OpenAI and Upwork find bigger AI freelance projects, but similar hourly rates

AI-related freelance projects come with larger fixed-price budgets and more hours of work—but similar posted hourly rates to other projects. Research published by OpenAI and Upwork on November 10, 2026, finds changes in both what clients request and how they combine skills, complicating the idea that AI simply replaces assignments freelancers once performed.

The study, part of OpenAI’s Work at the Frontier series, examines Upwork marketplace postings alongside activities people undertake directly with ChatGPT. Those sources offer two different views of work: what people ask AI to help them do, and what clients ask freelancers to deliver. The comparison tracks the changing mix of assignments, rather than treating all freelance work as one market.

ChatGPT use and freelance demand diverge

Writing accounted for a much larger share of ChatGPT use, while video and animation represented larger shares of requests for freelancers. That comparison uses ChatGPT activity from January 2025 through June 2026 and Upwork postings from the first half of 2026. It describes the relative mix on each platform, not equal-sized pools of work or a direct count of assignments transferred between them.

Across 63 matched work categories, the researchers found a recurring pattern: activities relatively common in ChatGPT tended to lose share on Upwork, while less common activities tended to gain share. Forty-three categories followed that pattern; 20 showed the reverse. This analysis measures changes in categories’ shares of Upwork postings from the first half of 2023 to the second half of 2025.

The authors caution that ChatGPT use alone does not explain changes in freelance demand. Nor does current use capture everything AI can support. OpenAI calls that gap the capability overhang: people’s observed activities with ChatGPT are narrower than the full range of tasks the technology can help with.

Different combinations, not longer task lists

By late 2025, clients were asking freelancers to apply AI across work including chatbot development, video production, marketing automation and application integration. The change was not simply more tasks inside each brief. AI-related postings listed about as many tasks as other postings, but more often brought together tasks that had rarely appeared together in earlier jobs.

One example in the research combines AI-generated video, video editing and motion graphics in a single project brief. The freelancer’s assignment is to bring those capabilities together into a finished video. That illustrates the distinction between using AI for one part of a project and hiring someone to assemble the complete deliverable: the request includes AI output, but also editing and production work.

Bigger budgets are not higher hourly rates

The budget comparison draws on Upwork data through April 2026. Adjusted estimates compare AI-related and other projects within the same type of work and posting month. With posted hourly rates similar between the groups, the researchers suggest that larger fixed-price budgets may partly reflect broader project scope. The finding is about more work attached to a project, not a demonstrated hourly pay premium for AI skills.

Freelance postings can expose these changes sooner than broad employment statistics, the authors argue. Contracts are often short, so clients can revise requirements with each new posting. Work inside a company can change without generating a vacancy at all. That makes this research an early view of changing assignments and project design—not a simple verdict on economy-wide employment.