We live in a digital age where you can make money from the comfort of your home. If you want to make a little extra money? Paid surveys are an ideal way to earn money for not doing a lot. The more surveys you take, the more money you can make.
Taking surveys won't make you rich, and you probably won't be able to make a full-time job from it, but if you're looking to make small amounts of money frequently, then online paid surveys are an excellent way to do that.
In this article, you'll learn all about what paid surveys are, we'll introduce you to the best survey sites, and we'll explain how you can start earning money taking surveys online.
Provider | Score | Details |
---|---|---|
1. Google Opinion Rewards | ★★★★★ | Learn more |
2. Swagbucks | ★★★★★ | Learn more |
3. Opinion Outpost | ★★★★★ | Learn more |
4. YouGov | ★★★★★ | Learn more |
5. Branded Surveys | ★★★★★ | Learn more |
6. Toluna Influencers | ★★★★★ | Learn more |
7. Ipsos iSay | ★★★★★ | Learn more |
8. OnePoll | ★★★★★ | Learn more |
9. LifePoints | ★★★★★ | Learn more |
10. PrizeRebel | ★★★★★ | Learn more |
11. Prolific | ★★★★★ | Learn more |
What Are Paid Online Surveys?
A paid survey is a statistical survey that rewards you for your opinion. It's an incentive programme that helps brands, companies, and businesses learn more about their products, places and other information directly from users.
You can earn a small reward of cash, gift cards, or points or have your name put into prize draws. Each company will offer different rewards and different payout thresholds, and what money you make may differ between survey sites.
Online Surveys Pros and Cons
Although online surveys are low commitment, they're an easy way to earn money in exchange for a short amount of your time, and they still have pros and cons that we should explore.
Pros
✔️ Anyone can take surveys: anyone can get paid to take online surveys, and there are little to no requirements for who can take online surveys.
✔️ Extra money: you can make extra money by filling out our online surveys; they're low effort and don't require you to do a lot.
✔️ Share valuable feedback: when you're on the right paid survey sites, it can pay to have an opinion. By sharing your opinion, you're not only earning money, but you're helping a business improve and grow its services.
✔️ You complete paid surveys when it suits you: you can fill out online surveys whenever you have free time or want to. When you receive paid survey invitations, you may have a particular time to fill them out before they expire.
✔️ Accessible from any device: you can start taking online surveys on different devices, from your laptop or smartphone, whichever works best for you.
Cons
❌️ The pay is low: you won't become rich quickly from doing paid surveys and likely won't be able to make a full-time career, but it's an excellent way to earn extra money.
❌️ You may not qualify for every online survey: some online surveys are looking for specific feedback and are only relevant to some, so you may not meet the requirements.
❌️ Potential scam survey sites: you should be careful about what sites you use, as not all are reliable. To ensure you're not getting scammed, ensure you're on a trusted site.
❌️ Not all surveys pay out cash: some online survey sites pay in points or other rewards that aren't money.
Best Paid Online Surveys — Reviews
1. Google Opinion Rewards
- Reward type: money or credit
- Amount per complete survey: between 10p and £1
- Payment method: Google Play or PayPal
- Payout threshold: £2
With Google Opinion Rewards, you'll take short market research surveys, and in return, you can earn up to £1 per survey. There are 29 countries where you can use Google Opinion Rewards, including the UK, Australia, UAE, Italy, New Zealand, Singapore, and more.
All you need to start completing surveys for money with Google is to be 18 and over and own a smartphone so you can download the app on either Apple App Store or Google Play.
The app is easy to use, and you can fill out available surveys when you're able to from your smartphone. Once you meet the payout threshold of £2, you can use it in the Google Play Store or send it to your PayPal account.
The survey frequency will vary as Google sends surveys based on your location and demographics, so if you live in an area that's a low population, you may receive fewer surveys.
The survey topics include opinion polls, hotel reviews, and merchant satisfaction surveys. The convenient aspect of this survey site is that you'll be notified whenever a survey is ready. So you can spend time on something other than checking for new surveys.
You need to use your credits within a year from their earned date to avoid them expiring. In some countries, you can't change your earnings into PayPal rewards with Google Rewards, so look out for this before you try to cash out.
2. Swagbucks
- Reward type: money, voucher, and prize draw
- Amount per survey: 40 to 200 SB points
- Payment method: PayPal, gift cards and cash
- Payout threshold: 1 SB point
With Swagbucks, you can choose how you can cash out your SB points, so if you're looking for cash or gift cards, you can decide how you get paid. 100 SB works at $1.
Typically, Swagbucks users earn between $50 to $250. With this paid survey site, you'll take different online surveys like advertising effectiveness, brand recognition, product appeal, and service surveys.
Swagbucks runs a Member Recognition Program with ten reward levels you can reach based on your total lifetime earnings. The first level is Pearl which you achieve for earning $2.50, and the highest level is Diamond which you reach when earning $20,000.
Each tier has associated bonuses and cash prizes; once you reach the Ruby tier ($10,000), you'll get a one-time bonus of 15,000 SB, double SB on your following three surveys, quicker credit for online shopping and other additional perks. So, if you want to commit to completing surveys, Swagbuck will work for you.
The minimum age requirement to join Swagbucks is 13 years, with permission from a parent or guardian. In addition to surveys, you can earn rewards for playing games and trying new apps.
3. Opinion Outpost
- Reward type: Money and gift cards
- Amount per survey: 50p
- Payment method: PayPal and Amazon gift cards
- Payout threshold: £2.50
Opinion Outpost survey site allows you to earn points by filling in short online surveys for money and other rewards.
One point equals 10p, and you can typically make 50p per survey. Once you've completed registration, you'll receive regular emails inviting you to take surveys.
The types of surveys you'll come across are product tests, advert reviews, diary studies, focus groups, location-based services and Ad survey studies. You can participate in taking surveys if you're from the USA, Germany, Canada, and the UK.
There is no app for this survey site, but you can take surveys on computers, tablets, and mobile by searching for Opinion Outpost in your chosen browser.
You can take out your earnings via your PayPal account or exchange your points for gift cards for Amazon, iTunes, Uber Voucher, Curry's PC World, and more.
A significant factor about Opinion Outpost is that they donate $10,000 to the American Red Cross every month in honour of the time their panellists spend taking surveys there — this doesn't affect earnings but has a nice sentiment knowing that by taking surveys, you're helping a charity.
You can collect five levels (badges): bronze, silver, gold, platinum and diamond. As you take more surveys, your level will increase, and you'll be rewarded with bonus achievement points. To maintain your level, you need to keep regular activity.
4. YouGov
- Reward type: money or gift cards
- Amount per survey: 50p up to £3
- Payment method: bank transfer
- Payout threshold: £50
YouGov online surveys are pretty different to other survey sites as these surveys are based on current affairs issues, the TV you watch, opinions on famous people, films, TV shows, and brands, as well as your lifestyle, consumer habits and the products you use.
This survey site is a polling and market research survey company and allows anyone who lives in the UK and is over the age of 16 to participate in taking surveys. You can still earn money in countries like Australia, USM Singapore and others.
You earn points when you complete surveys. 100 points are equal to £1. You can cash out at £50 by bank transfer or exchange your points for a gift card from specific retailers like ASOS, Amazon, and more.
When you join this paid survey site, you'll receive a bonus of 100 points, and the first couple of surveys you complete may earn double points. It can take five to 20 minutes to complete a survey, and they tend to include up to 30 questions.
You can earn 200 additional points by referring a friend if they go on to fill in six surveys. YouGov will email you whenever a new survey is available, so you won't miss any opportunities to complete surveys.
You can earn even more points when YouGov invites selected survey respondents to join YouGov Pulse. With YouGov Pulse, it involves downloading an app on your smartphone or computer to track your internet usage to provide survey companies information on how real people browse the web.
5. Branded Surveys
- Reward type: money or gift cards
- Amount per survey: 5 up to 500 points
- Payment method: PayPal account, bank account (US only) or retail gift card
- Payout threshold: 500 points
The surveys and reviews you'll complete for Branded Surveys include social glimpse video testing, online focus groups, and product reviews.
Your opinions can help influence global brands, and you can participate in daily challenges, polls, and product and service offerings. You can access the Branded Surveys online. However, you have to download the app to participate in completing surveys.
One Branded Surveys point is $0.01, and different surveys payout different amounts. So, on daily polls, you can earn 5 to 10 points, and if you keep a poll streak, you can earn from 25 up to 100 points by taking one poll every day for 10 days.
When you fill out a survey, you can earn up to 300 points, and they typically can take up to 20 minutes to complete.
You can earn additional ongoing points for referring friends. You'll also get a percentage of everything they earn. If you've friends who are also interested in making money through paid survey sites, Branded Surveys can help you earn points quicker.
If you've got a competitive streak, you may enjoy the leaderboard feature, which allows you to track points earned by other survey respondents. Those who are in the top 10 earn an extra 10 points.
There are three badge levels in the Branded Elite Program: bronze, silver, and gold. The more surveys you complete, the higher your ranking will be. Each badge unlocks extra features and allows you to earn more points.
6. Toluna Influencers
- Reward type: gift instant win, vouchers, and money
- Amount per survey: 1,200 to 50,000 points
- Payment method: cash via PayPal transfer and high street gift cards
- Payout threshold: varies between rewards: you can enter a prize draw for 500 points or redeem 30,000 points for a voucher
Toluna influencers are all about paying surveys, market research surveys, focus groups, and product testing.
You can start filling out surveys for money by filling out your profile. You'll gain 500 points for registering and another 1,300 for completing your profile. 5,500 Toluna points are equivalent to £1.
If you've got plenty of time on your hands, consider this survey site, as you can access 5-10 surveys a week, sometimes even more. How many surveys you will be offered varies depending on where in the world you are and how relevant they are to you.
These surveys for money typically can range from 5 to 25 minutes. This survey site doesn't notify you when a new survey is available, so you'd have to check regularly to ensure you get all the surveys. You can download the app and get paid for completed surveys from your smartphone.
On top of earning money for a completed survey, you can earn points for playing games and watching videos. Toluna Influencer is one of the biggest survey panels with daily online surveys.
7. Ipsos iSay
- Reward type: money or gift cards
- Amount per survey: 150 points
- Payment method: PayPal or gift cards
- Payout threshold: £5
The survey site Ipsos iSay is powered by one of the world's leading market research companies Ipsos, which conducts more than 70 million interviews per year for more than 5,000 clients across various industries and in more than 100 countries.
You can help this research company by filling out surveys across a variety of topics and getting paid for doing so. You can participate in focus groups, watching videos, surveys and more.
The points you earn for each survey vary from topic to length. You can typically earn around 250 points for a 25-minute survey. 100 points is equal to £1. You can start redeeming your points for either money transferred into your PayPal account or exchange for a voucher.
You can get Decathlon, iTunes, John Lewis, Mastercard, Starbucks, and more gift cards. Your Ipsos iSay points won't expire as long as you remain an active member on the survey site.
You can access paid surveys online on their website or mobile app, allowing you to complete surveys on the go or in the comfort of your home. You'll be notified via email whenever a survey is ready. Most members receive at least one survey invitation every month.
8. OnePoll
- Reward type: Money or prize draws
- Amount per survey: 10p up to £1
- Payment method: Cash via PayPal or bank transfer
- Payout threshold: £25
The survey site OnePoll is all about market research, PR surveys, and you can join the OnePoll research panel.
OnePoll was one of the first survey sites in the UK. They have bases in London, Bristol, and New York. The surveys you'll find on this site are usually fun and quick to answer, and topics can range from celebrity culture to brand reviews and more. You get a £5 sign-up bonus when you join.
You can access OnePoll online or via the app, whichever is more convenient. With this survey site, you have to be aged 18 and over to participate in taking surveys. You won't be notified when an online survey is available, so you'll have to check your survey account frequently to make sure you don't miss any surveys.
If you live in one of the areas of their bases, you have a better chance of earning money, as they sometimes send invitations to members to participate in short video interviews, for 15 minutes you can earn up to £50.
9. LifePoints
- Reward type: money and gift cards
- Amount per survey: up to £1
- Payment method: Cash via PayPal or Amazon and high street gift cards
- Payout threshold: 550 LifePoints
With LifePoints, you're sent surveys that match your profile and interests.
Survey availability can depend on your demographic information and purchasing behaviour. The typical survey takes around 15 minutes and pays you 100 points.
When you sign up, you'll earn 10 LifePoints to kick-start your earnings. With this survey site, you can enter paid online surveys, record dairies, participate in product tests, and take mini-polls. You can cover a wide range of topics, like health, sport, travel, lifestyle and more.
You can swap your points for products, gift cards, e-certificates, or money transfers, or you can donate your rewards to charity. You can take surveys either on their website or via their app. You'll be notified by email every time a new survey is available, so you don't have to keep checking back for more surveys.
LifePoints run several fun contests and allow you to earn extra points. You can find all their giveaways in the Community section of the LifePoints panel. Contests can be straightforward, like liking and sharing a Facebook post or answering fun questions like guessing a country's flag.
10. PrizeRebel
- Reward type: money or gift cards
- Amount per survey: 20p up to £20
- Payment method: via PayPal or a gift card of your choosing
- Payout threshold: £2
With PrizeRebel, you can earn points by watching videos and completing offers on top of doing paid surveys.
With 15 years of experience, PrizeRebel has partnered with some of the world's most extensive market research and consumer companies to offer the most relevant surveys tailored to your profile.
Each point is worth 1p, and you can start using your points as soon as you've made 200 points. You can earn additional points daily for watching videos. You can buy raffle tickets to prize draws for as little as 10 points.
You can choose to save your points to either transfer the points into cash into your PayPal account or you can choose to exchange points for gift cards. You'll have a variety of choices for gift cards, with over 100 available from stores like Apple, Amazon, eBay, and more.
11. Prolific
- Reward type: Money
- Amount per survey: £1 up to £10
- Payment method: cash via PayPal
- Payout threshold: £20
If you're looking for a UK survey site that values your opinion and pays well for it, Prolific may be the right survey site for you.
Prolific was initially launched to help a researcher find participants for a study she was completing as part of her PhD since it's grown and become available to researchers worldwide to aid them in securing credible data sets for studies. Prolific connects researchers and relevant participants to help with marketing and scientific research.
This survey site rewards handsomely for good answers that bring value to their market research. Prolific is a high-end survey site, so surveys usually take 45 minutes to complete and payout up to £10 per survey. You can make money by completing surveys, recognition tasks, reaction tests, quizzes, and more.
Prolific uses pre-screening questions to determine your eligibility for any given survey. There are many questions you can choose to fill in — the more questions you answer, the more studies you'll become eligible for; however, participation isn't mandatory. It just helps bring you relevant surveys.
This survey website requires you to continue to give good answers to keep a high score. You may be screened out of most paid surveys if you drop below a certain level. There may be a waitlist when you join, and that's to ensure existing users can still part in a meaningful number of studies.
How to Choose the Right Survey Sites
All the survey sites from our best list are legitimate survey companies. However, not every survey site online will be.
You may look at paid surveys beyond the ones we've recommended, and we want to make sure you're not about to be scammed or have your time wasted. So, we've compiled a list of red flags to look out for when you're through survey sights.
Red flags to look out for when looking at other sites:
- Offering large payouts: paid survey sites typically don't pay all that well per survey. Most surveys will pay up to £20 at best; most are on the lower end of 50p or below per survey. If a survey site offers more than this, that's a red flag and not a good sign, especially if the payout appears to be higher than all over survey sites.
- Asks for confidential information: the most information a survey site should ask for is your postcode, anything beyond that is a red flag. If survey sites ask for specific details or come across as intrusive, you should reconsider using those survey sites.
- You have to pay fees: reliable survey sites are free. If a survey is asking you to pay a fee, stay clear. Surveys are research-based, and help companies become better, and they compensate survey participants for their valued opinions and don't expect survey takers to pay.
- Concerning payment methods: most online survey sites offer payment methods like bank transfer, cash via PayPal or gift cards. If a payment method they suggest looks out of place and unlike other survey sites, this could be a red flag.
These are just the main red flags to keep out. To ensure you're using the best paid survey sites that are the safest, we've compiled a short list of precautions you can take to see for yourself if a survey site is reliable.
Take the following precautions to ensure you don't get scammed by a fake online survey:
- Check for reviews: checking for reviews from real-life people about paid survey sites is a great way to see if a website is a legitimate survey site or not. Google the survey site and check what other people are saying about it. Stay clear if the site has inadequate or no reviews.
- Clearly outlined privacy policy: the best survey sites you can rely on will have a clearly outlined privacy policy. You should check that any potential data is private and only used for research.
- Lookout for get-rich-quick tactics: paid surveys will not make you get-rich-quick, you may earn a couple hundred a month by doing surveys for multiple survey companies, but you won't get rich overnight. You should avoid any site that promises a high payout per survey or has a clickbait approach to get you to sign up.
- Don't give away too much personal information: surveys are about market research. However, they should not ask invasive questions like your exact address or intrusive questions that could identify you in real life. Always be wary of the information you've given out when you complete surveys.
How Do Online Survey Sites Work?
Market research companies survey sites to help gain valued opinions and thoughts on products, services, lifestyles and even world problems.
Surveys are a great way to conduct online market research, and millions of people take advantage of paid survey opportunities. To entice people to share their thoughts and fill out surveys, they offer participants to get paid for their time.
Most survey sites have a point system, you collect points per completed survey, and you can't cash out until you meet the payout threshold. Thresholds vary between survey sites, as do how many points you get paid per survey.
Typically, surveys pay a small amount, so it's tough to make a full-time career from filling out surveys. However, taking paid surveys is ideal if you're looking for a small passive income.
Filling out surveys doesn't take very long, usually a couple of minutes, sometimes up to 25 minutes. There are a few options for getting paid from a survey site; typically, you can get a cash transfer into your PayPal account or gift cards.
Find the Best Paid Survey Sites
We have included a wide variety of top survey sites that are available to you, and we've considered the following factors:
- Reward type: rewards will vary between survey sites. Some will offer rewards like prize draws, and most paid surveys pay with cash or gift card, sometimes both.
- Amount per survey: some sites pay more than others per survey. Consider survey sites with a higher payout amount to make the most money possible.
- Payment method: If you've not got a PayPal account, look for sites that offer payment by gift card or money transfers into your bank account.
- Payout threshold: some survey sites have a low payout threshold, and some have a high one. If you want to cash out as soon as possible, you may want to consider a site with a low payout threshold.
These features let you know what you're doing, how much you're earning and when you'll get paid.
Sign Up and Begin Filling Out Paid Surveys
When you sign up for survey accounts, they'll allow you to sign via email. Most survey sites will send you survey invitations via email with relevant surveys to start filling out. Some sites don't notify you, so you may have to check back on the site daily.
The number of surveys you can do will vary between online survey panels. Some sites will allow you to earn additional points by watching videos and filling out daily online surveys.
Having a range of survey sites you switch between in your spare time is a great way to collect more points for your valued opinions. Taking online surveys is a great way to pass the time and earn a little for filling out new surveys.
Collect and Get Paid
Although you're realistically only going to make pennies per survey, you can work to build your points up across the survey sites you use. Many participants let their points build, and they'll cash out when they've reached their personal goal. Setting yourself a realistic goal for how much you make is an excellent way to measure your earnings from survey websites.
Once you've met a survey website's payment threshold, you can redeem your points. You can choose to have the cash in your account, or you can choose to be paid with gift cards.
Final Thoughts
Now that you've introduced the more reliable paid online surveys, you can start making money by completing surveys.
If you want to make the most money possible from completed surveys, look into applying for multiple online survey sites, maximise your free time, and create different streams of passive income.
Finding the most compatible online survey sites for you is quite easy. If you prefer online surveys via your smartphone, consider the surveys site with apps like branded surveys, Google Opinion Rewards, and Ipsos iSay.
Think about what works best for you and choose the suitable survey sites from our best list that can help you get paid. With one or more of the best-paid survey sites from our list, you can add extra money to your monthly income.
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