Are you looking to earn some extra cash or maybe even contemplating a career change? There are many ways to make money online in Canada, and while some will only help you get a little extra pocket money, others have the potential to be quite lucrative.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to make money online in Canada and what you need to do to get started.
Online surveys are often the first port of call for Canadians looking for ways to earn money online. There are a host of sites and apps in Canada where you can earn cash or points by completing online surveys and questionnaires. Popular options include LEO, Swagbucks, Prime Opinion and Branded Surveys. Sites like Swagbucks offer options to make money beyond completing surveys; you can also play games, earn cashback on online purchases and more.
The best part is that it’s easy to get started and earn straight away. If the site pays cash, you can withdraw funds to your bank account once you’ve earned a specified minimum. If the site pays in points, they’re usually redeemable for gift cards and other rewards.
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Many banks in Canada offer cash bonuses or promotional interest rates when you sign up for a new account. In the case of a cash bonus, banks will essentially give you money—sometimes hundreds of dollars—for opening for an account with them.
To qualify for these types of offers, you typically have to open an account (which you can do online in a few minutes), set up direct deposits for a set amount of time and the cash bonus will be automatically deposited into your account. It’s often as simple as that.
Check out our full guide to new bank account offers to learn more, or get started with these bonus offers now:
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Switching bank accounts is not your only way to earn a bonus. Financial comparison sites, including us at Finder, offer cash rewards for taking specific actions, including signing up for a new credit card, applying to a lender or signing up with a get-paid-to platform. This is in addition to any welcome bonuses the provider might offer. Learn more about Finder Rewards.
If you’ve got some unused items lying around the house that you no longer need, make some extra cash by selling them on an online marketplace. Sporting equipment, jewelry, games consoles, furniture, board games, books—the list of stuff you can sell online is just about endless.
Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji, eBay and Craigslist are just some of your options, and it’s easy to post listings via mobile apps or online.
That’s right—you don’t have to visit a dealership in person and worry about haggling with a sleazy salesman to sell your car. These days, online dealers like Clutch and Canada Drives make it easy to sell vehicles online. All you have to do is provide your vehicle details online to get an offer to buy your car, and if you’re happy with the price, you can drive it to a nearby drop-off location to complete the sale.
Alternatively, you can list your car for sale on classifieds sites like AutoTrader, Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace. Selling privately may help you get a better price for your car, but it’s less convenient and you’ll need to deal with lowballers.
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If you’re a crafty person, you can put your skills to work to help you make money online. Sites like Etsy make it easy to sell handmade items like jewelry, home decor, personalized gifts and clothes online. Alternatively, you can try connecting with buyers on other platforms like Instagram and Facebook Marketplace.
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Print-on-demand websites like RedBubble, Printful and Printify allow you to get your own custom artwork on clothing, cushions, tote bags, mugs and more. You create your product designs and upload them to your own store or an online marketplace. When a buyer purchases one of your items, the print-on-demand service will then take care of printing and shipping it to them.
Selling print-on-demand items is a form of dropshipping. With this approach, you set up an online store to sell your products—you could sell clothing, pet supplies, home decor, baby products or just about anything—but you don’t hold any inventory or ship products. That side of the business is taken care of by the manufacturer, who ships items directly to buyers.
From greeting cards to diaries and planners, printables are digital products designed to be purchased and then physically printed out. Use design software like Canva to create your own unique range of custom designs, then sell them on a platform like Etsy or through your own online store.
Got a head full of opinions and ideas you need to share with the world? You could turn your musings into money by starting a blog. All you have to do is find your niche, choose a blogging platform and hosting platform, design your blog and start posting.
Ontario-based Elizabeth Lampman left her IT career behind to become a stay-at-home mom and professional blogger. In 2012 she started Frugal Mom Eh!, a lifestyle blog dedicated to delicious family meal ideas and fun crafts. Elizabeth’s recipes and crafts have been featured in a host of reputable websites and publications, from USA Today and Good Housekeeping to BuzzFeed, and her blog allows her to make money from income streams like affiliate marketing and brand partnerships.
From a romance novel or suspense thriller to a cookbook or a health and fitness instructional, put your passion for the written word into action and write a book. You can then pitch it to publishers or use a self-publishing service, then market it to your target audience to generate sales.
You might be surprised by the sheer range and quality of AI content creation tools now available. From brainstorming ideas for marketing campaigns to generating social media graphics, creating images, editing videos and writing copy, AI tools open up a world of creative possibilities. This in turn lets you access a range of money-making opportunities.
There are companies that pay you to help refine their AI models so they can produce better responses. Examples include DataAnnotation, Alignerr and CrowdGen. Tasks vary based on your skills, such as labelling images or text, coding, fact-checking and evaluating AI answers.
Affiliate marketing involves promoting another company’s products or services in return for a commission. Essentially, you create your own website to direct customers to the company’s website or marketplace product listings, where they will hopefully make a purchase. You might be paid every time a customer clicks on the link to the provider’s website, or you may only be paid if they make a purchase.
Playing video games, cooking, broadcasting sports events or showcasing your daily life—livestreaming provides a unique and interactive experience to share with your audience. Deliver regular, high-quality content to build a loyal following in your chosen niche, and then you may be able to turn it into a money-making opportunity through donations from viewers, partnering with brands, selling subscriptions for exclusive content and more.
Popular streamer and YouTuber Nick Eh 30, aka Nicholas Amyoony, is living out many a kid’s dream job. This Nova Scotian started making gaming videos as a university student, launching his Nick Eh 30 YouTube channel in late 2014. By 2017 he had abandoned his studies and become a professional streamer, and his Fortnite videos have seen him amass 5.7 million followers on Twitch.
Whether you’re an experienced personal trainer or just someone who loves staying in shape, you could offer personal training classes online. You can offer tailored fitness classes to clients in the privacy of their own home, and you can also create and sell your own workout plans and fitness courses online.
Janelle Hill’s athletic journey started in figure skating, a sport she pursued with passion in her younger years. And when this always active Canadian started hitting the gym in 2015, she found a passion for helping people get stronger. She began sharing workout videos on Instagram, while at the same time getting certified as a personal trainer, pursuing a bachelor of kinesiology and still skating multiple times a week. Today, she has close to 26,000 Instagram followers and offers in-person and online fitness coaching through her website, gymwithjan.com.
Got a special skill or insight that others might be interested in learning or hearing about? You might be surprised by what people are willing to watch on YouTube. You could film yourself tackling competitive eating challenges like BeardMeatsFood, playing Minecraft like Unspeakable, share fitness tips, show people how to do common DIY jobs around the house or just about anything else you can imagine.
If your videos get enough views, you can earn money from advertising revenue, sell merch to your subscribers and monetize your channel in a handful of other ways. Learn more about starting a YouTube channel.
If you’re blessed with an excellent voice and the sort of acting chops required to inject life into content you read, audiobook narration could be your perfect side hustle. Once you’ve built a portfolio of work, you can look for narration jobs on platforms like ACX, Audible, Voquent and Voices.
An Inuit actor and performer from the Northwest Territories, Tiffany Ayalik is no stranger to the stage. The talented theatre and fine arts student started acting in film and TV, also dabbling in voiceover work, but it wasn’t until COVID hit that she started getting work narrating audiobooks. The training she received in the theatre stands her in good stead as she brings characters to life in works like Forever Birchwood, a YA novel by author Danielle Daniel.
Sports, true crime, children’s stories, money management tips, parenting, you name it—browse Spotify or Apple Podcasts and you’ll find podcasts covering just about every topic under the sun. So, if you have a special passion in life or specialist knowledge you’d like to share, why not start your own podcast?
If your social media game is strong, why not use your skills to earn income as an “influencer”? Influencer marketing is where you build a large following among a niche audience, which could be anything from beauty and self-care to improving your golf game, until brands want to pay you to promote their products. From Instagram and TikTok to YouTube, Twitch and a host of other platforms, there are many different ways to engage with your audience.
Transcribers take audio or video content and convert it into text, and they’re in high demand in legal, medical and media industries. If you’re a fast and accurate typist—aim for at least 50 words per minute—working as a transcriptionist could be a lucrative side hustle. Check out sites like Rev and TranscribeMe to get started.
Sites like Clickworker, Prolific and CloudResearch Connect hire people to do various tasks like translating, data processing and data labelling. Amazon Mechanical Turk, once a popular microtasking platform, closed permanently on September 30, 2026. (Learn about MTurk alternatives.)
Want to work from home and be your own boss? Sites like Upwork, Fiverr and Freelancer let you make money online in Canada by helping you connect with people and companies who need professional services.
You can freelance full-time or as a side hustle to earn some extra cash. There’s work out there for writers, graphic designers, translators, voiceover artists, web designers, programmers, SEO specialists, bookkeepers and a range of other professionals, so search for work opportunities based on your skill set.
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Terrific at TikTok? In demand on Insta? Use your savvy social media skills to segue into a lucrative side hustle or potentially a new career. There are plenty of businesses and individuals out there that need a lot of help upping their social game, increasing user engagement and generating more sales. And that’s where a social media consultant like you can make money by sharing skills and expertise.
In the same vein as becoming a freelancer, working remotely as a virtual assistant allows you to make money online in Canada. It’s free to offer your services on sites like Upwork, and you can get paid to help clients with jobs like office admin, social media management, responding to emails, scheduling appointments and much more.
Sites like Cambly, SkimaTalk and Preply make it easy to connect with students around the world who want to learn English. In some cases, you don’t even need to be an accredited language teacher, just a native English speaker. The idea is to teach your students English simply by engaging them in conversation.
Are you an expert in your field? Do you have specialist knowledge about a specific niche, like photography, digital marketing, starting a business or playing guitar? If so, you could design, create and sell your own courses online. Platforms like Teachable, Udemy, Thinkific and Kajabi offer the tools you need to share your educational materials with a wide audience.
Maybe you’re a mathematics or English teacher looking for some extra income? Perhaps you’re an experienced guitarist who wants to go down the teaching route? Whatever the case may be, you can make money online by offering your services as a tutor. Whether on sites like Upwork and Fiverr or on specific tutoring platforms, offering your expert services provides a flexible way to earn extra income.
Would you love to receive a box of specially curated goodies each month? It could be luxe skincare items, artisan coffee, pet toys and treats, or maybe handpicked novels from your favourite genre. If you’ve got an idea that will stand out from the crowd, create your own monthly (or maybe bi-monthly or quarterly) gift box package and start selling subscriptions.
In February 2022, as the world was still coming to terms with the COVID pandemic, the BC-based Lit Love book subscription box was born. Founder Deanna had previously tried her luck with a book subscription box business five to six years before, but decided the time was right to give it another go.
Lit Love specializes in thoughtfully curated boxes for people who love to read. Each month, subscribers get to choose a new-release book from several genres, and the reading material is shipped with a selection of delicious snacks, bath and body products for a little pampering, and home essentials. Check it out if you need some inspo for your subscription box business.
Have you got an idea for an app that could help make people’s lives easier or better in some way? Maybe it’s an app to guide people on a weight loss journey, to help them manage their weekly budget, or to connect with others in the local community. You don’t need to be a genius developer to create your own app, promote it and make it available to download on the App Store and Google Play.
If you’re a keen gamer, this might sound like your dream job. There are several legit platforms out there that will pay you for testing PC and mobile games before they’re released and providing feedback to the developers. Platforms like Game Tester, Antidote and PlaytestCloud are worth checking out.
Airbnb is one of those sites that needs no introduction, providing a way to make money online in Canada by renting out a space to guests looking for somewhere to stay. It’s free to list your space on Airbnb, allowing you to earn extra cash using an asset you already own.
Alternatively, you could rent out your home (or a part of your home) for use as a private event space or for film and photo shoots using sites like Tagvenue, Giggster and Peerspace.
In major cities like Toronto and Vancouver, parking is at a premium. So, if you live in a popular area close to the city centre and you have a parking space you don’t use, you can earn a little extra income by renting it out on sites like clicknpark, Parkify and SpotHero. It’s quick and easy to do, requiring minimal time or effort on your part.
The concept behind “flipping” domain names is to buy a domain name at a low price and sell it for a much higher price. The trick is, of course, to be able to recognize domains that will be highly sought-after and that you could potentially sell for a profit.
Have you ever heard of “compers”? These serial competition participants devote a whole lot of time to entering competitions online, and some of them have a surprising amount of success. It’s free to do and can take up as much or as little time as you want.
Cashback apps and websites like Rakuten, Swagbucks and Great Canadian Rebates offer a simple way to get more money in your bank account. By doing your regular shopping through these platforms at partner retailers, you can earn a certain percentage cashback on all your purchases. Examples of retailers include Best Buy, Sephora and Canadian Tire.
Put your people skills into action by working as a remote customer service rep. You might be surprised by the number of companies that offer jobs for personable people who can answer calls and manage online chats—all from home. You might also be able to increase your chance of getting work if you’re bilingual.
Companies advertise jobs directly on sites like Indeed. Or, you could look for work on freelancer sites like Upwork or specialist platforms like We Work Remotely.
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Search engine evaluators are tasked with checking the quality and accuracy of search engine results. Sites like Appen, TELUS Digital and Clickworker are a good starting point when searching for jobs. Each task will come with specific instructions about what you need to do and the sort of feedback required to help search engines improve their algorithms and deliver a better user experience.
Turn your love of animals into a way to earn extra income by becoming a part-time or full-time dog walker. Sites and apps like Pawshake and Rover make it easy for you to advertise your walking services to dog owners in your area. You can also offer your services as a pet sitter, either in the pet owner’s home or by hosting pets in your own home.
If you’re a keen photographer and you’d like to potentially consider photography as an alternative career, you might be able to make money online by selling your images to stock photo services. Sites like Dreamstime, iStock, 500px, Shutterstock and Alamy are just some of the popular stock image platforms where you might like to try your luck.
Share your musical gifts with the world and sell your music online. Once you’ve recorded a few tracks, use a digital music distributor like DistroKid or TuneCore to get your music on streaming platforms like Spotify and in digital music stores. Alternatively, you can also upload your tunes to stock music libraries.
Painting, drawing, sculpture and more—there are many types of art you can sell online. You might like to set up your own online gallery or use a platform like Etsy or Gallea to sell individual physical works or digital downloads. Alternatively, you could use a print-on-demand service to sell prints of your work or get your designs featured on t-shirts, mugs, posters and much more.
Last but not least, it’s also possible to make money online by investing. The rise of online stock brokers and trading apps means that it’s easier than ever before to trade stocks and ETFs on Canadian and US markets as well as exchanges around the world. Compare online stock brokers to find the best investing platform for your needs.
There’s no single, one-size-fits-all best way to make money online. The best option for you depends on the skills and tools at your disposal.
For example, renting out a spare room on Airbnb can be a reasonably simple way to supplement your income. Or, if you have the skills needed to work as a freelancer, whether as a copywriter, a web designer or anything else, you could turn your online money-making adventure into a full-time gig.
But if you don’t have anything to sell or rent, and if you don’t have any special skills or expertise, perhaps the easiest way to make money online is to complete online surveys. While it won’t make you rich, anyone can do it and there are multiple platforms available where you can earn a little extra cash.
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