Upwork is making a small profit each time you buy Connects from a non-USD account

tl;dr: If you have a non-USD card linked to Upwork, they will charge a conversion fee each time you make any kind of transaction through the platform. The solution is to add a different card (or the same one, just remove it previously) and specify the USD option instead of your own currency. Most likely, your bank will have a smaller conversion fee than Upwork.

Some of you may already know this, but I feel like a dummy for not realizing it sooner. I went over to the platform to buy some Connects. I chose 150, for which the listed price is $22,50. I pressed 'Buy'. So far so good.

Since I have Revolut (EU), my card got blocked because I forgot I had set it to frozen. Due to a glitch on Upwork, when your card is declined, you have to remove it and add a new one. At least I didn't see a way to retry.

So I went ahead and added a different card when I realized that you can change the card currency. Mine was set to EUR by default. Out of curiosity, I changed it to USD and retried the payment.

The first time, Upwork tried charging me 20,63€. The second time, what I actually paid, was 19,80€. That's a 4,19% fee in respect to the baseline price.

It's not a fortune, but it adds up, and I'd rather keep the cents for myself, courtesy of a single mouse click.

Disclaimer: you should check the conversion rates with your bank. Revolut is known for its pretty decent conversion rates, and I've always saved money this way.