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Upwork Q4 revenue rises even as gross services volume slips

Upwork Q4 revenue rises even as gross services volume slips

Craig Johnson
| February 12, 2025
upper corner of upwork website with logo
ID 298219708 © Mohamed Ahmed Soliman | Dreamstime.com

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Talent platform Upwork (NASDAQ: UPWK) reported fourth-quarter revenue rose 4.1% year over year to $191. 5 million and was above guidance. On the other hand, gross services volume, or GSV, fell 7% to $992.8 million in the quarter. GSV represents the total amount that clients spend on Upwork’s offerings as well as additional fees to talent and clients for other services.

Enterprise growth was a bright spot at the company, with revenue rising 4% year over year in 2024 to $107.2 million.

Upwork also cited artificial intelligence as another positive.

“GSV from AI-related work grew 60% year over year in 2024, lifted by subsets of AI work like prompt engineering, which was up 93% year over year in the fourth quarter,” President and CEO Hayden Brown said in a conference call with analysts.

Hayden noted that freelancers working on AI-related projects earn 44% more per hour than those working on projects not related to AI.

“And the number of Upwork clients engaging in AI-related projects grew 42% year over year in 2024 — an encouraging signal about the ability of our model and the talent on Upwork to continuously address critical skills gaps and business needs at the most advanced technology frontiers,” she said.

Upwork forecast revenue of $186 million to $191 million in the first quarter, which ranges from a year-over-year decrease of 2.6% to flat.

The company also forecast full-year 2025 revenue of between $740 million and $760 million, which ranges from an increase of 7.4% to an increase of 10.3%.

Upwork - Q4 2024

(US$ thousands)

Q4 2024

Q4 2023

% change

Revenue

191,483

183,934

4.1%

Gross profit

148,842

138,066

7.8%

Gross margin

77.7%

75.1%

-

Net income

147,166

17,374

747.0%

Full-Year Results

(US$ thousands)

FY 2024

FY 2023

% change

Revenue

769,325

689,136

11.6%

Gross profit

595,231

518,686

14.8%

Gross margin

77.4%

75.3%

-

Net income/loss

215,586

46,887

359.8%

Share Price

Shares in Upwork were up 3.28% to $16.04 as of 11:09 a.m. Eastern time Feb. 13. They were 11.58% below their 52-week high.