What Happened to Fiverr Buyer Requests? (And How the New Briefs System Works)

Fiverr Buyer Requests no longer exists as a feature on the platform. It was phased out and replaced by Fiverr Briefs across 2022 and 2023. If you are looking for the Buyer Requests tab in your seller dashboard and cannot find it, it is not a bug, it is not an account issue — the feature was removed for all sellers.

This guide explains what happened, how the Briefs system that replaced it works, and what sellers can do to improve their chances of receiving Briefs.

What Buyer Requests Was

Buyer Requests was a feature where buyers could post a public description of a project they needed done. All sellers in the relevant category could see these posts and submit proposals. It functioned similarly to a job board — one buyer post, many seller applications, buyer selects one.

The system had significant problems from both sides. Buyers received dozens or hundreds of proposals for a single request, most of them generic and unconvincing. Sellers sent applications into what often felt like a void, with low response rates and no visibility into why proposals were not selected. The signal-to-noise ratio was poor for everyone involved.

Fiverr's solution was to replace the open public board with a selective matching system called Briefs.

What Fiverr Briefs Is

Briefs is Fiverr's AI-powered matching feature that connects buyers with sellers without a public job board.

When a buyer wants to find a seller but does not want to browse gigs manually, they can submit a Brief — a structured description of their project that includes the service type, budget range, timeline, and project details. Fiverr's AI then selects a small number of sellers whose gigs and profiles match the buyer's requirements and sends the Brief to those sellers directly.

The seller receives a notification that a Brief has arrived in their inbox. They can view the buyer's project description and choose to send a proposal or decline. The buyer receives a small number of targeted proposals rather than an overwhelming flood.

This is the core structural difference from Buyer Requests: Briefs are distributed selectively to matched sellers, not published publicly for everyone to compete on.

How to Access Briefs as a Seller

Briefs appear in your Fiverr inbox, not in a separate section of the dashboard. When you receive a Brief that matches your profile, it arrives as an inbox message and you also receive a notification.

There is no "browse Briefs" function analogous to the old Buyer Requests board. You cannot see Briefs that were sent to other sellers. You can only act on Briefs that Fiverr's system has matched to your account based on your gig configuration and performance signals.

This means the question "how do I find Buyer Requests" now has a different answer than it used to: you do not find them, they find you — or rather, Fiverr's matching system finds you for them.

What Determines Whether You Receive Briefs

The Brief matching algorithm evaluates several factors when deciding which sellers to route a buyer's Brief to. Fiverr has not published the exact weighting of these factors, but the observed patterns are consistent:

Gig relevance to the Brief topic. Your gig's title, tags, category, and description are the primary matching signals. A Brief for logo design goes to sellers with logo design gigs. A Brief for content writing goes to content writing gigs. The more specifically your gig targets the buyer's exact need, the stronger the match.

Seller level and Success Score. Higher-level sellers with stronger Success Scores receive more Briefs. This reflects Fiverr's intention to route buyers toward sellers who have demonstrated consistent quality and reliability.

Active gig status. Sellers who are in vacation mode or whose gigs are paused are typically not matched to Briefs. Maintaining active gig status improves Brief eligibility.

Response rate and recent activity. Sellers who are responsive and active on the platform are more likely to be matched to Briefs than those who check their inbox infrequently.

Price alignment. If a buyer's Brief specifies a budget, Fiverr's system attempts to match them with sellers whose pricing falls within or near that range.

How to Write a Winning Brief Proposal

When a Brief arrives and you choose to respond, the quality of your proposal determines whether the buyer selects you. Unlike Buyer Requests, where sellers competed with dozens of others, Briefs typically go to a much smaller pool of matched sellers. Your proposal is not competing with fifty others. It is competing with three to five.

This changes the strategy. A generic proposal that says "I can help with your project, check out my gig" is wasted on a Briefs opportunity where the buyer is evaluating a small number of proposals and reading each one.

The elements of a Brief proposal that convert:

Address something specific from the buyer's project description. Show that you read and understood what they described, not just the category.

Name one specific reason you are well-suited to this project specifically. Not "I am an experienced designer" — that applies to every designer. "I have done twelve brand identity projects for food and beverage companies" is specific and relevant if the buyer's project is in that space.

State your timeline and price clearly. Buyers submit Briefs partly because they want to skip the negotiation phase. A clear "I can deliver this in 5 days for $250" is more useful than "contact me for a quote."

Include a link to one relevant portfolio sample. One, not your entire portfolio link. The sample most directly relevant to their described project.

Keep it under 150 words. Brief proposals that are too long rarely perform better than concise ones. The buyer is reading several proposals; brevity respects their time.

What to Do If You Are Not Receiving Briefs

If you have been active on Fiverr for several months and have never received a Brief, the most likely reasons are:

Your gigs are not specific enough to match the Briefs your category receives. A gig titled "I will do graphic design" competes with every other design gig for Briefs matching. A gig titled "I will design a brand identity for your restaurant" matches specifically when a restaurant Brief comes in.

Your seller level or Success Score is below the threshold Fiverr uses for routing Briefs in competitive categories. Improving your metrics through consistent delivery and communication is the only path here — there is no setting that forces Brief delivery.

Your response rate or recent activity signals to the algorithm that you may not be reliably responsive. Maintaining strong inbox habits helps.

Your gig's pricing is significantly above or below the budget range of Briefs being submitted in your category. Reviewing your pricing relative to the category midpoint is worth doing if you suspect this is the issue.

The Honest Assessment of Briefs vs Buyer Requests

Buyer Requests gave sellers access to every project request in their category, which felt empowering. In practice, the conversion rate from proposal to order was very low because the competition was intense and buyers were overwhelmed with choice.

Briefs gives sellers access to fewer opportunities but each one is more specifically matched. A seller who receives three well-matched Briefs per week and converts one of them is in a better position than one who sent twenty generic Buyer Requests proposals and converted none.

The complaint that sellers miss Buyer Requests is understandable. But the experience of sending thirty proposals to no response is also not one most sellers look back on fondly. Briefs trades volume for relevance, and for sellers with well-positioned gigs, it produces better outcomes.

For improving your gig's keyword targeting to increase Brief matching relevance, see the Fiverr keyword research guide. For the complete getting started framework, see the Fiverr getting started guide.

Fiverr's Briefs system features and matching algorithm are updated periodically.