How to price your first Upwork contract

You have a profile, a few proposals in mind, and one question that keeps stopping you: what number do you put in?

Here is the short answer. For hourly work, start between $20 and $25 per hour. For fixed-price work, find the usual budget for your kind of project and price yourself in the lower part of that range. You are not selling cheap work. You are lowering the risk for a client who has no reviews to go on yet.

The rest of this article explains how to get to those numbers, what Upwork's service fee does to them, and when to move up.

Why your first price is different

Once you have reviews, clients judge you by your track record. On your first contract, they can only judge your profile, your proposal and your price. The Upwork profile optimization guide covers the first of these. A price in the lower part of the market tells a client that trying you out is a small bet.

Going too low has its own cost. Very low rates tend to attract clients who expect a lot for little, and they make it harder to raise your rate later. The goal is a price that is easy to say yes to, not the lowest number on the page.

Hourly contracts: start between $20 and $25

If you work by the hour, set your first rate between $20 and $25. This range is high enough to read as a professional rate and to leave you something after fees, and low enough to compete with freelancers who already have reviews.

A few things to check before you settle on a number:

• What your niche pays. Upwork publishes typical hourly rates by skill and experience level in its hourly rates guide. If the usual entry rate in your field sits clearly above $25, start at $25. If almost every project post in your niche offers far below $20, look at the niche itself before you cut your rate.
• Your take-home pay. Upwork charges freelancers a service fee between 0% and 15% per contract. Check the fee shown for the contract before you send your proposal. At $22 per hour with a 10% fee, you keep $19.80 per hour. Run this number for your own rate.
• Connects. Sending a proposal costs Connects. The cost per proposal is small, but it adds up if you send many. The Upwork Connects guide and calculator shows what each reply costs you.
• Time tracking. Upwork's Hourly Payment Protection only covers time tracked with the Upwork desktop app. Manual time entries are not covered.

Fixed-price contracts: find the middle, then start below it

For fixed-price work, a single hourly number does not help much. Clients compare your quote to the budget they had in mind and to the other proposals they receive. So start from what the market already pays for that kind of project.

1. Collect real budgets. Search Upwork for 15 to 20 recent project posts that match the work you want to do, with the fixed-price filter on. Write down each budget. Skip posts that are much bigger or much smaller than what you can deliver.
2. Find the middle. Sort the budgets and take the average. Then look at the value in the middle of your sorted list as well. If one very large budget pushes the average up, trust the middle value instead.
3. Place yourself in the lower part of the range. Without reviews, quote between the lower budgets and the middle. For example, if most budgets fall between $150 and $500 and the middle is $300, a first quote around $200 to $250 is reasonable. These numbers are only an example; use your own list.
4. Check your effective hourly rate. Estimate how many hours the project will really take, including revisions and messages. Divide your quote, after the service fee, by those hours. If the result is far below what you would accept per hour, narrow the scope instead of lowering the price.
5. Split the work into milestones. Upwork's Fixed-Price Payment Protection only covers milestones that were funded before you started, and work you delivered with the Submit Work for Payment button. Do not start a milestone until it shows as funded.

What not to do with your first price

• Do not work for free to prove yourself. Short screening questions are normal. A large unpaid "test" is not, and Upwork lists it among the red flags of a scam.
• Do not accept payment outside Upwork to save on fees. It breaks Upwork's Terms of Service and removes your payment protection. We cover this in more detail in Upwork client red flags.
• Do not compete on price alone. A clear proposal that shows you understood the brief does more for you than being a few dollars cheaper than everyone else.

When to raise your price

Your first price is temporary. A practical rule:

• After your first two or three contracts end with good feedback, raise your hourly rate by about $5 for new proposals.
• For fixed-price work, move your quotes from the lower part of the range toward the middle.
• Keep the agreed price with current clients until the contract ends, and tell them ahead of time if a new contract will use a new rate.

Each step is easier when your profile shows the feedback from the step before.

A quick checklist

• Hourly: first rate between $20 and $25.
• Fixed price: 15 to 20 matching budgets collected, middle value found, quote in the lower part of the range.
• Take-home pay calculated with the service fee shown for the contract.
• Upwork desktop app installed for hourly work.
• Every milestone funded before work starts.
• A date set to review your rate after your first contracts.

Where upwin fits

A price only works if the profile and proposal behind it are clear. upwin reviews your Upwork profile against the goal you choose and helps you write proposals that answer the client's brief. It never sends anything for you: you decide and you submit. You can try it on the free plan.