Upwork Connects in 2026: what they cost, when they come back, and how an agency should budget

Upwork Connects cost $0.15 each, sold in bundles or a custom amount. A proposal's price in Connects is set per job, and across 1,040 proposals we sent in October 2026 the median was 15 Connects ($2.25), with the middle half between 10 and 20. Agencies need Agency Plus to buy them, share one balance across every member, can roll over up to 400 unused Connects a month, and lose Connects one year after purchase. A rejected or expired proposal is 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.

What a Connect costs and what a proposal asks for

A Connect costs $0.15, and the variable is how many a job asks for. Upwork's Understanding and using Connects article states the price and says Connects are sold in bundles, with a custom amount as the alternative. The number a proposal needs "varies per job and can change during the time the job is posted". Upwork's boosting article names the inputs: project size, scope and current market demand. It does not publish a minimum, a maximum or a typical figure.

So we measured it. Across 1,040 proposals Upsight submitted between 4 October and 3 November 2026, the Connects asked to submit had a median of 15, a middle half of 10 to 20, and a range of 6 to 27. The single most common price was 20 Connects (210 proposals, 20.2%), followed by 10 (130) and 15 (111). Just under a third of proposals (321 of 1,040) asked for 20 or more.

The distribution is lumpy, not smooth. Prices cluster at 8, 10, 15, 17, 20 and 21, which fits a price set from a few bands of size and budget rather than a continuous formula. At $0.15 each, the median proposal costs $2.25 to submit and the most expensive one we saw cost $4.05. The full breakdown, by category and budget, is in how many Connects a proposal costs.

Basic, Freelancer Plus and Agency Plus: who gets which Connects

The plan decides how many Connects arrive for free and who can buy more. The three that matter to an agency:

• Freelancer Basic is the free default and comes with 10 Connects a month, per Upwork's resource page Is Upwork worth it?. Upwork's Connects article frames free Connects as offers some freelancers receive, so check your Connects history for what you actually got.
• Freelancer Plus gives 100 Connects a month once you have been on it a full month (90 to 100 in the first month), per What is Freelancer Plus?. Upwork's Basic vs Plus comparison calls it "90 additional monthly Connects" over Basic. The help center does not print the price; it sends you to Membership plan, then Change Plan. At $0.15, 100 Connects are worth $15.
• Agency Plus is the plan an agency must be on to bid and to buy Connects at all. Upwork's agency growth guide prices it at $19.99 a month. The Agency Plus article lists no included monthly Connects, so plan as if every agency Connect is bought.

Two rules trip agencies up. First, a free Agency Basic account cannot buy Connects: Upwork's Connects article says a failed purchase is "likely because your agency is still on the free Agency Basic plan". Second, agency and freelancer balances never mix. "Connects cannot be shared between agency and freelancer accounts, even if they're both yours", so an owner's personal Freelancer Plus Connects cannot fund agency proposals.

Plan	Monthly Connects	Can buy more	Rollover	Who spends
Freelancer Basic	10	Yes	No limit on the balance	The freelancer
Freelancer Plus	100 (90 to 100 in month one)	Yes	No limit on the balance	The freelancer
Agency Basic	Not stated	No	Not applicable	Cannot bid
Agency Plus	None stated	Yes, owner and admins only	Up to 400 a month	Every member, one shared balance

Freelancer rollover: How many Connects can I roll over each month? Agency rows: About the Agency Plus plan on Upwork. Basic's 10 a month: upwork.com/resources/is-upwork-worth-it.

Rollover and expiry: freelancers keep everything, agencies keep 400

A freelancer's Connects never hit a cap, and an agency's do. Upwork's rollover article is two sentences: "All of your Connects will roll over (unless they expire). There is no limit on the amount of Connects you can hold." The Agency Plus article sets a different rule for agencies.

“Your agency can roll over up to 400 unused Connects each month.”

The same article says Connects "expire one year from the date of purchase". It does not say what happens to unused agency Connects above 400 at the turn of a month, so the safe planning assumption is that they do not carry over.

That changes how an agency should buy. A freelancer can stock up in a cheap month and draw down for a year. An agency that buys 3,000 Connects in one go and spends 2,000 of them in the month is exposed on the other 1,000. The practical rule is to buy close to the month's need and top up when the balance runs low, so the balance at month end sits under 400. Upsight's agency Connects entry walks through who can buy and who can spend.

What costs Connects beyond the proposal

Four things draw on the balance, and only the first has a price printed in advance. Upwork's Connects article says they pay for proposals "as well as for various ad products, such as boosted proposals and the Availability Badge". For an agency the full list is:

• Submitting a proposal. The base price printed on the job, charged at once. See Connects.
• Boosting a proposal. Any number of Connects bid on top of the base, charged at the end of the auction or at the client's first eligible interaction, and returned if the proposal is outbid first. The mechanics are in how the boosted proposals auction works.
• The Availability badge. A weekly charge at a market price you cap. Upwork's badge article gives examples: at 14 Connects a week, 1 Connect is deducted twice a day; at 21, one every 8 hours. Prices can change, and you are never charged above the weekly maximum you set.
• A profile boost. Pay-per-click in search: you choose "the maximum amount that you'd like to spend for a profile click", with a daily or total limit, per How to boost your profile. A client clicking several times on one job post is charged once.

The Agency Plus article confirms members can use agency Connects "to boost their profile or turn on the Availability Badge". That is the line an agency owner should watch: since Connects "can't be assigned or restricted to specific agency members", one member's weekly badge spend comes out of the same balance as every proposal.

Ad credits are a separate currency. Upwork's ad credits article says they pay for boosts, profile boosts and the badge, cannot submit proposals, usually expire within 14 or 30 days, and are not refundable.

When Connects come back, and when they do not

Refunds are the exception, and most lost proposals are not on the list. The Connects article returns Connects "if a client cancels a project before a contract is made", which does not cover a job that simply expires. Upwork's refunds article adds one case: if Upwork removes a job for a Terms of Service violation, "You'll be refunded both the boosted Connects and the cost of submitting the proposal." Withdrawing your own proposal returns nothing, per How to withdraw and resubmit a proposal, and a withdrawn boosted proposal cannot be sent again to the same job. Returned Connects are a credit for reuse, not cash. Upsight's Connects refund and boost refund entries cover the edge cases.

What happened	Base Connects to submit	Boost bid	Upwork source
Client cancels the job before hiring anyone	Returned	See boost rows	Understanding and using Connects
Upwork removes the job for a Terms of Service violation	Returned	Returned	How will Connects refunds work?
Client rejects you or hires someone else	Not returned	See boost rows	Understanding and using Connects
Job expires without a hire	Not returned	See boost rows	Understanding and using Connects
You withdraw the proposal	Not returned	Cannot resubmit a boosted proposal	How to withdraw and resubmit a proposal
Boost outbid before any eligible client interaction	Not returned	Not charged	How to boost your proposal
Boost still in the top four when the auction closes	Not returned	Charged, even with no interaction	How to boost your proposal
Client interacts while the proposal is boosted	Not returned	Charged	How to boost your proposal
Boost paid with ad credits	Not returned	Credits count as used	How to use ad credits as a freelancer

Eligible interactions, per How to boost your proposal: the client opens, shortlists, messages, archives or declines the proposal, or sends an offer.

How to budget Connects for an agency

Budget from proposals, not from Connects. Decide how many proposals the agency will send in a month, multiply by a Connects price per proposal, and multiply by $0.15. The chart uses three prices from our sample: the low edge of the middle half (10), the median (15) and the high edge (20).

• 100 proposals a month: $150 to $300 in base Connects, $225 at the median.
• 250 a month: $375 to $750, $562.50 at the median (3,750 Connects).
• 500 a month: $750 to $1,500, $1,125 at the median.
• 1,000 a month: $1,500 to $3,000, $2,250 at the median (15,000 Connects).

Add $19.99 a month for Agency Plus, and the line items an owner does not see on the job post: boosts, the badge and profile boosts.

• 10 Connects each (low quartile)
• 15 Connects each (median)
• 20 Connects each (high quartile)

Hover or tab through the chart for exact values.

Source: Price: Upwork, Understanding and using Connects ($0.15 a Connect). Connects per proposal: Upsight's ledger: the Connects Upwork asked to submit 1,040 proposals Upsight sent between 2026-10-04 and 2026-11-03, read from each job post at the send.Excludes boost bids, the Availability badge, profile boosts and the Agency Plus fee.

Show the data

	10 Connects each (low quartile)	15 Connects each (median)	20 Connects each (high quartile)
100 proposals	$150	$225	$300
250 proposals	$375	$563	$750
500 proposals	$750	$1,125	$1,500
1,000 proposals	$1,500	$2,250	$3,000

Boosting is where budgets break. In Upsight's ledger of 9,788 applications from August to October 2026, mostly one agency's sends, boosted proposals cost 26.2 net Connects each after refunds and unboosted ones 14.3. If our 250-proposal agency boosted everything at that net cost, the month would come to about 6,550 Connects, or $982.50, instead of $562.50. That is one agency's data, not a controlled test, and the outcomes are in is boosting worth it. To see what a bidding team costs next to the Connects, the bidder cost tool prices the salary side.

What to do this month

1. 1

   Measure your own median

   Export a month of the Connects history and note the price of every proposal. Your median, not ours, is the number to budget with. Track it monthly, since Upwork can change a job's price while it is posted.

2. 2

   Split the spend into four lines

   Base proposals, boost bids, Availability badge and profile boosts. Upwork shows one balance; an owner needs to see which of the four grew.

3. 3

   Keep the month-end balance under 400

   Buy weekly against the plan rather than in one large purchase, so the agency rollover cap never takes Connects you paid for.

4. 4

   Decide who may use agency Connects for ads

   Upwork cannot restrict Connects by member. Write the rule down: who may run the badge or a profile boost, and at what weekly cap.

5. 5

   Count refunds before you count waste

   An outbid boost that was never charged cost nothing. Reconcile each boost after its auction closes, about seven days, before calling a month expensive. The Connects per proposal entry explains the netting.

Upsight keeps this ledger for an agency: every Connects charge, boost bid and refund in Upwork's transaction history is matched to the proposal and member that caused it, so the net cost per proposal and per reply is known after the fact. Connects are bought from Upwork and are never part of an Upsight plan.

Questions

How much do Upwork Connects cost in 2026?

Upwork sells Connects at $0.15 each, in bundles or a custom amount. Agencies must be on Agency Plus to buy them. Across 1,040 proposals we sent in October 2026, the median proposal asked for 15 Connects, or $2.25.

How many Connects does an Upwork proposal cost?

Upwork sets it per job from project size, scope and market demand and publishes no range. In our sample of 1,040 proposals from October 2026 the median was 15 Connects, the middle half 10 to 20, the range 6 to 27, and 20 was the most common price.

Do Upwork Connects expire or roll over?

Connects expire one year from purchase. A freelancer's unused Connects roll over with no limit on the balance. An agency on Agency Plus can roll over up to 400 unused Connects a month, so agencies should keep the month-end balance below that.

Do I get my Connects back if the client doesn't hire me?

No. Upwork does not return Connects when a client rejects you, hires someone else or lets the job expire, or when you withdraw. They come back only if the client cancels the job before hiring or Upwork removes it for a Terms of Service violation.

Can agency members share Connects on Upwork?

Yes. On Agency Plus every member draws from one shared balance, and only the owner and admins can buy. Upwork says Connects cannot be assigned or restricted to specific members, and agency and freelancer balances can never be combined.