Upwork connects is credit used to send proposals to potential clients. Every job post on Upwork requires spending a specific number of connects.
When you register on Upwork for the first time, you will receive 50 connects. If you earn the Rising Talent badge, you will receive 30 connects.
You need to get connects before you can spend them. The free way is to get monthly connections from Upwork. The amount is ten, and that is usually a low number to have on a monthly basis.
Besides job proposals, you can use connects for Availability Badge. In that way, your Upwork profile can stand out and have more chances to win the job. The minimum is seven connects per week.
Boost Your Profile has an option to bid on how many connects will be spent for your profile to be on the top of the search for the client. Higher chances of the top result will, of course, be if you bid more.
You can pay for Freelancer Plus, which will get you 90 connections per month. In addition to this plan, you will get the standard 10 free connections monthly.
For a specific amount of dollars, you can buy how many connects you need with your credit card. Each connect costs $0.15.
Upwork sometimes offers free connects through a promo code that you can use while purchasing connects.
Besides buying Upwork connects, it is important to know that sometimes connects are returned to the freelancer. This can happen if the client cancels a job before a contract is made or a job post violates Upwork rules.
You don’t use the Upwork connects to apply to jobs in cases when:
- The client sends you a job invitation
- The client sends you a job offer
- Client purchase your Project Catalog project
- When you send a job proposal within an Enterprise Talent Cloud
