Short answer
By default, when your Upwork profile runs low on connects, Lancer pauses the active campaigns on that Upwork account so it never tries to bid without enough connects. Campaigns on your other connected accounts keep running, and draft campaigns are never touched. Turn on Automatic Connects top-up and Lancer buys more connects for you after a proposal goes out, so the next one never waits on a purchase.
Why this matters
Running out of connects is one of the most common reasons campaigns quietly stop. Upwork requires connects to submit proposals, so the moment your balance can't cover the apply cost, bidding halts until you top up. Automatic top-up removes that gap.
How to turn it on
Go to the Campaigns page.
Open Settings (your organization-wide defaults).
Toggle Automatic Connects top-up on.
Set Top up when an account drops below: a whole number from 50 to 1500 connects. Leave it empty and Lancer uses 100.
Under Buy, choose how many connects to buy each time: 150, 300, 500, 1000 or 1500, or pick Custom amount and enter any whole number from 50 to 1500. Settings shows the rough cost (about $0.15 per connect, plus tax).
Click Save. A number outside the allowed range shows an error and can't be saved.
This is an organization-wide setting. It applies across all of your campaigns.
How it works
After a proposal goes out, Lancer checks the Connects left on that Upwork account. If they are below your threshold, it queues a separate job that buys your chosen amount. No lead waits on the purchase.
Each connected Upwork account is checked on its own. Agency accounts top up the agency's shared Connects.
If a bid still runs out of connects (for example a boosted bid on a balance that was above your threshold), Lancer first checks the balance on Upwork's Buy Connects page; if it already covers the bid, the shortfall was a misread and Lancer buys nothing and simply bids again. Otherwise it buys your chosen amount at that moment and bids again. That happens at most once per bid and once per lead per day.
Before it counts a purchase as done, Lancer checks on Upwork that your Connects balance really grew by the amount you chose. If it can't confirm that, it doesn't retry the bid, treats it as out of Connects, and stops buying for that Upwork account for the rest of the day (UTC). If Upwork's checkout never reached the Confirm step (for example a slow security check), nothing is bought and the account is not held for the day.
Connects are an Upwork cost, charged by Upwork to the account's billing method as usual.
A higher threshold keeps a bigger cushion, which helps if you boost proposals (a boost costs extra connects). Connects can also drain between bids, so the check after the next bid covers that.
Good news on cost: when you boost a proposal and get outbid, or the client never views your proposal, Upwork refunds those connects. So your real cost per lead is usually much lower than it first looks. See Boosting and Connects refunds.
Boosted bids and the shortfall fallback
If a boost costs more Connects than you have on hand, Lancer treats it like any other shortfall: with top-up on, it buys your chosen amount and retries the boosted bid. With top-up off, or if the shortfall happens again right after a purchase, Lancer falls back to your campaign's boosting settings under Campaign Configuration: sending the proposal without the boost, or skipping the job.
Auto-replied invitations are the one exception. They never auto-buy connects for a boost shortfall, and always fall back to your boosting settings.
A note on the 500 / 1000 / 1500 options
Buying more than 300 connects at once uses Upwork's Custom amount option, which isn't available on every Upwork account. If your account doesn't have it, Lancer buys nothing rather than a different amount: the bid ends as out of Connects. To keep auto-buying working on such an account, choose 150 or 300.
If Upwork declines your card
If Upwork declines the payment card on an automatic top-up, Lancer shows a banner naming the Upwork account: Upwork declined the account's payment card, so automatic Connects top-ups are failing. It links to Billing & Payments on Upwork, where you update the payment method. Bids keep running on the Connects the account still has; only the top-ups fail, and Lancer tries a purchase at most once a day per account while it is failing. The banner goes away after the next purchase Upwork confirms. It does not appear for Lancer-provided accounts.
Turning it off
Flip the same toggle off and save. Lancer goes back to pausing the active campaigns on the account that ran low when connects run low, instead of buying more.