Freelancer.com Trust Score Explained: What It Is and How to Raise Yours

Every Freelancer.com user carries a number most people never think about until it costs them work: the Trust Score. It sits on your profile, it is visible to the people you want to work with, and it quietly shapes whether clients trust you, how fast you get paid, and where your bids appear in the list. This guide explains what the Freelancer.com Trust Score is, how it works, what each verification is worth, and how to raise yours — and how to read a client's score before you bid.

What is the Freelancer.com Trust Score?

The Trust Score is a value between 0 and 100 that shows how far Freelancer.com has been able to verify who a user says they are. That is the platform's own definition, and it is worth taking literally: the score measures identity verification, not skill, not quality of work, and not how good your reviews are. A freelancer with a score of 90 is not necessarily better at the job than one with a score of 40 — they have simply proved more thoroughly that they are who they claim to be.

Both sides of the marketplace have one. Employers carry a Trust Score just as freelancers do, and each side reads the other's. You can see your own current score, and the ways to improve it, on your Trust and Verification page.

One caution before the details: Freelancer.com's Trust Score article was last updated in 2018, and the platform has added verification steps since. The point values below are the ones Freelancer itself publishes in that article, and they are the best public figures available — but check your Trust and Verification page for the current list, because the exact figures can change without the article being updated.

Why your Trust Score matters as a freelancer

A higher score changes three practical things about working on the platform.

First, getting paid. Freelancer.com says a higher Trust Score makes it faster and easier to withdraw your earnings: more payment methods become available, security periods are shorter, and your monthly withdrawal limit is higher. Verification is, in effect, the price of smooth payments — the platform holds money more cautiously for accounts it has not verified.

Second, visibility. Freelancers with higher Trust Scores tend to rank higher in bid lists and in the freelancer directory. When a client opens a project and scans twenty bids, the order of that list matters, and your score is one of the things that moves you up it.

Third, trust at first sight. Employers may shy away from working with untrusted freelancers. A client choosing between two similar proposals will usually pick the one whose identity the platform has confirmed — particularly for larger budgets, where the cost of a bad hire is real.

The score also gates one of the platform's programmes. Freelancer.com describes the Trust Score as a deal breaker when applying for the Preferred Freelancer Program, which offers access to top employers and recruiting-team support. Entry also needs more than three completed projects, good reviews, and strong statistics for jobs completed on time and on budget — but a low Trust Score can stop an application before any of that is weighed.

Why a client's Trust Score matters to you

The score works the other way too, and this is the half most freelancers ignore. Freelancer.com is explicit: freelancers may decide not to bid on a project if the employer is not a trusted user, and experienced freelancers in particular want to be sure their payment is protected before they commit time to a bid.

That makes the employer's score a useful early filter. A client with a high score and verified payment has put effort into proving who they are and that they can pay through the platform. A client with a low score is not automatically a scam — every new employer starts unverified — but a low score combined with other warning signs (no payment verification, no history, a vague brief, pressure to work off-platform) is a reason to slow down and check carefully. Our guide to vetting a Freelancer.com client before you bid walks through the full check: payment verification, reviews, project history, and the official red flags.

How the score is built: the four point values

Freelancer.com says completing each verification adds a fixed number of points to your score, so it is clear what to do and what each step is worth. The values published in its Trust Score article are:

Each of these usually takes only a few minutes. The card step is worth the most by a wide margin, which is why it is the single fastest way to lift a new account out of the low-score range — it proves a real, named payment method is attached to the account.

Note what the table does not add up to: the four methods total 80 points, not 100. That is because they are not the whole story. The platform also runs a deeper identity-verification process, described below, and the remaining points sit with that. Do not treat the table as a complete formula for reaching 100 — treat it as the quick wins, and the identity check as the rest.

The deeper layer: KYC identity verification

Beyond the four quick verifications, Freelancer.com runs a Know Your Customer (KYC) programme that confirms identity through documents. To become "Verified by Freelancer" you submit a valid government-issued photo ID, a keycode verification photo — a picture of yourself holding a unique code the platform provides alongside the same ID — and proof of address, usually two different recent utility bills or bank statements, or one of each.

The details on your account must match the name on your documents, and the verification team reviews the submission, which can take up to two to three business days. Freelancer is blunt about the stakes: submitting fake or altered documents can result in account closure and may lead to legal action, and the platform may limit or suspend an account that cannot complete verification. If your ID later expires, you will need to resubmit — verification is not a one-time event.

This is the verification that matters most for the top end of the score, and it is also the one that unlocks the "Verified by Freelancer" status clients look for. The quick methods prove contact details and a payment method; KYC proves the person.

How to raise your Trust Score, step by step

Work through these in order. The first four take minutes; the fifth takes days, so start it early.

1. Verify your email. Confirm the address on your account. Worth 5 points, and the baseline for everything else.
2. Verify your phone. Add and confirm a mobile number. Worth 10 points.
3. Verify a social network. Connect a social profile. Worth 20 points — the largest of the quick wins after the card step.
4. Authenticate a credit or debit card. Worth 45 points, the single biggest jump available. Use a card in your own name; the details must match your account.
5. Complete KYC identity verification. Submit your government ID, keycode photo, and proof of address through the Verification Center, and allow up to two to three business days for review. Check that your account details match your documents before you submit, so the review is not bounced back on a mismatch.

After each step, check your Trust and Verification page to confirm the points landed. If a verification does not register, re-check the details you submitted before assuming the system is at fault — a mismatched name or an expired document is the usual cause.

How to read a client's Trust Score before you bid

Use the client's score the same way clients use yours: as one signal among several, checked before you spend a bid.

• Open the client's profile and look at the verification badges shown there. Payment verification and identity verification are the two that matter most; a client with both is measurably safer than one with neither.
• Weigh a low score against the client's history. A new employer with no projects yet will have a low score and no reviews — that is normal. A client with dozens of projects and a low score is a different story, and worth a closer look.
• Never let a high score replace milestone discipline. A verified client can still be slow to pay, vague about scope, or difficult to work with. Always ask for the first milestone to be funded before you start substantive work, whatever the score says. Our guide to pricing a freelance project explains how to split a quote into milestones so you are never more than one payment away from being paid.
• Check the score alongside the brief, not instead of it. A high-score client with a contradictory brief is still a risky project. Analyse the brief before you bid, then let the score confirm — or question — what the brief told you.

What the Trust Score is not

Three misunderstandings are worth clearing up, because they lead freelancers to optimise the wrong thing.

It is not a skill rating. The score says nothing about whether someone can do the work. Skills tests, portfolios, and completed projects are the evidence for that — and Freelancer.com itself points freelancers toward skills tests and a professional profile as the other half of standing out.

It is not a review score. Reviews measure what past clients thought of the work. The Trust Score measures what the platform has verified about identity. A freelancer can have glowing reviews and a low score (new account, unverified), or a high score and poor reviews (verified identity, unhappy clients). Read both.

It is not a guarantee — in either direction. A high score does not guarantee you will win work, and it does not guarantee a client will pay promptly; it only makes both more likely. A low score does not prove someone is dishonest; it proves the platform has not verified them yet. New users start low by definition, and judging them solely on the number means missing good clients and good freelancers who simply have not verified yet.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check my Freelancer.com Trust Score?

Open your Trust and Verification page from your account settings. It shows your current score and lists the verifications you have completed and the ones still open, with the points each one adds.

How long does it take to raise my Trust Score?

The four quick verifications — email, phone, social network, and card — usually take only a few minutes each. KYC identity verification takes longer: allow up to two to three business days for the verification team to review your documents.

Does a high Trust Score guarantee more work?

No. It helps you rank higher in bid lists and makes clients more willing to trust you, and it is a requirement for the Preferred Freelancer Program — but clients still choose on the proposal, the portfolio, and the price. Treat the score as the foundation, not the whole pitch.

Should I avoid clients with a low Trust Score?

Not automatically. A new employer will have a low score and no history, and many are genuine. Weigh the score together with payment verification, project history, and the quality of the brief — and protect yourself with funded milestones either way. Walk away when a low score sits alongside pressure to work off-platform, requests for free work, or a refusal to fund a milestone.

Your next move

Check your score today: open your Trust and Verification page, complete any of the quick verifications you have skipped, and start the KYC identity check if you have not done it — it is the one step that takes days rather than minutes, so it should not wait until you need it. Then apply the same lens to the other side: before your next bid, read the client's verification badges as part of your normal vetting, and keep funded milestones as your payment protection regardless of what any score says. If you use BidMasterPro, its client quality filters let you require payment-verified clients, so unverified employers never reach your bidding queue in the first place.