels the job before a contract is made, or Upwork removes the post for breaking its terms. Rejected, ignored, someone else hired, the job expired, you withdrew: those Connects are gone. Returned Connects go back to your balance. They never come back as cash.
They also expire one year after they were issued, with no warning email. Unused ones roll over every month until then, with no cap for freelancers. Agency Plus accounts can roll over up to 400 a month.
Where the money leaks
Connects are cheap one at a time, so most people never add them up. The leak is the jobs that were never going to hire anyone. Across the jobs we tracked in the last 12 months:
- 36% came from clients who had never hired a freelancer.
- 36% came from clients with no verified payment method, and 65% of those had never hired either.
- Clients who had hired before went on to hire on about 5 in 10 of their jobs.
Tick “skip clients who never hired” in the calculator to see what dropping those jobs saves at your volume. It won't tell you that your hire rate goes up, because we can't measure that. It shows where the Connects were going. The longer version, with the checks to run before each proposal, is in are Upwork Connects worth it.
Only see jobs from clients who hire
Filter by payment verified and minimum client spend, so the jobs that reach you have already passed the two checks that waste the most Connects.
Create a free Telegram alert →Connect price, free Connects, returns and expiry: Upwork help center, November 15, 2026. Hire history: Upwork X-Ray, 2026-10-29, last 12 months. Connects per job are not in our data.
Questions people ask
- How much does one Upwork Connect cost?
- $0.15 in US dollars, before any tax. Upwork sells them in bundles or a custom amount, and only on the web: the mobile app can't buy them.
- How much do 100 Connects cost?
- $15.00 at $0.15 each. At 12 Connects a proposal, that's 8 proposals with 4 Connects left over.
- How many Connects does a proposal need?
- It depends on the job. Upwork sets the number from the project's size, scope, market demand and activity on the post, and it can change while the job is live. The job post shows the current number before you submit.
- How many free Connects do you get per month on Upwork?
- Freelancer Plus gives 100 a month (90 to 100 in the first month). On the Basic plan some eligible accounts get 10 a month, but Upwork says that is a variable offer, not something every Basic account receives.
- Do Upwork Connects expire?
- Yes, one year after they were issued, and Upwork sends no reminder first. Unused freelancer Connects roll over month to month with no cap until then.
- Do I get my Connects back if the client doesn't hire me?
- No. You get them back only if the client cancels the job before a contract is made, or Upwork removes the job for breaking its terms. A rejection, no reply, someone else being hired or the job expiring doesn't return them.