Availability Badge
A weekly fixed-cost in your profile settings. Tells clients you're free to start work right now. Set in Connects per week; usually 10-20. You pay even if no one notices.
Upwork Connects Calculator
What Upwork Connects really cost you to bid.
Connects on their own are $0.15 each. Add the Availability Badge, Profile Boost, and Proposal Boost, and most freelancers lose track of the real number. This calculator puts all three on one screen, next to what you actually earn, so you can see your spend, your ROI, and where the money leaks.
Run the numbers
Your bidding activity
30
How many Upwork jobs you bid on in a typical week.
14
Upwork shows this on every job. Typical: 8 to 27.
Ads & boosts
$0/mo
Find the price in your Upwork settings under Availability Badge. Set 0 if you don't use it.
$0/mo
From "Promote with ads - Boost your profile". Your bid amount per billed click.
Set 0 if you don't run a Profile Boost campaign.
$0/mo
The Connects actually spent on a boosted proposal - not the auction bid (bids that lose are partially refunded).
Set 0 if you don't boost proposals.
What you earn
4
$1,200
ROI on Connects spend
Strong 8.6× $1 in returns $8.60
Spend / year $0 $0 / month
Earn / year $0 $0 / month
Cost per won job - in Connects spend
Win rate - of applications
Upwork spreads ad spend across three screens. Most freelancers only count one.
The Availability Badge, Profile Boost, and Proposal Boost are three separate products. They draw from the same Connect pool, but Upwork doesn't summarise them. Each does something different - and each has its own failure mode.
Profile Boost
A pay-per-click auction under "Promote with ads". You set a max bid in Connects per click; Upwork charges only when someone visits your profile from a sponsored slot. Clicks are not hires.
Proposal Boost
Per-bid premium placement on a specific job. You bid extra Connects against other bidders for the top slot - the winner pays, losers get partially refunded. Easy to lose track of how many are actually spent.
Frequently asked questions about Upwork Connects pricing.
How much does an Upwork Connect actually cost?
The base price is $0.15 per Connect when you buy them in bulk. The bigger trick is that Connects aren't your only Upwork bill - the Availability Badge, Profile Boost (pay-per-click for profile views), and Proposal Boost all draw from the same pool but live on different screens. This calculator adds them up in one place.
How much is 100 Connects on Upwork?
100 Connects costs $15, since each Connect is $0.15. Upwork sells them in bundles with a 10-Connect minimum.
How many Connects does a proposal cost?
Most proposals cost 6 to 16 Connects depending on the job, and Upwork keeps nudging that range up.
What goes into the "wasted" estimate?
Two rough heuristics: about 40% of applications go to bad-fit jobs that never convert (industry benchmark), and about 50% of boost spend goes to visibility that doesn't turn into a hire. Both are approximate - the goal isn't precision, it's showing the order of magnitude.
Is anything uploaded?
No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser - inputs never leave the page, no analytics on individual values, nothing stored. Refreshing the page resets everything.
What plan do I need to use Upwex's Check Fit and Analytics features?
Check Fit (the AI job analyzer) is included from the Pro plan onward, with a 7-day free trial. The Analytics dashboard is available from the Lite plan. The calculator on this page is free for everyone, no signup.
The calculator shows the leak. Upwex closes it.
Check Fit scores any Upwork job 0-100 before you spend a single Connect, so the dollars from this page stop going to bad-fit bids. Try it on the 7-day free trial.
No credit card required. Cancel anytime.