Archived proposals

On the client's side, archive is the soft no. Upwork describes it as hiding a proposal from the list "without rejecting it", and keeps archived proposals on their own tab so the client can return to them. Declined proposals, by contrast, leave the client's list entirely. If a client sends an offer from a proposal and the freelancer declines that offer, Upwork archives the proposal too.

On the freelancer's side, Archived is also where proposals end up when they simply stop: the job aged out or the proposal was withdrawn. The status alone does not say which, so an archived proposal tells you only that it is no longer in play.

Connects. Archiving returns nothing. Connects are not refunded when the client rejects a proposal, chooses another freelancer or lets the job expire without a hire. For a boosted proposal, a client archiving it while it holds a boosted slot is an eligible interaction, so the boost is charged.

Why it matters for counting. Archived proposals still belong in the denominator of a view rate or reply rate: they were sent and had their chance. Dropping them makes a campaign look better than it is.

How Upsight uses it. Upsight's ledger reads each proposal's status from Upwork and labels Archived proposals as closed. A proposal that drew a reply and was later archived loses its replied status on Upwork, so Upsight counts replies from the status, the inbox and the proposal record together, and labels the status-based figure as a floor.