Prolific has quickly become of the most well-known survey sites out there, and has built itself a great reputation. Not only among survey takers, but also among researchers and institutions creating said surveys. So much so, that there’s a waiting list to join. But the real question on your mind is “how much can I earn?” and “is it worth joining?”. In this post, I’ll do my best to answer these questions.
You can sign up to the Prolific waiting list here.
NOTE: The wait time depends heavily on who you are. If you hit a certain demographic, you could be accepted in a matter of hours or days, but for others, it may take months.
Disclaimer: This post is in no way sponsored or affiliated with Prolific and entirely represents my own independent opinions and findings.
What is Prolific?
Prolific is a fairly simple website where you can complete surveys in exchange for some cash. I use the term “surveys” loosely here, mind. The company has attracted researchers of various types (including universities), meaning each survey, or ‘study’, can look wildly different from one another.
This is something I found particularly surprising. While some surveys are your bog-standard list of questions and answers, others are more interactive and genuinely fun to complete. More on this below.
As far as I’ve seen, Prolific have two significant advantages over their survey-completing competitor sites/apps.
Transparency, and fairness.
In terms of transparency, Prolific makes it incredibly obvious how long a survey will take and how much you’ll get paid. Each survey shows you the estimated completion time, along with the ‘average’ completion time by those who have already completed it. Here’s an example:
Regarding pay, Prolific also state – very publicly on their website – that they “have a minimum reward rate of £6 / $8 per hour.”. This is already significantly higher than most other survey sites out there.
Reading this, you’ll probably have two burning questions:
- Is this £6 minimum enforced? Or is this mere clickbait?
- What is the average you’ll earn per hour?
In the sections below, we’ll take a look at some real-world data I’ve collected, to answer these questions.
What Types of Surveys Are There?
As I mentioned above, Prolific can sometimes surprise you with its surveys.
More often than not, you’ll come across your usual question-and-answer type surveys. Other times, however, you could be asked to do just about anything!
These more elaborate surveys sometimes come with a potential ‘bonus’. Said bonus is paid on top of your survey payment and essentially gamifies the task.
Here are some survey types I’ve come across so far, which have really surprised me:
Interactive Games
Here, you’ll be asked to play a game. The game will load within your browser, and you’re asked to follow the on-screen instructions. In some cases, you’ll be asked to fill in a follow-up questionnaire, but other times, the game itself is the research. For example, one game I completed involved fighting a space battle, while another game involved walking through an immersive town, in an AR/VR style environment.
Solving Puzzles/Brain Games
These remind me of those old ‘brain training’ games on the original Nintendo DS. They can involve being given a specific puzzle puzzle or scenario to work through. Alternatively, the survey may consist of a series of quick-fire questions aimed at tripping you up.
For example, I’ve completed multiple memory challenges. One challenge simply required me to remember numbers and colours, while another involved looking at an image for two seconds, then having to recreate it by filling a virtual room with 3D shapes.
Teamwork Games Or Tasks
I’ve come across a few surveys where I was placed in a chat with one or more other real people.
Sometimes, the task involved teamwork, where all parties had a common goal and/or were required to solve a particular problem.
In other surveys, however, things become much more competitive. Instead of working together, users were pitted against each other to win a monetary bonus.
The Facts and Figures: How Much Can I Earn?
As with any survey site, it’s important to remember that this is no get-rich-quick scheme. You’re trading your time for money here.
It’s also worth remembering that this money doesn’t come quickly. Surveys aren’t constantly available. As such, you’ll have several hours throughout the day where there may not be any surveys to complete at all.
That being said, if you’re able to take part in just a handful of surveys per day, it’s not unreasonable to achieve £3-£5 per day on average. Of course, this can vary wildly, as you’ll see below.
With that in mind, let’s get right into the numbers.
Methodology
Unfortunately, Prolific don’t show you the amount of time spent on surveys, so this has been done manually with a stopwatch.
I completed 30 surveys in total for this experiment, over a two week period. I recorded the time spend on each survey, from the moment I hit “take part in this survey”. In other words, this time includes any initial reading, giving consent and reading any instructions. I then rounded this time to the nearest minute for ease.
NOTE: If you’ve ever used a survey site before, you’ll be familiar with the infamous “you don’t qualify for this study” style pop-ups, after spending several minutes working on the damn thing. Well, this has only ever happened to me once on Prolific, and did not occur during these 30 surveys.
Time Spent And Earnings Per Survey
In the graph below, I’ve plotted out the 30 surveys into a scatter graph. This graph shows how much time was spent on each survey in minutes (on the X axis). It then compares this with the earnings per survey, in pounds (on the Y-axis).
As you’ll see, the surveys are fairly consistent. For surveys taking more time to complete, you will generally be given a higher reward.
Of the 30 surveys I completed, none exceeded 25 minutes. There are studies in the 1-2 hour range available from time-to-time, but they are not very common. As you can see below, the majority of surveys take less than 10 minutes or so to complete, paying anywhere up to £3.75.
This allows users to complete surveys at their leisure, without having to block out too much time. An additional benefit is that, if you struggle with focusing for long periods of time, you can opt to only take shorter surveys and avoid fatigue/boredom.
Note: there are only 29 visible data points on these graphs. This is down to two surveys being identical in how much time was spent, as well as the pay.
Hourly Earnings
So, how does the above information translate into hourly earnings?
Taken as a whole, these 30 surveys paid out a total of £32.77. Completing said studies took a total time of 207 minutes, or 3 hours and 27 minutes. Hence, the hourly rate in this case was £9.50 per hour. However, remember that this will fluctuate depending on the surveys available, and even more so, the types of studies you prefer to take.
That being said, £9.50 is a phenomenal rate of pay for any survey site.
In the graph below, I’ve compared the time spent per survey (on the X-axis), and the hourly rate (on the Y-axis).
As you can see, the vast majority of surveys pay over £6.00 per hour, with rates reaching as high as £22.50 per hour!
Unfortunately, though, 10% of the surveys completed in my dataset indeed had a lower pay-rate than Prolific’s self-declared minimum of £6.00 per hour. While this is somewhat disappointing, it could definitely be argued that this is made up for elsewhere. These surveys seem to be the exception, not the rule.
In fact, 20% of the surveys completed sat exactly on that £6.00 per hour line, as illustrated above. So, it does look like this rule is enforced more often than not.
My Verdict
So, what’s the bottom line? Is Prolific worth your time? Or is it simply another stereotypical time-sink of a site?
Well, here’s a quick roundup of what happened in this little experiment of mine:
- I completed 30 surveys in total
- It took 207 minutes to complete these surveys (3 hours and 27 minutes), over around two weeks
- I earned £32.77 in total
- The resulting hourly pay was £9.50 per hour
- No studies were rejected or experienced technical difficulties
I think the data speaks for itself here. What do I believe personally, though? I think Prolific is, and will remain as, the best-of-the-best when it comes to survey sites. The team clearly care about their users’ privacy, as well as fairly paying for their time.
The site is incredibly simple and easy to use. The surveys and their respective pay-out seems fair, while the surveys themselves can even be good fun to participate in. The actual pay-out method is also very simple. What more could one ask for?
