26 Best Side Hustles for College Students

Average rates: $25–$35 per hour

If you aren’t burnt out on writing essays, you can cash in on your rhetorical prowess by freelance writing online.

Freelance writing opens up tons of opportunities to make money from home and pad your resume with valuable experience. You can find job openings for all types of writing (essays, articles, ad copy, social media posts, etc) across different industries.

Where to get started

• Upwork
• Freelancer
• Writers Work
• Contently

Average rates: $25–$40 per hour or $.02–$0.03 per word

Are you the one your friends turn to when they need an essay or resume looked over? If you have a keen eye for spelling, grammar, and style, make extra income by becoming a proofreader.

Proofreading allows you to work flexible hours and hones a set of skills that are valuable both for completing your education and entering the workforce.

Where to get started

• Upwork
• Freelancer
• Scribbr
• Proofreading Pal

Average rates: $20–$30 per hour

As a student, you know the importance of tutoring. You can help out your fellow students by taking up a tutoring side hustle.

You can tutor any subject you’re knowledgeable in, including non-academic subjects like art and music. Tutoring others can even give you a boost in your own studies, as studies show that teaching others can help you master a subject yourself. 1

Where to get started

• Superprof
• Skooli
• Wyzant
• Tutor
• Preply
• TutorMe

Average rates: $5–$50 per hour

Show off your skills and work on a flexible project-by-project basis by finding online gig work. On platforms like Fiverr, you can provide nearly any service and get paid per project, hour, or word.

Some of the most common service gigs include:

• Website design
• SEO
• Graphics creation
• Video editing
• Illustration

Where to get started

• Fiverr
• Upwork
• Flexjobs

Average rates: $17–$26 per hour

The 18–25 year old demographic is a huge consumer market, especially when it comes to websites and apps. That’s why business owners and web developers need feedback from people like you to improve their digital offerings.

To share your thoughts, become a website or app tester. No experience is required; you just use the product, then provide your thoughts about the experience via an online form.

Where to get started

• Tester Work
• User Testing
• Userlytics
• User Feel

Average rates: $15–$30 per hour

Websites aren’t the only things you can test, of course. It’s also possible to get paid to test video games (yes, really).

Here again, you belong to perhaps the single most lucrative market for game designers, and many of them will be more than willing to pay you for your thoughts on the games they’re developing. Use the links below to start searching for part-time game testing gigs.

Where to get started

• GamesIndustry.biz
• PlayerResearch
• PlaytestCloud

Average rates: $25–$40 per hour

To get resume-building experience, work on a flexible schedule from your home, and make decent money while in school, become a virtual assistant. Virtual assisting is an administrative job in which you help a business run smoothly or aid an individual in completing their day-to-day tasks.

Common virtual assistant duties include making calls, organizing calendars, managing projects, and scheduling appointments. However, the job varies widely, and you can find a gig catered to your skillset or to the type of work you hope to take on after college.

Where to get started

• Time etc
• Prialto
• Upwork
• Randstad
• Virtual Coworker

Average rates: $11–$22 per hour

If the idea of spending a few hours doing rote tasks on the computer doesn’t put you off, data entry could be a good side hustle for you. Thousands of companies need people to perform data entry—converting information from one format to another, usually by entering it into a database or program.

Data entry is relatively easy, flexible, and doesn’t require any special skills or training, making it a great choice for the inexperienced college student looking for work.

Where to get started

• Upwork
• Fiverr
• People Caddie
• Manpower
• Randstad

Average rates: $12–$20 per hour

College is all about developing skills to carry you through your professional career, and one of the most valuable skills you can learn is how to effectively deal with other people.

A side job in customer service will certainly get you that experience—and make you some money while you’re at it. If you can stomach the idea of making and taking calls with unhappy (and potentially unpleasant) individuals, there are plenty of jobs available to you in call centers or customer service agencies.

Where to get started

• Upwork
• Helpwise
• Fiverr
• Indeed
• ZipRecruiter
• FlexJobs

Average rates: 93.5% of the sale price (on Etsy)

Working with your hands is a great way to decompress after long classes and intense cram sessions. Why not make money while you’re at it by crafting and selling handmade goods?

You can craft anything from candles and soaps to jewelry and wooden carvings. If you have a talent for making something out of nothing, post your goods online or take them to a local market and reap the rewards.

Where to get started

• Etsy
• Facebook Marketplace
• Handmade Artists

Average rates: $15–$25 per hour

If you plan to enter a creative industry after graduation, you’ll need a portfolio to show potential programs, internships, and employers. One very popular (and perennially in-demand) creative industry is graphic design.

Graphic design entails creating digital imagery, whether it consists of logos, graphics, marketing materials, or entire website pages.

Jumpstart your graphic design career, make money on the side, and lay the foundations of your design portfolio with a graphic design side hustle. All you’ll need to get started is graphics-editing software like Photoshop or Canva.

Where to get started

• Upwork
• Fiverr
• SolidGig
• Dribbble
• DesignCrowd

Average rates: $19–$25 per hour

If you have a camera and a good eye, start a photography side hustle to make extra bucks and pursue your artistic passion. You can make money with several different types of photography:

• Taking stock photos: The stock photos you see all over the internet have to come from somewhere. Stage and take photos and sell them to stock photo websites.
• Product photography: You can take pictures of products and sell them to businesses and website owners.
• Event photography: Hire yourself out to photograph events like parties, sports games, weddings, and graduations.
• Portrait photography: Finally, you can do portrait photography, taking pictures of people, couples, and families. This is generally the most lucrative type of photography, and as a student, you won’t have trouble drumming an audience of young adults looking for headshots and grad pictures.

Where to get started

• Etsy
• Upwork
• Facebook Marketplace
• ShootProof
• SmugMug
• Shutterstock

Average rates: $3–$15 per printable

This is a relatively new trend on the side hustle scene: creating and selling printables.

“Printables” are uniquely designed templates that others can download and edit. Think of journaling prompts, meal plans, to-do lists, and habit trackers.

To make your printables, you’ll need a graphics-editing software like Canva, Adobe Photoshop, or Templett.

Where to get started

• Etsy
• Creative Market
• Shopify
• Gumroad
• Creative Fabrica

Average rates: $20–$25 per hour (highly dependent on the popularity of your blog)

Share your voice with the world by starting your own blog. There are nearly 18 million college students in the US alone, so starting a blog about your studies or student lifestyle opens the doors to a wide audience. 2

The blogging space is congested and competitive, making it tough to get recognized. It’s important to be realistic; if you’re a strong writer and you keep at it for long enough, you stand a good chance of earning some money, but meeting with wild success isn’t guaranteed.

To combat some of the competition, focus your blog on a niche topic. Instead of just writing about being a college student, you can choose an angle like cooking on a grad student budget or book reviews from a current English major.

If you pursue any of the other side hustles on this list, you can also blog about that (for instance, sharing stories about particularly eventful photography gigs).

Where to get started

• Wix
• GoDaddy
• Squarespace
• WordPress
• Weebly
• LinkedIn

Average rates: $29 per hour

If you’re brave enough to throw your hat into this particular ring, try your hand at becoming the next YouTube sensation. You can make videos about your life as a student, your major, or just your interests.

While YouTubing has proven profitable for a lot of people (you can monetize it through views, ads, and sponsorship deals), the video creation landscape is also very competitive and difficult to stand out in. You should be prepared for an uphill slog (and comfortable with the reality that amassing a large following will take a certain amount of luck as well as talent).

Average rates: $8–$12 per hour

If you’re one of the lucky college kids with wheels, you can make money driving for Uber or Lyft or another rideshare service.

This side hustle can be lucrative and even fun, although it has considerable overhead, as you’ll need to factor in insurance, gas, and car maintenance. However, being near a college will get you great business with the local community, especially if you’re willing to drive at night and on weekends.

Where to get started

• Uber
• Lyft
• Wingz
• Via

Average rates: $10–$19 per hour

If you have a car but you’re not keen on the idea of interacting with people, consider a delivery driving side hustle. You can deliver food, groceries, or everyday items.

Unlike driving for a rideshare service, this job allows you more flexibility in your transportation. If you’re on two wheels instead of four or your car isn’t the nicest in town, you can still do deliveries.

Where to get started

• Uber Eats
• Grubhub
• DoorDash
• Instacart

Average rates: $10–$18 per hour

Most students aren’t able to have pets, given their tight schedules and even tighter living quarters. If you’re craving some animal time but can’t have a pet of your own, turn your love of them into profit by becoming a pet sitter or taking up a dog-walking side hustle.

You can dedicate as many or as few hours of your life to this as you like. You can take dogs for half-hour walks here and there, or even stay for days at a time in someone’s home, watching their pets while they’re out of town.

The flexibility is perfect for a busy student—and it’s a great way to sneak in some exercise.

Where to get started

• Rover
• Care
• PetBacker
• Wag! 
• Meowtel

Average rates: $13–$25 per hour

When you’re dying for a break from your roommates and also need some extra cash, house sitting is the perfect solution.

Watch people’s houses for hours, days, or even weeks at a time to earn cash and enjoy the comforts of (someone else’s) home. House sitting sometimes just entails keeping an eye on the property, or it may be a combination house sitting and pet sitting job.

Where to get started

• Care
• Trusted Housesitters
• Housecarers
• House Sitters America

Average rates: $10–$16 per hour

If you’re good with children, babysitting or nannying is a classic side hustle that you can get into regardless of your age or experience.

The US is currently facing a childcare crisis, meaning there’s a shortage of willing and able childcare employees. You can help fill this demand by watching kids after your classes, on the weekends, or even just during school breaks to pick up some extra cash.

Where to get started

• Care
• UrbanSitter
• SitterCity

Average rates: $12–$15 per hour, plus room and board (usually)

If you want to take your childcare side hustle to the next level, you can gain babysitting experience during the school year, then try to land a job au pairing on your summer break.

Au pairing gives young adults the opportunity to travel. It consists of living with a family while watching their kids, giving you a gateway into the world on someone else’s dime.

You can au pair in the US or abroad. Job requirements and duties vary. For example, some parents will want an au pair who can tutor their children on the side, while others simply want someone to keep an eye on the little ones while they’re on vacation.

Where to get started

• Au Pair USA
• CultureCare
• Global Work & Travel
• Winnie

Average rates: $19–$24 per hour

Get your hands dirty and make money by starting a lawn maintenance or gardening side hustle over the summer.

Whether you’re back home for the break or staying near your school, people near you probably have lawns that need care (especially in the hotter summer months, when many of them will be unwilling to go outside). You can weed, mow, garden, or help with other yard and lawn work.

Where to get started

• Home Advisor Pros
• Neighborly
• Thumbtack

Average rates: $15–$25 per hour

If you’re handy with a screwdriver, use your time away from class to undertake a handyman side hustle.

There are several avenues you can pursue with this type of gig, depending on your inclinations and abilities.

You can offer home repair services (like fixing gutters, rescreening porches, unclogging drains, etc), which will require a certain amount of skill and good physical abilities. On the other hand, if you’re more tech-savvy than hammer-happy, you can offer computer, phone, and equipment repairs.

Alternatively, if you’re a motorhead, you can put your passion into action by taking up auto repairs for the summer.

Where to get started

• TaskRabbit
• Flexjobs
• ZipRecruiter
• Indeed

Average rates: $9–$15 per hour

Get your tan on while working an important job by being a summertime lifeguard. All you need is strong swimming abilities and a CPR certification. Then you can enjoy some time in the sun (regardless of whether you choose to be a lifeguard at a pool or beach), add invaluable skills and training to your resume, and put aside some easy summer savings.

Where to get started

• Indeed
• ZipRecruiter
• SimplyHired
• YMCA

Average rates: $23–$29 per hour

Enjoy the great outdoors, engage in fun activities with kids or younger teens, and earn money to support yourself during the school year by becoming a summer camp counselor.

You have options as far as what kind of camp you want to work for: day or overnight camp, church camp, adventure camp, band camp, and more. Leverage your skills to find a camp job that’s fun as well as profitable.

Where to get started

• American Camp Association
• Camp Staff
• Camp Channel
• Camp Gig

Average rates: $13–$25 per hour

When school lets out for the summer, you can be sure there will be lots and lots of moving: students moving in, students moving out, students moving around.

Moving house is a lot of work, which is why people hire entrepreneurial individuals like yourself to help shoulder the load. You can join a moving service or you and your friends can start your own moving business.

Where to get started

• Lugg
• Angi
• Bellhops
• Dolly

When you’re picking a hustle, remember that you don’t have to choose just one. College is a time to experiment and figure out what you want out of life and your career. You can try as many side gigs as you like and see what you like enough to stick with.

This list features the best side hustles for college students, but it’s by no means exhaustive. You can explore even more gigs to give you a head start on paying down your student loans (or just to earn a little extra spending money) below.