Freelancer Fees and Charges

Projects

Freelancer is free to sign up, post a project, receive bids from freelancers, review the freelancer's portfolio and discuss the project requirements. If you choose to award the project, we charge you a small project fee relative to the value of the selected bid, as an introduction fee.

The cost and how this fee is charged depends on the type of project.

For fixed price projects, a fee of 3% or $3.00 USD (whichever is greater) is levied at the time a project has been awarded by you. If you subsequently pay the freelancer more than the original bid amount we will also charge the project fee on any overage payments.

For hourly projects, a fee of 3% is levied on each payment that you make to the freelancer.

You may cancel the project from your dashboard at any time for up to seven (7) days after the project has been accepted for a full refund of your fee.

Optional project upgrades may be purchased.

Contests

At the time of posting a contest, employers must provide funds equivalent to the total contest prize. We have a Money Back Guarantee for this prize money.

The Money Back Guarantee entitles you to get your money back for up to 30 days from contest closing if you are not happy with the submitted entries. You can get refunded simply by contacting support.

Note that refunds are not available on 'Guaranteed contests', and this refund does not include any upgrades that you may have selected for the contest. If you've already selected an entry as the winner and completed the contest handover, which has released the prize money to them, you are not eligible for a refund.

There is no contest fee for posting and awarding the contest for employers.

Each additional awarded entry will also require payment of the prize for that entry.

Optional contest upgrades may be purchased.

Services

At the time of ordering a service, employers must provide funds equivalent to the total service price. The payment is protected by the Freelancer Milestone Payment System. Only release the payment once you are 100% happy with the work that has been delivered.

Projects

For fixed price projects, if you are awarded a project, and you accept, we charge you a small project fee relative to the value of the selected bid, as an introduction fee. If you are subsequently paid more than the original bid amount, we will also charge the project fee on any overage payments.

For hourly projects, the fee is levied on each payment as it is made by the employer to you.

The fee for fixed price projects is 10% or $5.00 USD, whichever is greater, and 10% for hourly projects.

Contests

Submitting entries to a contest is free. Contest fee applies when you are awarded a contest prize. This fee is charged when the prize is released, which is after contest has been awarded to you and the handover of entry materials has been completed to the contest poster's satisfaction.

Preferred Freelancer Program

If you are in the Preferred Freelancer Program, you will be charged 15% project fee when you are awarded and accept a Recruiter project. This will not be charged upfront, like on regular projects, but rather when you receive the payment.

Verified by Freelancer

Apply for a Verified by Freelancer badge for $99.00 USD* and become a trustworthy freelancer. The application requires you to complete a rigorous verification process with our expert vetting team.

*The fee to apply for a Verified by Freelancer badge may vary. See the table of fees below.

Regardless of your application's outcome, the fee is non-refundable.

Refunds as Bonus Credit

In some instances, refund of fees may be done as bonus credit. This bonus may only be used on site, and can not be withdrawn or transferred. The bonus will expire in 90 days from the date of receipt.

0% Fees Promotion

Freelancer project commissions charged for freelancers who refer new employers that do not have an existing account on Freelancer.com and who join and create a new account, will be reduced from 10% to 0%, for all future projects performed by the referring freelancer for the referred employer.

This is subject to the following conditions:

• New employers must be referred using the specific promotional links on https://www.freelancer.com/no-commission.
• For the avoidance of doubt, the reduced freelancer project commission of 0% applies only in relation to new work performed by the freelancer who has successfully applied for this promotion for the specific employer to whom the application relates. The new projects must commence after the employer creates a new account on Freelancer.com and be initiated using that new account.
• Project commission fees for the freelancer only are lowered from 10% to 0% under this promotion. All other fees and charges remain unaffected including but not limited to employer commissions and transaction fees.
• This promotion does not apply to contests.
• Freelancer reserves the right to review classifications of employers as new employers for the purpose of this promotion, to ensure fair use of this promotion. Employers must have worked with, and paid, the freelancer applying to use this promotion before the beginning of this promotion, for example from another platform. Freelancers may be required to provide evidence of this prior work and payment before being eligible for the commission reduction. To be eligible for this promotion, employers must not have had any active account on Freelancer.com from which a payment was made within the 6 months immediately prior to creating the new account.
• All other elements of the User Agreement continue to apply - see https://www.freelancer.com/about/terms.
• All other elements of the Fees and Charges component of the Additional Terms continue to apply - see https://www.freelancer.com/feesandcharges.
• Freelancer may require that both parties fill in and complete their profiles and/or pass identity checks before payments are released.
• Freelancer may require that the details for any project for which the commission reduction applies are appropriately complete.
• This promotion may be withdrawn for a specific user, if significant reversals, fraud or chargebacks are observed, if Freelancer believes that there is a risk of funds being subject to reversal or chargeback, in cases of disputes between employer and freelancer, or for any other reason.
• Freelancer reserves the right to disallow use of this promotion in its sole and absolute discretion, with respect to fair use of this promotion, and to prevent any suspected fraud.
• Freelancer reserves the right to require submission of further information from any party applying to make use of this promotion, for investigating fraud and for risk management and related purposes.
• Freelancer reserves the right to cancel or amend this promotion at any time.
• Freelancer reserves the right to cancel the promotion in any region if it is deemed or becomes unlawful to offer the promotion to any resident of that region.

3% Quote Fee

Freelancer project commissions charged for freelancers who have a quote awarded by a new external Client will be 3% for all projects between the Freelancer and new Client. For new external Clients accepting a quote, 0% Freelancer project commissions will be charged.

1. "New Client" refers to clients that have not created an account on Freelancer.com before.
2. The promotion does not apply if clients have multiple accounts on Freelancer.com.

This is subject to the following conditions:

• New employers must be referred through accepting a quote and registering during the acceptance process.
• For the avoidance of doubt, the reduced freelancer project commission of 3% applies only in relation to work performed by the freelancer who has successfully applied for this promotion for the specific employer to whom the application relates. Work must commence after the employer creates a new account on Freelancer.com and be initiated using that new account.
• Project commission fees for the freelancer only are lowered from 10% to 3% and client project commission fees are lowered from 3% to 0% under this promotion. All other fees and charges remain unaffected including but not limited to transaction fees.
• This promotion does not apply to contests.
• Freelancer reserves the right to review classifications of employers as new employers for the purpose of this promotion, to ensure fair use of this promotion. To be eligible for this promotion, employers must not have had any active account on Freelancer.com from which a payment was made within the 6 months immediately prior to creating the new account.
• All other elements of the User Agreement continue to apply - see https://www.freelancer.com/about/terms.
• All other elements of the Fees and Charges component of the Additional Terms continue to apply - see https://www.freelancer.com/feesandcharges.
• Freelancer may require that both parties fill in and complete their profiles and/or pass identity checks before payments are released.
• Freelancer may require that the details for any project for which the commission reduction applies are appropriately complete.
• This promotion may be withdrawn for a specific user, if significant reversals, fraud or chargebacks are observed, if Freelancer believes that there is a risk of funds being subject to reversal or chargeback, in cases of disputes between employer and freelancer, or for any other reason.
• Freelancer reserves the right to disallow use of this promotion in its sole and absolute discretion, with respect to fair use of this promotion, and to prevent any suspected fraud.
• Freelancer reserves the right to require submission of further information from any party applying to make use of this promotion, for investigating fraud and for risk management and related purposes.
• Freelancer reserves the right to cancel or amend this promotion at any time.
• Freelancer reserves the right to cancel the promotion in any region if it is deemed or becomes unlawful to offer the promotion to any resident of that region.

Projects

The following fees are optionally charged for additional services. Unless otherwise specified according to the benefits of a paid membership plan:

Contests

The following fees are optionally charged for additional services. Unless otherwise specified according to the benefits of a paid membership plan:

Bid Fees

Contest Entry Fees

Directory Fees

Exams

Change of Username Service Fee

Transaction Fees

Arbitration Fees

The arbitration fee for a milestone dispute is $5.00 USD or 5%, whichever is greater.

Our dispute resolution system is designed to allow both parties to resolve issues regarding milestone payments amongst themselves without arbitration.

After 4 days of a dispute being filed (or 14 days if the dispute is filed by the freelancer) either party may elect to move the dispute to paid arbitration. The other party will then have a further 4 days to agree to pay this fee and for both parties to submit any final evidence. If the other party fails to pay within time, they will lose the dispute.

The arbitration fee will then be refunded to the winner of the dispute.

Offsiting Fee

Users who have violated our Terms and Conditions by conducting communications and transactions outside the platform will be assessed a penalty equal to 30% of the maximum project budget or the agreed amount.

Withdrawal Fees

Fees may be optionally levied depending on the method of withdrawal. Additional fees may be levied by the third party offering the withdrawal method.

We impose a minimum withdrawal, after fees, of USD $50.

Maintenance Fee

User Accounts that have not logged in for six months will incur a maintenance fee of up to $14.00 USD per month until either the account is terminated or reactivated for storage, bandwidth, support and management costs of providing hosting of the user's profile, portfolio storage, listing in directories, provision of the HireMe service, file storage and message storage. These fees will be refunded upon request by users on subsequent reactivation.

Taxes

Taxes are applied based on local rates and rules defined by the user's country of residence / registered country.

India Equalisation Levy Reimbursement

* Freelancer and its affiliates do not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors.

User Agreement

The fees and charges summarised on this page are governed by the terms of the Freelancer User Agreement and related site policies. The User Agreement includes other important terms and should be read in full. In particular section 23 of the User Agreement specifies the consequences of termination for violations of the User Agreement. Those consequences can include fines for damages that Freelancer will sustain as a result of actions that breach the User Agreement.