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As far as ways to make extra money go, taking surveys is one of the easiest. Paid online surveys are one of the best side hustles for anyone with a bit of extra time because they don’t require certain skills and you can do them whenever you want. Earning money taking surveys is legit, and the top survey sites and platforms offer the most opportunity with the least effort.
To help you make taking surveys for money more rewarding, we’ve put together a list of the best online survey sites based on reward variety, payout speed, user experience, and tasks available. A few of our top recommendations include Survey Junkie, Inbox Dollars, and Swagbucks.
How we evaluate products
To compile this list of the best survey sites, we looked at popular survey sites and evaluated them on a variety of factors including:
- Payout options
- Customer ratings
- Payout speed
- Opportunities to earn
We didn’t evaluate all survey sites, but tried to include a variety of options that would appeal to a wide range of people.
Best paid survey sites
Survey Junkie
Best user experience for paid surveys
Qualifications: You must be at least 18 years old and live in the U.S., Canada, Australia, or the United Kingdom.
Product details: Survey Junkie is a popular survey site that offers two ways to make money:
- Answering surveys: Share your opinions to earn points you can redeem for rewards
- Surf to Earn: Help companies by sharing your internet surfing habits with the Surf to Earn extension so they can conduct behavioral market research
We’ve found Survey Junkie’s platform to be one of the easiest to use in our testing because its interface is uncomplicated and the payouts are clear. The competition is high on Survey Junkie because it’s one of the best and most popular paid survey sites, so I suggest acting on invitations quickly as they are first-come, first-served. I’ve seen invitations fill up within less than an hour, especially on higher paying surveys.
You’ll know before starting a survey how much it pays. This will help you determine whether a survey is worth your time, which isn’t always clear with other sites that pay you to take surveys.
Pro tip for using Survey Junkie
My best tip to get the most opportunities for surveys on Survey Junkie is to complete your profile as much as possible. The more information you provide, the more surveys the company can match you with.
Payout options:
- Gift cards
- PayPal cash
- Bank transfer
Read our Survey Junkie review.
InboxDollars
Best for earning opportunities besides surveys
Qualifications: You must be at least 18 years old and live in the United States.
Product details: InboxDollars is more than a survey site. You can also earn money playing games, shopping, watching videos, and reading emails. Surveys can be lower paying than other apps; according to InboxDollars, pay is usually $0.02 to $5.
Like Survey Junkie, InboxDollars is one of the less complex survey sites we’ve tried. We like that the platform rewards you in dollars, so you don’t have to convert points or wonder how much an activity is worth. But we especially like that you can get paid to take surveys, play games, and even just read emails. Taking survey after survey can get tiresome, and InboxDollars makes it easy to pivot from one money-making task to the next.
You’ll get more out of this survey site if you don’t limit yourself to surveys since you won’t always qualify to take them and the payouts can be on the lower side.
Pro tip for using InboxDollars
Take advantage of the referral bonus program. The company will pay $3 per referral you send using your referral link, plus 10% of the referral’s earnings. To earn the initial $3 referral bonus, your referral must earn at least $3 on the platform. You also get a $5 bonus just for signing up.
Payout options:
- Gift cards
- PayPal cash
- Prepaid Visa
Read our InboxDollars review.
Swagbucks
Best for finding cash back offers and coupons
Qualifications: You must be at least 13 years old, but have parental permission if under 18
Product details: Swagbucks is a get-paid-to site, like InboxDollars, that offers opportunities to answer surveys and complete other tasks, like watching videos, playing games, shopping online, and signing up for offers.
Why include a shopping app in this list of paid survey sites? Swagbucks stood out to us in our research because it offers other opportunities to earn money besides paid surveys, with unique savings opportunities you won’t see with many sites. It’s one of the best coupon websites we’ve found, with cash back offers and discounts at thousands of retailers. We recommend Swagbucks over the other platforms on this list if you’d benefit from a combined survey site to make money and a coupon site to save it.
Pro tip for using Swagbucks
Swagbucks rewards users in points called Swagbucks (SBs) for answering surveys and participating in other opportunities. An SB is worth one penny, and surveys pay an average of $0.50 to $2.50. This is somewhat lower than other survey sites on this list, so make sure you’re taking advantage of shopping offers to maximize your earnings and savings.
One downside is how long it takes to receive rewards with Swagbucks. Once you cash out, it can take up to 14 days to receive a PayPal reward and gift cards come via regular mail.
Payout options:
- Gift cards
- Prepaid credit cards
- PayPal
Read our Swagbucks review.
Best for earning money playing games
Qualifications: You must be at least 13 years old.
Product details: Freecash is a bit like Swagbucks in that it’s a get-paid-to survey site you can use to earn money for various activities, including playing games.
Freecash is one of the best game apps that pays real money, and it also happens to be one of the survey sites we recommend most. It’s available for both iOS and Android devices, unlike many rewards apps like it, and the two main opportunities to earn money are by taking paid surveys and playing games. You’ll get paid to advance in a variety of mobile games, and you can choose the ones you’ll be best at to earn the most money (other paid gaming apps will reward you just for logging time in a partner game, but Freecash can potentially be more lucrative if you’re actually good).
According to Freecash, the average user can expect to earn as much as $12 a day. This is competitive for a survey site, but this estimate assumes you’re playing games, too. Choose Freecash if you know you’ll get bored just taking surveys and/or are really good at video games.
Pro tip for using Freecash
Pay close attention to limited-time deals and promotions with Freecash. These will be some of the highest earning opportunities, whether for surveys, games, or both.
Payout options:
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PayPal
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Bank transfers
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Gift cards to Amazon, Visa, Google Play Store, and Apple Store, potentially among others
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Stake.com (for non-U.S. residents)
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Stake.us (for U.S. residents)
Read our Freecash review.
Another paid survey and game app we recommend
Branded Surveys
Best for taking surveys frequently
Qualifications: You must be 17 years old or older and live in the United States
Product details: Like Survey Junkie, Branded Surveys offers a variety of survey opportunities. But unlike Survey Junkie, you can earn bonus points just for taking more surveys with Branded Surveys.
Branded Surveys stands out from other survey platforms on this list primarily for its Branded Elite Program, which consists of the following tiers:
- Bronze: Answer at least two surveys monthly
- Silver: Answer at least 10 surveys monthly
- Gold: Answer at least 25 surveys monthly
You earn the tier badges monthly based on the previous month’s performance and can earn a bonus — between 5% and 19% — when you take 12, 20, or 30 surveys per week. This is why we recommend Branded Surveys for anyone who wants to use taking surveys for money as a regular side hustle. Other survey sites that are more competitive, like Survey Junkie, may be more difficult to take many surveys with. But if you want to do this on a regular basis, choose Branded Surveys. According to the survey site, members could earn $5 to $100 a month.
Pro tip for using Branded Surveys
It’s still possible to not qualify for surveys with this site, so make sure to fill out your demographic information completely and honestly in your profile to potentially avoid being screened out mid-survey.
Payout options:
- Gift cards
- PayPal cash
- Bank deposit
Read our Branded Surveys review.
Prime Opinion
Best for high-paying surveys
Qualifications: You must be at least 18 years old and live in one of 20+ countries, including the United States, Australia, France, Canada, and Spain
Product details: Prime Opinion is yet another paid survey site we suggest, though this one is still relatively new compared to heavy hitters like Survey Junkie and InboxDollars.
Prime Opinion touts itself as one of the highest-paying survey sites out there. According to the site, it pays up to $5 per survey, which is much higher than the average you’ll find with many of its competitors. It’s also unique for not having a payout minimum. Overall, we’ll be keeping a close eye on this platform to see how it competes with more established options in the long term, but we’re excited about its potential and feel comfortable recommending anyone check it out if they’re looking to try to earn more money per survey.
Pro tip for using Prime Opinion
Prime Opinion doesn’t seem to be great about alerting you to new survey opportunities, so make a habit of checking the site for new surveys to make sure you get a chance at qualifying.
Payout options:
- Cash
- Gift cards
- Prepaid cards
- Charitable donations
Learn more about Prime Opinion.
Our tips for earning more money taking surveys
Here are a few of our top tips for making more money with this side hustle.
Create a separate email
Creating a separate email for survey invitations ensures you won’t miss important opportunities to earn money. It also keeps your personal inbox decluttered since you’ll get a lot of notifications about new surveys and platform updates, which can get noisy if you’re also getting doctor’s appointment reminders and bills.
Use multiple survey sites
Instead of using just one paid survey site, use several. That way, when you inevitably get screened out of surveys you try to take, you have more opportunities available to you to try again.
Evaluate your ROI
Time is money, so it’s important to evaluate how much you’re earning for the time you spend taking surveys. If you sign up for sites like Freecash or Swagbucks, don’t forget to take into account anything you spend on special offers or deals. Ensure you aren’t impulse buying or spending too much and not earning enough in return.
Safety tip
Although legitimate survey companies like the ones we’ve featured here do their best to keep you and your data safe, things happen. If you plan on spending your time on these highly-trafficked sites, be sure to install some anti-malware software to keep your computer and personal data safe.
FAQs
Why do companies pay you to take surveys?
Companies pay you to take surveys because it’s one of the best ways for them to get the information they need to successfully sell their products. By understanding your needs and wants as a consumer, companies are better able to improve their product offerings and focus on selling the stuff people really want to buy.
Can you really make money taking surveys?
Although taking surveys is far from a get-rich-quick scheme, you can definitely earn a bit of pocket cash by taking them with legit survey sites. The key is to set your expectations accordingly.
If you’re wondering how to make $1,000 a day, surveys won’t be the answer. Rather than trying to save up for a new car, think of this easy extra income as a way to fuel your expensive coffee addiction or afford that extra streaming service you’ve been wanting.
The amount you make will depend on the number of surveys you qualify for and take. It won’t be a full-time job, and it’s not best for earning a lot of money fast, but it can give your budget a boost.
Which survey sites pay the most?
It can be hard to determine the highest-paying survey sites, and it’s even harder to determine which ones pay the best. In general, you can expect most points from these companies to be worth 1 cent each, which means 500 points equals $5, though this isn’t always the case.
How much you earn will depend a lot on how many companies you sign up with and what they need. For example, sometimes a company focuses on a certain demographic, so you might not have as many surveys available to take. This is why it’s important to learn as much as you can about what each company offers and whether there are any limits on your participation.
Are survey websites a scam?
Although I can confidently say that none of the survey companies on this list are a scam, that doesn’t mean others aren’t. You should always be cautious when giving your information out to any website or service online. If a company seems fishy, don’t share your info.
Consumer protection sites like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the BBB are great resources for checking the validity of any given company before using their products or services.
Bottom line
Taking surveys won’t make you rich, but it is a fun and easy side hustle. Although there are lots of ways to earn money on the side, surveys are a particularly great side hustle for introverts or anyone with an internet connection and a little spare time.
Because all survey sites work differently, it’s worth taking the time to get to know each one and choosing a combination that works for you without being frustrating. Sign up for a few if you’re serious about making extra money with paid surveys.
Wide variety of short opinion surveys available
Earn cash payments via PayPal or gift cards from popular brands
Low $5 minimum cash-out requirement
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2025-01-14 00:33:59
