Is Video Editing on Upwork Still Viable in 2026?

When Charles Freels, owner of Major Editing LLC, started freelancing on Upwork in 2020, he wasn’t trying to build a full-time business.

Freels had previously worked in DJing and audio engineering. The transition from analog equipment to digital audio software had shown him that sophisticated creative work could be done from home with a computer.

Video production seemed like the natural next step as a hobby.

“I figured, if I could learn the intricacies of music software, I could apply those same techniques and principles to video software,” Freels said.

He set up his business at home (which meant he was able to write off certain household expenses, like the proportion of his internet and electricity that he used for work), and initially charged between $10 and $25 an hour.

It took him roughly 15 to 20 job applications (referred to as “proposals” on Upwork) to land his first job.

The business, he said, started paying for itself almost immediately. Before long, he landed what he called a “whale” client, a doctor in Beverly Hills, California. By the end of his first year, he had cleared about $40,000.

Six years later, Freels barely needs to compete for new clients at all. “I haven’t really solicited … because all the clients I started with are still with me,” he said. “They keep me pretty busy.”

How realistic is repeating Freels’s success today?

Freels’s story might sound like evidence that you can join Upwork, send a few dozen proposals, and start making money.

Unfortunately, the reality in 2026 is more complicated.

Freels succeeded because he used the platform to build relationships that made competing for jobs less important, but you’re not going to have that advantage as a beginner.

And today, your journey on the platform might be complicated by market saturation and the rise of cheap AI tools.

AI is an obvious source of anxiety for creative professionals. For Liesel Kopp, a Los Angeles-based video editor, producer, and SAG-AFTRA actor, the threat feels immediate, not just hypothetical.

Kopp has worked in video for more than a decade and built a freelance career around editing, hosting, and other creative work. Demand for that work was high for years.

She told us that for a period that lasted roughly from the summer of 2020 to mid-2025, client inquiries and freelance opportunities were coming in so quickly that she could afford to be selective. She was also able to land one to two gigs with every 4–10 proposals.

Things have changed. Today, she’s largely stopped searching and applying for jobs on Upwork because the experience has become discouraging.

Over the last three to six months, Kopp said, only four potential new clients have contacted her. Three disappeared, and she is still waiting to hear back from the fourth. Even her three existing, part-time clients have barely needed video editing work done.

Kopp doesn’t believe that AI is the only cause. Inflation, rising costs, and tighter marketing budgets all contribute to why companies may be less willing to spend money on freelance video production.

But Kopp believes that the threat of AI hasn’t been overstated, either. “They’re going with AI from the get-go and aren’t even looking for me,” she said.

In particular, she worries about AI-generated presenters and actors. Rather than hiring a human performer, some companies now create videos using synthetic people, which she called “horrible and creepy.”

Clips like this generally don’t need to be worked over by video editors, either.

For Kopp, this is fundamentally different from using AI to speed up an existing workflow, which she’s more comfortable with. The growing use of AI-generated videos directly impacts the demand for human creative professionals.

AI has created jobs, too

In fairness, AI hasn’t only taken jobs away. It has also created new categories of freelance work.

Documentary editor and podcast producer Rikki Gunton has noticed more AI-focused video jobs appearing on Upwork, including postings with labels like AI Filmmaker and AI Video Creator.

“I’ve also seen a couple posts specifically stating that they don’t want AI used on the project,” Gunton said, “but I think that is the minority.”

The shift might not be from human-made video to no human labor at all. In some cases, clients are hiring people to operate and direct new AI tools.

Upwork’s own Future Workforce Index 2026 points to the emergence of AI-related gigs across its wider marketplace.

Generative AI and creative production work saw a 90% year-over-year increase in contract starts in the first quarter of 2026. However, earnings per contract in that category fell 13% over the same period.1

In other words, AI-generated video may be creating more freelance opportunities while simultaneously making that work less highly paid.

In-demand types of AI video creation

Whether AI video content will be a profitable avenue depends on the type of videos you’re interested in creating or editing.

Major platforms—including Google, LinkedIn, Meta, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube—are cracking down on mass-produced, low-effort “AI slop,” sometimes by suppressing it in their algorithms. YouTube is even demonetizing this content.2

If you’re looking to get hired by clients who want to capitalize on that content, be aware that the market for it may be contracting, too.

Will AI eventually replace human editors?

Freels considers AI-generated videos “the next revolution” and doesn’t object to freelancers using the technology, but he said he thinks someone will still need to sit down and review the work. Therefore, although AI is changing his field, he doesn’t expect it to disappear completely, even in the future.

“I still think it takes a level of talent, imagination, technical ability, and patience to do that kind of thing,” Freels told us. “Garbage in, garbage out.”

In his own workflow, he uses AI for audio cleanup but not for editing. It fails in that aspect, in his opinion.

“AI doesn’t edit cleanly. It either cuts too much or too little, so I end up having to still review and adjust every cut,” Freels said. “Bottom line, editors should edit.”

How other video editors are using AI

As a creative with a background in photography and integrated media arts, Gunton loves the iterative process of editing, but also uses AI in her workflow.

She uses Adobe Premiere’s transcription tools, occasionally uses Adobe Podcast Enhance Speech (when it does a better job than her manual audio track effects), and has used AI to create initial drafts of podcast copy.

But she doesn’t simply hand over the creative reins to AI. When she needs to structure a story, she prefers to review hours of footage herself to decide what belongs in the final cut. “The mental process of putting the puzzle pieces together can’t happen if you aren’t deeply familiar with the content,” she said.

Like Freels, she has some complaints about the technology, particularly tools that create cutdowns or do initial multi-cam passes. “Honestly, I’ve not been blown away by the tools I’ve tried so far,” she said. “They are either too limited or require so much revision that it doesn’t feel worth it.”

That doesn’t mean AI won’t eventually become capable of more sophisticated editing, but it does mean that the more a piece of content requires storytelling and collaboration, the harder it is to reduce the job to an automated process.

AI is only part of the story. The editors we spoke to described platform economics that are increasingly difficult for newcomers to navigate.

For Freels, the platform’s current challenges haven’t been particularly disruptive because he already has established clients. For Gunton, Upwork also remains useful, but she treats it as just one source of business among many.

Kopp was much more scathing in her critique of what she sees as a decline in the quality of clients and gigs.

Clients and their expectations have changed

Kopp says that in the past, there were a lot of high-paying and consistent companies and solo entrepreneurs looking to hire freelancers, but the platform has shifted toward one-off projects with lower budgets and clients expecting substantial amounts of work for very little money.

“Now it’s mostly some random person looking to pay someone a tiny amount to put together a video or slideshow for their mom’s birthday or a goofy sketch they shot on their phone,” she told us, adding that some jobs involve helping people build their YouTube channels from scratch.

To illustrate the type of work dominating her feed, she sent us a screenshot of jobs offering rates ranging from $10 to $45 an hour and highlighted one posting titled “Video Editor/Producer for B2B Technical Clients.”

“They say they want an ‘expert video editor,’ but are only willing to pay $10–27 hourly,” Kopp said. This is a low rate for someone with her experience, and she told us she finds the mismatch emblematic of a broader problem.

“I essentially did this for years after starting out,” she said of accepting low-paying work. “I can’t do it anymore.”

She believes that accepting low rates can create a cycle in which clients become accustomed to paying less for professional creative work, which devalues the profession as a whole.

“It’s 100% a race to the bottom,” she said.

Upwork has become a marketplace divided by price and geography

One of the biggest challenges facing freelancers on Upwork is that they’re competing in a global marketplace. Gunton pointed out that freelancers in countries with lower costs of living can often charge substantially less than freelancers in places such as Los Angeles or New York.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the lower-priced freelancers produce lower-quality work, but it changes the economics of the competition.

For Gunton, the solution isn’t to try to beat everyone on price. Instead, she selects projects that align with her skills and interests, where her experience might be valuable enough that price isn’t the only consideration for the client.

The cost of competing is higher

Upwork’s Connects system adds another layer of expense to the equation.

To submit proposals, you need to purchase digital tokens called Connects, and you can spend additional Connects to boost your proposals to the top of clients’ inboxes.

With one Connect costing $0.15 and jobs routinely requiring upwards of 20 Connects to apply, the costs can add up quickly.3

They’re also higher than they used to be; Upwork has hiked the price of applying for jobs over the years.

Freels, who initially started on Upwork as a hobby, isn’t bothered by the system. “I know it frustrates a lot of freelancers because they may have jumped into it without budgeting properly,” he said.

He does, however, find the proposal system confusing. In particular, he said the way Connects interact with boosted proposals can make it difficult to understand just how much you’re actually spending to compete for a job.

What’s more, for freelancers who are already struggling to find work to begin with, even relatively small proposal costs can become frustrating, especially with no guarantee the client will even respond.

Clients have become more unresponsive

For a new freelancer, that might be the bigger issue: the cumulative cost of repeatedly reaching out to clients who may never respond. Gunton told us that she has noticed clients responding to proposals less frequently, although she isn’t sure why.

She pointed to several possible explanations, including AI-generated applications, price competition, and changes to Upwork’s platform, like the proposal boosting system and the phasing out of specialized profiles (customizable sub-profiles that previously let you highlight distinct skill sets and target separate niches).

Regardless of the cause, the result is a marketplace where video editors are competing against cheaper freelancers and, in some cases, clients who may decide they can do the work themselves with AI.

Getting ghosted by clients

Unfortunately, clients can become unresponsive midway through the hiring process, which can be incredibly frustrating.

Kopp shared a recent example where she was invited to a well-paying opportunity that closely matched her background. The client specifically sought someone with her combination of on- and off-camera skills, and ChatGPT had even recommended her as the top candidate.

She interviewed successfully and was told she would be presented to the client responsible for the final sign-off. Then the communication stopped without any explanation.

She wryly observed that AI had actually helped her with the hiring process for this job, but said that “even when I’m considered a unicorn or number one candidate and the interview goes well, it still feels nearly impossible to land a gig these days.”

If you’re wondering whether new editors can still find clients on Upwork at all, the answer appears to be yes. None of the three editors disputed that.

Whether it’ll be a well-paying gig or lead to a long-lasting client relationship is another matter entirely.

Gunton acknowledges that Upwork helped establish her career. When she moved to Los Angeles from New York during the pandemic and started over, Upwork gave her a way to grow her portfolio, get reviews, and build up the confidence needed to navigate client interactions.

“I don’t think it should be the only place you look for work,” she said, but she still sees value in the platform. “Good clients and projects do exist on there if you take the time to sift through.”

The golden age might be over

“Unfortunately, I feel like the heyday of Upwork is over,” Kopp said. She still hopes the market will recover, but in the here and now, she described the site as a “Fiverr-esque, oversaturated, very low-paying platform” that she would recommend primarily as a “side hustle” or a way to make some extra money—but not as a primary income stream.

For her, the stakes are high. She told us she’s drawing down her savings to make ends meet. Her freelance and acting work provide some income, but nowhere near what she earned during the industry’s boom.

“I adore it, I don’t want to and really can’t pivot careers at this point,” she said. “It really saddens and angers me that something I’m good at and love seems to be nearly fully out of my control at this point.”

Upwork might reflect larger problems in the freelancing space

Kopp said that she has tried looking beyond Upwork for gigs, too.

Over the course of a year, she applied to more than 150 full-time and freelance video editing positions on LinkedIn and other job boards, but she received only about five interviews, none of which led to a job.

“This current overall job market and freelancing world is—to me—absolutely unprecedented and so very scary,” she said.

If you’ve decided to brave the freelancing market and dip your toes into Upwork, the editors we spoke to recommend approaching it as a business from the start.

That means keeping your costs low, choosing work that makes financial sense, learning how to attract clients, and deciding on the right pricing.

Don’t buy the most expensive software

When you’re just starting out, it’s easy to rack up monthly expenses from editing software, plugins, stock libraries, and other creative tools before earning your first dollar. Freels says that isn’t necessary. He sees many of those expenses as wants rather than needs.

He recommends DaVinci Resolve, which has a free version with a substantial set of editing features.

The goal at the beginning should be to keep your overhead low enough that a slow month doesn’t become an unexpected financial crisis.

Pick a niche that makes economic sense

Freels also warns against judging a freelance opportunity purely by how impressive the finished video might look.

For example, many effects-heavy YouTube videos can require enormous amounts of editing time. If a client wants 100 videos for $300, Freels said, the problem isn’t necessarily whether you can produce them.

“Do the math, people,” Freels said. “The longer it takes you to produce those effects-heavy videos, the lower your margin.”

His own clients are largely corporate professionals rather than creators looking for flashy, effects-heavy YouTube content. A relatively straightforward corporate video with a reasonable budget and recurring demand can be a better opportunity than an elaborate video that takes hours to produce for a tiny fixed fee.

Make your proposals sound human (don’t write them with AI)

Freels says you shouldn’t outsource your personality to AI.

“Stop relying on AI-generated replies to posts,” he said. To him, generic AI-written proposals communicate to a prospective client that you didn’t care enough about the project to write a genuine response. “They’re inauthentic and people can spot that a mile away.”

Gunton agrees. “I’d also be as specific and personal as you can in your cover letters,” she said. “In a world with so much AI-generated copy, make sure your cover letters and your profile sound like you.”

For example, ask specific questions about the project, such as its niche, footage style, target audience, or platform (e.g., YouTube or TikTok).

How much should you charge?

If you’re joining Upwork as a beginner, you might be wondering what’s too low or too high a price.

“In such a competitive environment, you’ll have to be less selective with the projects you pick,” said Freels, who currently charges $50 per hour. “For example, in lean times, you may have to accept that $10-per-hour project if the light bill is due.”

Kopp, who has more than 12 years of experience and charges $100 per hour, staunchly disagrees with taking that approach to jobs.

“I turn them down every time, because why would I fill my hours and work harder to make significantly less?” she argued. She believes that it encourages clients to keep paying amounts that work out to be far below minimum wage. “It’s like digital sweatshops where you churn out content for pennies.”

None of the three editors expects human video editors to disappear, but none believes the profession will stop changing, either.

For you, the viability of this type of work will come down to whether you can find the right niche and clients who value storytelling and creative problem-solving.

“I think the role more likely to become obsolete, or at least much less in demand, is that of the assistant editor or post-production assistant,” Gunton said, “because their tasks are more logistical or organizational and more easily automated.”

Gunton said that you’ll probably thrive if you can provide more than what an AI tool can (e.g., creative partnership, a unique perspectives based on your background and experience, an ability to understand the project goals and guide a client through how to best achieve them, etc.).

“I also think a lot of these automation tools are just chasing trends, like the style of social media clip that CapCut or OpusClip churns out,” Gunton said. “Just as people are tired of AI-generated LinkedIn posts, we’ll see how long some of these easily executed video trends stay palatable.”