End contract

Either side can end a contract. Upwork's answer for freelancers is that you are "free to end a contract at any time", with the advice to check with the client first so you are both aligned. The steps: Deliver work, then Your active contracts, select the contract title, choose End contract in the options menu, complete the end-of-contract review form and confirm. The form is required, though fields marked optional can be skipped.

Feedback is double-blind: neither side sees the other's feedback until both have submitted it, or until the 14-day period ends. That is the main reason to agree the ending in messages first. A contract ended abruptly is one where the client's public feedback gets written in the moment.

What else ending does depends on the contract type:

• Hourly. Upwork's client article says the freelancer's work diary locks as soon as the contract ends, so any time still to be logged has to be in before.
• Fixed-price. Any final payment should be released through an active milestone first. If the client ends the contract with money still deposited, that starts a refund request the freelancer can approve or dispute.

Contract outcomes also feed reputation. Upwork names the reasons past contracts ended among the things that move the Job Success Score, alongside client feedback. For an agency that makes the ending of each contract worth managing as deliberately as its start: confirm the work is done, settle the last payment, then end it.

Ending is different from pausing: a paused contract stays open and can be restarted.