Fees, Payments & Refunds - WorkOfficially

1. Paid plans

Pro and Elite plans are optional. Freelancer and client plans have their own prices, shown on Plans & billing before you pay. A plan is billed monthly or, where offered, yearly. You can pay by card through Stripe, with WRK from your WRK wallet (Section 9A), or, in our Android app, through Google Play. Companies may agree a plan with us directly; those terms are set out in the company's offer.

We do not offer free trials.

2. Automatic renewal

Plans paid by card renew automatically at the end of each billing period (each month, or each year for a yearly plan) and are charged to the same card at the price then shown on Plans & billing, until you cancel. We will email you at least 30 days before any increase to a plan price or to our fees applies to you.

A plan paid with WRK runs for the period paid for and does not renew by itself; you renew it from Plans & billing.

If a renewal payment fails, the plan's features stop until the payment goes through. Stripe will try the card again over the following days.

Plans bought through Google Play renew and are charged by Google under Google Play's terms.

3. Cancelling a plan

Cancel at any time from Plans & billing with the Cancel button. Your plan stays active until the end of the period you have already paid for, then does not renew and your account moves to the free plan. Plans bought through Google Play are cancelled in the Google Play app.

When a plan ends, your monthly Credits allowance returns to the free amount; Credits already in your balance stay there.

4. Plan refunds

Plan payments are not refunded for the period you have already paid for, including when you cancel part-way through it, and there is no credit for unused time when you switch plans. This does not limit any right to a refund you have under the law where you live. If you think you were charged in error, email us within 30 days of the charge (Section 12) and we will look into it.

Refunds for Google Play purchases are handled by Google; if Google refunds a purchase, the plan ends.

5. Escrow and milestones

On a fixed-price contract the client pays for each milestone before the work on it starts, by card or with WRK (Section 9A). The milestone amount is held in escrow against that milestone. A card payment also includes the client service fee (Section 9), shown with the total before you pay. A payment that is started but not completed within 24 hours is cancelled.

The escrow is released to the freelancer:

when the client approves the submitted work, or
automatically, 14 days after the freelancer submits the work, if the client has neither approved it nor opened a dispute.

Our fee (Section 9) is taken from the freelancer's side when the escrow is released, and an invoice is issued.

6. Escrow refunds

A client can cancel a funded milestone and get the money back when no work has been submitted on it and the waiting period shown on the milestone has passed (14 days after funding, unless a different period is shown). Once work has been submitted, the client approves it, asks for changes, or opens a dispute instead.

A contract cannot be ended while a milestone is funded or in dispute: the milestone has to be approved, refunded or decided in a dispute first. Milestones that were never funded are simply cancelled.

Refunds of card payments go back to the original card for the full milestone amount held in escrow. The client service fee is not refunded: it pays for the service already given (the escrow, payment handling and support), whatever happens to the milestone. Banks usually show the refund within 5 to 10 business days. A milestone funded with WRK is refunded in WRK to the wallet it came from, in full. This does not limit any right to a refund you have under the law where you live. In exceptional cases (for example fraud or a legal requirement) WorkOfficially may refund a funded milestone itself, with a written reason recorded.

7. Disputes and chargebacks

Either party can open a dispute on a funded milestone. The money stays frozen in escrow while a WorkOfficially mediator reviews the evidence from both sides, and the mediator then either releases it to the freelancer or refunds it to the client. The mediator's decision is final, as set out in the Terms.

If a client asks their card issuer to reverse a payment (a chargeback) while the money is still in escrow, the milestone is frozen until the card issuer decides. Please contact us before filing a chargeback; most problems are faster to solve with a dispute.

8. Credits

Credits are what freelancers use to send proposals. They are free: they have no cash value, cannot be bought, sold, transferred or exchanged for money, and are never refunded in money.

Getting Credits. 60 when you confirm your email; a monthly top-up (your balance is topped up at most once every 28 days, up to three times your monthly allowance); 10 when a contract you worked on ends as completed; and the monthly amount included in a Pro or Elite freelancer plan.
Using Credits. A proposal holds 4 Credits (8 if you boost it). The held Credits are only spent if the client shortlists or hires you.
Getting held Credits back. They return to your balance if you withdraw the proposal, the client declines it, the job is closed, or 30 days pass without the client shortlisting or hiring you. Credits that were already spent do not come back.
Expiry. Credits in your balance do not expire. Your monthly allowance follows your plan.

We may change how Credits are given or used; changes apply from the date we announce them and never take away Credits already in your balance.

9. Our fees

Freelancers pay one platform fee on money released to them. The base rate and the discounts for reputation tier and plan are published on our fees page; the rate is shown before you agree the work and is fixed on each contract when it is created, so it never changes for that contract.

Clients pay a client service fee on top of each card payment into escrow (fixed-price milestones and hourly charges): 5% on the free plan, 3% with a client Pro plan, 1% with a client Elite plan, at the plan you have when you pay. It is shown before you pay, appears on your invoice, and is not refunded (Section 6). It does not apply to contracts made before the fee started on October 19, 2026, and never to payments made with WRK.

Currency conversion, where it applies, uses the rate of our payment provider at the time; it is shown on the payment and the invoice.

9A. Paying with WRK

WRK is WorkOfficially's token, held in your WRK wallet. You can use it to pay for a plan, at the WRK price shown on Plans & billing, and to fund a fixed-price milestone.

Funding a milestone with WRK. The contract stays priced in US dollars. When you fund, the milestone amount is converted to WRK at our current WRK rate, shown before you confirm, and that many WRK move from your wallet into escrow.
No fees. No client service fee and no freelancer platform fee on a milestone funded with WRK.
Release and refund. On release the freelancer receives exactly the WRK held. On a refund the WRK go back to the wallet they came from.
The value of WRK can change. The WRK amount is fixed when the milestone is funded; what those WRK are worth in dollars later may be higher or lower. Funding is paused when we have no current WRK rate.

WRK is not money, a deposit or an investment, and WorkOfficially does not promise to buy it back at any price.

10. Payouts

Freelancers withdraw their released earnings to a bank account, PayPal or Wise. We charge no payout fee; the receiving bank or service may charge its own. You must complete identity verification before your first payout. Payouts are reviewed and sent by our team and usually arrive within a few business days. A payout that fails or is rejected goes back to your balance.

11. Taxes

Prices and fees are shown without tax, and WorkOfficially does not currently add sales tax or VAT to them. You are responsible for any taxes on what you earn or pay, as set out in the Terms.

12. Questions

Billing questions and charges you do not recognise: [email protected]. Please include the date and amount of the charge.

Fees, payments & refunds.