How Upwork protects your payments

Upwork offers Hourly Payment Protection for time tracked with the Upwork Desktop App, covering verified work only. Clients can dispute unrelated hours. Fixed-price contracts use escrowed milestones, with automatic release after 14 days if no client response. Dispute support is available for both contract types under specific conditions. 

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To help protect your payments, we offer several levels of protection.

Hourly Payment Protection

For clients:

• You can monitor your freelancer's work diary to see work-in-progress snapshots and confirm what work is being invoiced to you
• If your freelancer logs hours not related to your project you can file a dispute for the previous week's hours. You will be refunded for any hours that do not qualify for Hourly Payment Protection
• Upwork Hourly Payment Protection doesn’t apply to bonuses or fixed-price projects. See the Upwork Terms of Service for full terms and conditions

For freelancers and agencies:

• On hourly contracts, you will invoice your time by logging it with the Upwork Desktop App
• As long as your hours meet Hourly Payment Protection criteria you will be paid for the time you invoice
• Upwork Hourly Payment Protection doesn’t apply to bonuses, manual time, or fixed-price projects. See the Upwork Terms of Service for full terms and conditions

Fixed-Price Contracts and Dispute Assistance

For clients:

• You and the freelancer agree on deliverables in the form of milestones and you deposit funds (minimum $5.00 USD per milestone)
• Work is submitted for your approval before funds are released
• You can ask for changes to the work or request an refund if necessary

For freelancers and agencies:

• Your client deposits funds before you start working and you submit work for their approval
• Funds are automatically released to you 14 days from submission if your client does not approve the work or request changes
• You can file a dispute if your client refuses to release the payment for a completed milestone. See the Upwork Terms of Service for full terms and conditions