Free Upwork job alerts on Telegram (the RSS feed replacement)

Upwork's RSS feeds are gone. How to get new Upwork jobs on your phone the minute they post, filtered by rate, client country, spend and payment verification, for free.

By the Upwork X-Ray team · Updated October 22, 2026 · Data: Upwork jobs we read as they post, about 3,000 a day

On Upwork, the first good proposals win. Of the jobs we track, about 1 in 5 already has invites out minutes after it posts: the client is talking to someone before most freelancers have even seen the job. If you find jobs by refreshing the search page, you are late by design.

This guide covers the ways to get Upwork job alerts in 2026, what happened to the RSS feeds, and how to set up free alerts on Telegram that only ping you for jobs worth your Connects.

Your options for Upwork job alerts

1. Upwork's own notifications

Upwork can notify you about new jobs that match your profile and saved searches. They are free and worth turning on, but you can't tell them “only clients with a verified payment method who have spent over $1,000”, so the good jobs arrive mixed in with everything else.

2. RSS feeds (gone)

For years the best trick was an Upwork search RSS feed plugged into a reader, Zapier or a Telegram bot. Upwork turned its job RSS feeds off in 2024, so every tutorial that starts with “copy your RSS link” no longer works. Tools that still promise RSS-style alerts read the jobs some other way, and most charge a monthly fee for it.

3. Paid alert tools

Bidding tools and alert apps fill the gap, often for a monthly subscription. Some are good, but you pay before you know whether faster alerts win you anything.

4. Free alerts on Telegram from Upwork X-Ray

We already read every new Upwork job for our statistics (about 3,000 a day), so sending you the ones that match costs us almost nothing. That's why it's free.

How to set up free Upwork job alerts on Telegram

1. Open Job alerts and sign in with Google (one click, no form).
2. Add your keywords, one per chip: “shopify”, “n8n”, “logo design”. A job that matches any of them, in its title or description, is a hit.
3. Set the filters that matter to you: minimum hourly rate, minimum fixed budget, client countries, minimum client spend and payment verified only.
4. Press the Telegram button and tap Start in the chat that opens. That links the alert to your Telegram.
5. Done. Each matching job arrives with its title, budget, the client's spend and country, and the link.

An AI check reads each keyword match before it's sent, so a job that only mentions “Shopify” in passing doesn't wake you up. Send /stop in the chat to pause any time.

Filters that save your Connects

From what we see across 1.5 million jobs, three filters remove most of the jobs that never hire:

• Payment verified only. About a third of jobs come from clients with no verified payment method, and most of those clients have never hired anyone. See the number for your skill on its skill page.
• Minimum client spend. Clients who have hired before hire on about half of their jobs, and about a third of all jobs come from clients who never hired anyone. Even $1 of past spend filters out first-timers.
• A realistic minimum rate. In most skills, clients advertise more per hour than they paid on their past jobs, while in admin work (data entry, virtual assistance) it's the other way round. Check the gap for your skill in Upwork hourly rates by skill before you set the floor.

When speed isn't enough: OLL.E

A Telegram message is easy to miss when you're asleep or away from your phone. Our app OLL.E watches Upwork for you and calls your phone when a job or client message really matters, with your proposal already drafted. It has a free plan and a 7-day free trial.