Escrow, payouts and what you actually pay
Buyers fund escrow up front and release on approval. Experts are paid from escrow once the buyer approves, minus the platform fee.
Money on REWORK moves in one direction and only on one signal: the buyer approving the work. Not a timer, not a request from the expert, not a support ticket.
For buyers
You fund escrow when you hire. The money leaves your card at that point but does not reach the expert — it is held. When the work is delivered you review it, and releasing the funds is your action.
That means the risk you are carrying while work is in progress is the delay, not the money. If the work never arrives or is not what was agreed, the funds have not moved and a dispute is opened against a balance that is still there.
For experts
You are paid from escrow once the buyer approves. Two things follow from that, and both are worth building your habits around:
- Confirm the scope in writing before you start. Approval is the payment trigger, so an unclear scope is an unclear payment date. The messaging thread is the record.
- Deliver on-platform. A deliverable that only exists in a private channel is not evidence of anything if the release is disputed.
Payouts go to your connected payout account. Some payouts are held briefly for review — a hold is a fraud control, not a judgement about your work, and you can see the state of it in your payouts view.
Taking a job off-platform to avoid the fee removes escrow, dispute cover and your delivery record in one move. The record is the part you cannot get back — it is what your future ranking is built from.
Fees
The platform fee is a percentage of the job, taken at release, and it decreases as your delivered volume grows. Your current rate and the tier thresholds are shown on the payments page in your dashboard — that page reads your actual account, so it is the number to trust rather than anything quoted second-hand.
Subscriptions (Expert Hub, Expert Hub Lite, Business Hub) are separate from the platform fee. You can be listed, hired and paid without one.
Disputes
If you cannot agree, either side can open a dispute before release. REWORK reviews the brief, the messages and what was delivered, and decides where the escrowed funds go. Keeping the conversation and the files on-platform is what makes that reviewable — it is the single most useful thing you can do to protect yourself on either side.