Categories

Categories are the primary and required filter — the foundation every other filter builds on. Every job on Upwork is assigned a category (e.g. "Web Development"), which belongs to a category group (e.g. "Web, Mobile & Software Dev").

You must select at least one category before you can save your filters.

Category Group vs. Category

The category picker mirrors Upwork's own structure:

• Selecting "All - Group Name" covers the entire group. For example, "All - Web, Mobile & Software Dev" matches every job in that group, regardless of specific category.
• Selecting specific categories narrows results to only those areas. For example, choosing "Web Development" and "Mobile Development" within the group.

Choosing "All - Group Name" and individual categories within the same group are mutually exclusive — selecting the group clears individual categories, and vice versa.

How Matching Works

The bot checks both the job's specific category and its parent group (if available):

• If you selected "Web Development", a job categorized as "Web Development" matches.
• If you selected "All - Web, Mobile & Software Dev", any job in that group matches — including categories you didn't explicitly pick.

Groups from different areas can be combined. For example, you can select "All - Web, Mobile & Software Dev" together with "All - Data Science & Analytics" to cover both fields.

Tips

• Start broad with "All - Group Name" and narrow down if you get too many irrelevant jobs
• Combine 2-3 groups if your work spans multiple disciplines
• Categories work together with keywords to fine-tune results — categories define the field, keywords define the specific topics within it