Freelance Fee Calculator: Upwork Fee Calculator, Fiverr Fee Calculator and What You Actually Keep
Put in one order value and see what each marketplace takes out of it: the cut charged to you, the fee added to your client, and the total spread between what they pay and what you bank. Every percentage comes from the platform's own published pricing.
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You keep on
Client pays
- Fee charged to you
- Fee added to client
- Total platform cut
- Spread
| Platform | You keep | Client pays | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|
Tap a row to make it the headline result. Spread is the platform's total cut as a share of what the client paid. On this order the gap between the cheapest and the dearest priced platform is .
The short answer
On a $1,000 order, Fiverr leaves the seller $800 and charges the buyer $1,055, so Fiverr's real cut is $255, or 24.2% of what the client paid. Upwork at a 10% talent fee leaves $900 and charges the client $1,050, a 14.3% spread. Guru's free Basic membership leaves $910. Contra leaves the creative the full $1,000 and bills the client $29 instead. FreelanceNation leaves $920 on the free Starter plan, $950 on Pro and $970 on Studio, and never charges the buyer anything. Toptal publishes no fee at all.
Last updated August 2026
Every published fee, side by side
What each freelance platform takes from a $1,000 order
The row that matters is the last one. Most fee comparisons only publish the seller-side percentage, which understates any platform that also bills the buyer. Spread is the platform's total cut measured against what the client actually paid.
| Platform | Seller pays | Buyer pays | Seller keeps | Client pays | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreelanceNation Studio | 3% | None | $970 | $1,000 | 3.0% |
| FreelanceNation Pro | 5% | None | $950 | $1,000 | 5.0% |
| FreelanceNation Starter | 8% | None | $920 | $1,000 | 8.0% |
| Contra (free plan) | 0% | $29 flat above $500 | $1,000 | $1,029 | 2.8% |
| Guru (Basic membership) | 9% | None published | $910 | $1,000 | 9.0% |
| Upwork (10% talent fee) | 0% to 15% | 5%, or 3% by ACH | $900 | $1,050 | 14.3% |
| Upwork Business Plus | 0% to 15% | 10%, or 8% by ACH | $900 | $1,100 | 18.2% |
| Fiverr | 20% | 5.5% | $800 | $1,055 | 24.2% |
| Toptal | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
Sources: each platform's own published pricing. Fiverr's 20% seller and 5.5% buyer fees; Upwork's 0% to 15% talent fee and 5% client marketplace fee (3% by ACH, 10% and 8% on Business Plus); Guru's membership job fees; Contra's published plan comparison, re-checked August 2026; our own plans. Upwork rows use the 10% talent fee from Upwork's own worked example, since the real figure is fixed per contract. Toptal is listed because it is a genuine competitor, but it publishes no commission, no fee schedule and no client deposit, so there is nothing honest to put in its row. Freelancer.com and PeoplePerHour are deliberately absent: neither resolves to a readable fee figure at source, and every percentage circulating for them online is secondhand.
How the fee is actually built
Four different ways a marketplace gets paid
Once you can name the model, you can predict the fee without looking it up, and you can tell which platform will get more expensive as your work gets bigger.
Flat percentage of the seller
Fiverr is the pure case: 20% of every order, on gig extras and tips too, with no discount for tenure, order size or seller level. Simple to predict, and the most expensive model on this page once your average order grows, because nothing about it ever improves.
Variable percentage per contract
Upwork sets the talent fee anywhere from 0% to 15% when the contract is created, and it stays fixed for that contract. There is no published rule you can plan against, which is why this calculator makes it an input rather than pretending it is a constant.
Percentage bought down by subscription
Guru charges 9% on the free Basic membership and less on paid tiers, down to 5%. That turns the fee into an arithmetic question rather than a fixed cost: below a certain volume the membership costs more than the commission it saves.
Flat fee moved onto the buyer
Contra takes 0% from the creative and charges the client a flat fee per payment instead, $15 rising to $29 above $500. Your headline earnings are untouched. The cost lands on the person deciding whether to hire you, which is a different problem, not an absent one.
When a paid membership is worth it
The break-even most freelancers never work out
A lower commission behind a monthly fee is only cheaper above a certain amount of annual billing. Below it you are paying for the privilege of paying less, and the platforms do not publish the crossover.
| Guru membership | Job fee | Annual cost | Beats free above |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic (free) | 9% | $0 | Baseline |
| Professional | 7% | $191.40 | $9,570 |
| Business | 6% | $479.40 | $15,980 |
| Executive | 5% | $299.40 | $7,485 |
Read the Executive row twice
On Guru's published annual prices, Executive is both cheaper per year and lower commission than Business, which makes Business dominated at every level of billing. That is odd enough that it is worth confirming there is no eligibility condition before you plan around it. We publish it because it is what the pricing page says, not because it makes obvious commercial sense.
Contra Pro at $199 a year
Contra Pro removes the flat charge your clients would otherwise pay. At $29 per payment above $500, it covers its own cost after roughly seven client payments a year, or about thirteen smaller ones. The benefit is indirect, since the fee was never coming out of your money, but a buyer who is not charged to pay you is a buyer with one fewer reason to hesitate.
The number that compounds
What the take rate costs across a whole year of billing
A single order makes the difference look small. A year of orders is where it stops being a rounding error and starts being a salary.
| Annual billing | Fiverr keeps (20%) | Guru keeps (9%) | Starter keeps (8%) | Fiverr vs Starter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $20,000 | $4,000 | $1,800 | $1,600 | $2,400 |
| $40,000 | $8,000 | $3,600 | $3,200 | $4,800 |
| $60,000 | $12,000 | $5,400 | $4,800 | $7,200 |
| $80,000 | $16,000 | $7,200 | $6,400 | $9,600 |
| $120,000 | $24,000 | $10,800 | $9,600 | $14,400 |
| $200,000 | $40,000 | $18,000 | $16,000 | $24,000 |
Why this beats a rate rise
A freelancer billing $80,000 a year loses $16,000 to a 20% platform and $6,400 to an 8% one. Recovering that $9,600 through pricing instead would mean raising every rate by 12% and getting every client to accept it, which is a year of hard negotiation for the same money. The take rate does it without a single conversation. If you want the other half of this arithmetic, the freelance rate calculator works out what you have to charge per hour to clear a target take-home once the platform fee, unbillable hours and self-employment tax come out.
Who runs these numbers
Three moments this calculator settles
Quoting so the fee does not eat the margin
You have a price in mind and the platform has a cut you have not counted. Put the price in, read the "you keep" line, and quote from that instead. On Fiverr a $2,000 project pays $1,600, so a quote built around $2,000 of work is already 20% short before you start.
Deciding where to send a client you found yourself
If you brought the client, the platform did no acquisition work and the take rate is pure overhead. That is the case where the spread column matters most, and it is why bring-your-own-client freelancers end up on the lowest-fee platform they can find.
Checking whether a paid membership pays
Guru, Contra and most marketplaces sell a subscription that lowers or removes a fee. Compare your real annual billing against the break-even table above. Below the crossover the free plan wins, and no amount of feature marketing changes the arithmetic.
Questions sellers ask
Freelance platform fees: common questions
The questions people type before they accept a fee, answered straight and with the number first.
How much does Fiverr take from sellers?
Fiverr takes 20% of every order, flat, with no volume discount and no long-term-client discount. On a $1,000 gig the seller banks $800. The buyer is separately charged a 5.5% service fee on top of the gig price, so the client pays $1,055 and Fiverr keeps $255 of it.
How much does Upwork take from freelancers?
Upwork charges a talent service fee that is set per contract anywhere from 0% to 15%, so there is no single number. Clients separately pay a 5% marketplace fee, or 3% by ACH. At a 10% talent fee on a $1,000 contract the freelancer keeps $900 and the client pays $1,050.
How do I calculate my Fiverr earnings after fees?
Multiply the order value by 0.8. Fiverr takes a flat 20%, including on gig extras and tips, so an $85 order pays $68 and a $2,400 project pays $1,920. There is no tier that lowers it. Add nothing back for the buyer service fee, because the buyer pays that separately and you never see it.
Which freelance platform has the lowest fees?
Of the platforms that publish a fee, Contra is lowest for the seller at 0% commission, because its flat charge falls on the client instead. Among platforms that charge the seller, FreelanceNation Studio is lowest at 3%, then Pro at 5%, then Starter at 8%, then Guru at 9%.
Is the Fiverr fee 20% for everyone?
Yes. Unlike Upwork, Fiverr does not reduce its seller service fee for repeat clients, for high earners, or for any seller level. Top Rated and Pro sellers pay the same 20% as a new seller on their first order. The only thing that changes with level is visibility, not the cut.
What is the difference between the seller fee and the buyer fee?
The seller fee comes out of what you are paid; the buyer fee is added to what the client is charged. They are separate charges on the same transaction, and adding them together gives the platform total cut. Fiverr charges both, so its real take on a $1,000 gig is $255, not $200.
Does Contra really charge freelancers nothing?
Contra publishes 0% commission for creatives, and its own pricing page says so plainly. The cost is moved to the client, who pays a flat fee per payment, $15 rising to $29 above $500. Contra Pro at $199 a year removes that client charge, which pays for itself after roughly seven payments above $500.
How much do freelancers lose to platform fees in a year?
At $80,000 of annual billing, a 20% platform takes $16,000 and an 8% platform takes $6,400, a $9,600 difference for identical work. That gap is usually larger than any rate increase a freelancer can negotiate in the same year, which is why the take rate is worth more attention than it gets.
Are platform fees tax deductible for freelancers?
Yes. Marketplace commissions are an ordinary and necessary business expense for a US sole proprietor and are deductible on Schedule C, which reduces both income tax and self-employment tax. Report the gross order value as income and the fee as an expense rather than only reporting your net payout.
Should I ask a client to pay me off the platform to avoid the fee?
Taking an existing marketplace client off-platform breaches the terms of service on Fiverr, Upwork and most competitors, and gets accounts permanently closed. The legitimate version is bringing your own clients to a platform with a low take rate in the first place, which is what the fee spread above is really measuring.
Keep the difference instead of calculating it
Package your work into fixed Basic, Standard and Premium tiers on a shareable gig page. You keep 92% on the free Starter plan, 95% on Pro and 97% on Studio, and your buyer is never charged a service fee on top of your price.
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