More Connects to win more of the work you love

[katbenjamin]

UPDATE: This is already live. You’ll see these free Connects added to your account at the start of your next billing cycle. You can find this date on your Memberships and Connects page under User Settings.

In December, we’re upgrading Connects to provide you free monthly Connects and bonus Connects for interviews you win. You’re doing amazing things on Upwork, and more Connects means more chances to do the work you love. 

We’ve seen a huge surge in client activity, and our work marketplace is full of opportunities for all the incredible talent on our platform. We can’t wait to watch you use these Connects to win your share of these opportunities, form stronger relationships with clients, and grow your career on Upwork.

We introduced paid Connects to keep spam from crowding out your proposals and help you win the jobs you want. But we want to ensure connecting with clients is exciting and affordable, so we’re changing our program to provide you with the Connects you need to build deeper relationships and unlock the best opportunities.

Here’s exactly what you can expect:

Freelancer Basic Plan	Receive 10 free Connects per month (according to billing cycle)
Freelancer Plus Plan	Receive 80 Connects per month (70 + 10 free Connects) (according to billing cycle)
Connects Rollover Limits	The Basic and Plus roll over limit is now 200 Connects
Interview Requests	Freelancers receive free Connects (the number may vary) when they win an interview with an established client on Upwork**

In December, you’ll see these free Connects added to your account at the start of your next billing cycle. You can find this date on your Memberships and Connects page under User Settings. You’ll also receive an email when your Connects are available for use.

These changes will create more opportunities for everyone in our community, and we’re continuing to explore other ways to show our appreciation for everything you do. Your success is our success, and we’re proud to provide a home where you can do the work you love, form lucrative relationships, and build an amazing independent business.

Learn more about how Connects work here. 

* Update 7/23/2021: Note that when Connects are awarded for interview requests this will show up as two transactions in the Connects History. There is no change to how these are awarded, this is simply done for accounting purposes.

** Updated 1/2/2023

[syed_mohsin_shah]

hi

[jonathan007]

Im fine

[BojanS]

Hi Muhammad,

Both New Talent and Existing Freelancers will benefit from this change. You can find more information here.

Thank you!

[airikalim]

This is great!

[socialo]

Hi Mikko, I am new in this community. So pardon if I sound too naive. Upwork is full of Clients who posts like hundreds of jobs but end up hiring in like 20 of em. Now, you can say we should look for client's background. But upwork doesnt only comprise of Top rated freelancers, there are newbies like us. Lets consider, a client like mentioned above posted a job in a very popular niche, too many freelancers are out there to bid. Consider, It takes 6 connects, if 50 freelancers bid on that, it total sums up to 300 connects upwork has sold to it's freelancers. You can calculate the price of 300 connects. Now if the client ends up hiring no freelancer, just calculate how much money Upwork just made absolutely for nothing! The whole connect concept to me is nothing but a mirage. I hope the community starts seeing these angles too.

[basco_irene]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! GOD BLESS YOU!

[kinector]

Christine, I agree that small projects should only cost 1 Connect. That would be brilliant.

But the assumption here would make sense if clients always knew their budget.

Many projects that are initially priced at something like $20 or $50 come with a note "I have no idea about the budget, open to all bids" or something. Still, they could end up being decent-size software development projects worth over $10K eventually.

I think many experienced clients who want the maximum exposure would then start using low budgets by default and changing it later.

And changing the amount of Connects spent retrospectively would be very strange. 🙂

This is actually not so easy to make perfectly fair to everyone.

[kinector]

Christine, my thoughts exactly! This could actually backfire... But let's hope it doesn't.

Anyway, there is no way to turn this whole Connect system into something that works perfectly for everyone.

Those freelancers with good track records and proposal-writing skills never need many Connects as there is always excess. Just a few proposals for jobs that are a perfect match are needed. And most of the time can just wait for invitations.

And those who really need a lot of Connects haven't yet figured out how to build their businesses anyway, so giving more freebies won't make a noticeable difference anyway. Just more perceived "spam" seen by the clients.

I suggested I could donate my extra Connects, but that didn't go through... There would be some obvious problems in that too, of course.

[priteesh]

Hi Katrina B
If you (upwork) want to keep the spam purposal or freelnacer out from a perticular job then please keep spam job out too for the freelnacers.

What about
Having some kind of "spam jobs" function too
That can actually see if any job is not hiering within a certain period of time then the freelancer gets his connects back.
There is a rule on upwork that if the client cancel the job without hiring then we can get our connects back
But what if client neither hire nor cancel the job we looses the connects and there are many clients like that who makes spam job and just because of a spam job we loose our valueable connects

[f3329255]

Hi