Ahmed Shaami
Level 1 on Fiverr requires a Success Score of 5, a 4.4 rating, an 80% response rate, 5 completed orders, 3 unique clients and $400 in earnings. Level 2 requires 7, 4.6, 90%, 20 orders, 10 unique clients and $2,000. Top Rated requires 9, 4.7, 90%, 40 orders, 20 unique clients, $10,000 and a manual evaluation on top. Those figures come straight from Fiverr’s own level table, and several widely shared 2026 guides quote thresholds noticeably higher than the real ones.
The official table
Fiverr publishes the criteria in its help centre article on understanding freelancer levels. Reproduced exactly:
| Level | Success Score | Rating | Response Rate | Orders | Unique Clients | Earnings | Manual review |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | 5+ | 4.4+ | 80% | 5 | 3 | $400 | No |
| Level 2 | 7+ | 4.6+ | 90% | 20 | 10 | $2,000 | No |
| Top Rated | 9+ | 4.7+ | 90% | 40 | 20 | $10,000 | Yes |
You can check yourself against it on the Level Overview page, reachable either by clicking your level at the top left of the dashboard or through the top header under Growth and Marketing.
Where the circulating numbers go wrong
The most common inflated version says Level 1 needs a Success Score above 7, a 4.7 rating, a 90% response rate, 10 orders and $500. Compare that against the table: every single figure is overstated, and two of them are Level 2 requirements wearing a Level 1 label. A new seller reading that will conclude they are four months away from a promotion they may already qualify for.
The direction of the error matters more than the size of it. Overstated thresholds discourage people who are closer than they think, and they encourage the wrong behaviour, such as chasing order volume when the actual blocker is unique clients or response rate.
Success Score is calculated per gig before it is calculated per account
This is the metric people misread most often. Fiverr assesses each gig across areas tied to the order process and your relationship with clients, benchmarked against other freelancers, and your overall Success Score is derived from the individual scores of each gig.
The practical consequence: one weak gig can drag down an account carried by three strong ones. If your account score is stuck and your main gig looks healthy, the problem is usually a neglected secondary gig, not your primary service. Pausing or removing a persistently weak gig is a legitimate lever, and it is invisible to anyone who only ever looks at the account-level number.
What the other five metrics actually measure
- Rating averages all client ratings from the past two years. The rating shown publicly on your profile is your all-time figure, so the two numbers will not match, and that is expected rather than a bug.
- Response rate is how often you replied to new messages within 24 hours over the last 90 days. It is a rolling window, so a bad fortnight ages out.
- Orders is your total completed orders on Fiverr.
- Unique clients counts each client once, no matter how many orders they place. A single loyal client sending twenty orders moves your order count by twenty and your unique client count by one.
- Earnings is your total earnings on the platform.
That unique clients rule is the quiet gatekeeper for Top Rated. Twenty distinct buyers is a very different business from forty orders, and freelancers who build around a couple of long-term retainers can sit on strong earnings and still be years from the level. It is the reverse of the trade-off we describe in our look at Fiverr’s shrinking buyer base and rising spend per buyer, where fewer, larger clients is exactly the direction the marketplace is heading.
What stopped counting
Fiverr’s own FAQ confirms that seniority, days without warnings, order completion rate and on-time deliveries are no longer directly tied to level status. Advice built around protecting your completion rate or never cancelling an order is arguing about a metric that was retired. Cancellations still matter, but they reach your level indirectly through the Success Score rather than as a standalone criterion.
How fast can you move up or down?
Faster up, slower down, deliberately. Once you meet all six criteria for Level 1 or Level 2 you move up automatically within 24 hours. Top Rated adds a manual evaluation before it is confirmed.
If your performance slips below your current level’s criteria, you enter a 30-day grace period to recover. Fail to recover and you drop to whichever level your metrics support. Fall below Level 1 criteria entirely and you land on Level 0. If your Success Score falls to a critically low point, the account is labelled low performance and your visibility on the platform takes a hit, which is a heavier penalty than a demotion.
Freelancers used to Upwork will notice the contrast with the multi-window approach we cover in how Upwork’s Job Success Score windows really work. Fiverr evaluates daily and recovers on a fixed 30-day clock; Upwork’s score moves on longer lookbacks.
Holds and exclusions sit outside the metrics
Your performance sets your level, but your conduct decides whether you participate in the system at all. Certain policy violations put your leveling on hold: orders keep arriving, some benefits may be revoked, and you cannot progress while the warning is active. You can still be moved down during a hold if performance drops, so a hold is not a freeze.
Accounts showing strong indications of suspicious activity, including links between multiple accounts or attempts to bypass platform rules, are excluded from the level system outright. Fiverr’s Community Standards set out what falls into that category.
What each level unlocks
Gig slots rise from 4 as a new freelancer, to 10 at Level 1 and Level 2, to 30 at Top Rated. Level 1 opens Seller Plus Standard, Subscriptions and Fiverr Ads. Level 2 adds Seller Plus Premium, top clients on your profile and paid consultations. Top Rated adds Early Payout, priority support and faster payments.
Note where Fiverr Ads sits. It arrives at Level 1, the level with the lowest and most achievable thresholds in the whole table, which makes that first promotion worth far more than its position at the bottom of the ladder suggests.
Questions this raises
Does hitting five stars guarantee a high Success Score? No. Rating and Success Score are separate metrics measuring different things, and the Success Score is benchmarked against other freelancers rather than scored in isolation.
Do Pro and Agency freelancers use the same criteria? Yes. Fiverr states that Pro and Agency freelancers have their level determined by the same performance metrics as everyone else.
What do you keep if you drop a level? You lose access to certain benefits, with milestone payments, your portfolio, your intro video and top clients specifically excepted.
