Can you make a living from paid surveys in your spare time?

[SINGAPORE] There was a time I juggled two part-time jobs, an internship and full-time studies.

A dash of youthful overconfidence, perhaps, was what possessed me to stack so many commitments. But ultimately, the real motivation was to earn money from multiple income streams.

Apparently, I’m not alone. A survey by insurance company Prudential found that 41 per cent of Gen Zs seek multiple income streams, while 32 per cent hope to find remote work that lets them balance work and travel.

When I eventually started working full-time, my gigs quietly fell by the wayside. The itch for an additional source of income, however, never quite left.

Then recently, my editor mentioned that he had been taking on a few AI training tasks online – simple jobs like evaluating chatbot responses – and made a bit of money. It’s not life-changing money, but money nonetheless, he told me.

These tasks belong to a category sometimes referred to as “microwork”, designed to turn spare moments into small earnings. They include assignments such as answering surveys, tagging images or reviewing AI responses – tasks that typically require little training and can be completed online in minutes.

It’s not a new phenomenon, but it’s one that’s gaining traction across South-east Asia, where millions of people now rely on it as a source of supplementary income.

In higher-income Singapore, however, many people treat it as a small side activity rather than a serious livelihood.

But it got me thinking: Could these low-commitment microwork actually add up to something meaningful?

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I spoke to some young Singaporeans to see if the pay from these gigs could ever become something more than pocket money.

📝 Gig #1: Paid surveys

“How do I earn money by doing surveys?”

That’s what 22-year-old Tracia Low typed into Google.

The first result that appeared was Rakuten Insight, a market research platform that pays users for answering surveys.

When Low first signed up, the platform assigned her around five surveys a day. The more she completed, the more surveys she was offered.

However, there is a limit to the number of surveys users can complete in a day, which naturally sets a cap on the income one earns, says Low, a student at the Singapore Institute of Technology.

For about five hours of work a week, she cashes out about S$25, and up to S$150 a month if she’s consistent.

As a student, this was the easiest way to earn some cash, Low says.

Now that she works part-time as a tuition teacher, Low doesn’t rely on these paid surveys to offset her daily expenses anymore.

“If I ever get really desperate, I may log back in,” Low says.

The verdict: Paid surveys are about as low-effort as side gigs get, and predictably, earnings may only cover smaller expenses. 

🎧 Gig #2: Transcription work

When Emily Ong, 25, was an undergraduate, her friends pointed her to CaptionCube, a company offering remote transcription work.

Ong applied and was accepted after sitting for a skills assessment test. She was assigned at least one audio file to transcribe per month, with content ranging from classroom conversations to medical consultations.

A 60-minute-long audio recording took Ong about 90 minutes to transcribe. On average, she received about S$90 per assignment and earned up to S$400 a month.

“As a student, it definitely helped. The income helped cover smaller lifestyle expenses like dining out with friends or social activities,” Ong says.

Such gigs may be a decent source of income for students or those with flexible schedules, but less so for those with more demanding jobs, adds Ong, who now works full-time as a relationship manager at a bank.

“This probably wouldn’t be my top choice for a sustainable side income now, given the effort and time required,” she says.

The verdict: Transcription work isn’t effortless passive money. But while it requires more work, it can generate meaningful supplementary income. 

👩‍🔬 Gig #3: Product testing

During her polytechnic days, my colleague Debbie Ng used to test cosmetics for Syres, a market research company.

She was intrigued by the compensation, and even more by the chance to peek behind the curtain of the beauty industry.

Testing opportunities came up fairly regularly, each lasting several weeks or months and paying about S$30 to S$50. In a month, she earned about S$80 at most.

When the company eventually replaced cash payments with vouchers about a year in, Ng stopped participating.

The money she earned wasn’t particularly meaningful to begin with, she says, as she never treated it as a serious source of income.

“It might just be enough to get you a nice meal or a small sweet treat, but I don’t really envision it being enough to be your sole income source,” says Ng, now 32.

The verdict: Payouts from product tests tend to be modest, and opportunities are often spaced weeks or months apart, leaving little chance to make significant short-term gains. 

💵 Something more? 

The consensus is that many of these “easy” side hustles are still best thought of as pocket money.

For those working full time, payouts from these gigs are usually too modest to justify the effort.

But for students or those just starting out, they are a first step towards earning your own money, and a chance to be a little more self-sufficient instead of relying entirely on an allowance.

My take: none of these lower-paying gigs – at least not on their own – look particularly promising as a stable source of income.

Those hoping to build a meaningful side hustle will likely need to look beyond microwork. The reality is that this usually requires real investment – whether that’s time, money or effort. There is rarely an easy way out.

Otherwise, that time may be better spent picking up in-demand skills – such as full-stack development, graphic design or AI-related skills – that could significantly boost your earnings in the long run.

Of course, that’s a lot less fun. There’s still something appealing about the idea that you can monetise your free time while waiting for the bus or scrolling through your phone at night. Not quite a side hustle, but perhaps enough for tomorrow’s lunch. 

TL;DR

• To seek multiple income streams, some turn to remote gigs like paid surveys, transcription work and product testing
• These tasks require little effort, but the payouts are usually modest
• For most, the earnings are closer to pocket money than a reliable side income
• A meaningful side hustle often requires more time, effort or new skills