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The internet has made it possible to get paid for gigs that sound made up. Lawyers will pay you to judge their case before it goes to trial. AI developers will rent the graphics card in your gaming PC. Research companies will pay to see how you browse the web.
None of these replace a paycheck. But if you’ve got a voice people like listening to, a powerful computer or just some spare time and an opinion, they can turn something you already have into extra cash. You can do most of them entirely from your couch, and we’ve flagged the few that involve renting out physical space. Here’s how each one works, what it actually pays and what to watch out for.
| Method | Potential earning | Fully online? |
|---|---|---|
| Sit on an online mock jury | $10 per case on one major platform | Yes |
| Join paid research studies | At least $8 an hour on one major platform | Yes |
| Rent out your unused internet | Varies; $20 minimum payout on one major app | Yes |
| License your voice to AI | About $0.03 per 1,000 characters by default on one major platform | Yes |
| Get paid to search the web | About 5,000 points per $5 reward | Yes |
| Name other people’s businesses | $300 per winning name on one major platform | Yes |
| Playtest unreleased video games | $9 per 15-minute test on one major platform | Yes |
| Start an ASMR channel | Ad revenue once you qualify for YouTube’s Partner Program | Yes |
| Rent out your GPU to AI developers | $0.60 per GPU-hour for a high-end gaming card on one major platform | Yes |
| Get paid to share your browsing data | Varies; $5 minimum cashout on one major platform | Yes |
| Sell oddly specific services | You set the price; platform keeps 20% on one major marketplace | Yes |
| Join paid online focus groups | $400+ per study on one major platform | Yes (online studies) |
| Rent your backyard to dog owners | Host sets the price; platform takes a cut | No — needs a yard |
| Rent out your pool by the hour | Hosts keep 70%–85% of the booking price on one major platform | No — needs a pool |
| Rent your home for photo shoots | Host sets the price; 20% host fee on one major platform | No — needs a space |
| Rent out storage space | Host sets the price; small processing fee | No — needs a space |
| Track down money you’re owed | Varies; searching is free | Yes |
| Play games for rewards | Varies by app and game | Yes |
| Take paid surveys | Varies; $5 minimum cashout on one major platform | Yes |
| Test websites and apps | $5 per test on one major platform | Yes |
| Get paid to train AI | Up to $50 an hour for generalist work on one major platform | Yes |
Before a case goes to trial, some lawyers test their arguments on a group of ordinary people to see how a real jury might react. Mock jury sites let you read a case summary from home, answer the lawyer’s questions and get paid for your verdict.
Potential earning: On eJury, for example, jurors earn $10 per verdict depending on the length of the case, paid through PayPal, according to eJury’s juror FAQ.
How to get started: Register on a mock jury site and fill out your profile. You’ll get an email when a case comes up in your county.
Good to know: You usually need to meet the same basic rules as real jury duty. On eJury, for example, you need to be at least 18, a US citizen and have no felony convictions. Cases depend on where you live, and eJury says jurors in big metro areas get more cases than people in rural areas.
University researchers and companies need real people to take part in studies, from decision-making games to questions about your opinions. Online research platforms match you with studies you qualify for and pay you for your time.
Potential earning: On Prolific, for example, researchers must pay participants at least $8 an hour, and Prolific recommends they pay $12 an hour or more, according to its participant help center. Prolific pays in cash through PayPal, not gift cards or points, and you can cash out once you’ve earned at least $6.
How to get started: Join the waitlist, accept your invite when it arrives and verify your identity, then fill out your profile in detail (it’s how you get matched to studies).
Good to know: Prolific calculates the hourly rate from the median (middle) completion time for each study, so if you work slower than most people, you’ll earn less per hour.
This one sounds the strangest. Some apps pay you to share a slice of your unused home internet connection, which businesses then use for tasks like price comparison, ad verification and market research. You install the app and it runs in the background.
Potential earning: Earnings depend on how much traffic runs through your connection. Honeygain, for example, pays one credit for every 10MB of traffic, with 10 credits worth $0.01 — that works out to $1 for every 10GB shared. You need $20 (20,000 credits) before you can cash out through PayPal.
How to get started: Download a bandwidth-sharing app on a computer or phone that stays connected to Wi-Fi, create an account and leave it running.
Good to know: Other businesses’ traffic runs through your IP address, so read the app’s terms carefully and check that your internet provider’s terms allow it before you sign up.
AI voice platforms let people turn written text into realistic speech. Some of them now let you create a digital clone of your own voice, share it in a public library and earn money whenever paying customers use it.
Potential earning: Earnings depend on how often paid users generate audio with your voice. On ElevenLabs, for example, the default rate is around $0.03 per 1,000 characters (roughly 90 seconds of speech), and voices with high-quality status can charge up to $0.20 per 1,000 characters, according to the company. ElevenLabs says voice actors have earned a combined $5 million through its Voice Library in less than two years.
How to get started: Create a professional voice clone. ElevenLabs recommends uploading about two hours of clear recordings of only your voice, then complete voice verification and share your clone in the platform’s library.
Good to know: On ElevenLabs, creating a professional voice clone requires the Creator plan or higher, though you don’t need a paid plan to receive payouts. Payouts go out automatically every six to eight days once you pass a minimum threshold, which is $10 in most cases. Think carefully before licensing your voice, and turn on live moderation to keep people from using it in restricted or sensitive content.
You probably search for something online every day anyway. Some search engines and browsers reward you with points for using them, which you can trade in for gift cards.
Potential earning: Microsoft Rewards, for example, gives points for searching with Bing and other activities. Points don’t have a cash value, and it usually takes about 5,000 points to redeem something worth $5, according to Microsoft’s support page.
How to get started: Sign in with a free account, set the rewarding search engine as your default and check the rewards dashboard for daily bonus activities like quizzes.
Good to know: Daily earning limits apply, and Microsoft says points expire if you don’t earn any for 12 months.
Coming up with a business name that sticks is harder than it sounds, so some founders crowdsource it. Naming contest sites let you pitch name ideas for real companies, and the winner takes home the prize.
Potential earning: On Atom, for example, the prize paid to the winning creative in a naming contest ranges from $300, depending on the package the business buys, according to Atom’s pricing page.
How to get started: Sign up as a creative on a naming contest site, browse open contests and submit names that match the business owner’s brief.
Good to know: It’s winner-take-all and competition is stiff. Atom’s own packages say businesses can expect anywhere from 300 to 1,000 or more entries per contest.
Game studios want honest feedback before their games launch. Playtesting platforms pay gamers to try new and unreleased mobile and PC games while recording their screen and talking through what they think.
Potential earning: On PlaytestCloud, for example, a 15-minute playtest plus survey generally pays $9, according to the company’s tester help center. There’s no minimum payout, and you can expect payment within three days of a completed test, as a PayPal payment, virtual card or gift card.
How to get started: Sign up as a tester, add the devices you own and the games you play and watch for invitations by email.
Good to know: The onboarding test is unpaid, you need to talk out loud through the whole recording to get paid, and invites depend on your profile, so they won’t come every day.
ASMR videos — whispering, tapping, crinkling and other soft sounds some people find relaxing — have a big audience online. If you’re comfortable on camera (or just on mic), it’s a niche where you can build a following and eventually earn ad revenue.
Potential earning: There are several ways to make money on YouTube. But to earn a share of ad revenue, you need to join the YouTube Partner Program, which requires 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 qualified watch hours in the last 12 months or 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days, according to YouTube’s help center.
How to get started: Pick a style (soft-spoken, no-talking, roleplay), invest in a decent microphone and post on a regular schedule.
Good to know: In the US and other eligible countries, you can join earlier with 500 subscribers, three public uploads in the last 90 days and either 3,000 watch hours or 3 million Shorts views. That unlocks fan funding like channel memberships and Super Thanks, but ad revenue sharing only kicks in at the higher threshold.
Training and running AI models takes a huge amount of computing power, and the graphics card (GPU) in a high-end gaming PC can supply some of it. GPU marketplaces let developers rent your card’s spare processing power by the hour while it sits in your house.
Potential earning: You set your own rates. On Vast.ai, for example, consumer GPUs like the RTX 5090 typically earn $0.60 per GPU-hour depending on rental type and your reliability score, according to the company.
How to get started: Create a host account, follow the platform’s setup guide (on Vast.ai, that includes installing Ubuntu, NVIDIA drivers and configuring network ports), then list your GPU with a price and rental terms.
Good to know: Once someone rents your machine on fixed terms, you have to keep it available until the rental ends. Your real take-home is also lower than the hourly rate once you subtract electricity and the hours your GPU sits idle waiting for a renter.
Brands want to know what people actually do online, not just what they say in surveys. Some research panels pay you to install an app or browser extension that shares your browsing and shopping activity with them.
Potential earning: Survey Junkie’s Surf to Earn program, for example, gives members who opt in guaranteed monthly points after 30 days of installation, plus access to exclusive surveys, according to Survey Junkie. Members can cash out starting at $5 (500 points).
How to get started: Join a research panel that offers a data-sharing program, install its app and stay active — Survey Junkie, for example, offers a Windows or Mac desktop app and an Android app and requires at least five online sessions a month.
Good to know: You’re trading privacy for points, so read exactly what’s collected. Survey Junkie says its app never collects passwords, payment methods or Social Security numbers and never accesses financial, medical or government websites, messaging or email.
Freelance marketplaces aren’t just for logos and résumés. People sell all kinds of quirky one-off services online — think custom songs, cartoon portraits of someone’s pet or a voicemail greeting in a funny accent — and if there’s a buyer for it, you can list it.
Potential earning: You set your own price. On Fiverr, for example, sellers keep 80% of each order and Fiverr keeps a 20% commission, according to Fiverr’s terms of service.
How to get started: Pick something you can deliver online and do well, create a seller profile on a freelance marketplace and write a gig listing that spells out exactly what buyers get and how fast.
Good to know: Earnings aren’t available to withdraw right away — Fiverr holds them for a clearing period after each order is completed.
Companies pay to hear directly from the kinds of people who use their products, often over a video call. Research marketplaces match you with paid interviews, focus groups and studies based on your job, interests and background.
Potential earning: On Respondent, for example, most studies pay $400+, with online surveys and short interviews usually paying $150, according to Respondent’s participant page. Respondent lists its average payout as $75.
How to get started: Build a detailed profile (your job title matters a lot), then apply to studies that fit. You’ll answer a few screening questions before you’re invited.
Good to know: Respondent says most participants get one to three invitations a month, and some studies are in person, so stick to remote ones if you want to stay home. Respondent never asks you to pay to participate, and payments arrive through the rewards platform Tremendous.
Some dog owners don’t have a safe, fenced space where their dog can run off-leash, and some don’t want to deal with crowded public dog parks. Apps now let you rent your yard out by the hour as a private dog park. Bookings and payments happen online, but you’ll need a yard.
Potential earning: You set your own price. On Sniffspot, for example, there are no upfront or monthly fees, but the platform takes a 22% fee plus a payment processing fee from each booking, so a $10 booking leaves the host with about $7.34, according to Sniffspot’s help center.
How to get started: Sign up as a host on a yard-sharing app, add photos of your space, set your hourly rate and open up the days and times you’re available.
Good to know: Payouts aren’t instant — Sniffspot, for example, sends US hosts’ earnings on the first business day of each month for the previous month’s visits, and banks can take up to five business days to process them.
Pools are expensive to keep up, and plenty of them sit empty most of the week. Pool-sharing platforms let you rent yours out by the hour to families, friend groups or anyone who wants a private swim.
Potential earning: You set your own hourly rate. On Swimply, for example, hosts who signed up after July 12, 2023 earn 70%–85% of the total booking price (not counting guest fees), according to the company’s host page.
How to get started: List your pool on a pool-sharing platform, add clear photos, set your rules and availability and decide whether guests can use a restroom (Swimply says hosts who offer one can charge more per hour and accept longer bookings).
Good to know: Check your homeowners insurance and any HOA rules before you list. Swimply says its protection guarantee covers bookings for up to $1 million in general liability claims and $10,000 of property protection per occurrence, but that’s not the same as your own policy.
Photographers, brands and video crews are always looking for real-life locations that don’t look like a studio. If your home, loft or backyard has a strong look — a big kitchen, lots of natural light or quirky décor — you can rent it out by the hour as a set.
Potential earning: You set the price. On Peerspace, for example, listing is free and hosts pay a 20% service fee on the booking amount and any extra fees they charge, like cleaning, according to Peerspace’s help center.
How to get started: Create a host account on a space-rental platform, upload well-lit photos that show off your space’s character, set your hourly rate and block out the times you’re available.
Good to know: Shoots can mean a crew moving furniture and gear through your home, so set clear house rules up front. Peerspace processes payouts within seven days of the date the booking takes place.
Self-storage is pricey, and many people would rather keep their boat, RV or extra boxes in a neighbor’s garage for less. Peer-to-peer storage marketplaces connect you with renters who want to store their stuff on your property.
Potential earning: You set your monthly price. On Neighbor, for example, listing is free and the platform collects a processing fee of 4.9% plus $0.30 from your host payout when you have a paying renter, according to Neighbor’s host page.
How to get started: List the space you have (garage, driveway, shed, carport or unpaved lot), write a description, add photos and set your price.
Good to know: This is one of the more hands-off options on the list. On Neighbor, you approve each rental request and control who rents, what they store and when they can access your space, and payouts arrive monthly.
It’s not a side hustle exactly, but it might be the easiest money on this list. States hold billions in forgotten bank accounts, uncashed checks and old deposits, and federal agencies send out refunds when companies are caught breaking consumer protection laws.
Potential earning: It depends on what’s out there in your name. State unclaimed property programs returned more than $5 billion to owners in fiscal year 2023, according to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA). Separately, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent $337.3 million in refunds to consumers in 2024, according to its annual refunds report.
How to get started: Search your name (and any past names) on MissingMoney.com, which covers most states at once, or on the unclaimed property site for each state you’ve lived in. Check the FTC’s list of current refund programs to see if you qualify for any open cases.
Good to know: NAUPA says it’s always free to search for and claim your money through official state programs, so never pay a company to do it for you. It’s one of several ways to find free money you might be missing out on.
Not weird, but still one of the most popular ways to earn online. Game reward apps pay you in points or coins for downloading and playing partner games, which you can trade for cash or gift cards.
Potential earning: It depends on the app, the game and how far you progress. We couldn’t find a game reward app that publishes a fixed hourly rate on its own website, so check the payout each app shows before you start a game.
How to get started: Download a game reward app, browse the games on offer and check each game’s milestones before you play. Our Freecash review shows how one popular app works, and there are more ways to make money playing games.
Good to know: Some offers require you to spend your own money (like making an in-game purchase or a deposit) before they pay out, so read the requirements first.
The original way to make money online. Brands pay market research companies for consumer opinions, and survey sites share part of that with you as points.
Potential earning: On Survey Junkie, for example, members can cash out starting at $5 (500 points) through PayPal, bank transfer or gift cards, according to the company. Survey Junkie also says outright that you won’t get rich taking surveys.
How to get started: Sign up for a survey site, fill out your profile completely so you get matched to more surveys and check the point value and estimated time on each survey before you start.
Good to know: You won’t qualify for every survey. Survey Junkie, for example, requires members to be at least 18 and may ask you to verify your identity before you can redeem. Here’s more on how to earn money with paid surveys.
Companies want to know where real people get confused on their websites and apps. User testing platforms pay you to complete a few tasks while you record your screen and say what you’re thinking out loud.
Potential earning: On Userbrain, for example, testers earn $5 for every approved test, which typically takes 5–20 minutes, according to Userbrain.
How to get started: Sign up as a tester, install the platform’s screen recorder and pass a qualification test.
Good to know: Payouts take time. Userbrain, for example, holds each test for seven days, requires a $10 balance for your first payout and usually processes payouts within 5–10 business days.
Related: Guide to earning money with user testing
Every AI chatbot needs real people to check its answers, rate responses and point out mistakes. AI training platforms pay remote contractors to do that work, and you don’t need to know how to code for most general tasks.
Potential earning: On DataAnnotation, for example, generalist roles pay up to $50 an hour, language specialist roles up to $40 an hour and expert roles in fields like law and medicine up to $125 or more an hour (up to $150 or more for coding), according to the company’s job board.
How to get started: Apply on an AI training platform and complete its qualification assessment, which tests your writing, reasoning or subject knowledge.
Good to know: Work isn’t guaranteed. You’re a contractor, and the projects you see depend on how well you do on assessments and what the platform needs at the time.
Related: How to get paid to train AI
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