Best Ways to Earn Money in Your Spare Time 2026

Platforms like Respondent.io and Interviews.com connect professionals with companies like Google, McKinsey, and Stripe for paid 30–60 minute video research interviews. If you have a relevant professional background in tech, finance, healthcare, or marketing, this is by far the highest-paying use of your spare time.

The catch: You need to be selected, which involves a screening application. Selection rates are roughly 30–40% for qualified applicants. Expect 1–3 interviews per month once your profile is established.

Prolific Academic is the best consistent spare-time earning platform for most people. It pays a mandatory ethical minimum of roughly $9/hr (£6.50/hr in the UK), studies come from real universities, and the disqualification rate is just ~12% — compared to 40–60% on mainstream survey sites.

Studies typically run 10–30 minutes and are available 2–4 times per day. Most active users earn $50–120/month in true spare time.

Freecash lets you earn cash by reaching milestones in mobile games. New game releases in the first week can pay $5–8/hr — comparable to Prolific. There are no disqualifications (it's tasks, not surveys), it works in nearly every country, and minimum cashout is just $1.

Best used as filler income during Prolific quiet periods. Not a primary strategy — rates drop sharply after the first week of any game release.

Amazon Mechanical Turk pays for data labelling, transcription, and content review tasks. Average earnings are low, but choosing the right requesters makes a big difference. Top earners use tools like Turkopticon to filter only high-paying HITs and earn $5–6/hr consistently.

Swagbucks, Survey Junkie, and LifePoints have the lowest hourly rate of any method here, but they have the highest volume of available surveys. Best used as a supplementary income stacked alongside Prolific. Never use mainstream surveys as your primary earning strategy.

Rakuten, TopCashback, and Honey give you money back on purchases you'd make anyway. It's not hourly income — but it requires zero extra time and can save UK users £20–60/month on regular grocery and retail shopping. Install once, earn forever.