YouGov is an international research and analytics firm based in the United Kingdom. Boasting a panel of over 9 million members across six countries, this research organization claims to be one of the world’s largest research networks.
How does YouGov gather its research information? One way is by rewarding survey participants with points that can be redeemed for cash and gift cards.
Like every survey site that promises rewards for sharing opinions, we wanted to put YouGov to the test to see if it’s really worth your time.
We found that while the interface and usability of both the company’s app and website is pleasantly surprising, there are a few drawbacks that make YouGov better as a hobby than a serious source of side income.
YouGov: Our Take
YouGov is an accredited and fully legitimate organization that creates interesting and unique polls for users around the world.
With that said, the payout for cash is a steep number of points, and the cheapest gift card option could take well over a month to complete.
Still, the fairly low amount of time-per-survey relative to earnings equates to decent reward potential.
Combining these factors, we rated YouGov a 3.9/5 overall.
| Rating Factor | Weight | Rating | Score |
| Earnings per hour: | 50% | 4.1 | 2.05 |
| Survey availability: | 15% | 4.0 | 0.60 |
| Payout experience: | 15% | 2.8 | 0.42 |
| Trustworthiness: | 10% | 4.0 | 0.40 |
| User experience: | 10% | 4.2 | 0.42 |
| Overall Score: | 3.89 |
While YouGov made our list of the top survey sites, it didn’t land in the top 10 — primarily because of the high minimum withdrawal.
You can read our survey rating methodology to learn more about what goes into these ratings.
YouGov Review: Paid Survey Basics
With a company motto of “YouGov. Best panel – Best data – Best tools,” the company spans 40 consumer markets, such as financial, health, and electronics, while gathering data points on consumer attitudes and behaviors.
Without a doubt, YouGov is a large and well-known paid survey site. The company has been conducting polls for over 20 years, and its survey results are frequently referenced in mainstream media, giving it an air of validity right off the bat.
Whereas some paid survey sites may seem like scams and a Google search turns up little to no reliable information, YouGov is an accredited organization with a reliable polling history, including in the political sphere (hence its name).
In the past, anybody could sign up for YouGov and give their opinion or view poll results, but these opportunities were not paid. Recently, the company launched a paid survey platform.
Signing up took around 10 minutes in total. During that process, YouGov will ask you a number of screening questions for the purpose of identifying which surveys you’re best suited for.
These basic demographic questions include, but are not limited to:
- Date of birth
- Gender
- Zip code
- Email address
After completing these screening questions, you’ll earn 500 YouGov points. While this may seem exciting, understand that 500 points is a mere drop in the bucket of what is required to cash-out — something we’ll touch on later.
Your account dashboard should then look like the picture below:
The first thing you’ll notice is that you now have access to your very first survey. A key difference between this YouGov survey and any future surveys you take is that this first one is meant to learn more about you to ensure you receive relevant surveys.
You’ll notice there are five tabs you can select: the main survey, daily questions, more questions, opinions, and rewards.
The main survey box at the top will only be there if you have a survey available. Otherwise, the daily questions box remains at the top.
After answering the daily questions, no points were added to our account. So it seems as if you can only earn redeemable points through main surveys.
Let’s dive into these sections a little deeper.
YouGov Earning Potential
As mentioned, there are different tabs that have different surveys. It warrants mentioning again that you can only earn points through the main surveys.
So let’s start there.
The main survey is the red box that will occasionally be at the top of your screen. Your first survey will be the one used to gauge what type of surveys you will be sent in the future.
Completing this first YouGov survey will earn you an additional 1,000 points, giving you 1,500 in total within 15 minutes of signing up on the platform.
After this survey, you’ll be emailed each time a new survey is available for you, rather than having a list of surveys you can scroll through in an attempt to see if you’re qualified.
Fortunately, this first survey is quite short as well, claiming to last around three minutes. In reality, it took closer to five to complete, making the estimate fairly close.
Given that we signed up under a U.S. account, questions surrounding U.S. political party affiliation were also requested. YouGov says that all answers are kept strictly confidential and only used for statistics, such as, “50% of people within California believe X.”
Other questions asked during this first survey included topics such as:
- Level of education
- Voter registration status
- Marital status
- Household size and income
- Employment status
At the end of each survey, YouGov requests that you rate the survey and add any comments you think would improve the process. We found this to be a nice touch compared to some other survey sites that don’t accept such feedback.
After filling out this survey, it took around eight hours before we were notified via email about a new survey being available.
Unlike the first survey, this second survey only granted 750 YouGov points upon completion, bringing our total up to 2,250 points in roughly a day.
Since then, surveys have been sent at a rate of about one every eight to 12 hours, meaning someone would be able to take around one to two per day.
Other Features
After taking the second survey, we wanted to explore some of the other sections even though they don’t give points.
On a daily basis, the “Your daily questions” section will have live questions that you can answer. They last for most of the day, and you can see how your answer to each question compares to the other users of YouGov, as seen below:
Typically, there are three to five questions per day. While you don’t receive points for your answers, it is entertaining to see the percentages change as more people cast their opinions.
There is also the “Answer more questions” category, which features topics ranging from “Reality TV” to “Environmental Policy.” Unlike the above category, it doesn’t seem as if you can view your answer compared to others.
There is also a fascinating social media aspect to the YouGov platform known as “Opinions.”
In this section, anybody can post their opinion in what looks similar to a Tweet, and viewers can vote to strongly disagree, mildly disagree, mildly agree, or strongly degree.
Unless you’re interested in reading seemingly random opinions from users on the app or answering a couple questions each day for fun, the real appeal of this platform remains the paid surveys.
This leads us to the final part of the platform: “Rewards.”
Getting Paid
Without further ado, the section you’ve been waiting for.
As mentioned above, it took us roughly a day to earn 2,250 points on our account.
At a rate of one to two 750-point surveys per day (seemingly the average), you could grow your points daily by 1,500.
So, what does that equate to in cash?
On YouGov, there are two options for payout: cash via bank transfer or gift cards.
Let’s look at how many points you’ll need to take it to the bank:
As you can see, 55,000 points are required to cash-out for a $50 bank transfer, and 100,000 points for a $100 transfer.
Assuming you were able to earn 1,500 points daily — a big assumption as we’ll touch on shortly — it would take you around 35 days of consistent usage to earn $50 (or 70 days for $100).
Our research suggests that the average survey takes around 10-15 minutes. This means you could earn up to $50 in around a month for under 30 minutes of work a day — a decent reward rate compared to other survey sites.
Still, we were curious to see if the minimum cash-out for gift cards was any quicker:
Other notable companies under the rewards section were Footlocker, Target, and Bed Bath & Beyond. However, the lowest payout option is the $15 Amazon gift card for 25,000 points.
Using the same logic as above, it would take the average person around 15 days to earn that prize.
Here’s the catch.
Our research was pulled from using the app for around half a week. What we had yet to discover, while some others did, was that there seems to be a limitation affecting a person’s ability to cash-out: survey consistency.
It seems that after using the app for some time, the amount of surveys offered drops to merely a couple per week.
This would make achieving even the minimum cash-out a process that could take months.
YouGov Pulse
All of the above is a part of YouGov’s main polling platform, known as YouGov Panel. There is another invite-only platform called YouGov Pulse.
Those invited are from the YouGov Panel platform and are asked to download a special app that tracks browsing activity, app use, media players, and general device information.
In other words, it’s a passive income app.
This confidential information is given to YouGov clients who are interested in the research components. In return, users get extra points.
The amount of points you earn depends on the devices enrolled and where you live, but a user is told how much they can earn when signing up. Based on our research, it seems you can earn as much as 1,000 extra points per month, per enrolled device.
In our opinion, this platform is similar to the Nielsen Computer and Mobile Panel, which tracks the same information. Theoretically, you could combine YouGov Pulse and NCMP, as well as other passive income apps, to rack up points on multiple paid platforms.
Given that YouGov Pulse points and YouGov Panel points go towards the same account, Pulse is a great way to increase the earning potential of the overall YouGov platform.
But keep in mind that you need to be invited — a process that is randomly decided depending on where you’re located and the information you’ve provided YouGov.
YouGov Review: Final Thoughts
YouGov is a global polling platform and paid survey site known around the world for its authentic and meaningful polls. The YouGov Panel offers users interesting questions in an easy-to-use mobile or desktop format.
While the earning potential may be on the lower end in the long-run, our immediate findings, as well as the option to get invited to YouGov Pulse, earns the platform a solid rating.
You certainly won’t get rich quick on YouGov, but it is possible to earn points slowly.
We would recommend this platform for anyone genuinely interested in contemporary topics, a social media research feel, and those who don’t mind the fact that earning rewards may not be as fast as alternative platforms.
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All very useful, but in the UK at least, a huge number of participants have wanted to cash out, but have been unable to – the system will not accept UK banking details. Many requests for assistance by e-mail, phone and social media have not been responded to. Even the ‘ help ‘ section is useless – it relates to non UK bank accounts. These are not the actions of a legit and reputable company, more of scammers and cheats. It’s actually disgusting that they can be regularly quoted in news reports as a reliable reporter of public opinion, when they abuse the very people who keep them in business. They have been reported to the british polling council, their trade body.
Thanks for the feedback on the UK side Joe. Reaching out to see what I can find out…
I’ve been a yougov panel member for about 2 years. I also downloaded the yougov pulse and yougov safe apps to my phone and laptop. Over these 2 years, I received about 2 surveys per week with the points being from 750 to 2000 per survey. The points for the apps were 3000 each. I redeemed three $50 actual gift cards and one $50 e gift card. The problem is, when I went to use the e gift card, it said “already used’. After trying to get support to help me for 3 months, I tried to login to my account and it doesn’t exist anymore. So, they stole $50 from me and I’m not the only one. There are many comments on their FB Chat page saying the same thing. I’m a U.S. user and something stinks at yougov right now. Users beware.
I notice that nobody is saying “how many bucks per hour,” which is quite telling.
Let’s use round numbers, based on your description: 10 minutes per survey, 1,000 points per survey, $100 for 100,000 points or $1 per survey. That’s $6 per hour. Moreover, at two surveys per week, that’s 1/3 hour per week or $2 per week. So, you’re getting paid almost nothing (and rarely so) for spinning your wheels. Those are hours you can’t get back, that you can spend time doing other things more fruitful. In other words, you’re spinning your wheels.
That’s a large opportunity cost to be paying to make someone else a profit, and unless you rate your own time as being worthless enough that $6 per hour counts as making money, then you’re losing equity merely by earning it, because time is not just money, it’s also equity — equity that you’re squandering on nearly worthless ventures.
That’s time you can spend making your own music or videos, writing your own stories, publishing your own books, creating your own software, doing and publishing your own research, boning up on background in Quantum Field Theory, General Relativity, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, etc. on your own, learning C, C++, Java, Go (and even Fortran), on your own. You only have so many hours in the day to do things that enhance your own education and value in your own eyes and in the eyes of others.
Better to have no money and time, than a few bucks with lost time (a preference I’ve acted on in the past). Stay away from wheel-spinning traps.
Based on my experience with yougov, it takes approx. 15 minutes to do a 1,000 point survey which equals 4,000/hr., so approx. 25 hours to earn $100.00 = $4.00/hr. I only recently started getting 1,000/day. Prior to that, I received ONE 500 pt. survey/week. I always avoid the gift cards and go for the $100. They used to deposit it directly to my bank account, then switched to gift cards…probably because they get a kick back for the “back door” endorsements from the particular franchise the card is from.
Your point is well taken, but YouGov pays better than other sites. For example, Survey Junkie pays what amounts to at most maybe $1 to $2 per hour at most, and that’s if you’re working hard at completing surveys. I don’t look at it as a way to make money. It’s a way to pass the time when I have trouble sleeping.
Well, IMO YouGov has serious problems.
I have been trying to redeem my points now for over three weeks and have been unable to do so. Evey time I try to redeem I get the magic “Ops -something went wrong screen. Please contact support.” screen.
I’ve tried to redeem using three different laptops and my phone all with the same result.
I ran into this problem the last time I tried to redeem as well. That time it took over two months before I was able to redeem my points and not one of my emails to them was ever answered other than the canned “We received your request.” ones. I logged in every week to try and redeem for that two months before the request went through.
It is really not worth the time and effort to do the surveys and then have to put additional work into getting you reward.
When the first i took with survey apps, their payment was okay. Now since November 2022 they have a problem for payout the rewards for their users including me. Ive been contacted customer service numerous times but only few response and didn’t solve the issue. I live in California USA
I have not gotten any survey points since Feb 23 2023 I have done several since then. I have contacted support 3 times now and they say “Oh we see you have points up to Feb 23rd. Therefore you are getting your points” They ignore the fact that I have NOT gotten any since then. I just done another one tonight and got NOTHING. I done 2 the night before and got NOTHING. They refuse to see why and I’m not the only one complaining. They’re a scam. I have been doing surveys for at least a year now. I’m going to delete my account.
Correction: no points since Feb 24th.
It works! I got my first payment. This is not for making a lot of money, this is for making some money when you have free time.
I’ve been doing their surveys for some time, with each coming about every week or so (with a 500 point offer average). It takes about 8-10 minutes; in other words, a long time (months) to get to 100,000 points (and the $100 “prize,” which is what I always go for). Like the previous poster said, “this is for making some money when you have free time.”
The downside for me beyond that is many of the surveys are from entities that pay YouGov to create the surveys for them. I filled out a survey this morning, and within an hour I got one of the numerous telemarketing calls I receive each day, this one being from my “local pharmaceutical network” as it turns out. Anyone out there who knows what the heck that is, please enlighten me.
So, connect the dots. Just a fair word of warning to those choosing to do these, or probably every other “paid” survey out there.
Note: This comment has been edited for grammar and to remove offensive content, in accordance with our website’s comment policy.
YouGov never sent me my gift card for redeemed points.
I’ve been trying for 2 months to get them to rectify the non payment without success
I’m through filling out their surveys
Can we cash out money from Lebanon?
Hi Rouba,
YouGov is available for citizens of Lebanon, however, my concern would be the surveys available in Lebanon and whether that’s enough to reach the minimum cash out threshold.
Is YouGov available is Switzerland?
Yes, but availability of surveys is likely different from the U.S., which is where we tested the app.
Let us know if you sign up and what your experience is if you give it a try!
I had been answering questions on You Gov for a little over a year, Oct 2022. I enjoyed the surveys and let my account build rather than cashing in early. Their top tier is $100. I was a few thousand points from reaching that goal when I got on my account and received a message saying,” There is something wrong with your account. You need to contact YouGov. That was weird since it has been over a year, I had been using it almost daily. But OK so I sent a letter off to them. 2 weeks went by without an answer. During that time, I sent 2 more inquiries. I contacted the BBB and “A Day or two later I received this message:
Dipika, 3 Jan 2024, 10:00 GMT-5:
Hi,
Thank you for contacting us.
We have checked your account with YouGov and found that it has been suspended due to it failing some of our automated quality checks.
Unfortunately, we are unable to provide you with any further information about these checks, but we are confident that this decision is correct and therefore your account will remain suspended.
We thank you for your understanding and participation with YouGov.
Notice there was no mention of the money I had already accrued. I have many times wrote to them and asked about this and as of today not received a reply.
I am deeply disturbed I have spent all that time helping them and but cannot get the money I already made. The cynical part of me is they didn’t want to pay and locked me out. I would caution anyone signing up to be aware of this.
UPDATE: After the months, YouGov has re-instated my account. The experience was disturbing but I don’t carry grudges. If this should happen to you, be persistent.