How to delete your Upwork account

ProductivityOwned by Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ: UPWK)Self-service onlineDifficulty: ModerateTime: 10-30 minutes once all activity is cleared. Client company owners who have closed hourly contracts must additionally wait for that week's billing cycle to end, which can add several days.Verified July 2026

Upwork is the largest publicly traded freelance work marketplace, operated by Upwork Global LLC together with its payments affiliate Payment Escrow, Inc. Because it is simultaneously a hiring platform, an escrow service and a payments processor, an Upwork account accumulates an unusually deep file on you: your verified legal name, government-ID photos and video identity checks, U.S. and international tax forms, linked bank accounts, PayPal/Payoneer/wire details, billing addresses and payment cards, complete contract, escrow, invoice and earnings history, every message and attachment in Upwork Messages, every proposal you ever sent, and — if you used the desktop time tracker — Work Diary screenshots and activity metrics captured from your own computer. On the public side it holds your profile photo, portfolio, work history, client reviews and Job Success Score. Upwork confirms that a Public profile 'may appear in search results on search engines (like Google or Bing)'.

Delete your Upwork account, step by step

  1. 1IMPORTANT BEFORE YOU START: if your account has both a freelancer and a client profile, Upwork states that closing either profile closes your entire account. There is no partial closure
  2. 2Set up a security question. Upwork says that if you don't see the button to close your account under your settings, you'll likely need to set up a security question and answer, and you may be asked to answer it before closing
  3. 3Clear all activity: complete and end all contracts, withdraw all proposals, and ensure all payments have been received and withdrawn
  4. 4Cancel any Freelancer Plus membership separately first — select your profile icon in the top right, choose "Membership plan", select "Change Plan", then choose "Switch to Basic" on the Basic plan. Do this before your renewal date, which begins at midnight UTC; Upwork recommends cancelling a day early depending on your time zone
  5. 5Download anything you want to keep first: go to "Reports" › "Transaction history" and use the invoice download tools (see data export steps below)
  6. 6Sign in to upwork.com on a desktop browser
  7. 7FREELANCER OR AGENCY MEMBER (desktop): Go to "Account settings" › "Contact info", choose "Close my account" within the account section, then choose "Confirm"
  8. 8FREELANCER (mobile app): Go to "Settings" › "Account management and control", select "Close account", then choose "Confirm"
  9. 9CLIENT COMPANY OWNER: Only the company owner can close a client company. First remove all other team members, close all hourly and fixed-price contracts, close all open jobs, and ensure all outstanding billing is paid. If you closed any hourly contracts, the weekly billing cycle must end before you can close the company. Then on desktop go to "Account settings" › "My info" and choose "Close account" (the link is at the bottom of the page); on the mobile app go to "Settings" › "My info" › "Close account" › "Confirm"
  10. 10AGENCY OWNER: Only the agency owner can close an agency. First remove all agency members, close all agency contracts, withdraw all agency proposals, and ensure all payments have been received and withdrawn. Then go to "Account settings" › "Agency Profile" and select "Close my agency" at the bottom of the page — this deletes only the agency; your freelancer account remains active
  11. 11CLIENT OR AGENCY ADMIN / MANAGER / TEAM MEMBER (if you are not also a freelancer, agency owner or client company owner): Go to "Account settings" › "My Teams" and select "Leave Team" under "Actions". Repeat for every team — once you leave all teams your account will be closed. If you are a colleague or team member, Upwork suggests asking your admin/manager for help
  12. 12ENTERPRISE CUSTOMER: There is no self-service option. Contact your Upwork account team
  13. 13If you are instructed to contact support at any point during closure, use the "Contact Support" option in the Upwork help center navigation bar
  14. 14Closing the account does NOT delete your personal data. To request erasure, separately submit a request through Upwork's Privacy Center at https://www.upwork.com/legal#gdpr or email [email protected]
Open Upwork deletion page →

What actually happens when you delete

Gets removed

  • ✓Your public freelancer or client profile, including profile photo, overview, skills, hourly rate, portfolio items, employment and education history — it stops appearing in Upwork search, though Upwork notes a formerly public profile may linger in search engine results for a few days
  • ✓Your Job Success Score, badges and availability settings as a visible part of your profile
  • ✓Your ability to log in, send or receive messages, submit proposals, post jobs, or be found and invited by clients
  • ✓Agency profiles, which Upwork states are deleted outright when the agency owner closes them — the owner's personal freelancer profile remains active and its Job Success Score and other stats update to reflect only their own personal contract history, including agency contracts where they were the one hired
  • ✓Your seat on any client company or agency team once you leave it

Stays behind

  • ✗Your complete transaction, contract, escrow, invoice and earnings history — Upwork's Privacy Policy states it retains personal information 'for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, accounting, or reporting requirements'
  • ✗Tax records: W-9 / W-8BEN forms you filed, 1099-K and equivalent filings, and Upwork's records of payments routed through Payment Escrow, Inc.
  • ✗Feedback and reviews you left on clients or freelancers, and messages you sent — these live in the other party's account and are not yours to delete
  • ✗Public job posts, public profile content and anything you shared with others — Upwork states it 'typically will not remove data you posted publicly or shared with others through or on the Service, as neither you nor Upwork can delete all copies of data that have been previously shared with others'
  • ✗Data retained for ongoing fraud prevention, backup and business continuity purposes, which the Privacy Policy names explicitly alongside legal and accounting requirements
  • ✗The account shell itself: a closed Upwork account can generally be reactivated by logging back in, so it is dormant rather than erased until you separately file a deletion request

Before you delete

The most common blocker is the security question. Upwork says that if you don't see the close-account button in your settings you'll likely need to set up a security question and answer, and that security protocols require you to answer one before closing. If you've forgotten yours you'll need Upwork's help to reset it before you can leave. Closing is all-or-nothing across profile types. If your account has both a freelancer and a client side, closing either one closes the whole account — and a dual-profile account is one of the three cases Upwork lists where you cannot self-reactivate afterwards. Money and billing gate the process. All payments must be received and withdrawn before a freelancer or agency account closes, and all outstanding billing must be paid before a client company closes. The weekly-billing-cycle wait applies specifically to client company owners: if they closed any hourly contracts, that cycle must end before the company can close. Closure is not deletion. Upwork's Privacy Policy retains personal information as long as necessary for the purposes it was collected, including legal, regulatory, accounting and reporting requirements plus ongoing fraud prevention, backup and business continuity. A right-to-erasure request is a separate action via the Privacy Center at upwork.com/legal#gdpr — the link there opens Upwork's DSAR form at dsar.oncentrl.com — or by emailing [email protected]. Upwork also accepts privacy requests by phone toll-free at 866-262-4478, and has appointed EDPO as its Article 27 GDPR representative, reachable at edpo.com/gdpr-data-request (with separate UK and Swiss forms). Even after an erasure request, Upwork states it typically will not remove data you posted publicly or shared with others, and that requests may be limited where it is required by law to keep the data or has compelling legitimate interests such as fraud prevention. Separately from account closure, Upwork states that access to identity-verification data is limited to trusted Upwork agents and its secure third-party vendor, that the vendor does not store any of it, and that Upwork deletes the ID image you submitted after 30 days. This happens as a matter of course after verification, not as a result of closing your account. Download your invoices and transaction history before you close, since closure ends your ability to log in. Bulk-download links Upwork emails you expire 72 hours after they are sent. Cancel Freelancer Plus before the renewal date, which begins at midnight UTC — Upwork advises cancelling a day early depending on your time zone. Memberships are not refunded, including when an annual plan is cancelled partway through; cancellation only takes effect at the next renewal date. Enterprise accounts have no self-service close option — you must contact your Upwork account team. Permanent suspension for a Terms of Service violation is terminal: Upwork states you will not be allowed to work on the platform again and that new accounts will be closed.

Download your data from Upwork first

Most platforms only honor a data-export request while the account is still active. Do this before you delete.

  1. 1Do this before you close your account — closure removes your ability to log in, so retrieve anything you need while you still have access
  2. 2Sign in to upwork.com on a desktop browser
  3. 3Go to "Reports" › "Transaction history"
  4. 4The screen shows a 30-day window by default — adjust the statement time period to cover the history you want
  5. 5Narrow a large export using the filters (for example the date range) if you get an error that you've selected too many invoices, then choose the "Download Invoices" button
  6. 6Upwork states most invoice downloads process within 30 seconds and land in your computer's downloads folder. Larger requests take longer: Upwork emails a link to a zip file to the address on your account when processing finishes, which can take up to two hours, and that link stays active for 72 hours
  7. 7To view or print a single document, choose the "Reference ID" for a line item and select "View Invoice" or "View Receipt"
  8. 8Note that Upwork limits the invoice and receipt tools in Transaction History to company owners and admins with full or finance-only permissions, so on a client company account not every team member can use them
  9. 9For a full copy of the personal data Upwork holds on you (beyond invoices), submit a data subject access request through the Privacy Center at https://www.upwork.com/legal#gdpr or email [email protected]
Upwork data export page →

Want to take a break instead? Deactivate

Deactivation hides your profile without permanently destroying it. Logging back in restores everything.

  1. 1Sign in to upwork.com on a desktop browser
  2. 2Go to "Your profile" › "Profile settings"
  3. 3Look for the "Visibility" section
  4. 4Choose an option from the dropdown: "Private" hides your profile from search both on and off Upwork, so only someone logged into Upwork with a direct link can view it; "Only Upwork users" means only logged-in Upwork members can find you and your profile won't show up in search engines
  5. 5Allow up to 24 hours for updates on Upwork to take effect. If your profile was public it might still appear in search engines for a few days afterwards — Upwork suggests submitting a manual removal request via Google Search Console if it persists
  6. 6Optionally also cancel Freelancer Plus (profile icon › "Membership plan" › "Change Plan" › "Switch to Basic") so you stop being billed while dormant
  7. 7Note that Upwork also sets inactive profiles to private automatically: established freelancers who don't earn money on Upwork for two years or more, and new freelancers who don't earn within 90 days of their first proposal or don't submit a proposal within their first 90 days. Upwork emails you if it does this, and you can switch back by logging out and back in or by resetting visibility manually
  8. 8Unlike closing the account, going private preserves your Job Success Score, reviews and earnings history
Upwork deactivation page →

If deletion fails — or you live in the EU, UK, or California

You have a legal right to request erasure of your personal data under GDPR (EU/UK) and CCPA (California). Use these official channels if the self-service flow doesn't work.

Upwork deletion FAQs

Why won't Upwork let me close my account — I don't see the button?+

Upwork gives two documented reasons. First, the security question: 'If you don't see the button to close your account under your settings, you'll likely need to set up a security question and answer.' Important security protocols require you to answer one before you can close, so set it in your settings and try again — and if you've forgotten yours, you'll need Upwork's help to reset it. Second, unresolved activity: you must complete and end all contracts, withdraw all proposals, and ensure all payments have been received and withdrawn. Client company owners have extra prerequisites — remove every other team member, close all contracts and all open jobs, and settle all outstanding billing; and if they closed any hourly contracts, that week's billing cycle must end before the company can close. Enterprise accounts cannot self-close at all and must go through their Upwork account team. If Upwork tells you to contact support, use the Contact Support option in the help center navigation bar.

Can I close just my freelancer side and keep my client account?+

No. Upwork states that closing a freelancer or client profile will close your entire account, both areas. Upwork's own recommendation is that if one profile isn't needed but the other is, you should not close anything — it's fine for the unused profile to remain and simply not be used. This matters for a second reason: having had both a freelancer and a client profile is one of the three cases where you cannot self-reactivate later and must contact Upwork instead.

Can I reopen my Upwork account after closing it?+

Usually yes. Log in with the username and password of your former account, or a Single Sign-On option like Google or Apple if it was previously connected. You'll see a message that your account is currently closed; select the link in that message to generate a reactivation email, then open the link in the email to finish. You'll be redirected to the Upwork homepage and notified the account was reactivated, then you log in again and may be asked your security question. The reactivation link expires four hours from the time of the request, and you can request a new one by logging in again. Upwork lists three cases where you cannot self-reactivate: your account was set up for use as both a freelancer and a client, your account has been inactive for more than five years, or you were permanently suspended for Terms of Service violations — in that last case you will not be allowed to work on the platform again and new accounts will be closed.

Does closing my Upwork account actually delete my data and my reviews?+

No — closing is deactivation, not erasure. Upwork's Privacy Policy retains personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes it was collected for, including legal, regulatory, accounting and reporting requirements as well as ongoing fraud prevention, backup and business continuity. Your contract, invoice, escrow and payment history and your tax filings survive on that basis. To actually request deletion you file a separate request through Upwork's Privacy Center at upwork.com/legal#gdpr or by emailing [email protected]. Upwork says you may request deletion of all personal information it has about you regardless of where you live, but that it will only follow the GDPR's requirements for those living in the EEA — if you live elsewhere it will 'be happy to delete your data to the extent we can reasonably do so'. Even a granted request will not pull back data you posted publicly or shared with others, and requests can be limited where Upwork is required by law to keep the data or has compelling legitimate interests such as fraud prevention.

What happens to money in my balance and my Freelancer Plus membership?+

Money is a hard blocker: Upwork requires that all payments have been received and withdrawn before you can close a freelancer or agency account, and that all outstanding billing is paid before a client company can close — so drain your balance and settle your bills first. Freelancer Plus is a separate cancellation. Downgrade by selecting your profile icon in the top right, choosing 'Membership plan', selecting 'Change Plan', then choosing 'Switch to Basic' on the Basic plan. You must do this before your renewal date, which begins at midnight UTC — Upwork notes this may mean cancelling a calendar day earlier than your listed renewal date depending on your time zone, and that if you wait until the renewal date you'll be charged and the cancellation won't take effect until the following billing cycle. There are no refunds: Upwork states that for an annual membership cancelled partway through the year, 'cancellations will be effective as of your next renewal date, and we will not issue a refund.'

Is there a way to disappear from Upwork without closing my account?+

Yes, and it is often the better move given how restrictive reactivation can be. Go to 'Your profile' › 'Profile settings', find the 'Visibility' section, and choose from the dropdown. Upwork offers three levels: Public (anyone can see it, and it may appear in Google or Bing), 'Only Upwork users' (only logged-in Upwork members can find it, and it won't show up in search engines), and Private (hidden from search both on and off Upwork, viewable only by someone logged in who has your direct link). Existing clients can still reach your profile via a direct link even on Private. Changes on Upwork can take up to 24 hours, and if your profile was public it might still appear in search engines for a few days afterwards — Upwork points you to Google Search Console to submit a manual removal request if it persists. Going private keeps your Job Success Score, reviews and earnings history intact.

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