May 28, 2023
Editor
Kari is a writer for SideHustles.com. She previously managed a website in the privacy and digital compliance industry and earned money on the side by working as a pet sitter for 7 years.
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$0.01-$13.20 per taskLocation
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NoneTurn your screen time into some extra dough by watching ads for money. There are dozens of companies that pay side hustlers to watch ads and answer questions about what they saw.
This line of work won’t bring in the big bucks, but you can rake in some pocket change without getting up from the couch. We’ve put together a list of the top 15 places to watch ads and complete surveys for cash or gift cards.
Get paid to watch ads by signing up for one or more of the following platforms
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.
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
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
By joining GrabPoints, you can earn rewards for watching videos, answering surveys, and completing offers.
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
One platform that slips under the radar but is worth a look is Opinion Outpost, which offers rewards for different activities like:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This market research group has two types of research you can get paid to participate in:
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.
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.
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.
With multiple ways to earn, FusionCash offers payments for:
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.
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.
This is a legitimate side hustle, although not a particularly lucrative one
Yes, you can really watch ads for money. The platforms we’ve listed above are real, not scams.
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.
Unfortunately, watching ads isn't a very high-earning side hustle
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).
Follow these tips to maximize your earnings
To make the most out of your ad-watching side hustle, be sure to:
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.
