Contributors: This is the definitive guide to finding online paid research studies that you can earn from.
Today you’ll learn:
- What online paid research is
- What types of research you could participate in
- Legit places to find well paying research studies you can do from home
- Tips on how to succeed making money from paid research
I’ve spent a week researching and learning about all the different places you can earn cash from taking part in studies.
🏆 Best Sites for Paid Research Studies
If you’re in a hurry, these are the top sites we recommend:
🌎 Worldwide
🇺🇸 Inside USA
Keep scrolling for more info and resources.
Jump to…
🤔 What Is Online Paid Research?
Online paid research is a broad term. It mainly includes activities like:
- Focus Groups
Providing feedback with a bigger group of testers or participants. - In-home Interviews
Talking directly with people over the phone or internet. - One-on-one Interviews
Sharing your opinion via video conferencing software. - Answering Questionnaires
Giving feedback to short questions based on your opinions or experiences. - Taste / Product Testing
Receiving a “first-look” at products and testing them. - Mock Trial / Mock Jury
Participating in a simulated court trial to help legal workers train.
You’ll sometimes see paid research called “paid studies” or “paid focus groups” too.
Generally you’ll be providing companies information about their products or services to help them improve. Or you might be helping scientists or researchers gather information about things like diseases or human behavior.
The subject of research can be varied.
Note that we differentiate between paid research studies and paid surveys, though there can be some overlap. Both are considered GetPaidTo (GPT), but you’ll usually earn more money with research studies.
🤑 How Much Do Research Studies Pay?
Typically, research studies can pay anything between $8 – $450 per hour.
While generally not a consistent source of income, they can be a great way to earn some extra money.
An example of a paid online research study that many people could potentially qualify for:
Potential earnings rely on a few factors:
- Method of research
Online studies tend to pay less than in-person ones. This is because the range of information a researcher can receive is limited to text or speech. Sometimes the higher paying studies need more information (i.e. health metrics in clinical research).
- Length of study
The longer the study, the higher the chance of earning. Some studies can be less than an hour in length. Others might go on for several weeks or months.
- Type of payment
Some online paid research positions don’t pay in cash at all but rather gift cards or vouchers. These could limit you to certain vendors you may not be interested in (Walmart when you live outside the U.S. for instance).
- Number of research studies available
Don’t be fooled into thinking high paying online studies are everywhere, they’re not. As far as market research companies or clinical trials go, they are expensive to set up and manage.
- Demographics
Certain studies want to target a specific age, income or gender etc. There’s no promise you’ll qualify for enough studies to make it worth your while.
The highest to lowest earning online paid research study types are:
- Focus groups
- Taste/product testing
- Questionnaires or surveys (list of best survey sites)
The last group pays the least but usually has more regular opportunities.
🌎 Best Places to Find Paid Studies Online
There are several legit sites to find paid research studies.
The two best places, in my opinion, are PingPong and Respondent. They take participants from anywhere, not just the U.S.
Let’s take a closer look at each.
Respondent
Respondent.io is a website that helps companies like Allstate and eBay perform market research studies.
As a “respondent” (fancy word for research participant), you’ll be paid for taking part in focus groups, one-on-one interviews and other research work.
Examples of paid research studies available at Respondent:
The majority of the studies are performed online or via phone (i.e. remote).
🤑 Earning Range
- $20 – $500 per study
Pros and Cons
- High payout
- Good reputation among online workers
- Not easy to qualify for research studies
- Slow customer support
PingPong
PingPong is a recent player in the marketing research space, launched in 2017. Its platform is designed to bring developers and research participants together in one-on-one video calls to help test websites.
As their past clients include companies like BT, Skyscanner, Zapier and Nestle, you know they’re legit.
One user reported earning €40 per hour participating in 3 studies on PingPong:
🤑 Earning Range
- €10 – €100 for every session
- €30+ per hour of a video call (special cases up to €200)
Pros and Cons
- You don’t need to match any special criteria
- The chance to work with top brands
- Requires providing feedback with a webcam
- Possibly boring if you’re not interested in web design and usability
🇺🇸 Best Sites For Paid Studies Online In The USA
If you’re a U.S. resident there are two more options worth checking out: FindFocusGroups.com and r/PaidStudies.
These are listing sites as opposed to market research companies.
FindFocusGroups.com
FindFocusGroups.com allows you to search for both in-person and online research studies taking place across America.
At the time of writing, there are several online focus groups and clinical trials listed. These cover topics as broad as credit cards, Bay Area living and home ownership.
Example:
🤑 Earning Range
- $65 – $400 per study
Pros and Cons
- Frequently updated
- Good number of focus-groups and research studies available
- All studies with decent pay
- Third-party site, can’t always promise legit studies
- The application process isn’t standard (dependent on whatever site you’re referred to)
Reddit r/PaidStudies
r/PaidStudies is a growing subreddit that was first started in 2017.
It lists paid market research studies, including the ones that can be done online from anywhere in the USA.
An example of a paid study linked from r/PaidStudies:
🤑 Earning Range
- $25 – $500 per study
Pros and Cons
- New research studies posted daily
- Big range of study types; clinical trials, focus groups, product testing, etc.
- You don’t have to create an account to apply
- Third-party site, can’t always promise legit studies
- Some overlap with platforms like Respondent re-posting studies
😎 30 Other Legit Places to Find Paid Focus Group
There are a bunch of other legit places with research studies available.
Sites below are listed in alphabetical order. So, there are some really good ones mentioned even towards the very end of the article. Keep scrolling down and you will see examples of online studies that pay up to $500 for a 75-minute call interview…
20|20 Research
Part of the Schlesinger marketing group, 20|20 Research has over 30 years experience in the industry.
They offer both online focus groups and one-on-one interviews mainly to U.S. residents. Examples:
🤑 Earning Range
- $50 – $350 per qualitative research
- $1 – $10 for each quick survey (quantitative research)
Pros and Cons
- High earning potential
- Many short survey opportunities available, paying out anything between $1 – $10 cash
- Lengthy pre-screening tests
- Higher earning rates for in-person studies (specifically for people in Charlotte, Nashville and Miami)
Adler Weiner Research
Adler Weiner Research has over 60 years experience in the industry. They specialize in consumer, medical and business-to-business marketing.
They offer focus-groups, in-depth interviews and shop alongs (a research team goes with you to shop).
An example of online study:
🤑 Earning Range
- $25 – $300 per study
Pros and Cons
- Diverse research study types
- Reputable company
- Mostly want people for in-person studies in Chicago, Los Angeles and Orange Country
Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk)
Mechanical Turk is a “microjobs” site from Amazon where you can get paid to perform small tasks, including participation in research studies.
MTurk brings researchers and participants together allowing for pseudo-anonymity between both. Having a third party (Amazon) overseeing payments is a great way to protect both parties.
Examples of the higher paying tasks one user reported on the Hustle:
As you can see above, this user was earning between $10.54 – $14.24 per hour, while only taking the highest paying surveys.
However, most tasks pay at the lower end:
The Hustle reported average earnings:
A 2018 academic study analyzed 3.8m tasks completed by 2,676 workers on MTurk and found that average earnings through the platform amounted to $2 per hour. Only 4% of all workers earned more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour.
🤑 Earning Range
- $1 – $14 per hour
Pros and Cons
- Many varied opportunities
- Open to internationals
- Lower paying
- Strong competition for places
American Consumer Opinion
Boasting 6 million members, American Consumer Opinion runs paid research studies several times a year. They normally don’t pay much, but you might be selected for those rare market research studies that pay up to $50.
The platform runs on a points system rather than cash payouts. When you hit $10.00, you can request your money.
🤑 Earning Range
- About $2 – $5 for a few minute study
- $0.1 – $0.3 compensation if you disqualify
Pros and Cons
- Varied research subjectis (product opinions, website testing, etc.)
- Much more low-paying surveys than higher-paying focus groups
Apex Focus Group
Apex Focus Group is seeking individuals to participate in paid focus groups, survey panels, clinical trials, and phone interviews.
Most of their studies are 90 – 120 minutes in duration and on the topics like food, sports, entertainment, pets, electronics, automobiles and parenting.
Examples:
🤑 Earning Range
- $35 – $75 (per 1 hour session)
- $250 – $500 (multi-session studies)
Pros and Cons
- High payouts
- Varied research topics
- High competition among participants
- U.S. residents only
Brand Institute
As the parent of the Drug Safety Institute (DSI), Brand Institute specializes in medical research surveys.
They only work with licenced healthcare workers as participants. Most surveys seem to take 15 to 40 minutes and pay between $10 – $20 on average.
The list of open surveys is only available for signed-up users. But you can find their users reviews on Facebook. One user posted a screenshot of his survey history a few years ago…
🤑 Earning Range
- $2 – $30 per study
Pros and Cons
- Quick earning opportunity for healthcare workers
- Many reported that surveys were interesting and fun
- Requires a medical license number from participants
- Not that many surveys seem to be available lately
Carnegie Mellon University | Center for Behavioral and Decision Research
Carnegie Mellon runs a few online studies from their research lab. Subjects include things like personal attitudes, beliefs, human judgement and decision-making.
Example:
🤑 Earning Range
- $8 per hour on average (for online studies)
Pros and Cons
- Short online studies (from 5 minutes to an hour)
- Enter a lottery for a chance to win a larger prize
- Participants are primarily needed for in-person studies in labs on campus
- Can not participate in more than one study at one time
Columbia Business School | Center for Decision Sciences
Columbia Business School is continually recruiting people to take part in online studies.
Recent topics of study have involved completing interactive decision-making tasks, short cognitive tests, solving brain teasers and answering general questions about politics.
🤑 Earning Range
- About $16 per hour
Pros and Cons
- Good number of research projects
- Steady pay rate
- Few studies for people outside US
- May be strict eligibility requirements
CenterWatch
CenterWatch is an aggregator of worldwide clinical research studies. They list studies from research labs and clinics all over the globe, including those doing important research on subjects like dementia and genetic screening.
Unfortunately, they often don’t disclose the earning ranges on their studies and many are strictly voluntary.
You’ll need to play around with the search filters to find paid and/or online studies. Try searching for the following keywords:
Here’s an example of a paid online study I found via search:
🤑 Earning Range
- Variable
Pros and Cons
- Available studies on all continents (but mainly in North America, Europe and Asia)
- You can find well-paid studies
- Poor site navigation (hunting for paid online studies can take a while)
- Many studies are voluntary
Fieldwork
Fieldwork is a marketing research company that has been operating since 1980.
They are mainly focused on consumer and medical panels and have several in-person paid research locations in the US.
Example:
🤑 Earning Range
- $75 minimum for focus groups
Pros and Cons
- Short sessions (1-2 hours)
- Variety of topics
- Few online paid research gigs (most are in-person)
FocusGroup.com
FocusGroup.com is another research company owned by the Schlesinger Group. They list many online focus groups and research studies on their Facebook page.
FocusGroup.com also operates under the brands Focus Pointe Global and Inspired Opinions.
Example of an online focus group:
🤑 Earning Range
- $75 – $200 per study
Pros and Cons
- Reputable brand
- Good number of research projects
- All studies with decent pay
- Slow payout (cash usually received within 6-8 weeks of participation)
- There could be some delays in payment
Google’s User Experience Research
Google runs different focus group studies to get user feedback on a range of their products and services.
Many of these studies offer redemptions in the form of gift cards or charity donations. Gift card options are relevant to your country.
🤑 Earning Range
- $25 – $200 per hour of screen-recording surveys
- About $0.5 or more for 30-40 minutes of surveys that don’t require screen recordings
Here’s the official word from Google:
Once your participation is complete, you’ll get a small thank-you gift like a gift card or a donation to your favorite charity. We’ll always tell you what the reward will be before you decide whether to participate.
Pros and Cons
- Wide eligibility (just have to use Google products)
- Open for people outside the US
- Donate to your favorite charity
- Lengthy sign-up process (1-2 hours survey regarding your usage of Google products)
- Pay varies greatly depending on a type of survey
Harvard University | Psychology Department Study Pool
Running since the 1800’s, Harvard’s reputation as one of the world’s finest educational institutions is global.
Harvard’s Psychology Department is also one the highest ranked in the world. It has openings for paid research on the regular.
Some of the studies require you to attend in person, but they also do online studies. Time and compensation will be listed in the description of each study.
🤑 Earning Range
- $10 – $25 per hour on average
Pros and Cons
- Available opportunities for foreign internationals
- Limited places (plus high competition)
MIT Behavioral Research Lab
There are many different types of paid research you can do with the MIT Behavioral Research Lab. Common activities include completing group assignments, filling out questionnaires, playing games and taking part in interviews or discussions.
MIT uses the platform Sona to bring participants and research leaders together. Online studies usually last between 15 and 45 minutes.
🤑 Earning Range
- $10 – $20 per hour for online studies
While most researchers pay participants a flat rate, some researchers prefer to use a performance-based payment system, where participants receive a fixed base rate for completing a study, plus a variable bonus that reflects how well they perform in certain tasks.
Pros and Cons
- Performance-based payment gives opportunity to earn more
- Strict eligibility criteria
- Open to US residents only
Mindswarms
Mindswarms is a market research company that’s focused exclusively on video.
Completing one of their studies involves recording your insights on a business or product via a smartphone, tablet or webcam. Past clients include Nike, Verizon and Google. You can find out more about their clients here.
🤑 Earning Range
- $10 – $50 per study (from a few minutes to 20 min)
Pros and Cons
- Video format
- Few studies available
Northwestern University | Department of Psychology
Northwestern University’s Psychology Department is at the cutting edge of psychological research in America.
Recent study topics include Covid-19, the impact of the Trump presidency and the efficiency of female leaders.
An example of a recent online study:
🤑 Earning Range
- $15 – $421 per study
Pros and Cons
- Interesting topics
- Available studies for those under 18 years of age
- Most surveys for U.S. residents only
Purdue University
Purdue University, known as one of the most innovative schools in America, is another site that will pay you for taking part in studies.
A recent online telehealth study, looking at speech in individuals with Parkinson’s disease, shows the type of research they do…
🤑 Earning Range
- $10 – $70 per study
Pros and Cons
- Varied research topics
- Some studies provide extra bonuses for completing sessions
- Website is difficult to navigate (hard to figure out which opportunities are online vs in-person)
- Few online studies
Plaza Research
In business since 1982, Plaza Research runs a lot of studies targeted at consumers, parents, teens, students, business professionals and healthcare workers.
Most focus groups are up to 2-hours long and discuss things like new products from major manufacturers.
Example:
🤑 Earning Range
- $50 – $200 per study
Pros and Cons
- Growing number of opportunities (online survey taking, paid interviews and focus groups)
- Long sign-up process
- Poor website design
Probe Market Research
Probe Market Research conducts group interviews over the phone or online. You can get paid for your opinions on things like new TV commercials, beauty products and even soda bottle designs. Past clients include Dell, Lego and eBay.
An example of recent online research on credit cards:
🤑 Earning Range
- $50 – $400 per study
Pros and Cons
- Chance to work with top brands
- Mostly US-based opportunities
Recruit and Field
Recruit and Field has been in business since 1977. They specialize in connecting and inviting participants to take part in focus groups, phone interviews, online surveys and in-home product testing.
Some studies pay cash while others offer Amazon gift cards and PayPal payouts.
Example:
🤑 Earning Range
- $100 – $300 per study
Pros and Cons
- Varied research formats (phone, online, in-home, etc.)
- Competitive (the website claims a pool of 300,000 respondents)
Reddit r/FocusGroups
r/FocusGroups is a community very similar to r/PaidStudies and has a lot of crossover. You can sign up to each of the opportunities they list directly.
At the time of writing there are studies paying as high as $250 per hour that require only a WebCam to share product opinions…
🤑 Earning Range
- $50 – $400 per study
Pros and Cons
- New daily listings
- Overlaps with other sites on this list
Resolution Research
Resolution Research looks for “engaged and enthusiastic participants from all walks of life in the US and Canada”, according to their website.
They run focus groups, product and device tests, mock juries, taste tests and online surveys. They also run two other research panels; The Medical Panel and PaidStudies.com.
🤑 Earning Range
- $20 – $200 per survey (estimated)
Pros and Cons
- Reputable brand (several studies running across different panels)
- Confusing web interface (lots of redirection to other panels/websites)
SIS International
SIS International does research into topics like smoking and tobacco use, social media opinions and online entertainment use.
You’ll get paid to join focus groups, do online surveys and give product feedback in one-to-one interviews. Example:
🤑 Earning Range
- $25 – $400 per study
Pros and Cons
- Open to international participants (Germany, London, Milan, etc.)
- Available studies for teenagers
- Some users reported poor customer service
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Stanford’s School of Business is another Ivy-league University running a research lab.
Most studies can be done online or in-person at choice. Studies typically include cash or gift card payments averaging $25 an hour.
Studies are usually run through Sona, MTurk or Opinion World.
🤑 Earning Range
- $25 per hour
Pros and Cons
- Open to internationals
- Most studies can be done online
- Specific eligibility requirements
SurveyFeeds
SurveyFeeds is another aggregator site that lists several online paid research gigs.
Example:
🤑 Earning Range
- $25 – $500 per study
Pros and Cons
- Nationwide studies
- Not many studies available
Survey Squad
Survey Squad is most active on their Twitter account when it comes to listing new paid research spots. Recent studies include online live chats on the topic of finance, nutrition and dating.
Example:
🤑 Earning Range
- $50 – $200 per study
Pros and Cons
- All studies with decent pay
- Earn additional rewards by completing multiple surveys through Survey Squad
- Many users reported never qualifying for surveys or being denied after initial confirmation
- Slow payout
University of California | Anderson Behavioral Lab
The UCLA Anderson School of Management has a couple of online paid research places looking at things like decision making, consumer and organizational behavior and human judgement.
You’ll have to register via Sona (here) to apply for paid studies.
🤑 Earning Range
- $13 – $15 per hour
Pros and Cons
- Open to internationals
- Few research gigs
University of California | Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior
The Semel Institute offers mainly in-person research studies but does have a few online studies occasionally.
Research focuses on neuroscience, with investigations into things like body dysmorphia, depression and sleep. Some studies focus on teens under 18 years too.
Click on the studies that interest you on this page and contact the email address provided.
🤑 Earning Range
- $10 – $15 per hour (estimated)
Pros and Cons
- Interesting and varied research topics
- Online studies are rare (and hard to filter them on the site)
User Interviews
User Interviews does what it says, it pays to hear your thoughts over Zoom calls and other conferencing software.
Recent studies have looked at things like streaming services, food delivery and mobile apps. You can view the list of available paid research studies here.
Example:
🤑 Earning Range
- $15 – $340 per study
Pros and Cons
- Many studies with decent pay
- The company has good reputation
- Long screeners to apply for studies
- May be hard to qualify
watchLab
The WatchLab is an American-based marketing agency operating out of Portland and Chicago.
They sometimes have paid studies you can do over the phone or online. Most of these are 1-2 hour long focus groups.
Example:
🤑 Earning Range
- $90 – $200 per study
Pros and Cons
- Mainly focus groups
- Most studies are in-person
👮♂️ Are Paid Research Studies Legit?
I’d say paid research studies are definitely legit.
Like any online earning opportunity you have to be careful though. Many sites will just waste your time with screening questionnaires if you don’t fit certain demographics.
Make sure the paid research study you do apply for has their criteria clearly listed.
⚠️ How to Make Sure Research Companies Are Legit
Here’s what you can do to avoid wasting your time and only find legit chances to earn:
- Check for an official address
Does the company have a listed public address with contact numbers and staff listings? - Look for a professional website
Does the website look well put together with a good about page that talks about how studies work? - Read the company privacy policy
Read all documentation available so you know your rights as a participant. - Check email correspondence
Does the email address include the company or institution’s name? - Avoid any request for money
If someone is asking for money up front it’s definitely a scam. - Check online profiles:
Verify who you’re dealing with by looking for a company profile at the Better Business Bureau or Trustpilot.org.
🧐 Are $350 focus groups real?
Although there are chances to earn this amount of cash (or higher) don’t expect it to be standard. Earnings like this aren’t typical.
Your best chance to earn high are to go with the sites recommended at the beginning of this article:
🤓 What Skills Do You Need For Paid Studies?
You only need basic skills to take part in paid studies.
Besides being able to confidently use a computer or mobile device, you’ll also need to be good at the following:
- Communication
Speaking when requested and giving precise feedback. - Punctuality
Attending studies at the time specified. - Question comprehension
Understand and matching what’s asked in each study. - Upholding confidentiality
Respecting the privacy requests of the research.
😎 General Tips For Doing Well With Paid Research
Here are some suggestions to do well in paid research and increase your chances of landing further gigs:
- Know your rights
Carefully read the terms and conditions of every study you join. - Give honest information
Be truthful with your answers, don’t give research leaders the answers you think they might want to hear. - Remain patient
Don’t interrupt other participants. - Follow instructions
Do the things researchers ask of you to the best of your ability.
What Are The Pros and Cons of Paid Research?
The main pros and cons below:
- It’s a simple and fast way to make decent money
- Sharing your opinions can be interesting and fun
- Your opinions can have an important impact
- It’s not a reliable way to earn
- It’s tough to find high paying online research gigs
- Meeting the criteria and getting accepted can take a long time
Can I Be A Full-Time Online Research Participant?
My opinion is that it’s next to impossible to do online research as a full-time job.
There just aren’t enough studies to qualify for and most of them won’t pay out enough to make it worth your while.
💬 Share Your Experience
Have you participated in any online research studies? Are there any good sites you’re aware of that we didn’t mention?
Let us know in the comments below.
Other ways to make money online
There are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.
