Terms of Service

1. About licenses and third party content Here we’ve included the conditions for using our site, which we do our best to keep running smoothly (1.1). That means we have the right to stop people from using our site and services if needed (1.2). You can’t use our intellectual property (1.3), but you can post your own content to Upwork. You’re responsible for this content (1.4), and equally, we’re not responsible for content you come across from other users (1.5). If you think someone is using something you’ve copyrighted, just let us know (1.6). 1.1 We let you use our site and services Technically, we’re giving you a ‘limited license’ to the site. Here’s what that means. We’re happy for you to access our website and services (known as the services). You’re free to have this access (or limited license) as long as you follow these terms of use and all of our other Terms of Service as they apply to you. We’ll do our best to make sure our services are safe and working as they should, but we can’t guarantee you’ll have access continuously. In fact, we might even stop providing certain features or the services completely, and don’t have to give notice if we do. 1.2 We can stop letting you use our services We can take away your right to use our services at any time. If you violate our Terms of Use or other parts of our Terms of Service, we can take away your access to Upwork. Officially, this is called terminating your license, and if it happens, we’ll tell you and you must stop using our services immediately. 1.3 We keep the rights to our intellectual property Using our services doesn’t mean you can use any of our trademarks or other intellectual property, like copyrights and patents. We keep all of our rights to our intellectual property, even though we let you use our services. Our logos and names are our trademarks and registered in certain jurisdictions. Any other product or company names, logos or similar marks and symbols you see on Upwork may be trademarked by our partners or other users like you. 1.4 You can use Upwork to share your content with the world 1.4.1 You’re responsible for what you post You’re responsible for how you use our site and anything you post on it. If someone makes a claim against us because of anything you put on the site, you agree to compensate us for our legal fees and expenses (the lawyers call this, ‘indemnification’). When you post content on (or through) our site or give us content for posting, you agree that you’re completely responsible for that content and we’re not. You also agree to only post or give us content that: you have the right to post is legal doesn’t violate anyone’s rights, including intellectual property rights. You acknowledge and agree that whoever posts content is responsible for any harm caused to anyone by that content – not Upwork – and that you’ll compensate and defend us, our partners, employees and representatives against any costs or legal or government action we have because of your content. 1.4.2 Other people have some rights to what you post By posting content on the site, you give other people some rights to that content. Whenever you post content on our site, you give us and our affiliates a permanent right (called an ‘irrevocable and non-exclusive worldwide license’) to use, edit and share that content – across the world and without paying royalties. If your name, voice and image appear in content you post, we also might use those on the site or in our day-to-day business. For example, if you’re a freelancer, we might share your profile with clients we think could be a good match. You also give each user and site visitor the right to access and use your content through the site. They also have the right to use, copy and share your content – as long as they do it through the site, and follow both our Terms of Service and the law. We might show ads near your content and information, without compensating you. Depending on choices you make in your profile, we might also include your name or photo when promoting one of our features. 1.4.3 We’re open to your ideas We’d love to hear your thoughts on improving Upwork. Here’s what happens when you share them. You can send us comments and suggestions about our services and ways to improve them. If you do, you’re agreeing your ideas are free and unsolicited, and you don’t expect or ask anything in return, unless we’ve specifically asked you for your ideas and offered something in return (we like to keep our word). You agree we’re free to use, change and share the idea as we like, without being obligated to to give you anything for it. And if you do send us an idea, you also agree that this doesn’t affect our right to use similar or related ideas – including those we already have or get from others. 1.5 Third parties post on Upwork, too Anyone else who uses our site is responsible for what they post or link on Upwork. We’re not responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any content shared by other people on our site, unless they’re officially working for us when they share or post the content. Any content represents the views of the person sharing it, not Upwork. Our site might also contain links or other access to third-party websites and applications. These sites and applications are owned and run by other parties, not Upwork. If we use a link or application that goes to a third-party website, it doesn’t mean that we endorse it and you agree that you use it without our endorsement. 1.6 You can make a copyright complaint If you think content on our site infringes your rights, you can ask to have it removed. We’re committed to following U.S. copyright and related laws and need site visitors and users to follow them as well. That means you can’t use our site to store or share anything that infringes anyone’s intellectual property rights, including their rights under U.S. copyright law. If you own copyrighted work and think your rights under U.S. copyright law have been infringed by anything on our site, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act means you can ask us to take it down. Here’s how to report it. 2. What you’re allowed to do on Upwork You can only use our services for work and to learn from the information we share. Our site and services were made to be used for business, not for personal or consumer use. We run our marketplace to help users find each other, build working relationships, and make and receive payments for that work. You can also use some of our services to get information we think might be interesting and useful for our site visitors and users – like our Upwork blog. While we do our best to make sure that this information is timely and accurate, there might sometimes be mistakes. We don’t make any guarantees about information posted on our site, so never use it as tax or legal advice. And you should always double-check the information for yourself. 3. What you’re not allowed to do on Upwork Certain uses of the site are not allowed. Here we go into much more depth about those things, including: posting unacceptable content (3.1) acting in a misleading or fraudulent way (3.2) treating others unfairly (3.3) abusing our feedback system (3.4) other uses that aren’t allowed (3.5) In short, you’re not allowed to use our services to do (or encourage others to do) anything that is illegal, fraudulent or harmful. If you don’t see something on one of the lists below, you shouldn’t assume it’s allowed. When in doubt, contact us to check. 3.1 Posting unacceptable content You can’t offer, share, support or try to find anything that: is illegal or defamatory is violent, discriminatory or harassing, either generally or towards a specific person or group (or encourages others to be), including anyone who is part of a legally protected group is sexually explicit or related to sex work or escort services is in any way related to child exploitation would infringe on any intellectual property rights, including copyrights would violate our Terms of Service, another website’s terms of service, or any similar contract would go against professional or academic standards or policies – including improperly submitting someone else’s work as your own, or by ghost-writing essays, tests, or certifications involves purchasing or requesting a fake review or is connected in any way to making or sharing misleading content (like ‘deep fakes’ or ‘fake news’) which is intended to deceive others. 3.2 Acting in a misleading or fraudulent way On Upwork, you can’t do anything that’s dishonest or meant to fool others. You can’t misrepresent yourself, your experience, skills or professional qualifications, or that of others. This includes: lying about your experience, skills or professional qualifications passing off any part of someone else’s profile or identity as your own using a profile picture that isn’t you, misrepresents your identity or is someone else impersonating or falsely attributing statements to any person or entity, including an Upwork representative or forum leader falsely claiming or implying you’re connected to a person or organization (including Upwork) – for example, you can’t say you work for a particular company when you don’t, and agencies can’t use a freelancer’s profile if they’ve stopped working together. Similarly, you must always be honest about who’s doing the work. That means you can’t: allow someone else to use your account, which misleads other users or falsely claim one freelancer will do a job when another will actually do it – including submitting a proposal on behalf of a freelancer who can’t or won’t do the work. We’re particularly invested in avoiding fraud and misrepresentations when it comes to payments. This means: Freelancers can’t fraudulently charge a client in any way, including by: falsifying the hours, keystrokes or clicks recorded in the Upwork app reporting or billing time you haven’t actually worked reporting time worked by someone else and claiming you did the work demanding bribes or other payments without the intention of or without actually providing services in exchange for the payment. Clients can’t engage in fraud related to payments, including by: posting jobs with payment terms that are objectively unreasonable or disproportionate to the scope of services requested demanding services without the intention of or without actually providing payment in exchange for the services.