Set up a withdrawal method

If your withdrawal was successfully processed and has not been received, we want to help. Please look below for your payment method to see how and when we can step in.

Note: Public holidays in the U.S. and your own country can delay withdrawals. Please review our full bank holiday article for further information.

Direct to Local Bank

Direct to Local Bank withdrawal requests are processed within one business day. Payments should arrive at your bank within four business days.

We can trace a missing payment for you at no charge. However, you must wait eight business days after the withdrawal date to initiate the trace. To request a payment trace, please contact support and include a screenshot of your bank statement or online transaction history from the time the withdrawal was made up to when you submitted the request.

ACH Direct to U.S. Bank

We process ACH Direct to U.S. Bank deposit requests within one business day. ACH payments should arrive at your bank within two to five business days. Some banks impose a waiting period on funds from incoming transfers. Please ask your bank how long it will take for your funds to clear.

Upwork can trace a missing ACH payment for you at no charge; however, you must wait five business days after the withdrawal date to request the trace. If your funds have not arrived after this period, please get in touch with support to request a payment trace.

Wire Transfer

We process wire transfer requests the next business day.

If the transfer is successful, the funds could hit your account within minutes of being processed. However, it could take several days to arrive, depending on the country and bank, because of banking complexities. Some banks impose a waiting period on funds from incoming (and especially international) wire transfers. Please ask your bank how long it will take for your funds to clear.

Upwork can trace a missing payment for you at no charge; however, you must wait eight full business days after the withdrawal date to initiate the trace. If your funds have not arrived after this period, please get in touch with support to request a payment trace.

PayPal

Please check that your PayPal account is fully activated and verified if you haven't already. You can verify by linking your credit card, debit card, or bank account to your PayPal account. Please log in to your PayPal account and follow the instructions to complete the verification process. You are responsible for ensuring that PayPal provides the services you need before transferring money.

In most cases, your withdrawal from Upwork will transfer to your PayPal account immediately. However, there are occasions when it may take up to 24 hours. If it has been more than 24 hours, please get in touch with PayPal support and provide them with the email address that funds were sent to. If they are unable to locate the payment, please contact Upwork support for further assistance.

Payoneer

When you request a payment through Upwork to your Payoneer account, you should receive a notification from Upwork within 24 hours.

If you don't get an Upwork notification of your transaction in 24 hours:

1. Log into your Payoneer account to confirm receipt of funds
2. Check your email filters, such as your spam, trash, and junk folders, for these notifications, and add both Payoneer and Upwork to your email contacts
3. Check the email address connected to your Payoneer account for a notification that they have transferred the funds to your account

If the above steps did not resolve the issue, please contact Payoneer support and provide them with the email address the funds were sent to. If they are unable to locate the payment, please contact Upwork support for further assistance.

M-Pesa

If you haven't already, please check that your M-Pesa account is fully activated and complete the necessary verification process. You are responsible for ensuring that M-Pesa provides the services you need before transferring money. Please note that M-Pesa is currently only available to users in Kenya.

Most M-Pesa transactions will transfer to your M-Pesa account immediately, but some may take up to 24 hours on weekdays or the next business day on weekends. If it has been more than 24 hours and one business day, please get in touch with support for further assistance.

If your withdrawal fails and the funds are returned to your Upwork account, we will email you as soon as possible. And if it’s due to an error on our end, we will cover any fees resulting from the issue. If the transfer fails because you provided incorrect information, the funds will be returned to you minus the following costs:

• Original withdrawal fee
• Any return fees incurred by Upwork
• Any additional fees or penalties your provider may assess

If you returned a PayPal transaction back to Upwork and it's not showing in your Upwork account, that's because returned funds from PayPal don't automatically get routed to you. To remedy this problem, please contact support and provide the “Unique Transaction ID number” sent to you by PayPal when you sent your PayPal funds back to your Upwork account. We will trace your transaction and credit it back to your account. We can't return the PayPal transaction fee because that fee covers processing expenses.

The weekly payment terms are set in the advanced options when the client makes you a contract offer. To add, remove, or change the amount of your weekly payment, your client must end your contract and offer you a new contract with different terms.

Cleared payments are released by 11:59 PM UTC on Fridays. If you live in another time zone, please calculate the time difference to determine when your payment will be available. We will also email you after your payment is applied and ready to be withdrawn.

Note that only your hourly contracts are eligible for faster payments. If you have both hourly and fixed-price contracts, only the payments for your hourly contracts are included in faster payments.

If you issued a partial refund for your client, the rest of their payment to you would not be released according to the faster payouts schedule. A payment impacted by a refund will be subject to the 10-day wait on payments.

Clients can manually issue a bonus payment to you at any time while the contract is active. As long as there are no problems with the client's billing method, these manual earnings, minus Upwork fees, will become available after the five-day security period. Bonus payments do not qualify for Upwork Hourly Protection.

When your client releases a milestone or final payment on a fixed-price job, it immediately shows as pending on your financial account. Pending payments become available for you to withdraw after the standard five-day security period.

The weekly billing period begins on Monday at 00:00 midnight UTC and ends on Sunday at 23:59 UTC, at which point your earnings are In review.

Once this review period ends, there is a five-day security period after which your earnings, less Upwork fees, will become available for withdrawal. You can read more about the weekly billing cycle here.

When your payment arrives depends on your withdrawal method, but it can take more than eight business days. If you haven't received your payment after eight business days, let us know, and we'll see how we can help.

When a contract includes a weekly payment, how much you get paid upon starting the contract depends on which day the contract begins.

The percentages break down like this:

• Monday — 100%
• Tuesday — 80%
• Wednesday — 60%
• Thursday — 40%
• Friday — 20%

If your contract begins on Saturday or Sunday, you will not receive a weekly payment until the following week.

When a contract that includes a weekly payment ends, how much of that weekly payment you receive depends on the day the contract ends.

The percentages break down like this:

• Monday — 20%
• Tuesday — 40%
• Wednesday — 60%
• Thursday — 80%
• Friday, Saturday, Sunday — 100%