How Upwork's boosted proposals auction works (2026)

A boosted proposal bids extra Connects, on top of the Connects to submit, for one of four promoted slots at the top of the client's proposal list. The top four bids hold the slots and each pays its own bid. The auction closes after seven days or at the first hire. You pay the boost only if you are still in the top four at the close or the client interacted while you were boosted; outbid before any interaction, the bid is not charged. The base Connects are never refunded.

Disclosure: the send data in this post is Upsight's own, and most of it comes from Vizio AI, the agency that builds Upsight. It is one agency's bidding, reported with its method and its limits.

A boost buys one of four slots on one job

A boosted proposal buys position, not delivery. Every proposal reaches the client whether or not it is boosted; the boost decides whether it sits above the rest. Upwork's How to boost your proposal article says it will put the proposal "in the top four slots", and the promoted spaces article explains that four is the total number of proposals that can be boosted on a job post at once.

The client knows. Upwork's article Do clients know I have used Connects answers yes: a note tells clients freelancers use additional Connects to reach a top spot, and the proposal carries a "Boosted" icon.

Not everyone can bid. "Eligibility to boost your proposal is determined based on how strong of a match you are", and "You can always submit a proposal without boosting." A boost on a proposal is also separate from a profile boost, which is a pay-per-click ad in talent search; that one is covered in profile boost and the Availability badge.

You bid Connects on top of the submit cost, and pay your own bid

The bid is extra Connects on top of the base price the job asks to submit. You "Set the maximum number of Connects you're willing to spend to win one of the top spots", and a bid table "shows what other freelancers are bidding to help you decide". The base Connects are charged the moment you submit.

The auction is pay-what-you-bid. Upwork's worked example has four winners: "You'll pay the exact amount of your bid of 35 Connects, the second slot winner will pay 30 Connects", and the third and fourth pay 25 and 20. There is no discount to the next bid down, so overbidding by 10 Connects costs 10 Connects, every time you are charged.

A bid is a bid position, and it moves. "The top four bidders at any time" hold the slots, so each new bid can push the fourth-highest out, and someone dropping out can lift you back in. What you see on day one is a snapshot.

When the boost is charged

The boost is charged once, at whichever comes first: the client's first eligible interaction, or the close of the auction with you still in the top four. Upwork's When and what will I be charged? article puts it that way, and the boosting article lists the eligible interactions: the client opens, shortlists, messages, archives or declines the proposal, or sends an offer.

The close itself is fixed.

“The auction is closed after seven days or upon first hire, whichever comes first”

In the Connects history this shows up as three steps, which is why balances look odd mid-week. Upwork describes them: "First, we temporarily charge your Connects to place your bid"; at the close it refunds those Connects "while final bid results are being sorted"; and "Immediately after, we charge the auction winners the final amount". A refund line followed by a charge is a held boost, not a refund. Reading that history correctly is what boost settlement means.

Two rules cut against intuition. First, "If you remain in the top four, you won't receive a refund even if the client didn't interact with your proposal." A slot held to the close is paid for whether or not anyone looked. Second, the outbid article says that if the client interacted while you were boosted, you pay the bid even if you are outbid later. An interaction locks the charge in.

What takes a proposal out of a promoted slot

A boosted proposal keeps its slot until one of four things happens, per the promoted spaces article:

• Another freelancer outbids you. The proposal "will no longer be shown as boosted" and stays visible lower in the list, per What happens if someone outbids me.
• The client acts on it: sends an offer, shortlists, hires, messages, archives or declines.
• The client opens it three times without further action.
• The client sees it five times without interaction.

The last two matter for strategy. A boost is designed to earn attention and then step aside, so a slot is not a permanent billboard. A proposal that has been seen five times and ignored loses its promotion whatever it bid.

Some auctions are not real. On a placebo auction "the client won't receive any boosts on this job post" and "the freelancer's Connects are not taken". Upwork's placebo auctions article says "Only a very small amount of job posts receive placebo auctions", assigned at random, and gives no percentage. Nor does it say whether "Connects are not taken" covers the Connects to submit or only the boost.

Every outcome, and what it costs

Outcome	Base Connects to submit	Boost bid	Source
Not boosted	Charged at submission	None	How to boost your proposal
Outbid before any eligible interaction	Charged	Not charged (released at close)	What happens if someone outbids me
Client interacted while boosted, outbid later	Charged	Charged in full	What happens if someone outbids me
Client interacted while boosted	Charged	Charged at the interaction	When and what will I be charged?
Still top four at the close, no interaction	Charged	Charged in full, no refund	How to boost your proposal
Placebo auction	Not stated	Not taken	How to boost your proposal
Job removed for a Terms of Service violation	Refunded	Refunded	How will Connects refunds work?
You withdraw a boosted proposal	Not refunded	Cannot resubmit to that job	How to withdraw and resubmit a proposal
Boost paid with ad credits, auction lost	Charged	Credits count as used	How to use ad credits as a freelancer

Eligible interactions: the client opens, shortlists, messages, archives or declines the proposal, or sends an offer. Every price is in Connects at $0.15 each.

Two rows deserve emphasis. Withdrawing a boosted proposal is final: Upwork's withdraw article says "you won't be able to submit it again, even if the job post is still open", and the Connects to submit are not refunded. And ad credits used on a boost are spent even when the auction is lost; they are "not transferable, refundable, or redeemable for Connects or cash".

The bid table versus Plus insights: two different bid numbers

Agencies often mix up two kinds of competitor bid. The boost bid table shows the Connects other freelancers are bidding for the slots, inside the boost step of the proposal form. Proposal insights show what competitors are bidding as a price for the work.

Upwork's Basic vs Plus comparison lists "visibility into competitor bids" as a Freelancer Plus perk, and the Proposal insights article, which promises freelancers can "see bid ranges", details the average proposal bid amount, the average of bids the client messaged, and bids from Top Rated freelancers, updated hourly. It says insights are "only offered in the Freelancer Plus subscription", not in Agency Plus. Agency Plus separately promises "insight into competitor bid values on jobs", per the Agency Plus article, without saying which bids.

For boosting, the bid table is the number that prices the slot. The insights tell you whether your rate is in the room at all, and a boost cannot fix a price the client has already ruled out.

What boosting returned in one agency's ledger

The rules say what a boost can cost; they do not say what it returns. Upsight's ledger reconciled 9,788 applications from 1 August to 19 October 2026 to Upwork's Connects transactions, 95.8% of them one agency's own sends. Boosted proposals were viewed 22.6% of the time and replied to 5.8%; unboosted ones 10.1% and 2.3%. Boosted proposals cost more each, 26.2 net Connects against 14.3, but less per result: 116 Connects per view against 142, and 449 per reply against 614.

• Boosted
• Not boosted

Hover or tab through the chart for exact values.

Source: Upsight ledger: 9,788 Upwork applications 2026-08-01 to 2026-10-19 (95.8% one agency's sends, Vizio AI), reconciled to Upwork's Connects transactions. 7,686 boosted, 2,102 not.Net = base Connects plus charged boosts minus refunds. Of 7,172 settled boosts, 4,372 (61%) were refunded in full and 2,800 charged.

Show the data

	Boosted	Not boosted
Per proposal	26.2	14.3
Per view	116.0	142.0
Per reply	449.0	614.0

The refund share is the part most agencies misread. 61% of settled boosts came back in full, which looks like waste on a balance sheet but is the auction working as designed: each of those boosts was outbid before any client interaction and charged nothing. Any views a proposal earned while it held a slot were free. The boost auction glossary entry explains how to read held and outbid boosts.

How to bid in the auction

1. 1

   Boost where the room is crowded

   A slot is worth most where a client has many proposals to read. The proposals per job by category study shows where that is.

2. 2

   Bid to the table, not to a habit

   You pay your own bid. Read the table at the send and bid just above the fourth place you need, rather than a fixed number on every job.

3. 3

   Settle before you judge

   Wait for the close, up to seven days, then read the Connects history: a release with no charge is outbid and free; a release then a charge is held.

4. 4

   Never withdraw a boosted proposal to fix it

   Edit instead. A withdrawn boosted proposal cannot be resubmitted to that job, and its Connects to submit are gone.

5. 5

   Measure per reply, not per proposal

   A boost always costs more per proposal. The question is whether it costs less per reply on your jobs, which takes a ledger of settled boosts.

Upsight sizes a boost bid to the live auction when a campaign sends, records the bid position it bought, and settles each boost from Upwork's Connects history after the close, so held, outbid and refunded boosts are reported with their views and replies. It is a measurement aid, not a guarantee: the auction's outcome still depends on who else bids.

Questions

How does boosting a proposal on Upwork work?

You bid extra Connects on top of the Connects to submit. The top four bids get the four promoted slots at the top of the client's list, with a Boosted icon. The auction runs up to seven days or until the first hire, and winners pay their own bid.

Do I get my Connects back if my boosted proposal is outbid?

The boost bid, yes, if you were outbid before the client opened, shortlisted, messaged, archived or declined the proposal or sent an offer. If the client interacted while you were boosted, the bid is charged. The Connects to submit are never refunded for being outbid.

When are boosted proposal Connects charged on Upwork?

The Connects to submit are charged immediately. The boost bid is charged at the client's first eligible interaction while you are boosted, or at the auction's close if you are still in the top four, whichever comes first. The close is seven days or the first hire.

Is boosting Upwork proposals worth it?

In one agency's ledger of 9,788 applications, boosted proposals were viewed 22.6% and replied to 5.8%, against 10.1% and 2.3% unboosted, at 449 net Connects per reply against 614. It was not a controlled test, so measure it on your own jobs.