Online surveys provide ways to earn beer money with minimal effort. Giving your opinion online through online surveys is certainly an easy way to earn quick cash. But where can you find the highest paying online surveys? It’s not always easy.
Taking surveys for money may not provide as high an hourly return as other higher-side activities. But the nice thing about it is that it gives you the opportunity to earn money while you wait in line at Starbucks or sit in the parent line at your child’s school.
Sound interesting? If so, keep reading to learn how paid online surveys work, what you can expect to earn, and where to find the best paying online surveys.
What are paid surveys?
Getting paid to take surveys is exactly what it sounds like. You sign up for a survey site and complete online surveys. The online survey company pays you a small amount for completing the survey. In most cases, you’ll earn less than $0.25 per completed survey, and surveys take 5-30 minutes to complete.
Paid online surveys are legitimate, but they are not a get-rich-quick scheme. In fact, they’re not even a get-rich-slow scheme. Check out our 10 rules for getting rich and growing wealth.
Paid surveys are actually tasks to complete when you’re bored working at the library circulation desk, working hours as an RA, or in between rounds of security duty. By participating in the survey, you can earn a little money during these “dead” times that appear throughout the day.
Where can I find online surveys that pay money?
Are the ideas of making money online by giving your opinion still attractive to you? If so, these are our best survey sites right now.
1. Survey addict
Compared to other survey companies, Survey Junkie tends to offer slightly higher payouts (think $2 to $3 per survey). However, these surveys can take 10 to 15 minutes to complete and may involve watching some videos. Survey Junkie has a mobile app, but I only prefer to use it when I have a strong WiFi signal because it can extract data quickly. The minimum payout at Survey Junkie is $10.
Read the full Survey Junkie review.
Sign-up bonus: no one
2. Inbox in dollars
InboxDollars provides the opportunity to earn money through surveys, online tasks, and location-based tasks (such as scanning items in stores). With relatively low payouts, and a minimum payout of $30, I wouldn’t normally recommend InboxDollars. However, it does have some sort of “daily” gamble that is a nice little bonus (think $25 to $1 on most days) which might make it worthwhile.
Read our full InboxDollar review.
Sign-up bonus: $5
Get a $5 bonus when you sign up!
3. Swagbucks
Swagbucks has been around since 2005 and offers survey takers the opportunity to earn a few bucks a month. I found it difficult to multitask and take surveys while watching TV. But the Swagbucks mobile app makes it easy to take surveys during your morning bus ride. Earning potential peaks around $5 to $10 per month. The minimum cashout is $25.
Read our full Swagbucks review.
Sign-up bonus: $5
Get a $5 bonus when you sign up!
4. Free cash
Freecash is a survey and rewards portal that is very transparent about the earnings and rewards available.
What we like about Freecash is that they display a lot of stats on how much people actually earn on their platform. For example, as of the time of writing this article, each user has earned $21.26 on average, and 17 minutes is the average time it takes a user to get their first payout.
Read our full Freecash review here.
5. YouGov
YouGov lets you earn points for filling out surveys. Points can be redeemed for rewards, such as Amazon and PayPal gift cards.
YouGov has a lot of great survey opportunities and there aren’t that many members yet. This means there are plenty of opportunities to earn rewards here!
6. My points
MyPoints is a “points” rewards site that has a survey component. Based on the low returns, I wouldn’t rush to recommend MyPoints as a primary survey site. However, the cashback opportunities may make a MyPoints subscription alone. And when you set up an account, you may find some surveys that can boost you toward your next bonus sooner.
Read our full MyPoints review.
Sign-up bonus: $5 after taking 5 surveys
7. Toluna
Toluna is one of the most innovative surveying companies. If you love social media, you might be excited about the ways you can interact with people while trying to learn more about your next big purchase. Regarding surveys, you will earn about 100 points for 10-20 minutes of work. Unfortunately, a pip only translates to about a quarter of a dime.
Read our full Toluna review here.
Sign-up bonus: 500 additional points
8. Branded surveys
Brand Surveys is based on a simple premise: complete surveys, earn rewards, and cash them out at great companies.
Just like all the other companies on this list, you can sign up for free and start participating in surveys and earning points that you can redeem for gift cards.
It’s as clear as it gets.
Sign-up bonus: no one
9. User testing
UserTesting is not an official survey site. But you complete tasks and provide feedback. In exchange for feedback, you earn around $10 per 20-30 minute testing session. All payments are made via PayPal.
Sign-up bonus: no one
10. Main opinion
Prime Opinion is a newer online survey platform that lets you earn points for filling out surveys, which you can then redeem for cash. Unlike other platforms, they try to provide a lot of surveys for users to fill out. When we reviewed the platform, they had over 1,000 surveys available.
The minimum redemption is $1 for ACH or Venmo, but if you want a gift card, you’ll need to redeem at least $20 in points.
Read our full Prime Opinion review here.
Sign-up bonus: Use bonus code thecollegeinvestor10 to earn 10% extra points for 7 days.
11. Outpost opinion
Through Opinion Outpost you can earn money for completing surveys. There is an annoying habit of forcing users to complete a number of “pre-survey” surveys before telling you that you don’t qualify for the real one. However, earnings on a per-survey basis can be decent, and the maximum withdrawal limit is only $5 (50 points) for an Amazon gift card.
Sign-up bonus: no one
12. Nielsen Digital Voice
Nielsen lets you download the browser extension and browse as you normally would. It collects data from you, and enters you for a chance to win $10,000 (every month). Members may also occasionally be invited to take surveys to earn rewards or additional sweepstakes entries.
Sign-up bonus: no one
Can I earn real money from online surveys?
It depends. If by “real” you mean actual cash (rather than just points or credits), the answer is yes. But if by “real money” you mean A a lot Of money, the answer would most likely be no. In my experience, most paid survey apps and sites have low payouts resulting in earnings of around $05 per minute ($3 per hour) when your internet is moving fast.
Even when I was in the “most in-demand” demographic of middle-income mom with kids, I rarely earned more than $0.20 per minute through surveys. However, some companies (most notably L&E Opinions) prefer survey participants when selecting focus groups for market research. When I was selected to participate in a focus group, I typically earned about $50 to $100 per hour and enjoyed some free samples.
However, my meager earnings should not necessarily dissuade you from participating in surveys. A friend makes an online survey game. She takes it when she is at the doctor’s office or dental office for one of her children. For the past several years, she has been paying for her Christmas gifts solely with paid surveys and market research money.
Is there any good printing?
One of the most annoying parts of many of the most popular survey and rewards sites is the minimum payment requirements. Many have minimum payouts ranging from $5 to $20 or more.
Often times, you can get a $10 bonus for signing up, but you have to reach the $20 bonus amount before you “realize” the bonus. Unless you are willing to spend a few hours doing surveys, you will never get paid. Meanwhile, you’ve given away a bunch of valuable demographic information for free.
I’ve also found that many survey sites suffer from poor pre-screening. This means that you will end up spending 3-4 minutes filling out demographic information and then be rejected from the survey. Aside from these drawbacks, these survey companies offer a legitimate way to earn a small amount of money. Although you won’t get rich, reputable companies will pay you as agreed.
