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Taking online surveys is one of the quickest ways to make extra cash.
Our testing shows you can earn $10 to $40 monthly by completing a few surveys daily from the right mix of sites and apps.
For this article, we identified the best sites and apps based on the following criteria:
- Reasonable pay rates.
- Low minimum withdrawals.
- A large inventory of surveys.
- Effective pre-screening.
- Good reputation.
- Excellent mobile experience.
Every app on this list has been extensively tested, and we have data revealing how much we made per hour.
#1: Survey Junkie
We earned $3.75 per hour during our testing of Survey Junkie.
While Survey Junkie doesn’t have the highest hourly rate on our list, it offers one of the largest inventories of surveys. Other higher-rated sites often have limited surveys, meaning you might only earn a few dollars a month. With Survey Junkie, you can potentially earn a lot more due to the higher availability of surveys.
The site also features a mobile app, a low $5 minimum payout, and offers additional earning opportunities, such as product testing and focus groups, which can pay up to $100 each.
Filling out profile surveys and using their Pulse browser extension helped increase our survey qualification rate.
- Minimum payment: $5.
- Payment options: PayPal, bank transfers, virtual gift cards.
- Sign-up bonus: None.
- Time to credit: Instant.
- Time to receive: 1 to 4 business days.
Sign up here or read our Survey Junkie review to learn more.
#2: Rakuten Insight
We tested Rakuten Insight for a month, earning an average pay-per-hour of $9.62.
That makes the platform one of the best-paying survey sites we’ve tested by a fairly wide margin. Plus, the site offers quick and easy surveys that are usually 5 to 10 questions about your habits and preferences, and which usually take just a couple of minutes to complete.
However, the number of surveys is very limited. We were invited to only 18 surveys and completed 13 in 30 days. In total, we earned $4.01.
- Minimum payment: $5.
- Payment options: PayPal cash or Amazon gift cards.
- Sign-up bonus: None.
- Time to credit: Instant.
- Time to receive: Payments are issued automatically every week to users who have accumulated at least $5 in their account.
Sign up here or check out our in-depth Rakuten Insight review.
#3: Swagbucks
Swagbucks offers a large inventory of surveys but excels when combining surveys with activities like cash-back shopping, playing games and completing offers.
We earned an average of $20 per hour by leveraging these various opportunities.
While surveys and small tasks pay less, signup offers and cash-back shopping can yield higher earnings (sometimes up to $100 for a single offer).
- Minimum payment: $3.
- Payment options: PayPal cash or gift cards for most major retailers.
- Sign-up bonus: $10 for spending $25.
- Time to credit: Varies by activity; instant to 90 days.
- Time to receive: 1 to 4 business days for most options.
Sign up here or learn more about the site in our Swagbucks review.
#4: User Interviews
User Interviews is the best-paying platform on this list, though it requires more time commitment. Instead of traditional surveys, you provide feedback on products, apps and websites, usually via video chat.
During our testing, we completed eight studies and earned $360 for 4 hours and 51 minutes of work, resulting in a final pay-per-hour of $55. However, most studies take 30 to 60 minutes and must be conducted during business hours, which may not suit everyone.
You can apply to studies based on your demographics and interests. The application process involves answering a few screening questions to determine your eligibility.
- Minimum payment: None.
- Payment options: Gift cards (no cash payment options).
- Sign-up bonus: None.
- Time to credit: Upon completion.
- Time to receive: Average of three days.
Sign up here or learn more about how the site works in our User Interviews review.
#5: Branded Surveys
During our Branded Surveys test, we earned $5.06 after 2 hours and 18 minutes, averaging $2.20 per hour.
While the disqualification rate is high at 81%, the platform offers a large inventory of surveys, ensuring there’s almost always something available. The site’s ease of use and quick cash-out process make it worth checking out, as experiences can vary based on your demographic.
Additionally, Branded Surveys has a loyalty program called Branded Elite, where you can earn bonus points by maintaining consistent activity on the platform. This can boost your earnings if you frequently participate.
- Minimum payment: $5.
- Payment options: PayPal, bank deposits, virtual gift cards, charitable donations.
- Sign-up bonus: 50 cents.
- Time to credit: Instant.
- Time to receive: 1 to 3 business days.
Sign up here or read our Branded Surveys review to learn more.
#6: SurveyMonkey Rewards
We earned $13.56 per hour during our testing period (one of the best pay rates of all the survey sites we’ve tested). The app features short surveys (typically five minutes or less), an easy-to-use interface, and a low minimum cash-out amount of $5.
The only factor preventing SurveyMonkey Rewards from ranking higher on this list is the relatively low number of surveys available. You can only take the surveys you’re invited to — unlike some sites, there’s no dashboard with surveys to choose from — and we only received a couple of invitations (sent via push notification) per week.
As a result, hitting the $5 minimum for withdrawal still took a few weeks of use, despite the high per-hour pay rate.
- Minimum payment: $5.
- Payment options: Amazon gift cards or charity donations.
- Sign-up bonus: None.
- Time to credit: Instantly.
- Time to receive: Instantly.
Sign up here or learn more in our SurveyMonkey Rewards review.
#7: Toluna
We tested Toluna for five hours, attempting 50 surveys and completing 20.
Our earnings reached $3.43 per hour, which is above average among survey sites offering short-form questionnaires (10 minutes or less to complete).
One of the big downsides we encountered was a 64% disqualification rate. Additionally, Toluna is a survey aggregator, which means you’ll take surveys in many different formats — not all of which are equally user-friendly or optimized for a mobile screen.
Still, the large inventory of surveys and relatively good pay make the site worth looking into.
- Minimum payment: $10.
- Payment options: Transfers to your PayPal account, paper checks, and virtual gift cards.
- Sign-up bonus: 500 points (about 18 cents).
- Time to credit: 20 minutes to several days.
- Time to receive: Up to three weeks.
Sign up here or learn more in our Toluna Surveys review.
#8: Respondent
Respondent is an online focus group platform that pays you to participate in marketing and research studies. We earned $31 per hour during our testing, though we were selected for only one of the 24 studies we applied to, resulting in a 95% rejection rate.
The platform offers various study formats, primarily conducted via video chat, including one-on-one interviews, focus groups, and providing written comments on your experience with a product.
While the application process is straightforward and typically takes just a few minutes, you can only apply to three studies per day.
- Minimum payment: None.
- Payment options: PayPal.
- Sign-up bonus: None.
- Time to credit: Upon completion.
- Time to receive: Average of five days.
Sign up here or learn more in our Respondent review.
#9: Google Opinion Rewards
During our nearly two months of testing, we earned $5.56, averaging $22.24 per hour for the limited time spent on surveys. While this hourly average sounds impressive, the opportunities to take surveys are very limited.
You get infrequent opportunities to take short surveys (of typically a minute or less) and the pay is between 10 cents and $1 each. Enabling location tracking may increase your chances of receiving more surveys.
- Minimum payment: $2 for PayPal cash, no minimum for Google Play credit.
- Payment options: PayPal or Google Play credit.
- Sign-up bonus: None.
- Time to credit: Instantly upon survey completion, though some credits may take up to a few days.
- Time to receive: PayPal payments are issued automatically at $2; Google Play credits can be cashed out anytime.
Sign up here or learn more in our Google Opinion Rewards review.
#10: InboxDollars
InboxDollars pays you for completing simple tasks like filling out surveys, playing games and reading emails. The site has paid over $60 million in rewards, and the per-survey pay rate is high compared to other platforms.
However, there are a couple of notable drawbacks to the site.
First, the inventory of surveys is limited. You’re only shown 10 surveys at a time, and there’s no way to dismiss them or search for others if you don’t like their payout for the estimated time required. And second, InboxDollars has an unusually high minimum withdrawal amount of $15.
- Minimum payment: $15 for the first withdrawal, then $10 for future withdrawals.
- Payment options: PayPal, paper checks, virtual gift cards, and prepaid Visa cards.
- Sign-up bonus: $5.
- Time to credit: Between 15 minutes and three weeks.
- Time to receive: Three business days for PayPal and three to five business days for virtual gift cards; paper checks are mailed once per week.
Sign up here or read our InboxDollars review to learn more.
#11: PrizeRebel
During our test period, we completed nine of the 31 surveys attempted, resulting in a 71% disqualification rate and ultimately earning $5.53. This meant we had an average earning rate of $1.46 per hour.
PrizeRebel operates as a survey aggregator, connecting users with surveys from various market research companies. This setup can lead to different, and sometimes frustrating, experiences with each survey.
- Minimum payment: $2 for gift cards and $5 for PayPal.
- Payment options: PayPal or virtual gift cards.
- Sign-up bonus: None.
- Time to credit: Instant.
- Time to receive: Up to three weeks.
Sign up here or learn more in our PrizeRebel review.
How to Maximize Your Survey Earnings
The following tips will help you earn as much as you can in as little time (and with as little effort) as possible.
Tip #1: Use a Separate Email Address
The first thing you should do before signing up for any survey website is create a separate email address specifically for the purpose of taking surveys. Simply put, you don’t want your regular inbox bombarded by the offers you’ll receive, as some sites send surveys every few minutes.
Tip #2: Complete Every Profile/Demographic Survey You’re Offered
The highest paying online surveys are those that target specific demographic niches, so it’s important to answer every profile questionnaire you’re offered.
This is usually the first thing you’ll be prompted to do when you join a survey platform, and most users know they need to provide basic details like their household size, age, and income level.
However, most survey sites will continue prompting you to provide additional demographic information over time. And while these may not be the surveys that pay the most (often, they pay very little), they can help you unlock those more lucrative niche studies.
Plus, a survey company may use this information for pre-screening purposes — which means you’ll have a lower disqualification rate and waste less time trying to complete surveys you’re not qualified for.
Tip #3: Go Fast But Answer Correctly
To maximize your time when taking paid online surveys, you obviously have to work quickly. But you also have to answer your surveys honestly and in a way that makes sense.
Market research companies are smart, and they have a vested interest in making sure they’re getting real data to share with their customers (i.e., the brands that pay them for insights into consumer behavior and preferences).
So they build quality control checks into their surveys to ensure that you’re paying attention and answering honestly. Examples of this are asking the same question in two different ways to see if you contradict yourself, and asking questions that require you to select a specific option or “none of the above.”
If you don’t take the time to actually read the survey instructions and the question details, you might disqualify yourself from not only that particular survey, but from the platform as a whole. And on top of that, many survey sites use these QC checks to grade your performance, doling out the best surveys to the users with the highest scores.
How to Stay Away From Survey Site Scams
To avoid survey site scams, stick with companies that have good user ratings. But equally important is looking for companies with a lot of ratings. Don’t be fooled by a site that might have a few misleading reviews.
Beyond that, here are some tips:
- Never pay to join a site. Legit survey sites are always 100% free to use.
- Ask yourself whether there’s evidence of people getting paid for their time — such as thousands of positive App Store reviews. There are many survey sites that aren’t scams per se, but which make it next to impossible to earn enough money to cash out. These sites benefit from collecting your data with no intention of ever paying you.
- Avoid spending the points you earn on sweepstakes entries. Your chances of winning are astronomically low, so in most cases you end up working for free.
Get Paid to Take Surveys: Closing Thoughts
Based on our findings, here’s a breakdown of the top survey sites by category:
As we’ve said countless times on this site, it bears repeating: answering surveys and using money-making apps will never make you rich or serve as a meaningful source of income.
But if you enjoy answering surveys and go into it with realistic expectations about the potential reward — perhaps a free Amazon gift card or a little bit of extra cash every month — they can be a great way to monetize your bits and pieces of downtime.
