From time to time on the internet, you certainly come across promises of golden opportunities associated with making money online. One such proposal is filling out online surveys. In my opinion, this is a waste of time because the rates are too low, but potentially it can be a good addition to the salary for many people. So I decided to check how much I can earn by filling out online surveys over a period of 3 months.
Quick info: 5 most profitable survey systems based on the test
Here are 5 international survey sites that offer the best compensation for completing surveys:
2. toluna.com
4. jtnpanel.com
Time required to start earning money by filling out online surveys
The data required to complete profiles in individual systems are quite detailed, personal and extensive. I advise caution in filling them out and familiarizing yourself thoroughly with the regulations and methods of processing data, especially in cases where the service asks you to provide your address of residence, political or religious views, health information or sexual preferences.
You have to be prepared that setting up accounts will be a tedious process. It will take on average about 30 minutes to create an account and fill out your profile in each of the services offering such online earning opportunities. Later in the article, I have included a list of 50 services that allow you to earn money by participating in online panels.
So 35 x 0.5 h = 17 hours.
The amount of time shown is not exaggerated. Such a number of services is also required to achieve any effect in earning money online. The scale of earning money through the internet is essential for most people. Also, remember that this is a time that you will likely lose unless you have a lot of determination and focus on long-term results rather than immediate ones.
Filling out your profile accurately is essential so that the owners of the service can assign surveys to you based on their clients’ preferences. Only then will you be able to fill them out and “potentially” earn money. Be careful also of trap questions that check if you read what you mark. A wrong answer can disqualify you.
Also, be prepared that right after creating your profile, you will not have any surveys available. They will appear over time. Some services have so-called “preliminary surveys” for which you will receive the first points, but they serve more as an incentive or a way to get to know the system than a real offer.
Preparing yourself for creating profiles on individual services:
- Create a separate email account for earning money (services can generate a lot of emails, and additionally, you never know how they will use your data, or what will happen to them if someone hacks into their database).
- Create an encrypted database of links, logins, and passwords (there are many services, so it will be easy to forget some logins and passwords – of course, it’s always easy to recover them, but it will take time. Check different types of software for storing passwords and logins (a browser is not the best one, although it is the fastest and significantly speeds up work). You can check programs like KeyPass, Dashlane, or Roboform.
Avoid aggregators of survey systems
Aggregators are systems that serve you surveys from different survey systems. Most of them are outdated, and you still have to fill out qualifying information. I can say that on average, I hit 1 out of 5 surveys that I could fill out. It is mainly a waste of time because you spend it filling out qualifying surveys, which most likely will not let you go further, and you will not earn anything.
How much can you earn by filling out online surveys?
First of all, this should be treated as an occasional income or as a supplement to regular earnings. You will not earn money immediately on the first day, week, or even month. You will certainly spend a lot of time filling out your PROFILE in each of the services offering the opportunity to earn money through online surveys, and if you have a short attention span, this time will be wasted because you will never reach the payout threshold.
You may come across systems that offer instant payment of funds, such as to a PayPal account, but most survey services are based on a points system with a high payout threshold (10-20 EUR). For each survey completed in the system, you receive a certain number of points. In a few systems, you can exchange these points directly for cash. However, most are based on vouchers, with the most interesting being vouchers for Allegro or electronic stores. A significant portion provides vouchers for clothing stores or bookstores. Such vouchers are not worthless. You can always sell them.
So, how much can you earn by participating in survey panels?
I joined 35 different survey systems and filled out surveys for 90 days.
After hours of daily work, my first impression was that filling out profiles is only about extracting information about users. Qualifying questions often repeat themselves and do not fully serve to verify and profile users to determine a compatible user profile filling out the survey, or completed profiles are not taken into account, and every survey gives a similar set of questions.
Furthermore, I was often “disqualified” from participating in a survey, already during its completion, which resulted in a waste of my time and a lack of points being awarded.
In most systems, I did not even reach half of the payout threshold. However, by converting the sum of accumulated points into their value in individual services, I can present my overall and monthly earnings.
Total earnings in 90 days: 735.48 PLN ~ 158,85 EUR (17.02.2023)
Golden opportunities
Attention! During the month, I came across and qualified for 2 so-called “golden opportunities.” These were more advanced panels. One of them lasted for 3 days (60 minutes per day), in which I earned 300 PLN ~ 64 EUR (in the yunosurveys.com service)! The other involved product testing (valued at around 100 PLN ~ 21,5 EUR), which I could later repurchase for 1 EUR.
The “golden opportunities” were not included in the amount earned from filling out surveys presented earlier.
How to start earning money by filling out surveys?
I conducted research on Google and prepared a list of survey sites where you can earn money, vouchers, and gift cards for specific stores. The list of paid survey sites will save you time and make it easier for you – it took me over 2 hours… enjoy. I am publishing the list below.
I created a separate email account, independent of my personal and professional activities, solely for survey purposes. This will protect me from potential spam and make it easier to work with surveys (no information will be missed, even if it lands in the spam folder). Alternatively, you can create an appropriate folder in your current email account and configure it to assign survey provider emails to it. However, you will not know if your account has been compromised from such services if you suddenly start receiving spam emails.
Next, using the new email address, we create profiles on the survey sites listed below. This will take you at least 20 hours – so about 5-10 days to initiate. I was able to get through the registration and profile completion process in no more than 4-5 sites per day. This is a tedious and lengthy process, but if you want to earn money from surveys, you need to have a wide range of opportunities. Each site publishes only a few surveys per month, so to make money from this over the course of a year, you need a lot of options.
35 survey sites for earning money by completing online surveys
| No. | Surveys | Website | Total earnings | Earnings/msc | Earnings / survey |
| 1. | 11/12 | google.com | 9,08 PLN | 3,20 PLN | 0,82 PLN |
| 2. | 6/19 | badanie-opinii.pl | 5,10 PLN | 1,70 PLN | 0,85 PLN |
| 3. | 3/3 | cenneopinie.pl | 6,00 PLN | 2,00 PLN | 2,00 PLN |
| 4. | 9/9 | yougov.com | 45,00 PLN | 15,00 PLN | 5,00 PLN |
| 5. | 12/24 | swiatopinii.pl | 48,08 PLN | 16,02 PLN | 5,34 PLN |
| 6. | 0/0 | 0,00 PLN | 0,00 PLN | 0,00 PLN | |
| 7. | 6/11 | epanel.pl | 12,00 PLN | 4,00 PLN | 2,00 PLN |
| 8. | 18/19 | tgmpanel.pl | 46,80 PLN | 15,60 PLN | 2,60 PLN |
| 9. | 9/40 | toluna.com | 27,50 PLN | 9,16 PLN | 3,05 PLN |
| 10. | 0/16 | 0,00 PLN | 0,00 PLN | 0,00 PLN | |
| 11. | 20/22 | reaktoropinii.pl | 45,00 PLN | 15,00 PLN | 2,25 PLN |
| 12. | 29/51 | i-say.com | 69,60 PLN | 23,20 PLN | 2,40 PLN |
| 13. | 14/17 | myiyo.com | 25,04 PLN | 8,34 PLN | 1,78 PLN |
| 14. | 12/22 | marketagent.com | 45,28 PLN | 15,09 PLN | 3,77 PLN |
| 15. | 6/10 | jtnpanel.com | 30,18 PLN | 10,06 PLN | 5,03 PLN |
| 16. | 0/18 | 0,00 PLN | 0,00 PLN | 0,00 PLN | |
| 17. | 5/5 | imasonline.pl | 15,50 PLN | 5,16 PLN | 3,10 PLN |
| 18. | 24/27 | mobrog.com | 59,56 PLN | 19,85 PLN | 2,48 PLN |
| 19. | 0/14 | 0,00 PLN | 0,00 PLN | 0,00 PLN | |
| 20. | 21/21 | panelariadna.pl | 20,58 PLN | 6,86 PLN | 0,98 PLN |
| 21. | 2/2 | swpanel.pl | 5,00 PLN | 1,66 PLN | 2,50 PLN |
| 22. | 8/8 | poznaj.to | 24,00 PLN | 8,00 PLN | 3,00 PLN |
| 23. | 0*/10 | klubkantar.pl | 3,20 PLN | 1,07 PLN | 0,32 PLN |
| 24. | 6/6 | hintwave.com | 16,80 PLN | 5,60 PLN | 2,80 PLN |
| 25. | 15/15 | askgfk.pl | 23,76 PLN | 7,92 PLN | 1,58 PLN |
| 26. | 5/5 | bo-panel.pl | 6,72 PLN | 2,24 PLN | 1,34 PLN |
| 27. | 0/0 | 0,00 PLN | 0,00 PLN | 0,00 PLN | |
| 28. | 0/0 | 0,00 PLN | 0,00 PLN | 0,00 PLN | |
| 29. | 5/6 | moneyo.pl | 11,60 PLN | 3,86 PLN | 2,34 PLN |
| 30. | 7/7 | iwadi.pl | 9,20 PLN | 3,06 PLN | 1,31 PLN |
| 31. | 4/6 | demando.pl | 11,20 PLN | 3,73 PLN | 2,80 PLN |
| 32. | 20/22 | opinie.pl | 23,75 PLN | 7,91 PLN | 1,18 PLN |
| 33. | 10/58 | yunosurveys.com | 4,40 PLN | 1,46 PLN | 0,44 PLN |
| 34. | 27/30 | norstatpanel.com | 80,90 PLN | 26,96 PLN | 2,99 PLN |
| 35. | 5/6 | mypanellab.com | 9,60 PLN | 3,20 PLN | 1,92 PLN |
| Additional | |||||
| 36. | ys.cint.com | ||||
| 37. | timebucks.com | ||||
| Surveys | Total earnings | Earnings/msc | Earnings / survey | ||
| — | 319/541 | Total | 735,48 PLN | 245,16 PLN | 2,30 PLN |
A few statistics
- Total number of online surveys attempted: 541
- Total number of online surveys qualified for and completed in full: 319 (59%)
- Average number of online survey panels available to fill out daily: 6
- Average number of online survey panels qualified for daily: 3.5
- Total time spent on filling out surveys: 10,794 minutes*
- Average time spent per survey (including those I did not qualify for): 20 minutes
- Average time spent per survey (only including those I qualified for): 34 minutes
- Average daily time spent on surveys: 2 hours
- Total earnings in 90 days: 735.48 PLN ~ 158,85 EUR
- Average monthly earnings: 245.16 PLN ~ 52,95 EUR
- Average earnings per completed survey: 2.30 PLN ~ 0.5 EUR
- Average daily earnings: 8.17 PLN ~ 1.76 EUR
- Average hourly earnings: 4.08 PLN ~ 0.88 EUR
* To conduct this experiment and measure the time spent on filling out surveys, I used an internet browser that I never use - EDGE. Then, I checked the total amount of time spent using the browser on my Microsoft Family Safety account.
SUMMARY
Although filling out surveys may be a good addition for many, I will pass. The rate of 4 PLN ~1 EUR per hour is not a rate for me, despite the fact that filling out surveys does not require any extraordinary skills. Moreover, the system and surprisingly high interest means that surveys should be approached as quickly as possible to increase the chances of qualification. When I tried to fill out a survey after 24 hours, my statistics of disqualification increased significantly.
For me, this is totally unprofitable and certainly not a possibility for this work to become a primary source of income. However, I assume that for many people, it may be a tempting opportunity, provided that you really have nothing else to do with your free time or you do it while doing other things – such as riding an exercise bike, listening to boring lectures, or waiting for a bus.
