When you submit a proposal, Upwork charges you the connects right away. That fee is basically the price of taking a shot at that job. Whether the client replies, ignores you, or ghosts the entire platform, those connects are already spent.
If you later decide to withdraw your proposal, Upwork doesn’t treat it like a refund. They see it as you backing out after taking your shot. So nothing comes back.
The only moments when connects return are situations where the client or Upwork effectively kills the job:
• The client deletes or cancels the job.
• Upwork shuts the job down for breaking rules.
• The client closes the job without hiring anyone.
In those cases, Upwork knows your proposal didn’t really have a fair chance, so they return your connects.
But if you withdraw, that’s a choice you made after spending them, so Upwork keeps them. That’s the whole story.
