Every client fee Upwork charges, a worked monthly example, and the cost that never shows on the invoice.
On Upwork’s Basic plan, clients pay a 5% marketplace fee on every payment, or 3% for eligible U.S. clients paying by bank account. New contracts add a one-time fee of $0.99 to $14.99. Business Plus charges 10%, or 8% by bank. A full-time $30-an-hour marketer costs about $5,460 a month.
Here’s what Upwork lists on its client pricing page, help center, and fee agreement, checked October 29, 2026:
| Fee | Basic plan | Business Plus plan |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly membership | None | None listed. You pay through the higher fee. |
| Marketplace fee on every payment | 5% (3% for eligible U.S. clients paying by bank account) | 10% (8% for eligible U.S. clients paying by bank account) |
| Contract initiation fee | $0.99 to $14.99, once per new contract | None on hourly contracts. Up to $4.99 on new contracts under $100. |
| Direct contracts with freelancers you found elsewhere | Marketplace fee applies | $49 a month per active contract, plus the plan fee |
| Separate payment processing fee | None set, but Upwork says some payment methods may add fees | Same |
| Conversion fee to hire a freelancer off Upwork | 13.5% of their hourly rate × 2,080 hours ($1,000 minimum, $50,000 maximum) | Same |
A few details that change the bill:
Business Plus also gets you Expert-Vetted talent, which Upwork describes as the top 1% of its freelancers and agencies.
Upwork says digital marketers on its site cost $15 to $45 an hour, based on typical rates from past contracts worldwide. A full-time month is about 173 hours (40 hours × 52 weeks ÷ 12). Here’s what you pay:
| Hourly rate | Freelancer’s pay per month | Basic, 5% | Basic, 3% by bank | Business Plus, 10% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $15 | $2,600 | $2,730 | $2,678 | $2,860 |
| $30 | $5,200 | $5,460 | $5,356 | $5,720 |
| $45 | $7,800 | $8,190 | $8,034 | $8,580 |
Add the contract initiation fee once, up to $14.99 on Basic. Over a year, the $30 marketer on Basic costs about $65,520. Upwork charges hourly contracts weekly, based on the hours logged by Sunday night.
Where Upwork wins on price: at $15 to $20 an hour, a full-time Upwork freelancer costs less per month than a full-time GrowthPair marketer. If you can find, vet, and manage someone good at that rate, Upwork is the cheaper invoice.
The fees are small. The expensive part of Upwork is your own time, and the risk that the hire doesn’t work out.
Telltale’s founder ran into the reliability side of this. She’d hired freelancers on Upwork and found quality uneven and handoffs unclear. After she hired a full-time global marketer through us, client revisions dropped by 50%. Read the Telltale case study.
About $4,000 a month, all-in. That covers the marketer’s pay, payroll, benefits, and HR, billed every two weeks through Stripe. There’s no per-payment fee and no conversion fee. If you want to hire your marketer directly, the buyout is 6 months of the rate.
Marketers vet every candidate in five steps: a resume screen, a phone interview, a proctored skills assessment, and a live interview with a marketer, before your own interview. 1.5% of applicants are accepted. Your marketer works full-time for your team only, in your time zone, from Latin America or the Philippines. If it’s ever not the right fit, we replace them for as long as you’re a client. See the Growth Marketer role for a typical hire.
Upwork is the right call more often than you’d think:
For the full side-by-side, see Upwork vs GrowthPair. If you’ve outgrown it, our list of Upwork alternatives covers the other routes. Buying one-off creative work instead? See what Fiverr Pro costs.
On Basic, a 5% marketplace fee on every payment (3% for eligible U.S. clients paying by bank account), plus a one-time contract initiation fee of $0.99 to $14.99. On Business Plus, a 10% fee (8% by bank account) and no initiation fee on hourly contracts.
It’s the percentage Upwork adds to every payment you make to a freelancer, including hourly work, fixed-price milestones, bonuses, and expenses. It’s 5% on Basic and 10% on Business Plus, and it isn’t refunded if a payment is reversed.
Upwork’s pricing page lists no processing fee, but its fee agreement says some payment methods may add fees. You pay the marketplace fee, plus taxes like VAT where they apply.
Upwork puts digital marketers at $15 to $45 an hour. At about 173 hours a month, that’s $2,600 to $7,800 in pay, or $2,730 to $8,190 with the 5% Basic fee.
If you want Expert-Vetted talent, which Upwork describes as its top 1%, or you start many hourly contracts, it can be. You pay 10% instead of 5% on every payment, so on a $5,200 monthly contract that’s $260 more a month.
GrowthPair charges about $4,000 a month for a full-time marketer, with pay, payroll, benefits, and HR included. At GrowthPair, marketers vet every candidate, every candidate passes a C1 English test, and 1.5% of applicants are accepted.
