Quick answer
Fiverr's Payment Terms credit you 80% of an order's purchase amount (Logo Maker sales differ), so a $500 order nets $400.00 via PayPal before PayPal's own charges. Upwork's fee is variable, 0% to 15% per contract, and you are shown it before you send a proposal or accept an offer.
How this calculator works
Two things stand between the price your client pays and the money that lands in your bank account: the platform's service fee (a percentage of the order) and the withdrawal fee (a flat charge per payout, which depends on the method you pick). The calculator applies both in order:
effective fee % = (amount − net) ÷ amount × 100
Reverse mode solves the same equation for the amount, so you can price from your target instead of guessing:
The withdrawal fee is per payout, not per order: if you batch several orders into one withdrawal, it is charged once. The calculator assumes one withdrawal for the amount entered, which is the worst case for a single project and the honest case for comparing platforms. Two limits can change that. Several methods have a minimum withdrawal, and a payout below it is not one you can make on its own. Fiverr also allows up to $5,000 per withdrawal and Upwork's Instant Pay up to $2,999 per transfer, so a larger payout takes several withdrawals and the fee is charged on each. When the payout you are working out falls outside the selected method's limits, a note under the amount says so, and the result is not called a loss. Where a platform's fee article gives no figure for a method (Upwork's PayPal and Payoneer), the calculator does not guess one: you type the fee your account shows, and until you do the result is labelled as the amount before that fee.
The line under the result that names a payout method with a lower fee compares the platform's own flat fees only, and only between methods the platform itself lists for the same kind of freelancer. It does not compare what PayPal, Payoneer or a bank charges to receive or convert the money, so a lower platform fee is not always the lower total cost. It repeats the platform's own wording about who can use the method it names, so you can judge whether it is open to you. It never names a method whose fee is not in the platform's pages, and where the pages read do not say who can use the selected method (Upwork's PayPal), it makes no suggestion.
Fiverr fees in 2026
Fiverr's Payment Terms (last update September 2026) credit the seller with 80% of the purchase amount of each completed order, and with 80% of the hourly rate on an hourly contract, so Fiverr keeps 20%. Fiverr's Your earnings page article (edited 16 June 2026) says the same, “including Gig Extras and tips”. The exception in the Payment Terms is Logo Maker: a logo sale pays the seller a share of 20% to 50% by tier, which this calculator does not model.
Buyers pay Fiverr's service fee on top. It is added at checkout to the purchase amount and is not part of your earnings. The Payment Terms give it as 5.5% of the purchase amount plus a US$3.50 small order fee on purchases under US$200 (as of September 2025), and Fiverr's Paying for orders, extras, or custom offers article (edited 6 August 2026) says the same. Fiverr's How Fiverr works for clients article (edited 9 September 2026) says something different: an additional US$3.00 on orders under US$100. Fiverr's own pages disagree, so check the total at checkout.
Fiverr's Help Center article Withdrawing your earnings & managing payout methods (edited 26 July 2026) lists four payout methods: PayPal, bank transfer via Payoneer, a Payoneer account and the Fiverr Revenue Card. The Payment Terms list four as well, but not the same four: they include Direct Deposit (ACH) via Payoneer, which that article does not list, and no Payoneer account balance, which it does. The table says which page says what. Fiverr's Help Center says you can withdraw up to $5,000 per transaction and start several withdrawals, and that earnings stay in your account until the balance reaches the minimum for the method you chose.
| Method | Fiverr fee | Minimum withdrawal | Where it works, and what else to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| PayPal | $0 | $1 | Fiverr's PayPal article (edited 23 July 2026) says PayPal withdrawals are “available only in countries where PayPal supports receiving payments”, that currency conversion fees may apply, and that PayPal may apply its own conversion rates and fees |
| Bank transfer via Payoneer | $3 in local currency, $1 by USD wire (5 to 7 business days) | $20 | The $3 and $1 are from Fiverr's Payoneer article (edited 23 July 2026). The Help Center's withdrawal table shows $1 for this method as a whole, and the Payment Terms give $3 per transfer for Local Bank Transfer. The calculator lists the two separately. The Payoneer article says “Payoneer availability depends on your country”; the Payment Terms say “Available worldwide”. A currency conversion rate applies to a local-currency transfer |
| Payoneer account balance | $3 | $10 | Sends the money to your Payoneer balance; the same availability wording as the bank transfer. Payoneer's own charges for moving it on are below |
| Fiverr Revenue Card | $1 to $3 (the Payment Terms: $1 within 2 days, $3 within 2 hours) | $30 | The Help Center says the card was discontinued in December 2022 and is only available for existing cardholders; the Payment Terms still list it as available worldwide except India and Russia. Modelled at $3 |
| Direct Deposit (ACH) via Payoneer | $1 per transfer | Not stated | Listed in the Payment Terms, as “Available only in the US”. The Help Center article does not list it. Not modelled |
Charges outside Fiverr are not in this calculator. Fiverr says PayPal or Payoneer may apply additional fees based on your location and currency (Payment Terms, section 2.3). PayPal's US consumer fee page (last updated 19 May 2026) lists a currency conversion spread of 3.00% or 4.00%, depending on the type of transaction; PayPal's pages for other countries were not read. Payoneer's pricing page (“Last updated on 1 January 2026”) lists 1.2% to 4% for a withdrawal to a bank account in the recipient's local currency or in another currency (its examples are UK to Singapore and USA to UK), says a minimum fee of up to 20.00 USD may apply in some countries to a withdrawal in the recipient's local currency, and lists 1.50 USD for a withdrawal to a bank account in your own country in local currency, in the countries it names. It says its fees depend on location, payment method and currency, and that the fees that apply to you are shown in your Payoneer account.
Upwork fees in 2026
Upwork's Learn about the Freelancer Service Fee article (edited 22 January 2026) says the fee ranges from 0% to 15% per contract. You see the percentage when you submit a proposal or a client sends you an offer, and once the contract begins the fee is fixed. An earlier version of that article, as captured by the Internet Archive on 6 April 2025, gave notice that from 1 May 2025 the fee on new contracts would change from a fixed 10% to a variable fee, and that fees on existing contracts would not change. The calculator starts at 10% because the field needs a number: it was Upwork's fixed fee before that change, and the current article says freelancers working with Enterprise clients typically pay 10%. It is not a rate Upwork quotes for marketplace contracts, so type the rate your proposal or offer shows.
Clients pay their own costs, which are not the fee this calculator subtracts: a one-time Contract Initiation Fee of $0.99 to $14.99 per new contract (Upwork, edited 17 October 2025) and, on the free Basic plan, a Client Marketplace Fee of up to 7.99% (Upwork, edited 7 April 2026). You pay for Connects to bid on jobs, at $0.15 each (Upwork's Connects article, edited 6 October 2026), a real cost of winning work that no percentage calculator captures.
Withdrawal methods on Upwork are listed in How to get paid on Upwork (edited 3 August 2026), which says the options you see may vary and change over time and that you see your choices when you add a withdrawal method. The wording in the last column is Upwork's own. For PayPal, Upwork's PayPal article (edited 5 December 2025) says it charges “a small fee per transfer” and points you to Account settings, Withdrawals, Add a method to see the current fee. Upwork's Payoneer article (edited 27 October 2025) says it charges “a small per-transfer fee”. Neither gives an amount, so this calculator models none for PayPal or Payoneer: type the fee your own account shows.
| Method | Upwork fee | Minimum or limit | Who Upwork says can use it, and what else to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct to U.S. Bank (ACH), US tax address | $0 | None stated on the pages read | “Free for Freelancers with US Tax Address” (How to get paid on Upwork). Upwork's U.S. bank article (edited 5 December 2025) says only freelancers with a U.S. bank account that accepts ACH can use it |
| Direct to U.S. Bank (ACH), international tax address | $2.99 | None stated on the pages read | “2.99 for Freelancers with International Tax Address (Effective September 1st, 2026)” (How to get paid on Upwork). Upwork's fees article (edited 3 August 2026) says the fee applies to each Direct to U.S. Bank withdrawal if your tax address is outside the United States. It still needs a U.S. bank account |
| Direct to Local Bank | $0.99, plus incoming fees at some banks | $5 or more depending on your location (Barbados $101, Brazil $12); limits by country where Upwork lists one (for example $500 for Guatemala) | Listed as “Direct to Local Bank (outside of U.S.)”, in the currencies on Upwork's list (fees and limits, edited 23 July 2026; how to withdraw, edited 23 February 2026) |
| Payoneer | Not stated in Upwork's fee article (“a small per-transfer fee”) | Upwork says Payoneer may set minimum or maximum amounts by location or card type | “Payoneer (outside the U.S.)” on How to get paid; “freelancers outside India and the U.S.” on Upwork's Payoneer article, so Upwork's pages differ about India. Payoneer's own charges are above |
| Instant Pay (US debit card) | $2 | $2,999 per transfer | “Instant Pay for U.S. Freelancers”, to an eligible Visa or Mastercard debit card (Upwork, edited 5 December 2025) |
| PayPal | Not stated in Upwork's fee article (“a small fee per transfer”) | None stated on the pages read | Upwork lists PayPal without saying who can use it, and says PayPal may charge more on its side |
| USD wire transfer | $50 | None stated on the pages read | “available for freelancers who have a valid account with a bank outside the U.S. that uses the SWIFT system” (Upwork, edited 5 December 2025); your bank may charge more (Upwork, edited 18 December 2025) |
| M-Pesa | No amount on Upwork's M-Pesa article (edited 5 December 2025), which points to Add a method | None stated on the pages read | “M-Pesa (Kenya only)”. Not modelled |
Worked example 1: the same $500 project on both platforms
Fiverr credits 80%: $500 × 0.80 = $400.00. Withdraw to PayPal ($0): net $400.00, effective fee 20.0%. Withdraw by Payoneer bank transfer in local currency instead ($3): net $397.00, effective fee 20.6%.
Upwork, with a contract showing 10%: $500 × 0.90 = $450.00. A freelancer with a US tax address using free ACH nets $450.00 (effective fee 10.0%); a freelancer outside the US using local bank transfer ($0.99) nets $449.01 (effective fee 10.2%), or, if they have a U.S. bank account and used Direct to U.S. Bank instead, $447.01 once Upwork's $2.99 international-tax-address ACH fee applies (in force since September 1, 2026). On this project Upwork leaves about $50 more, but remember the Upwork rate is per contract and could be anywhere from 0% to 15%, and you likely spent Connects to win the job.
Worked example 2: reverse mode, "I want to net $1,000"
Say you need $1,000 in hand from a Fiverr order, withdrawing by Payoneer bank transfer in local currency ($3 fee):
Price the gig at $1,253.75 (realistically $1,254) and you clear your target. The same target on an Upwork contract at 10% with the $0.99 local-bank fee: (1000 + 0.99) ÷ 0.90 = $1,112.21. Notice how the percentage fee dominates: the $3 withdrawal fee moved the answer by under $4, while the platform's cut moved it by hundreds.
Worked example 3: a payout below the minimum
A $3 Fiverr order credits you $2.40. Fiverr's minimum for a bank transfer via Payoneer is $20, so that $2.40 stays in your Fiverr account until the balance reaches $20; it cannot be withdrawn on its own. The calculator shows the arithmetic ($2.40 less the $3 fee) but says the payout is below the minimum instead of calling it a loss. Wait until several orders have cleared and withdraw them together, and the $3 is charged once.
What the calculator leaves out
These exist in the platforms' own texts and are not modelled, so a real payout can differ from the figure shown:
- Fiverr's Early Payout fee. Eligible Top Rated freelancers and Seller Plus Premium members can clear earnings early for a fee of 1% of the clearing amount each time (Fiverr's Early Payout article, edited 19 August 2026).
- Clearance periods. Fiverr makes earnings available for withdrawal 14 days after an order is marked complete, 7 days for Top Rated Sellers, and 7 days after the Weekly Report for an hourly contract (Payment Terms, section 2.2). On Upwork, hours billed in a Monday to Sunday week are available ten days later, on the following Wednesday; fixed-price funds are released five days after the client approves a milestone; bonuses are available five days after the client's payment is processed (How to get paid on Upwork).
- Currency conversion. PayPal, Payoneer and your bank may convert currency, as described above. Fiverr also says its Payment Services Providers perform currency exchange for withdrawals in other currencies, and that you can always withdraw in US$ (Payment Terms, section 2.2).
- Taxes. Any tax Fiverr is required to withhold is deducted from the seller's earnings (Payment Terms, section 4). The calculator also does not model the income tax you owe on what you keep.
- Other Upwork fee rates. A Direct Contract you start yourself carries a flat 5% (Upwork's Direct Contracts article, edited 18 July 2026, and the Fee and ACH Authorization Agreement, version 12.8, effective 20 July 2026, section 2.2), and none for an active Freelancer Plus member. Type 5 into the rate field to model it. The agreement sets 10% for an Enterprise client contract unless that client's contract says otherwise (section 2.3), and the fee article says an Any Hire contract carries no freelancer service fee.
- Methods and payment types not in the withdrawal list. Upwork's M-Pesa (Kenya only), whose Upwork fee its M-Pesa article does not state; Fiverr's Direct Deposit (ACH) via Payoneer, which the Payment Terms list and the Help Center articles read do not; and Fiverr's Logo Maker, where the seller's share is 20% to 50%.
Honest ways to reduce fee drag
Most "avoid the fees" advice online is either against the platforms' terms of service or trivially wrong. What actually works:
- Batch withdrawals. Flat fees are per payout. Ten $1 withdrawals cost $10; one costs $1. A single larger withdrawal also clears a method's minimum, which is $20 for Fiverr's bank transfer and $5 or more for Upwork's Direct to Local Bank. Withdraw monthly, not per order.
- Compare the whole cost of each payout method open to you. That is its flat fee plus any conversion spread, which is a percentage and so grows with the payout while a flat fee does not. Which methods are open to you is the platform's decision and depends on your country (and, on Upwork, your tax address); the table notes above give each platform's own wording. The lower-fee line under the result compares the platforms' own flat fees only.
- Price fees in. Use reverse mode and quote gross. The fee is a cost of customer acquisition — treat it like one instead of absorbing it silently.
- On Upwork, mind the per-contract rate. Since the rate is shown before you accept and then fixed, a 15% contract deserves a higher bid than a 5% one for the same net.
- Don't take clients off-platform to dodge fees. Fiverr's Payment Terms (section 3.1) say a buyer may not pay by any method other than through the site, and Upwork says its service fee helps provide payment protection, fraud prevention and dispute resolution.
FAQ
How much does Fiverr take from a $100 order?
Fiverr's Payment Terms (last update September 2026) credit the seller with 80% of the purchase amount, so on a $100 order you are credited $80; Logo Maker is the exception, with a seller's share of 20% to 50%. Any withdrawal fee comes out after that. Fiverr's Help Center lists $0 for PayPal, $3 for a bank transfer via Payoneer in local currency ($1 by USD wire) and $3 for a Payoneer account balance, so a $100 order leaves $80 via PayPal and $77 via a $3 method. The Fiverr Revenue Card, which Fiverr's Help Center says was discontinued in December 2022 and is for existing cardholders only, is listed at $1 to $3.
Is Upwork's freelancer fee still a flat 10%?
No. Upwork's Help page, as captured by the Internet Archive on 6 April 2025, gave notice that from 1 May 2025 the fee on new contracts would change from a fixed 10% to a variable fee, and that fees on existing contracts would not change. Upwork's current Freelancer Service Fee article (edited 22 January 2026) says the fee ranges from 0% to 15% per contract, is shown when you submit a proposal or receive an offer, and is fixed once the contract begins. The only usual rate it gives is 10% for freelancers working with Enterprise clients, so the calculator's 10% is a starting value, not a rate Upwork quotes.
Does Fiverr take 20% of tips too?
Yes. Fiverr's Your earnings page (edited 16 June 2026) says that for every order you complete you earn 80% of the purchase amount, including Gig Extras and tips, so a $20 tip credits you $16. The buyer is also charged Fiverr's standard service fee on the tip (Fiverr's Tipping article, edited 27 July 2026).
What is the cheapest way to withdraw my earnings?
Which methods you can use depends on your country and, on Upwork, your tax address, so there is no one answer. On Fiverr the fee is $0 for PayPal (available only in countries where PayPal supports receiving payments), $3 for a bank transfer via Payoneer in local currency or $1 by USD wire, and $3 for a Payoneer account balance; the Fiverr Revenue Card is $1 to $3 for existing cardholders. On Upwork, Direct to U.S. Bank (ACH) is free with a US tax address and $2.99 with an international one (a U.S. bank account is needed either way), Direct to Local Bank is $0.99 (listed as outside of U.S.), Instant Pay for U.S. freelancers is $2, and a USD wire transfer is $50. For PayPal and Payoneer withdrawals Upwork says it charges a small fee per transfer, and its fee articles for those two methods state no amount, so check the fee your own account shows. PayPal and Payoneer add their own charges: PayPal's US fee page lists a currency conversion spread of 3.00% or 4.00%, and Payoneer's pricing page lists 1.2% to 4% for a withdrawal to a bank account in the recipient's local currency or in another currency, and 1.50 USD within your own country in the countries it names.
Which platform leaves me more take-home, Fiverr or Upwork?
It depends on the rate your Upwork contract shows, which can be anywhere from 0% to 15%, while Fiverr credits 80% of the purchase amount. At 10%, which is only the calculator's starting value, a $500 project is credited $400.00 on Fiverr and $450.00 on Upwork before withdrawal fees. After the fees modelled here, Fiverr leaves $397.00 to $400.00 and Upwork $447.01 to $450.00; a $50 Upwork wire transfer would leave $400.00. But the platform fee is only one input: what clients are willing to pay, how you win work (Fiverr gigs vs paid Upwork Connects), and the charges PayPal and Payoneer add all move the real number.
Do buyers and clients pay fees as well?
Yes, on both platforms. These are charged to the buyer or client, not deducted from your credited earnings. Fiverr's Payment Terms and its Paying for orders article (edited 6 August 2026) put the buyer's service fee at 5.5% of the purchase amount plus US$3.50 on purchases under US$200; Fiverr's How Fiverr works for clients article (edited 9 September 2026) instead says an additional US$3.00 on orders under US$100, so Fiverr's own pages differ. Upwork clients pay a one-time Contract Initiation Fee of $0.99 to $14.99 per new contract and, on the free Basic plan, a Client Marketplace Fee of up to 7.99%. They raise the total your client pays, which can affect what they are willing to spend.
Platform fees change. A notice on Upwork's fee article, captured by the Internet Archive on 6 April 2025, said its freelancer fee on new contracts would move from a fixed 10% to a variable one from 1 May 2025, and its pages date the $2.99 fee for an international tax address from September 1, 2026 (modelled above). Check the verified date below and the platforms' own fee pages before pricing anything important.