Paid survey sites are one way you can earn some extra cash. It is a convenient way to do so as it can be done anywhere, be it at home or on the way to somewhere. All you need is a device with an internet connection.
With rising inflation, it is another reason to give paid surveys a chance. However, it is worth noting that you won’t earn much from paid surveys. Most surveys paid around from just a few cents to around $2 per survey. Of course, there may be others that pay out more, which are usually those that require lots of time or to do extra such as having a video call interview.
While there are many survey websites out there, only some pay out real cash rather than in vouchers only. Here are some of the survey sites that I have been using:
1. Milieu
Milieu is one of the best survey apps out there. With mostly short surveys, it makes it easy to be done anywhere. You earn points when you complete surveys, which can be exchanged for payouts via PayNow or vouchers. One downside though is that it does not payout as well as other survey platforms. But this can be overcome by doing surveys daily.
Milieu has a tiered system, where having a higher tier would help boost the amount of points you can get. This would allow you to exchange your points faster. These are the tiers and the boost you would get:
| Level | Number of points required to unlock next tier | Boost amount (x2 with streak booster) |
| Explorer | Nil | 0% |
| Bronze | 5000 | 3% |
| Silver | 10000 | 5% |
| Gold | 25000 | 10% |
| Platinum | 60000 | 15% |
The Milieu Surveys app is available only for users living in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
If you have not registered yet, do consider using my referral code, E6Z5FEj. You will be able to earn an another 500 points when you complete 7 surveys with this.
2. Rakuten Insight
Another survey site you might want to consider is Rakuten Insight. Unlike Milieu, Rakuten Insight can both be used on the mobile and the web. While some of their surveys could be very long (around 30 mins – 1 hour), most of the surveys compensate it with more points.
Similarly to Milieu, it also runs on a points system where you can exchange these points for payouts via PayPal or for a voucher. However, they do not use the tier system like Milieu.
For Rakuten Insights, the minimum cash out amount is $5 (75 points). But you could accumulate points to cash out at a larger amount as they would give bonus cash for doing so.
3. Poll Pay
Poll Pay is another paid survey site you may want to consider. Like Rakuten Insights, it has both the mobile app and the web version. It has various survey lengths, with longer surveys paying more depending on which surveys you are eligible to take part in.
Currently, it also pays you when you do activities under the “featured” section. But do your own due diligence before doing the activities as some might be scam sites, especially if the reward given is very high. If it seems to good to be true, it may be.
Poll Pay works a little differently from the two paid survey sites. Rather than getting points, you earn money when you complete a survey. You can cash out once you hit the minimum amount of $15.60 for PayPal ($0.60 is deducted as a fee, effectively getting $15 in this case) or $15 if you are getting an Amazon giftcard.
If you haven’t signed up yet, do consider using my referral code, XCSYLPKABT, to get $0.31.
4. Toluna
Toluna is one of a paid survey sites that is quite popular. On top of surveys, Toluna also rewards through daily games, sponsored polls, content forums and its blog. It is similar to the rest of the survey sites mentioned where there are varying rewards for surveys depending on the length of the survey.
It also award points which can be redeemed for payouts very PayPal or for vouchers. While the redemption of the vouchers are easily attainable, its PayPal payout redemption is one of the hardest, requiring you to get at least 81600 points to redeem a $40 payout. This is in contrast to vouchers where the lowest, the $5 Grab voucher just require 10000 points.
However, if you do surveys regularly, you may consider signing up for Toluna. Most of Toluna’s surveys ranges from 3000 points to 5000 points, taking around 10 to 20 minutes to complete. This is my referral link where you will get 500 bonus points when you sign up with my link.
Thoughts
Paid websites are a great way to earn some extra bucks during your free time, but don’t expect to earn big bucks from this. Most survey payouts are quite minimal and hence should be done as a side hustle rather than full-time. The list provided above are those that allows you to get real cash rather than some vouchers.
