Best Surveys for Money in Canada

Online surveys offer a flexible way to earn money without leaving your home. But with tons of survey sites to choose from, which ones are actually worth your time?

To find out, we signed up and completed surveys on 13 different platforms. We compared ease of use, maximum payouts, number of ways to earn, minimum cash-out amounts and more to work out which are the best survey-for-money sites in Canada. Here are the 5 platforms that came out on top in our testing.

1. Freecash

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Dive deeper: Apps and sites like Freecash

2. HeyCash

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Dive deeper: HeyCash review

3. Swagbucks

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Dive deeper: Swagbucks review

4. Branded Surveys

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5. Prime Opinion

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Dive deeper: Prime Opinion review

What are the best surveys for money in Canada?

There’s no single site that is the overall “best” option for surveys for money in Canada because it depends on your needs. If you want a combination of diverse tasks, high earning potential and easy payouts, look into Swagbucks, Freecash and HeyCash. If you want to focus primarily on surveys, consider Branded Surveys or Prime Opinion. And if you want a low minimum payout amount and fast withdrawals, sites like HeyCash and Prime Opinion have got you covered.

Tips for making online surveys worth your time

If our testing of 13 survey platforms revealed one thing, it’s that surveys for money aren’t going to make you filthy rich. But they do offer a simple and legit way of earning extra cash, and we discovered several simple things you can do to boost your earning potential.

• Complete your profile. When we took the time to answer all the profile questions on our account, we were matched with a much wider range of suitable surveys.
• Download apps. We found it was easier and more convenient to complete surveys in-app rather than on a website. Downloading survey apps lets you complete surveys whenever you want, like on the bus to work or while the kids are at soccer practice.
• Set up notifications. We quickly learned that surveys on popular platforms fill up fast. Turning on email and mobile app notifications ensured that we were alerted as soon as a new survey became available.
• Log in daily. Making a habit of logging into our account each day to check if there were any new surveys available helped us maximize our earning opportunities.
• Set aside specific times. Dedicating specific times each day to answer surveys helped us keep our earnings ticking over.
• Use multiple sites. We quickly realized that just sticking to a single survey site would limit our earnings. Signing up for multiple platforms is a simple way to make more money.

How much can you expect to earn monthly and yearly?

We didn’t get rich testing out survey sites, but we did make real money. Our earnings from online surveys varied widely depending on the platform and the time investment required. Most surveys pay between $0.50 and $3, although some high-paying surveys can offer more.

We found that if you dedicate an hour a day to taking surveys, you might earn between $50 to $100 per month. So over the course of a year, it’s possible to earn more than $1,000.

But it’s important to note that, while online surveys are a convenient way to earn a little extra cash, they’re unlikely to replace a full-time income.

Benefits of taking online surveys for money

• Earn extra income. We found that answering surveys for money is a legit way to supplement your income with a little extra spending money.
• Make use of your spare time. We discovered that it was convenient and easy to answer surveys whenever we had a few spare minutes. So if you’ve got time to kill on your public transit commute or while you’re waiting to pick up the kids from school, you can use it to make money online.
• Easy to sign up and get started. It only took us a couple of minutes to create accounts on the best survey sites to make money in Canada.
• Free to do. It’s free to create an account and complete surveys online.
• Multiple sites to choose from. There are several sites that offer legit surveys for money in Canada, so you can sign up with multiple platforms to maximize your earning potential.

Downsides

• Not going to make you rich. Surveys for money provide some extra cash on the side, but don’t expect to be raking in huge amounts of money.
• Not a replacement for your regular income. We didn’t earn enough from completing surveys for money in Canada to get a full-time income.
• Getting disqualified from surveys. Perhaps the most frustrating problem we encountered while testing sites was answering survey screening questions and then getting disqualified from the survey because we weren’t in a suitable demographic.
• Watch out for high minimum cash-outs. We found that some sites require you to earn at least $20 before you can cash out. Be aware that it might take you a while to build a big enough rewards balance to be able to make a withdrawal.
• Some rewards are not available in Canada. We were sometimes annoyed to find that some advertised rewards were only available in the USA, so check the fine print to find out how you can cash out your earnings.

How to get started

It’s quick and easy to start completing surveys for money. Here’s what we did to get started.

1. Choose a platform. Compare the best-paying survey sites in Canada to decide where to open an account.
2. Sign up. Provide your personal information and contact details. Then create a password for your account.
3. Create a profile. Answer questions about yourself, including your lifestyle, family situation and hobbies, so you can be matched with survey opportunities.
4. Find a survey. Browse available surveys on your account dashboard and select the one you’d like to complete.

Related: How to make money online

Frequently asked questions

• Can you make $500 a month from surveys?

  Probably not. When testing 13 different survey sites, we found that most surveys pay between $0.50 and $3, so it's unlikely that you'll be able to earn $500 a month. Surveys can be a great way to earn extra cash, but they shouldn't be considered a reliable or significant source of income. They work best as a side hustle for small earnings.

• Can you make $100 a month from surveys?

  Yes, we trialled 13 survey sites and discovered that it is possible to make $100 a month from surveys. However, doing so won’t be easy. You'll need to be willing to devote time to completing surveys most days, and you may also need to sign up to multiple survey sites to maximize your earning potential.

• What are the best paying survey sites in Canada?

  Freecash, Branded Surveys, Ipsos iSay, Pinecone Research, and SurveyLion are among the highest-paying survey sites in Canada. However, the rewards on offer depend on the length and complexity of the survey, while the amount of survey opportunities available to you will also vary depending on your demographic profile and the platform you choose. Check out our guide on the highest-paying surveys for more information.

• What are legit surveys for money in Canada?

  There are many sites and apps that offer legit surveys for money in Canada. Some popular options include Swagbucks, Prime Opinion and Branded Surveys.

• What are the biggest online surveys for money in Canada?

  There are several large online survey platforms available in Canada that boast millions of users globally. Some of the biggest providers include Ipsos iSay, Swagbucks, Survey Junkie, Freecash and Branded Surveys.