Want to earn extra income every day from home?

Maybe you just want to know how to use your spare time to earn money online?

Or you’re just wondering what the best paying survey sites are?

Here’s 9 paid survey sites and apps that can (maybe) answer those questions for you.

In each case, I will explain who can use the service, how much you can expect to earn (and the equivalent hourly rate), and give each a rank.

Since I’m based in the UK, earnings will be mostly given in Pounds Sterling (GBP).

I’ve already discussed most of these apps on the site. If you’re new to My Idle Income and want to browse other ways to make money online, check out the Resources page.

9. Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk)

Who can use it?: Anyone with an Amazon account. Getting accepted as a worker depends on luck and current MTurk employees, however.

Earn cash for completing microtasks called ‘HITs’, including surveys. Tasks have a set of prerequisites workers must meet before being allowed to even attempt them, which can make it difficult to get started.

Furthermore, worker applications must be approved, so it may take a few days (in some cases, weeks) before you can even start earning.

What do the tasks pay?: £3-£4 per hour once you get started, but earnings vary greatly depending on the type of tasks you complete.

My Rating: 2/5. This would be much higher if it was easier to actually start earning with MTurk, and the interface was a little less intimidating. Some people swear by it, so take my rating with a grain of salt.

You can sign up here if you’re interested in MTurk.

8. Swagbucks

Who can use it?: Aged 13+, the US, Ireland, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, India, Canada, Spain, Portugal, and the UK.

You can earn points, known as Swagbucks (SB), by searching the web, answering surveys, and performing other tasks through their site.

Redeem SB for rewards including PayPal gift cards (999 SB is £5 PayPal, but is often on offer for 800 SB).

There are a lot of surveys available on Swagbucks, but due to limited profile questions you’ll find yourself being kicked out of surveys more often than not.

What do the surveys pay?: Approximately 3-4 SB per minute, or £1.31 per hour.

My Rating: 2.5/5. Relatively low earning potential (if you’re only doing surveys—there are other ways to earn SB to boost your earnings), and a high chance of being kicked out of a survey. Lots of availability, though, so if you’re lucky, Swagbucks could be a great earner for you.

You can sign up here if you’re interested in Swagbucks.

7. SurveySavvy

Who can use it?: Aged 13+, available to almost everyone worldwide.

Get paid for answering surveys. SurveySavvy users can cash out for as little as $1. The caveat is they send payments as cheques (checks) instead of PayPal.

Surveys are also few and far between, though they do pay well.

There’s also a passive income opportunity for users to earn with SavvyConnect, a market research tool. Installing SavvyConnect on up to 3 devices (desktop, mobile, and tablet) pays $/£15 per month as Amazon gift cards, and provides extra survey opportunities.

What do the surveys pay?: Around £4 per hour, but surveys are infrequent.

My Rating: 2.5/5. This would be much, much higher if SurveySavvy offered payment in PayPal. To be sending cheques to users in 2020 is mind-boggling! However, SavvyConnect provides an unmissable passive income opportunity.

You can sign up here if you’re interested in SurveySavvy.

6. Toluna

Who can use it?: Aged 15+, available to almost everyone worldwide.

Earn points for answering surveys and polls, which can be redeemed for rewards including PayPal gift cards. Toluna has a very high requirement for cashing out, however, with 190,000 points needed for £35 PayPal.

There is also a Toluna app available to Android and iOS users.

As a nice bonus, Toluna also offers a passive income opportunity to its users: the Consumer Insight Program. Users can download a browser extension for Chrome, Brave, and Firefox that pays just under £3 a month (or the points equivalent, 16,000) simply for having it installed on your browser. You also get a one-time install bonus of 10,000 points!

What do the surveys pay?: Approximately 100 points per survey minute, equal to around £1.10 per hour.

My Rating: 3/5. Disappointing survey potential, and a daunting payout threshold damage Toluna’s rating, but they have an app for surveys on the go, as well as a nice passive income opportunity from the browser extension. I highly recommend Toluna for the latter alone.

You can sign up here if you’re interested in Toluna.

5. Opinion Outpost

Who can use it?: UK users only, but there is a US version (available here).

Receive points for completing surveys, and cash out at a rate of £2.50 per 50 points.

Opinion Outpost was my top survey site for a long time on My Idle Income. They offer regular surveys (emailed directly to your inbox so you never miss out!), and fast payments.

They do, however, have a tendency to stop sending emails after long periods of inactivity. Use the site regularly and you’ll find more surveys sent your way.

What do the surveys pay?: Approximately £2/hr.

My Rating: 3/5. Aside from your email inbox, there’s no way to choose from available surveys. You can only hit ‘TAKE A SURVEY!’ and cycle through that way. It’s still a solid survey site, though, offering decent earnings and regular surveys.

You can sign up here if you’re interested in Opinion Outpost.

4. LifePoints

Who can use it?: Aged 16+, available in over a dozen countries worldwide including UK.

Earn points for answering surveys, then redeem those points for cash or gift cards. There are also polls and product testing opportunities to earn more points.

With LifePoints, you can cash out 575 points to £5 PayPal.

Occasionally LifePoints will offer surveys, or diary-style surveys which take a bit longer to complete but offer much greater rewards. By taking only these bigger survey opportunities, I managed to earn £20 from my first 3 surveys.

What do the surveys pay?: Typical surveys yield around 50 points per 10 minutes, or £2.60 per hour. Bigger surveys are few and far between, but pay much better!

My Rating: 3/5. Fairly solid earning potential, but the payout time (5-10 working days) is a little on the long side.

You can sign up here if you’re interested in LifePoints.

3. Curious Cat App

Who can use it?: Android and iOS users worldwide.

Curious Cat is an adorable surveys app. Earn points (or paw-oints) for completing surveys on the go, and cash out when you hit the threshold of 100 points (£1), directly to PayPal.

They’ll give you 20 points, the equivalent of £0.20, just for filling out your profile.

What do the surveys pay?: Around 120 points (£1.20) per hour.

My Rating: 3.5/5. Earnings are a little on the low side, but the app interface is great, and the ability to complete surveys on the go gives this rating a nice boost. I use Curious Cat the most when I’m on the bus!

You can sign up here if you’re interested in Curious Cat.

2. Qmee

Who can use it?: UK, the US, Canada and Australia, with other countries to follow soon.

Install a browser extension to earn money for searching the web, or earn by answering surveys.

Qmee has no minimum withdrawal! Withdraw directly to PayPal.

There is also an app available for Android and iOS devices, meaning you can complete surveys while you’re out and about.

What do the surveys pay?: £1.80 per hour, slightly more if you use the browser extension and search the web regularly.

My Rating: 4/5. As with Curious Cat, earnings are a little low, but with no minimum withdrawal and the ability to earn on the go, Qmee is a great survey app that I highly recommend to anyone who can use it.

You can sign up here if you’re interested in Qmee.

1. Prolific

Who can use it?: Prolific is available to users from over 30 countries worldwide, including UK, the US, Australia, most of Europe, Japan and South Korea; expects to be globally available soon.

Prolific is an amazing paid survey site that pays you to participate in academic studies. Once you start, you’ll have to fill out extensive profile questionnaires. This process guarantees you’ll only receive invites to surveys you qualify for.

That means you’ll never get kicked out of a Prolific survey!

As a result, though, surveys appear much less frequently than other sites and apps.

Once you reach the threshold of £10, you can withdraw your earnings directly to PayPal.

What do the surveys pay?: Minimum £5 per hour. That means you can expect at least £1.25 for a 15 minute survey.

My Rating: 4.5/5. I can’t give 5/5 to anything that isn’t absolutely perfect. And while Prolific is a breath of fresh air in the paid survey space, the surveys appear much less often than other sites. So while they pay much more than others, I recommend using other sites in this list in addition to Prolific to boost your earning potential.

You can sign up here if you’re interested in Prolific.

If you’ve got the time, I highly recommend you try out all of the above sites and apps. Using all of them regularly could earn you a lot of extra income.

It’s worth mentioning that the above ratings and rankings are simply my opinion, and you might find that your experience with these apps and sites differs greatly from mine. Feel free to drop a comment below if you disagree with me, or if you know a survey site that should be on this list!

And if you’re interested in finding ways to earn money online with little effort, why not check out the Passive Income section?