7 Best Paid Surveys for Kids and Teens [Online Surveys]

Nowadays, it isn’t uncommon to feel bombarded with requests for surveys and reviews.

Fast-food receipts frequently list a website where you can share how your experience went. Online purchases often lead to follow-up emails asking what you thought of a product. If you’ve subscribed to an email list, the sender typically will request feedback. Occasionally, these companies will offer you something small, like the chance to win a prize, for completing the survey—but many times, they offer nothing at all.

Don’t sell yourself short. The people who conduct surveys get value from your responses, and you should be rewarded in return.

Fortunately, people can—and do—get compensated for completing surveys when they use legitimate survey sites.

Today, we’re going to talk about survey rewards for a specific age group: Minors. Yes, there are indeed surveys for kids and teens who want to earn a little extra cash for a little effort—a nice side hustle for youths who want to make money online during their free time.

But you don’t want to sign up for a survey site serving up false claims of cash and prizes. You want a vetted, trustworthy site with real rewards. So read along with us as we highlight several of the best survey sites—sites that have legitimate track records and proven payouts.

Best Paid Survey Sites—Our Top Picks

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Best Paid Survey Site Options for Kids and Teens to Make Money Online

1. Branded Surveys ($1 Bonus)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Minimum age requirement: Must be at least 13 years old to participate. Teens ages 13 to 17 must have parental consent.
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (iOS, Android)

Branded Surveys, whose surveys educate the market research of Fortune 500 companies, has paid out more than $37 million to more than 3 million users.

The surveys made available to you will depend on your interests and profile information, as well as what research partners currently need. Each survey earns points; you can cash out once you’ve accumulated at least 500 points. Depending on survey length, users make anywhere from 50 cents to $5 per survey.

Users can also earn points through daily challenges and service offerings.

You can use your points toward gift cards from more than 100 brands, receive cash in your PayPal or bank account, or even make a charitable donation.

Related: Best Credit Cards for Teens [Build Credit]

2. Scrambly

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• Available: Sign up here
• Minimum age requirement: 13
• Platforms: Web

Scrambly rewards you for a number of tasks—completing surveys, yes, but also testing companies’ products and playing games on their phones, making this possibly one of the most fun paid-survey sites for teens.

In exchange for completing tasks, you get coins that can be exchanged for cash back to a PayPal account, Visa gift cards, or gift cards to a small number of vendors, including Amazon, Walmart, and Spotify. And if users invite friends, they earn a commission on their friends’ lifetime earnings.

The survey aspect of the site is pretty straightforward—you’ll receive questionnaires similar to what you get with other paid survey sites. But what makes Scrambly stand out is the ability to earn money by trying out products and services from the likes of AARP, Cash App Taxes, and Disney+.

Scrambly has a pretty loose cash-out policy that allows you to redeem points instantly, with a low $1 minimum for cash and $5 for gift cards.

One major shortcoming is the lack of a mobile app—you can only participate on Scrambly via web browser. Also, its gift-card program only works with a few vendors, giving you far less selection than similar sites.

Related: 9 Best Online Stock Brokers for Beginners

3. Swagbucks ($10 Bonus)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Minimum age requirement: 13
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (iOS, Android)

Swagbucks is one of the most popular money-making apps because it allows you to earn cash or gift cards by doing everyday activities. For example, you can make money by taking online surveys, playing games, watching videos, even doing live trivia.

Swagbucks awards 7,000 free gift cards every day, and has to date dished out nearly $872 million worth of rewards. While many surveys pay paltry amounts, some of Swagbucks’ more detailed surveys—those that require people who fit very specific criteria—pay $20 or more. One example that Swagbucks points out is in-home product surveys, which can pay out $100 or more.

To get started, sign up for a Swagbucks account and begin participating in some routine tasks offered through the app. Each task earns you “SB” (Swagbucks), which you can cash in for gift cards or cash back on PayPal. Or, you can put your SB rewards toward sweepstakes where you can win big prizes.

You can earn a free $10 bonus for signing up, and you can earn additional money by referring friends to the app.

Related: How to Invest Money: 5 Steps to Start Investing w/Little Money

4. MyPoints ($5 Bonus)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Minimum age requirement: Must be at least 13 years old to participate. Teens ages 13 to 17 must have parental consent.
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (iOS, Android)

MyPoints has been rewarding its members since 1996 and is a highly trusted platform.

With MyPoints, you participate in activities such as online games/puzzles/trivia, taking surveys, watching ads, even shopping for groceries, to earn points. In some cases, you’ll also earn points for trying out trial services from the likes of Disney+, HelloFresh, and AT&T.

Depending on the activity, you can earn points toward gift cards from the likes of Target, Starbucks, and Sephora; coupon codes; cash; or cash back on purchases. And MyPoints features a very low minimum withdrawal of just $3.

Related: 50+ Best Money-Making Apps That Pay You Real Money

5. ySense

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• Available: Sign up here
• Minimum age requirement: 13
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (iOS, Android)

ySense is an online community that offers multiple earnings options, including taking paid surveys, testing new apps, signing up for websites, watching videos, and more.

ySense suggests completing the “daily checklist,” which includes a couple of surveys and a couple of offers; doing so can earn you up to 16% in bonuses.

Sometimes, ySense will issue bonuses to thank loyal users, encourage them to explore other parts of ySense, and more. Bonuses can be awarded as cents or rebates.

Cash rewards are paid out through PayPal, Payoneer, and Skrill.

Related: The 13 Best Investment Apps for Beginners

6. Rakuten Insight

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• Available: Sign up here
• Minimum age requirement: 16
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (Android)

Rakuten Insight is an online survey site that makes it easy to earn cash anytime, anywhere. The platform has 25 years of experience in online research, and its surveys educate business organizations, universities, and other entities from around the globe, but primarily from the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

You earn points by completing surveys, and once you’ve earned at least $5 worth of points, you can redeem those points for PayPal cash or Amazon gift cards. Users can earn up to $5 on each survey, meaning in some situations, you can cash out right away.

Some of Rakuten Insight’s surveys take only a few minutes, while others may take closer to half an hour.

Related: 4 Best Ways to Save Money for Kids [Children’s Savings Plans]

7. LifePoints

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• Available: Sign up here
• Minimum age requirement: 14
• Platforms: Web, mobile app (iOS, Android)

LifePoints is a popular survey app, with more than 5 million users, that paid more than $22 million to its members last year.

Users answer questions about various products and brands. In exchange, they receive LifePoints, which can be redeemed for e-gift cards/e-vouchers/store credit at a couple dozen leading merchants including Target and Best Buy; PayPal cash, experiences, even charitable donations to the Special Olympics.

To get started, you just need to sign up, verify your email, and complete your profile. Surveys, which cover a wide variety of topics, will arrive via email invitations and take between 10 and 20 minutes to complete.

LifePoints also gives away bonus points each week, and it occasionally awards special prizes like smartphones and smart TVs to randomly chosen users. Worth noting is LP’s points system, which doesn’t have an exact cash value—for instance, withdrawing $5 in PayPal cash might cost you more points than withdrawing $5 as an Amazon gift card.

Related: 10 Best Money Apps for Teens [Invest, Spend, Budget + Pay]

What Are Paid Surveys?

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In general, a survey asks questions to gather information. While many people participate in surveys for free, marketing agencies and other organizations are willing to pay people to take their surveys, especially if those people fit a demographic they’ve been struggling to survey.

Thus, a paid survey is a survey you complete for compensation. Paid survey sites usually reward participants for their valued opinions through small sums of cash, gift cards, or charitable donations.

Not all surveys are offered to all people. Typically, a person will be asked a few preliminary questions to determine whether they qualify for a particular survey. In general, survey creators get more value from focusing on specific demographics, rather than paying just anyone to take their surveys.

What Kinds of Information Do Survey Sites Ask For?

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Online surveys collect data on people’s opinions, actions, and knowledge. Most survey sites start by asking basic demographic information, such as one’s age, gender, and income level. Based on this information, you might or might not be asked to continue the survey.

Many survey sites cater to companies that need to conduct market research, meaning a lot of online paid surveys ask questions about products.

We’ll give you an example. Let’s pretend there’s a new, spicy snack called Fire Pretzels that recently hit grocery shelves. The maker of Fire Pretzels might hire a survey website to ask consumers questions to determine who is—and who is not—buying its products, and why. So, the survey site might ask questions like …

• Have you bought Fire Pretzels in the past six months?
• How likely are you to buy Fire Pretzels in the next six months?
• To your knowledge, which of the following stores sell Fire Pretzels (select all that apply)?
• Which of the following reasons is preventing you from buying Fire Pretzels (select all that apply)?
• How do Fire Pretzels compare to Lit Chips?

In other situations, a company wants to understand their audience more deeply so they can better tailor their products to them. Other surveys are trying to determine if a product should launch at all. And in some cases, if you’re taking paid surveys online, that provider might also ask you to sign up for an email list or take other actions.

Usually, online surveys are formatted as multiple-choice questions or “scaled” questions (“on a scale from 1-10 …” You might also face questions about how much you agree with a statement. (“Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree.”)

Sometimes, the remaining questions of a survey might change based on your initial answers. For example, if you said you bought a product within the last six months, you might get additional questions about your purchase that wouldn’t be applicable to people who said they haven’t bought the product.

And while there might be free-response questions, they’re less common and sometimes optional.

And lastly, not all market research asks surface-level questions. Some online surveys request much more personal information, such as a person’s health background. If you ever feel uncomfortable completing surveys about specific topics, stop! You always have the option to back out of a survey.

Can Kids Take Online Surveys and Participate in Survey Panels?

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Yes, many websites offer online paid surveys for teens and kids and let them participate in survey panels. Just note that minors often need parental consent to get started, and children might not qualify for all available surveys. (For instance, a company might want to conduct market research specifically about homeowners … and treehouses, while awesome, don’t count.)

Still, multiple survey websites seek out teens’ valued opinions.

Also worth noting is that many survey websites pay out in gift cards, which kids and teens tend to enjoy more than adults.

Are Paid Surveys a Legitimate Way to Earn Money?

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Yes, online surveys are a legitimate way to make money online. Corporations use online surveys and survey panels to conduct market research and valued opinions are worth paying to receive.

However, taking surveys doesn’t pay handsomely, even with the best survey sites. Paid surveys for teens and kids can generate some extra money they otherwise might not have earned, but you won’t get rich through online surveys.

Survey sites can be a little complicated—many have points systems, where completed surveys earn points that can then be redeemed for cash, gift cards, and other prizes. And some survey websites pay only in gift cards, which isn’t ideal if you have real expenses to pay.

Still, online surveys are easy to do, can be done any time of day, and many even find them fun. For these reasons, they can be a great way for a young adult to earn a little extra cash.

What Can Kids Do With Earnings from Paid Surveys?

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Here are a few smart ways kids and teens can put their not-so-hard-earned money to work!

Save It (and Spend It) With a Kid Bank Account

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• Minimum age requirement: Varies

While teens should invest some of their money, most of what they earn should go in a traditional bank account. Bank accounts make it easy to both save and spend your money, and they’re the backbone of solid money management.

If you’d prefer to simply save some and spend some, a Capital One MONEY Teen Checking Account is an excellent way to meet your needs.

Save and spend with a Capital One MONEY Teen Checking Account

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Capital One MONEY Teen Checking is one of Young and the Invested’s top choices for parents who want to financially empower their kids at an early age. Yes, this free checking account is predominantly aimed at teenagers, but it’s actually available to kids as young as 8 years old.

This joint checking account offers flexibility for kids and a touch of tranquility for parents. Kids get a Mastercard debit card that they can use at millions of merchants across the U.S., as well as in roughly 210 countries and territories worldwide. Your teen also enjoys access to one of the largest fee-free ATM networks among kids debit cards—more than 70,000+ Capital One, MoneyPass, and AllPoint machines. They can also send and receive money via Zelle, receive direct deposits from employers, and even cash paper checks by snapping a couple photos within the highly rated Capital One app.

Parents, meanwhile, can also pay their kids a regular allowance, or make one-time payments as gifts or rewards. They also can monitor their teens’ transactions, lock and unlock their child’s card, and control their kid’s access to (and transfer limits within) Zelle.

To learn more about the account, read our Capital One MONEY Teen Checking review. Or you can sign up today by clicking “Get Started” above.

Related: 5 Best Investment Accounts for Kids [Child Investment Plans]

Invest It With a Teen Investment Account

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• Minimum age requirement: 13

Everyone loves spending money, but if you save and invest your money as a teenager, you can grow that cash into much larger sums in the future. It’s not a quick way to make money, unlike the jobs above. But it’s still a worthwhile way to put some of your earnings to work so you can generate even more money over time.

Give It

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• Minimum age requirement: None

When I was younger, I would frequently give spare change to the homeless when I went into the city. But there are many, many more ways to give your money to help others—namely, nonprofit organizations and other charitable efforts. And it’s easier than ever to give thanks to sites like GoFundMe and even Facebook, which allows individuals and large organizations alike to set up giving campaigns.

However, you want to make sure your money is funding an organization that actually uses its money to help people. We suggest you do your homework at sites such as Charity Navigator, GuideStar, and the Better Business Bureau, which provide you with information about how legitimate a charitable organization is—how much of an impact they make, how good their financial health is, and more.

Related: Best Investments for Teenagers [How to Start Investing Young]

Related Questions on Survey Sites for Teens & Kids

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How can you tell if survey sites are legitimate?

Unfortunately, not all sites that claim they offer paid surveys for teens and kids are legitimate. Scams do indeed exist, but it’s difficult to pick them out just by looking at a survey provider’s website.

All of the survey sites mentioned in the list above are highly trusted and have a long history of paying out money, gift cards, and/or other prizes to participants.

If you’re looking for paid surveys on other websites, however, look for the following warning signs:

• Requests for sensitive personal information: Demographic information, such as one’s race or age, is standard. Asking for credit card numbers or your Social Security number is not.
• Requests for you to send money: Paid survey sites are supposed to give you money for taking surveys. They shouldn’t be asking you to send them money online.
• Promises of a full-time income: Even the best paid survey sites can’t offer a full-time income—not even close. Online surveys offer extra cash or gift cards, but not enough to handle all of one’s expenses.

You can also read reviews and check for a social media presence before taking online paid surveys from an unfamiliar website.

Can a 13-year-old do online surveys?

Some, but not all, survey sites allow 13-year-olds to participate. Swagbucks, MyPoints, Branded Surveys, ySense, and Scrambly allow 13-year-olds to sign up. However, some sites require 13-year-olds to get parental permission first.

How do surveys for teens and survey panels pay participants?

Payment methods for taking surveys vary. Participants might be paid cash through PayPal cash or similar services. Sometimes, this means you will need an adult to let you use their PayPal or other payment account.

Some sites pay via gift cards or charitable donations. Sites that pay through gift cards usually have a wide range of options, including major retailers like Amazon, Target, and Walmart, as well as places like Starbucks, Nike, and Best Buy. And many sites have multiple payout options.

Unfortunately, some sites make you do a little math. May paid survey sites use in-app currency that translates into some sort of monetary value. So, for instance, Swagbucks pays points called SB, and 1 SB is equivalent to 1 cent—thus, to earn $1, you’d have to earn 100 SB.

How long does it take to complete a paid survey?

Frequently, paid surveys only take a few minutes to complete. However, the longer the survey, the more participants get paid, so it can be in one’s best interest to seek more extensive surveys. Some higher-paying surveys can take between 15 and 30 minutes.

Do surveys get paid instantly?

Yes. Many survey sites allow you to cash out with the push of a button.

The most typical hitch with getting paid is reaching a minimum cash-out amount. Fortunately, these amounts usually are low and easy to reach. For instance, the minimum payout for Branded Surveys is $5, and you get $1 just for signing up.

Minimum payouts typically range between $1 and $10.

Have any tips for taking online surveys?

For one, consider setting up a separate email address that’s specifically meant for signing up with survey sites. That’s because some websites will email survey opportunities multiple times per day, so your inbox can fill up quickly.

The more surveys you complete, the more money you make. So whenever you’re looking for a way to kill time, knock out a couple surveys. You can complete them when you’re riding in a car, in a long line, during commercial breaks, and any other small chunk of time.

Usually, the longer the survey, the greater the payout, so don’t stray away from surveys that might take more time than usual.

Are paid online surveys worth it?

Whether paid online surveys are worth your time depends on your expectations. You won’t accumulate money quickly by taking surveys. So if a teen expects that they’ll make as much money as friends with more traditional jobs, they’ll be disappointed.

However, survey sites for teens can be an easy, fun way to earn extra money during spare time. As long as you go into it with reasonable expectations, doing online surveys can be worth it.

Can you make $100 a day from surveys?

You are extremely unlikely to make $100 per day from taking surveys. You can improve your earnings potential by signing up for multiple survey sites and taking advantage of sign-up bonuses. If you qualify for longer surveys, and take as many as possible, you’ll be able to make a little more money.

But $100 a day from paid survey sites is an unrealistically lofty goal. If you need to make more money, consider some of the best online jobs for teens.

Are there limits to the number of surveys you can take?

Survey sites will happily pay for all surveys you are qualified to complete. However, some surveys might be reserved for specific demographics that market research companies need to know more about.

You might not qualify for all online paid surveys a website has to offer, though, and you only have so much time in a day. In those ways, there are limits.

Do I have to answer every question on an online survey?

Anytime you are taking a survey and feel uncomfortable answering a question, see if there is a “prefer not to answer” option. Some sites offer this option when the surveyor would prefer to know that information but doesn’t consider it crucial.

However, this choice isn’t always available. If you feel a survey is asking for information you don’t want to answer, you can always stop taking the survey. No one is forcing you to finish it. You won’t earn rewards if you don’t fully complete a survey, but you can seek out other survey opportunities you’re more comfortable with.

What are the pros and cons of online surveys?

Survey sites for teens and kids have a lot of upsides.

Pros

• They’re a simple way to make money online.
• You can take online surveys virtually anywhere at any time.
• Many participants like knowing their opinions are being heard and used to make product decisions.
• They pay out in cash and gift cards to popular retailers, restaurants, and other vendors.

Cons

• You can’t earn as much filling out online surveys as you can working a traditional job.
• Some survey websites only pay out in gift cards, which is inconvenient for some people with real expenses.
• Some survey sites have high cash-out minimums, making it difficult to withdraw money frequently.

Why don’t I qualify for surveys?

Kids making money online through these survey sites might occasionally discover, after a few questions, that they don’t qualify to continue. This usually happens because they don’t fit the demographic that the survey provider is looking for.

In some cases, companies want to know how certain demographics are interacting with their products and services. So, rather than accepting anyone to participate in a survey, they only allow entries from their target audience. For instance, a company that makes prescription glasses wants feedback from people who wear glasses—but it won’t want feedback from people with perfect vision.

Similarly, a survey may be targeted toward only the people in a household who make purchasing decisions, only people with a specific health issue, or other specific circumstances.

Our advice? Don’t lie and try to guess the answers that survey creators are looking for. Just move on to other surveys that are more relevant to you. If you don’t qualify for as many surveys as you want on one website, consider signing up for multiple platforms to gain access to more opportunities.

Related:

• 11 Best Prepaid Debit Cards for Teens & Kids [Reloadable]
• How to Invest $1,000 as a Teenager [Investing for Teens]
• 9 Best Debit Cards for Teens to Become Money Savvy
• 11 Best Debit Cards for Kids Parents Can Trust