Microtasker

Microtasks are small jobs that take just a few minutes to complete. A huge range of tasks fall under this umbrella, including:

• Filling out market research surveys
• Tagging images
• Performing other small data entry tasks
• Watching ads or video clips
• Proofreading (usually short snippets of web content)
• Conducting searches with a site’s toolbar installed
• Installing or testing apps or games
• Writing short product reviews
• Transcribing audio
• Completing CAPTCHAs

There are dozens of websites and apps that connect gig workers with microtasks. Some of the more notable names in this space include Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), Swagbucks, and InboxDollars.

These are sometimes known as get-paid-to (GPT) platforms, as in “get paid to take surveys,” “get paid to watch ads,” etc.

Since these tasks are “micro,” unfortunately, so are the paychecks you’ll get for them. Most microtasks pay anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars, depending on how long they take to complete. Some long surveys pay more ($10–$50), but these are relatively rare.

On average, you can make $1–$5 per hour from completing microtasks. Some users report making thousands of dollars from this side hustle, but it’s unlikely you’ll make that much without spending a lot of time on it.

Take reports of very high earnings with a grain of salt. Some may be legitimate, but many are outdated (or are simply marketing spin from companies that provide microtasks).

What affects your earning potential as a microtasker?

Several factors influence how much you can make from microtasks:

The task at hand

This is the biggest factor that affects your earning potential, since microtasks have varying pay rates.

Lower-paying tasks tend to be the quickest to complete. For instance, you can complete dozens of CAPTCHAs in a few minutes, but you’ll make just a few cents for every thousand.

Higher-paying tasks are usually more complex. Again, some longer surveys pay you $10–$50 each, but you’ll spend more time doing them (upwards of an hour). Tasks like this are also harder to find—you can easily go for days or weeks without seeing one you qualify for.

Your demographics and profession

On that note, you won’t be eligible for all microtasks. Many surveys, for example, reject participants who don’t fit their target demographics (e.g., males aged 20–35).

Some microtasks, particularly well-paid ones, also require workers to have professional experience in a particular area. In particular, if you’re a physician, nurse, or another type of healthcare worker, you’ll be able to access specialized research surveys that pay better than the general market rate.

Unfortunately, many microtasking platforms are notorious for having extensive periods of downtime, with few tasks available. Regardless of who you are, this will limit how much you can work unless you sign up for quite a few sites.

The competition on your platform

On some microtask websites, although not all, workers compete for jobs. Many platforms are oversaturated, and when gigs do get posted, they get snapped up almost immediately.

It’s worth bearing in mind that you’ll be competing against workers from countries or regions with lower average salaries who are willing to accept lower rates. This drives down the average pay on microtasking apps.

Payment method

How you’re paid can also influence your earnings, usually negatively. Some sites pay in “points,” which you can either:

• Exchange for gift cards (meaning you won’t get cash)
• Withdraw using a method like PayPal (which may incur fees)

When you evaluate microtask websites, look for ones that don’t make it difficult or expensive to access your money once you’ve earned it.

This is a very accessible side hustle. You don’t need a degree or license to get into it. In fact, in many cases, you don’t even need a high school diploma.

In general, the only requirements are:

• Age: You often need to be at least 18 years old to do microtasks.
• Equipment: You’ll need to have a reasonably up-to-date smartphone or computer and an internet connection.
• Payment method: You’ll usually need a US bank account to receive payments (although, as mentioned, some platforms pay in gift cards).

Individual microtasks sometimes have their own criteria to satisfy (e.g., belonging to a certain profession), but the gig itself is something that virtually anyone can do.

Online surveys may disqualify you after you start them

Unfortunately, not all microtasking platforms filter out ineligible workers before they start each task. It’s a common experience on these apps to start a survey and get disqualified halfway through. Sometimes, you’ll receive a (very small) payment as a consolation prize; other times, you’ll get nothing.

Disqualifications like this are frustrating and will drag down your average hourly earnings, but they’re an unfortunate reality when you use microtask websites.

There are a lot of websites you can use to find microtasks. We’ve listed 11 of the most popular, although there are many others.

We’ve also listed the methods you can use to cash out your earnings, along with the minimum amount you need to withdraw at a time and any withdrawal fees you’ll have to pay (in addition to other fees applied by your bank or your chosen payment platform).

1. Survey Junkie

About the site: Survey Junkie, which is owned by the consumer insights platform DISQO, pays you to take market research surveys, sharing your opinion about products from various brands.

Earning potential: You’ll usually get a couple of cents for each survey. We spent around 5 hours testing the site and found that you can earn roughly $1.09 per hour (this figure includes the initial sign-up bonus of $0.85).

Payment methods: You get compensated in points, with 1 point equal to $0.01. You can redeem your points in these ways:

2. Swagbucks

About the site: Swagbucks pays users to complete various online tasks, with the most common being surveys. You can also get paid for playing games, responding to polls, watching ads, and installing apps.

Earning potential: Swagbucks’ FAQ states that most surveys pay $0.05–$2.50, and some surveys pay up to $35. We tested the platform and found that it’s possible to make $2.04 per hour.

Payment methods: Swagbucks will pay you in points, which it calls “Swagbucks” (SB); 1 SB equals $0.01. You can exchange these for cash using the following methods:

3. InboxDollars

About the site: InboxDollars, which is owned by the same company that runs Swagbucks, will pay you to complete tasks like filling out surveys and playing games. Most surveys take a few minutes to finish. Testing games takes longer, as you’ll only receive your payout after reaching a certain point or level in the game, which may take a few hours of play.

Earning potential: InboxDollars states that surveys pay between $0.50 and $5 each. We tested the site and made $4.28 per hour, making this one of the more lucrative microtask websites out there, although that figure also includes the relatively large ($5) signup bonus we received.

Payment methods: You can cash out using the following methods:

4. Branded Surveys

About the site: While the previous sites offer a wide variety of microtasks, Branded Surveys exclusively focuses on market research surveys. Most last 5–20 minutes.

Earning potential: Surveys pay anywhere from $0.50 to $1 each. When we investigated Branded Surveys, we found it was possible to earn around $1.47 per hour.

Payment methods: Branded Surveys pays in points, with 1 point being worth $0.01. You can cash out via these methods:

5. KashKick

About the site: KashKick compensates users for completing tasks like filling out surveys, watching videos, and signing up for free trials. Playtesting games is also a common task on the site.

Earning potential: Surveys pay $0.05–$0.50 each. We tested KashKick and found that it’s possible to earn around $0.82 per hour—a rather low rate for a microtask website, unfortunately.

Payment methods: KashKick also pays in points, which it calls “Kash.” The exchange rate is simple: $1 in Kash is equal to $1 US. To cash out your earnings, KashKick gives you the following options:

6. Clickworker

About the site: Clickworker is a platform that offers tech-focused microtasks. Currently, the most common tasks involve submitting training data to improve AIs, which means that some may require you to upload photos.

Earning potential: Clickworker states in its FAQ that its jobs pay anywhere from a few cents to “double digit” sums, depending on the task. User reports suggest that earnings may vary considerably and may average anywhere between $1 and $10 per hour.

Payment methods: Clickworker offers several payment options, listed below. The company is based in Germany (with offices in the US), which means that some of these use Euros rather than US dollars; however, all methods but one are available in the US (your payouts will be converted to dollars).

7. Microworkers

About the site: Microworkers advertises a broad range of microtasks, including taking surveys and transcribing audio.

Completing jobs will contribute to a score called your “Success Rate,” which you’ll need to keep above 75% to stay on the platform. Unfortunately, some user reviews allege that certain jobs are impossible to complete in the allotted time, which may make your work stressful and your position on the platform precarious.

Earning potential: Most of the tasks on Microworkers pay $0.05–$0.30 each. If you complete jobs quickly and efficiently, you may be able to earn $1–$10 per hour.

Payment methods: Microworkers offers the following payout methods:

8. Amazon MTurk

About the site: Amazon Mechanical Turk, also called “MTurk,” outsources microtasks from clients; it calls these “Human Intelligence Tasks” (HITs) and “Requesters,” respectively. Tasks include taking surveys, transcribing audio, and tagging images according to what they show.

MTurk is a very popular site, but unfortunately, the availability of jobs on the platform seems to be decreasing, and many user reports suggest that it’s oversaturated with workers.

Earning potential: HITs pay very little, around $0.05–$2 each, meaning you’ll almost certainly be making less than minimum wage. When we reviewed MTurk, we found that workers on the platform make an average of $2 per hour.

Payment methods: New users must wait 10 days after completing their first HIT before cashing out. You can do this with one of these methods:

9. Freecash

About the site: Like the other sites we’ve listed, Freecash pays users to complete microtasks that include testing apps, taking surveys, and playing games.

Earning potential: Most tasks on Freecash pay $0.10–$20 each. Tasks that pay on the higher end of that range are rare.

Unfortunately, the online chatter about this platform is fairly negative. Many users report that microtasks are few and far between and that some fail to pay as promised. All told, your earning potential on Freecash is probably around $1 per hour or even lower.

Payment methods: Freecash pays users in points, which it calls “Freecash coins.” 1,000 coins are equivalent to $1. The platform offers several payout methods:

10. CrowdTap

About the site: CrowdTap is another survey-focused site that pays you to answer short quizzes, some of which consist of just one question.

Earning potential: Some one-question surveys pay as little as $0.05 each. Longer surveys usually pay $5 each. It’s possible to find more lucrative one-on-one interviews that pay up to $100, but these are reportedly quite rare.

Given the relatively low rates and spotty availability of tasks on the site, you can probably realistically make $0.50–$5 per hour on CrowdTap.

Payment methods: The platform will pay you in points; 1 point is worth just $0.005. You can exchange them for gift cards, as shown below. CrowdTap doesn’t offer any other payment methods.

11. Appen

About the site: Appen pays you to complete various online tasks that improve AI models, such as listening to AI-generated text-to-speech audio clips and evaluating their accuracy. Other tasks consist of “social media evaluation”—rating news feeds, search results, and so on according to their quality and relevance.

Earning potential: The pay rate on Appen varies from task to task. Some AI voice recognition projects pay just a few dollars per hour, whereas some social media evaluations apparently pay up to $300 each.

You may be able to earn around $15 per hour on the site, but this rate is speculative, and depends greatly on what tasks you’re able to qualify for. (We investigated Appen and found relatively few active projects, with many of the ones we did see requiring native proficiency in certain languages.)

Payment methods: You can cash out your earnings on the second week of each month, using one of these payout methods:

Again, microtasking is a relatively low-paid side hustle, and you’ll be unlikely to make the thousands of dollars that some sources claim you’ll earn.

However, there are still ways to boost your earnings, even if it’s just by a few dollars per hour:

• Sign up for multiple sites: Microtasking websites generally have a limited number of well-paid surveys and GPT tasks per day, meaning it’s easy to hit a point of diminishing returns. Signing up to 4–5 sites and using each one for a few minutes per day is often better than focusing on just one for a longer period.
• Use online resources: Check out the subreddit r/beermoney, where people discuss microtasks. You may see particularly lucrative opportunities posted there. Some of the platforms we’ve listed have their own dedicated subreddits, too.
• Only do worthwhile tasks: Some low-paying tasks simply aren’t worth it. Try to target more lucrative microtasks and always evaluate if the effort involved is worth the paycheck
• Complete tasks in your spare time: Because microtasks are so quick and easy to complete, it’s possible to earn real money with this side hustle by signing into your favorite website throughout the day and spending just a few minutes on it each time.

You won’t get rich with a microtasking side hustle, but it’s a decent way to earn an extra few dollars here and there.

You can also easily combine this with another side hustle. If you’re an Uber driver, for instance, opening up your favorite microtask website can be a decent way to monetize your time during slow periods when there isn’t much work available.