Paid surveys: where you get cash and where you get points

Two kinds of paid surveys

People searching for "surveys for money" land on very different services. It helps to know straight away which kind a platform is, because that decides what you get, when you get it and whether you can use it in your country at all.

How points work: YouGov

YouGov is one of the best-known survey panels, founded in the UK in 2000. It says it pays members for surveys in points. The number of points depends on the length and complexity of the survey: longer and more complex ones earn more. Points are stored in your YouGov Wallet, and once you reach a certain balance you can convert them into a reward of your choice.

YouGov has a so-called Panel Promise: if you are invited to a survey, there will always be one for you to take. For a member, that means an invitation will not end in an empty rejection. YouGov runs separate versions for the UK, the US, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

How points work: Ipsos iSay and Toluna

Ipsos iSay is the panel of the research company Ipsos. The model is the same: each survey earns points, which you then exchange for e-vouchers, gift or prepaid cards, or charity donations. The rewards depend on your country: the US version offers Amazon, Apple and Google Play cards and $5 of PayPal funds; other countries have different selections.

Toluna offers a community where members share opinions on products and services and get rewarded for taking part in online surveys. Before joining any panel, open the rewards catalogue for your own country: it decides whether you can use the points at all. We could not find a Ukrainian version of Ipsos iSay, for example; the Ukraine page on its site does not exist.

How to tell whether points are worth it

Points suit the platform, not comparison. To see what you really earn, convert points into money.

• find the smallest reward in the catalogue that is useful to you and how many points it costs
• divide its value by the number of points to get the price of one point
• multiply by the points per survey and divide by the minutes it takes to get pay per minute
• factor in the threshold: until you reach it, points cannot become money
• check that the rewards include something you actually use in your country

Where you are paid in money

Research platforms usually pay in currency and show the amount before you take part. Prolific requires researchers to pay at least £6 or $8 an hour, recommends £9 or $12, and calculates the rate from actual completion times. UserTesting pays dollars to PayPal about 14 days later, with no payout minimum. Respondent pays the dollar amount minus a 5% fee, now mostly as Tremendous gift cards.

On User Interviews, payment comes either from the platform, in which case you choose a digital gift card, or from the researcher, in which case it may be PayPal or a bank transfer. The method is always shown on the study page.

Surveys pay less than interviews

If you are willing to do more than click answers, pay per hour can be noticeably higher. TestingTime ranks the formats plainly: in-person studies pay the most, remote tests and interviews a little less, and online surveys less again.

Respondent gives numbers: short online tasks or surveys of 5–25 minutes pay about $5–25, while 30–90 minute remote interviews pay $40–150. It also warns that "$100 per survey" is rare; amounts like that are typical of an hour-long interview or a specialised audience.

Screen-outs: why the survey ends at question three

The most frustrating moment is starting a survey only for it to end a few questions in because you do not qualify. That is a normal part of how panels and platforms work: the client is looking for specific people. TestingTime says your profile will naturally not match every study, and platforms do not disclose why you were rejected, so nobody is tempted to tailor their answers.

The only honest way to reduce screen-outs is to keep your profile up to date, so you are invited where you genuinely fit. YouGov tackles the problem its own way, promising that an invited member will always get some survey to take.

A gift card is income too

Points and cards often feel like a bonus rather than earnings. But a reward for a survey, even one paid as a store card, is income for tax purposes, and the platforms withhold no tax. We cover how to declare it in Ukraine in a separate article on taxes.

Fake "bank surveys"

Ukraine’s cyber police warn about a widespread scheme. Messages on social media and messengers promise a cash reward for a short survey from a bank: 5–10 minutes, money within 3 hours. The link leads to a phishing page with the real bank’s branding.

After the "survey", people are asked for their phone number, the SMS code and their PIN. With those, scammers link the victim’s account to their own device or log in to the banking app and drain the account.

• check the site address before entering card details or passwords
• do not follow links from messages; find the bank’s site yourself
• check any survey or payout offer only on the institution’s official website
• no real survey ever asks for an SMS code or card PIN
• if you have already entered your details, call your bank immediately and report it to the cyber police

Another trap: pay to get paid

The US Federal Trade Commission describes schemes offering simple repetitive tasks: liking videos or rating products in an app. Small payouts arrive at first to build trust, then you are asked to deposit your own money to "unlock" the next set of tasks. According to the FTC, there were about 20,000 reports of these schemes in the first half of 2024, compared with none in 2020.

The rule is simple: real surveys and studies pay you, not the other way round. Any request for a deposit, a "package" or a "withdrawal fee" is a sign of a scam.