Take rate

Take rate is the share of gross services volume that Upwork keeps as revenue, computed as revenue divided by GSV for the same period.

A marketplace's take rate is the fraction of the money flowing through it that it keeps. For Upwork it is GAAP revenue divided by gross services volume, both of which Upwork Inc. reports every quarter; Upwork itself does not publish the ratio, so it has to be computed. It blends every way Upwork earns: the service fee charged to freelancers and agencies on each payment, the marketplace fee charged to clients, Connects bought to submit proposals, Freelancer Plus and Business Plus subscriptions, payment processing, advertising products such as Boosted Proposals, and the full contract value of managed Enterprise work.

Because the mix changes, the take rate moves even when the headline fee does not. Upwork replaced its sliding freelancer fee with a flat 10% in 2023, introduced client fees and sold more advertising, and the blended rate rose through those years as volume flattened. Read with GSV it shows whether Upwork is growing by moving more money or by keeping more of the money it moves.

For an agency the take rate is the cost of the platform expressed as a share of what clients spend; it does not equal the fee on any one contract.