15 Ways to Watch Ads for Money

1. InboxDollars

You can sign up for a free account with InboxDollars to start completing surveys and other tasks for money. Your first reward will be a $5 sign-up bonus when you activate your account.

After that, you can watch ads, play games, and complete surveys to pad your earnings.

Rates and redemption

Surveys pay between $0.25–$5, depending on the nature of the survey and what demographic you fulfill. When you’re ready to cash out what you’ve earned, you can request payment as cash, PayPal funds, gift cards, or donations to a charitable organization. 1

What real users say

2. Zoombucks

While it doesn’t offer a signup bonus, Zoombucks is still a decent option for watching videos, completing surveys, and performing other online tasks for money.

Rates and redemption

On Zoombucks, most surveys earn you $0.01–$0.02 (equivalent to about 10–20 points). You can redeem your points for PayPal cash (once you have at least $3 in your account) or gift cards (once you’ve earned $5).

What real users say

3. MyPoints

In addition to paying you for watching ads, MyPoints will reward you for your personal activities. For example, you can earn points through the platform for doing your regular grocery shopping. You can also earn points by helping businesses out by taking surveys and playing mobile games.

While some sources claim you get a $10 bonus upon signing up for the site, it looks like the platform now only offers $5 when you verify your account.

Rates and redemption

After earning your bonus, you can earn between 4 and 2,200 points per task. A single point is worth around $0.006, so this platform isn’t particularly lucrative. You can redeem your points as gift cards.

What real users say

4. Valued Opinions

 

You can join the over 3 million individuals working with Valued Opinions to share your thoughts with companies and get rewarded for it. To earn money, you can review companies’ marketing campaigns by watching ads and taking surveys, or you can test and review products themselves.

Rates and redemption

Valued Opinions pays up to $7 for each survey you take. Rewards can be redeemed as gift cards for various retailers like Target and Amazon.

What real users say

5. Prize Rebel

With Prize Rebel, you can open a free account and get instantly rewarded with a 100-point bonus. Then, you can watch ads and answer survey questions in exchange for points.

Rates and redemption

Points must be redeemed in $5 increments, which is a relatively low threshold compared to much of the competition. You can redeem your points for either PayPal cash or gift cards.

What real users say

6. Creations Rewards

One of the lesser-known sites on this list, Creations Rewards lets you earn cash rewards by watching ads, taking surveys, referring friends, shopping online, and completing special offers.

You can earn a sign-up bonus of $5—but it’s not an instant earning like other sites offer. To claim your bonus, you need to earn at least 5,000 points in your first 60 days of being a member.

Rates and redemption

Every 1,000 points you earn can be cashed out for $5, with surveys earning you 100 points each (equivalent to $0.50). So, if you meet your bonus threshold, you’ll make at least $30 (5,000 points + $5 bonus) in your first 60 days as a member.

You can receive your payout via PayPal or receive gift cards for your points.

What real users say

7. Swagbucks

A wildly popular platform, Swagbucks claims to have paid out over $870 million to users to date, and it gives away 7,000 gift cards every day.

You can use the site to find coupons and deals or you can answer surveys and complete polls to earn points.

Rates and redemption

Survey payouts vary, but the site notes that most surveys pay between ​​$0.25 to $5.00. Occasionally, you may even find surveys with payouts of more than $20. 2

Points can be cashed out as PayPal deposits, Visa cards, or gift cards. You can also use them to enter sweepstakes and put your name in the hat for bigger prizes.

What real users say

8. GrabPoints

By joining GrabPoints, you can earn rewards for watching videos, answering surveys, and completing offers.

Rates and redemption

How much you’ll make for watching videos varies based on the partner. For example, Hideout.TV offers 7 points for every 3 videos watched, while Lootably offers 5. 3 The points’ value seems to fluctuate, but according to online sources, it ranges between $0.002–$0.005.

Points are redeemable as gift cards, but the gift card you choose will determine your minimum payout requirement, which tends to be $5–$10. 4

What real users say

9. Opinion Outpost

One platform that slips under the radar but is worth a look is Opinion Outpost, which offers rewards for different activities like:

• Ad reviews: Simply watch ads, then fill out a survey sharing your thoughts.
• Google ADH: Opt into this program to take part in surveys targeted based on ads you’ve seen on Google. 5
• Product tests: You’ll be mailed free prototypes to try out, then share your thoughts on the experience.
• Location-based services: If you consent to share your location with the app, you can get notified about targeted surveys based on where you are (e.g., if you go to a specific grocery store and there’s an available survey related to that shopping experience).
• Diary studies: Track your routines for a specific aspect of life (e.g., a food diary, a sleep diary) over a period of time and share your logs.

Rates and redemption

You’ll usually get 5–10 points per survey, and each point is worth $0.10. Rewards are redeemable as PayPal cash or as gift cards.

What real users say

10. Quick Rewards

If you’re put off by the redemption minimums on most of these platforms, consider signing up for Quick Rewards, which lives up to its name. You don’t need to meet a minimum dollar amount to cash out your rewards; you can redeem them right away.

Quick Rewards lets you make money by watching videos, answering surveys, playing games, completing offers, or shopping online.

Rates and redemption

Quick Rewards isn’t open about how much you’ll earn, but online reports indicate you can expect to receive under $0.01 for watching a three-minute video, which isn’t much to get excited about. You can redeem your rewards as PayPal cash or you can exchange your points for a gift card with a minimum of $5.

What real users say

11. GG2U

Earn coins by watching ads, playing games, and taking surveys with GG2U. You’ll enjoy a $1 bonus upon signing up, and—according to GG2U—the best payout rates in the industry. The payout minimum is $7, so you need to earn a fair bit before cashing in your rewards.

Rates and redemption

One GG2U Coin is worth $0.01. Unfortunately, GG2U doesn’t specify how many coins you can expect to earn by watching ads on their platform. Your GG2U Coins can be redeemed as PayPal cash, gift cards, or Bitcoin.

What real users say

12. AdWallet

A hidden gem, AdWallet is a simple, straightforward way to make money watching ads. In fact, that’s the only scheme they offer.

Unlike other platforms that let you shop deals, play games, complete tasks, and other activities in exchange for money, AdWallet has a “1, 2, 3” program: watch a video, earn rewards, and earn more rewards if you refer friends.

Rates and redemption

What’s great about AdWallet is that you won’t waste your time watching ads for mere fractions of pennies. The platform pays a minimum of $0.50 per video up to a maximum of $3. The catch is that you need to earn $10 before you can redeem your rewards for cash.

What real users say

13. Survey Junkie

This market research group has two types of research you can get paid to participate in:

1. Attitudinal: Attitudinal research allows you to share your opinions about a business’s products and strategies by watching ads, testing products, answering surveys, etc.
2. Behavioral: According to the site, behavioral research “includes opting in to share digital browsing activity, which is collected in a privacy compliant way via SJ Pulse.” 6

Rates and redemption

What research you choose to participate in and other factors will determine how much you’re paid for your involvement. Most sources indicate that you can make $0.50–$3 per survey.

You can receive your payout as a direct bank deposit, via PayPal cash, or as a gift card.

What real users say

14. InstaGC

Meaning “Instant Gift Card,” InstaGC invites you to watch videos and complete surveys in exchange for gift cards. The site advertises over 320 gift cards to choose from and over 1.4 million gift cards redeemed to date.

Rates and redemption

While InstaGC only pays up to $1 per survey, the minimum cash out is also $1, which is nice for those looking for quick rewards. Needless to say, you can redeem your rewards in the form of gift cards.

What real users say

15. FusionCash

With multiple ways to earn, FusionCash offers payments for:

• Watching videos
• Completing surveys
• Testing products and services
• Downloading apps
• Signing up for websites
• Referring friends
• Other tasks

Notably, FusionCash offers one of the highest referral rates we’ve seen. While other sites on this list usually offer 10% referral bonuses, FusionCash offers 30%, meaning you’ll earn 30% of whatever your referral earns.

Rates and redemption

Unfortunately, FusionCash doesn’t specify exactly how much you’ll make from watching videos or taking surveys on their platform. You can redeem what you earn as PayPal cash or receive it via check or direct deposit.

What real users say

Yes, you can really watch ads for money. The platforms we’ve listed above are real, not scams.

Why do companies pay people to watch ads?

Companies spend a lot of money on product development and advertising. To get the best returns on their efforts, they need actual user feedback. This means there’s a huge market for watching and reviewing ads, as it helps businesses achieve their goals.

Because of the demand, many companies pay people to watch ads or perform other tasks that grant them insight into their user base. While the payout isn’t enough to make a living, it’s easy money to earn on the side.

Most of the time, you won’t be able to make very much money from watching ads. You can expect to make between $1–$3 per hour (and potentially less, depending on the platform).

You’ll usually just earn a few cents per ad, so even making enough to cash out your earnings—as most apps only allow you to cash out in increments of $5 or $10—will require a good deal of watch time.

Be aware that after you watch a few ads, your earnings may also drop for the rest of the day. Many platforms have a limited supply of ads and surveys that they refresh every 24 hours.

All of that said, your earnings will depend on which platforms you’re using, how many hours you’re devoting to watching ads, and what additional tasks you’re doing (like referring friends, completing tasks, or answering surveys).

To make the most out of your ad-watching side hustle, be sure to:

• Sign up for multiple platforms (but make sure they’re legit first to avoid data theft and viruses)
• Refer friends to get referral bonuses, in which you make a fraction of everything they make
• Fill out your profile to give the platform a better idea of what demographics you match
• Do other tasks, like sharing daily activity logs or testing actual products

Watching ads for money might not be the most lucrative side gig out there, but if you apply some strategy, you can make it worth your time.