Data
What paid research studies pay: 692 studies in numbers
Updated 10 September 2026
The typical paid research study in our catalogue pays $40. The average is higher, $65, pulled up by rare studies paying $200–500. In-person sessions pay five times more than online ones: a median of $200 against $40.
The headline numbers
We took every open study in our catalogue where the platform stated both a payout and a duration. On 10 September 2026 there were 692 of them.
- median payout: $40 per study
- average payout: $65
- the middle half of studies pays between $20 and $95
- range: $5 to $500
How payouts are distributed
More than a third of studies are short tasks paying up to $25: surveys and tests of 10–15 minutes. Studies over $200 are rare, 29 out of 692, or a little over one in twenty.
The practical takeaway: if you see "$300 for 10 minutes", it is either a very narrow profile or not a study at all. Our article on scams explains how to tell.
| Payout | Studies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| $5–25 | 256 | 37% |
| $26–50 | 172 | 25% |
| $51–100 | 142 | 21% |
| $101–200 | 93 | 13% |
| $201–500 | 29 | 4% |
In-person studies pay five times more
In-person studies are few, 33 out of 692, but they pay much more: a median of $200 against $40 online. The reason is simple: you spend time travelling, and sessions run longer, usually an hour and a half.
The downside is that they are tied to a city. In our sample these are mostly large cities in the US, the UK and Latin America. For most people outside those cities, online studies are the realistic option.
| Format | Studies | Median payout | Median length | Median per hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online | 659 | $40 | 30 min | $80 |
| In person | 33 | $200 | 90 min | $133 |
Longer pays more, but not proportionally
The payout grows with the length of the study, while the hourly rate stays roughly flat at $80–100. The exception is studies longer than 90 minutes, where both the payout and the rate are highest, because these are almost always in-person sessions or narrow specialists.
| Length | Studies | Median payout | Median per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| up to 15 min | 185 | $15 | $80 |
| 16–30 min | 214 | $40 | $94 |
| 31–60 min | 244 | $75 | $88 |
| 61–90 min | 32 | $125 | $98 |
| over 90 min | 17 | $250 | $125 |
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.
Not every study is open to every country either. Some recruit only in specific countries, so the share available to you depends on where you live.
How we calculated this
A snapshot of open studies in the LazyBounty catalogue on 10 September 2026. The sample includes only studies where the platform stated a payout in US dollars and a duration: 692 studies. At the moment one of the platforms we track publishes both, so all 692 records come from it.
The median is the middle value of the sorted list: half of studies pay less, half pay more. It describes the typical study better than the average, because a few very expensive studies do not move it. The hourly rate is the payout divided by the stated duration. You may quote these figures with a link to this page.
Questions and answers
How much does a paid research study pay on average?
In our catalogue on 10 September 2026 the median was $40 per study and the average $65. The middle half of studies paid between $20 and $95.
Do online or in-person studies pay more?
In-person: a median of $200 against $40 online. But only about 5% of studies are in person, and they are tied to a specific city.
How much do studies pay per hour?
The median is about $87 per hour of stated time. See our separate hourly pay analysis for the breakdown.
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