Boost refund

Upwork's refunds article frames it as a charging rule: a boost that receives an eligible interaction or is still boosted at the close is not refunded, and if you are "knocked out of the auction before receiving an eligible interaction, you will not be charged". Only the boost comes back. The standard Connects to submit the proposal stay spent, with one exception: when Upwork removes a job for a Terms of Service violation, it refunds both the boost and the cost of submitting.

In the Connects history a refund rarely looks like one line. The bid is charged when placed, released when the auction closes while results are sorted, and the winners are charged again straight after. A real refund is a release with no charge after it. A release followed by a charge is a held boost, even though a refund line appears in the history, and Upwork's activity feed can word that release as if the proposal had been outbid. Counting refund lines therefore overstates how many boosts were lost.

A refund is not a wasted boost either. While the proposal led, it sat in a promoted slot and could be opened, and those views were earned before the Connects came back. The base-fee refunds Upwork gives when a client cancels a job or a post is removed are covered under Connects refund.

How Upsight uses it. The Connects ledger pairs each release with what followed it, records the refunded amount on the proposal, and reports outbid boosts with their views and replies, so a high refund rate reads as cheap exposure where it was, and not as loss.