Having a part-time job while studying can be very demanding. Working as a bartender or babysitter often means working fixed hours and spending additional money for transportation. So are there free online jobs for students that can be done anytime you’re free and without additional costs? The answer is a resounding YES.
Introducing Microtasking
In the last years, an innovative activity called microtasking has become more and more popular on the web. Microtasking involves completing very simple tasks that do not require any specific skills or qualifications.
Some examples of microtasks are writing short transcriptions, recording phrases, labeling pictures, doing consumer and social surveys, visiting a website (and giving your opinion on its content and design), gathering information from public online sources, and so on.
Many companies, institutions, and private individuals now use microtasking platforms to offer simple tasks for online workers to complete.
Most of these platforms allow people from all over the world to sign up and start working right away.
Microtasking Platforms
Here’s a list of microtasking platforms you can sign up to immediately and start working today:
1) Amazon Mechanical Turk is the most famous microtasking platform, and it’s operated by Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon.com. This platform offers a high number of daily tasks (called HITs) that can take from 1 minute to a couple of hours to complete. Normally, the longer HIT the higher the reward.
Rewards normally range from 1 cent to 30 dollars per HIT. As you reach various thresholds (500 HITs, 1000 HITs, 2000 HITs, and 5000 HITs), you’ll see the number of available tasks increase. Keep in mind that after completing a task, the employer will have to approve it before you can be paid. Approval depends on whether or not you completed the task correctly.
It’s important to do the tasks correctly and keep a high approval rate because many employers won’t make their tasks available to workers who have low approval rates. You can withdraw money when your balance reaches $20.
People from all over the world can create an account on Amazon Mechanical Turk but only workers from the U.S. can withdraw money to their bank account right away.
Workers from other countries can transfer their balance to their Amazon.com gift card and use that money to shop online. Recently, Amazon Mechanical Turk has updated its policy on withdrawals and has allowed eligible workers from India, the UK, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, and all EU countries to withdraw money to their bank account by using a free virtual US bank account (like Hyperwallet, Transferwise or Payoneer).
Yet if you are from one of these countries, you won’t be able to withdraw money to your bank account immediately. Initially, you’ll only have the option to transfer money to your Amazon.com gift card, but as you complete more HITs you increase your chances to become eligible for direct withdrawals.
2) Clickworker.com is another great microtasking platform that allows online workers to complete small jobs posted by employers. The number of tasks available daily is lower than Amazon Mechanical Turk but its withdrawal policy is way less strict.
Clickworker.com pays its users weekly by transferring money to their PayPal accounts, provided they have reached a $10 balance.
Clickworker.com is also available as a smartphone app, allowing you to complete tasks when you’re not at home, making it a very flexible option.
3) Picoworkers.com is a very easy-to-use microtasking platform on which you can complete several quick tasks such like watching YouTube videos and posting a comment, signing up to various websites, reading blog articles and so on.
It allows you to withdraw money to your PayPal account once you reach $5 but you must pay a 7% fee for every withdrawal. You can also withdraw Litecoin and Ethereum to your cryptocurrency wallet for a lower withdrawal fee.
Tasks normally pay less money than Amazon Mechanical Turk and Clickworker.com but they’re often much easier to complete. Constantly check if there are new tasks available because they are posted frequently.
4) Prolific.co is an excellent microtasking platform where users can take part in surveys and studies posted by various companies and individuals. While the number of tasks available weekly on Prolific is lower than on the three platforms we have listed before, the pay per task tends to be higher. Prolific is a British company and payments are in British pounds. Yet people from all over the world can use it and they can easily convert their money to dollars, euros, or any other currency once it is transferred to their PayPal account. If you don’t have a British Pound balance on PayPal, then the conversion happens automatically when the money arrives.
5) Rapidworkers.com is very similar to Picoworkers.com. Tasks are very simple and are updated regularly. You can withdraw money to your PayPal account once you have earned $8. You must pay a 6% fee on every withdrawal.
6) Timebucks is one of the easiest microtasking platforms available. Once you’ve signed up, click on EARN and you’ll see various options to make money.
Tasks can be as easy as opening a web page and waiting 50 seconds, watching a video or completing a slide show. Additionally, if you complete 10 or more tasks daily, you’ll be able to take part in a daily lottery and win between a minimum of 0.002$ and a maximum of $10. Free money, basically.
You can also make money by inviting friends to join Timebucks through a personal referral link.
To withdraw the money, you’ll need a minimum balance of $10. Withdrawals can be done through Transferwise, AirTM, Payeer, Bitcoin, Skrill, and Neteller.
7) YSense is another great website to earn money by completing easy surveys or by downloading and testing various apps and mobile games. To withdraw money to your PayPal account, you’ll need a minimum balance of $10. If you use Skrill you only need a minimum balance $5.05 to withdraw money.
8) NeoBux allows you to earn money by viewing online ads, by doing online surveys that fit your demographic profile and by completing simple tasks using their partner platform Figure Eight (for which you’ll also need an account).
$10 is the minimum amount of money you can withdraw and for every withdrawal. There is a 2% fee on every withdrawal.
9) Paidera is a website on which you can make money by doing simple tasks, completing surveys, and creating quizzes to send to your friends or to spread on social media. You can also earn money by inviting other people to join Paidera.
10) Remotasks is a great microtasking website. The only reason this platform is at the end of the list is that, unlike other microtasking platforms, Remotasks requires a small amount of training before you can start working.
The good news is that training is offered for free on Remotasks’ website. Once you create a new account, you can go to the Training Center and start learning how to perform tasks such as categorization, transcription, image annotation, image segmentation, video annotation, lidar annotation, and lidar segmentation.
Some tasks are more difficult than others but also pay higher rewards.
Remotasks is one of the better-paying microtasking platforms once you take the time to go through the training.
So how much money can I really make with microtasks?
The answer to this question depends on how much time you’re gonna spend doing online tasks. There are people who use microtasking platforms to earn beer money and there are others who spend hours every day on these platforms and earn several hundred dollars a month.
Some platforms like Mechanical Turk require you to complete a certain number of tasks before you can have access to higher-paying tasks, but once you get there rewards can be substantial.
A good strategy is to sign up for more than one microtasking platform in order to complete more daily tasks and earn more money.
Conclusion: a Great Option for Students
The great thing about microtasking is that it allows you to work in your spare time, which makes it perfect for students who can earn money early in the morning, between a course and a homework session, or before going to sleep.
Moreover, no bureaucratic hurdles, admission processes, or starting costs are needed to work on these platforms. You simply create a free account and start working.
We hope that this article was helpful and encourage you to use the comment section below to ask questions about microtasking or to share your experience with making money online.
And remember to check our Tips for Online Learners section for other useful advice.
(Last updated on May 10, 2020)
Wow😍 this is awesome! Thanks for sharing these great platforms. This is actually a dream come through for me as a student who wants to make side cash.
I will love to sign up for this “Picoworkers” as the claims are highly intriguing for me and also the earnings is encouraging. This is lovely!
Picoworkers is one of my favorite platforms. I have used it often during my college years. The tasks are very simple and you can easily transfer money to your PayPal account once you’ve earned $5 (+ 0.35$ withdrawal fee). Customer support is also very helpful and responds very quickly.
Hi. It’s been a pleasure to read your review about Micro-tasking. I’d like to say you’ve done a very through job. I think it’s a great idea to be able to put your hands to something, that can potentially offer you some revenue but I would also like to say it can be very demanding and soul destroying. I have had some experience with this type of work online and found that I was putting in lots of time for little reward. Sometimes getting near then of a batch of questions to find my last answer made me unable to complete the task, hence no pay. I just felt I should share my experience and I wish you all the best.
Thanks for sharing your experience with us, Derek. Some microtasking platforms offer more jobs in certain countries while other require you to complete a certain number of low-paying tasks before having access to higher-paying ones.
Considering the current global situation, this article couldn’t have come at a better time. It is even more relevant as I have two ‘students’ now back at home for the foreseeable future. I have sent the link to both of them, as I have a feeling that they will have plenty of time to investigate the options further.
These opportunites are really useful to drop onto inbetween other tasks that you might be doing. If you have a spare five or ten minutes here and there, why not spend that time earning money, rather than watching a video or playing a game on your phone. Looking at some of the rates of pay offerered, it might be best to try and accumulate the ‘wages’ over a month or two.
I think your advice of signing up to multiple platforms, is the best possible way forward. That way, you should always have a decent selection of opportunites to evaluate and decide upon. Clickworker and Picoworkers both appeal to me, especially the option to be able to perform tasks on your mobile phone.
Thanks for the comment, Twack Romero. Yes, this pandemic has made a lot of people look for ways to earn money online and microtasking platforms are definitely one of the quickest ways. Sure, there are much more profitable methods like Affiliate Marketing, Dropservicing and other types of online marketing strategies but they require weeks or months before you can see financial gains, whereas microtasking platforms allow you to start working and earning right away.
This is an amazing article especially for this pandemic season, where most student jobs are not functioning. People now have the chance to make some some passive income whiles staying at home. Thanks for sharing this post. It is very informative and I will pass it along to some of my student colleagues who are desperately in need of money to pay their rents and their living expenses.
True that! Knowing about ways to earn money online is a great way to protect yourself from situations like the one the world is currently experience. Thanks for sharing this article with your fellow students!
Thanks for sharing. These platforms are amazing. I wonder if there is an age limit. If not, I will try to round up my income, as I am a pensioner from a European country where pensions are not very decent. Remotasks seems like the best platform. Anticipated thanks for the answer. Carmen
Remotasks is a great platform. The only downside compared to other platforms is that you have to complete some training before working on tasks but once you do it can be quite rewarding. Plus you will be learning new skills!
Thank you very much for such a great article about online jobs for students. It quite challenging for students to find online jobs that can decently pay them. Here you have listed all jobs that can help students to make some money. But truth be said, any one join micro-tasking shouldn’t expect much but some little dollars.
Hi Mugalu, thanks for sharing your opinion. How much you can earn on these platforms mostly depend on how much time you spend on them. Some of these platforms can be quite lucrative if you use them for 4 or 5 hours a day.
When I was a student, I always tried to get jobs to earn me money but it was never easy. At the time there was no infrastructure to allow online access. However, times have changed and it is now possible to find work online. But the internet has too much information to filter to get what you really works and what does not.
It is good advice to sign up to more than one micro-tasking platform, dedicate time and make money.
You have shared credible information and appreciate the hours put in to write this post. It is a must-read for students.
Thanks for your comment, Edgar!
I actually know of some of these site and i engaged some of them. they actually paid but the reason why i withdrew from it is because it will pay us a little lesser so it is no sure way to make money that can really sustain as a major source of income. thank you for this great post of yours.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Smoochi. It mostly depends on your location, how many of these platforms you use, and on how much time you spend every day working on microtasks. Many people based in the US can make hundreds of dollars every month working on Mechanical Turk. People from other countries normally use a mix of platforms if they want to make more than just “beer money”.
This is a great platform to explore microtasking. I agree these micotasking platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk or Rapidworkers are great options for students that may not have many other money making options. It seems Amazon is offering a great opportunity. With Rapidworkers, I don’t know if I would like the 6% fee on withdrawals.
Amazon Mechanical Turk is definitely the biggest platform out there, although only users from certain countries are allowed to withdraw the money to their bank account rather than to their Amazon Gift Card. All other platforms typically charge you something to withdraw money but are normally open to people from all over the world.
Thank you for sharing this information, I just checked on some of them like as a business, some of them have low though, just like the second one on the app. and that of amazon and pacific am trying that because I need a side job as a student most especially in this lockdown.
Thanks for the comment, betieshair. And good luck with experimenting these online job platforms!