What paid research studies pay: LazyBounty report, September 2026

The headline numbers

We took every open study in the LazyBounty catalogue where the platform stated both a payout in US dollars and a duration. On 16 September 2026 there were 604 of them.

• median payout: $50 per study
• average payout: $72
• the middle half of studies pays between $25 and $100
• median length: 30 minutes
• median hourly rate: $100

How payouts are distributed

A third of studies are short tasks paying up to $25. Studies over $200 are rare: 38 out of 604, roughly one in sixteen.

The practical takeaway: if you see "$300 for 10 minutes", it is either for a very narrow profile or not a study at all. Our article on scams explains how to tell.

Professionals are paid twice as much

The platform separates studies that look for professionals in a given industry or role from those that look for general consumers. Both take a median of 30 minutes, but the pay differs: $75 against $35.

This is the advice that beats any hack: fill in your profile with your job title, industry and the tools you use. Researchers pay for experience most participants do not have.

Interviews pay three times more than short tasks

Almost half of all studies are one-on-one interviews, and they pay best among the common formats: a median of $87.50 for 45 minutes. Unmoderated tasks, such as website and app tests or short screening questionnaires, take about 20 minutes and pay $25.

Focus groups are few in the sample, six, but their median is $162.50. The rest are rare formats such as in-home visits and diary studies, and they pay the most.

In-person studies pay five times more

In-person studies are few, 32 out of 604, but their median is $250 against $40 online. You spend time travelling, and sessions run longer, over an hour.

The downside is that they are tied to a city, in our sample mostly in the US. For people in Ukraine and most EU countries, online studies are the realistic option.

Longer pays more, and so does the hourly rate

The payout grows with the length of the study, and the hourly rate grows more slowly: from $80 for short tasks to $125 for sessions over 90 minutes. Long studies are mostly in-person sessions or narrow specialists.

What changed since 10 September

The first version of this report on 10 September counted 692 studies with a median of $40. Since the evening of 15 September the platform closed 514 studies, and we removed them from the catalogue because you can no longer apply. Cheaper tasks were overrepresented among them, with a median of $30 and almost half paying up to $25, so the median of open studies rose to $50.

The takeaway for participants: if a site lists studies without a check date, some of them may already be closed. We reconcile our catalogue with the platform every hour.

What these numbers do not tell you

These are the amounts promised for taking part, not what a person earns per month. To get paid you have to pass the screener, and most applications to narrow studies are rejected. Time spent searching and filling in screeners is not included.

Respondent pays in US dollars, keeps a 5% fee and pays mostly in gift cards. Some studies recruit only in specific countries.

How we calculated this and how to cite it

A snapshot of open studies in the LazyBounty catalogue on 16 September 2026. The sample includes only studies where the platform stated a payout in US dollars and a duration: 604 studies. At the moment one of the platforms we track publishes both, Respondent, so all records come from it. Format, type and audience come from the platform's own fields. Every study is checked against the platform every hour and closed ones are removed.

The median is the middle value of the sorted list: half of studies pay less, half pay more. The hourly rate is the payout divided by the stated duration. We update this report every month.

You are free to quote and reuse these figures in articles and research with attribution: "LazyBounty, paid research pay report, September 2026" and a link to this page. Questions about the data: [email protected].