Prolific
London-based research-study marketplace: paid surveys, experiments and AI evaluation tasks.
Last reviewed 2026-10-15
Is Prolific legit?
Yes: Prolific is run by Prolific Academic Ltd, a London company, and studies must pay at least £6/$8 an hour, withdrawn via PayPal. The catch: the waitlist can last months, accounts can be put on hold with no reason given, and researchers can reject submissions, which then go unpaid.
Our summary of the sourced facts below.
New Prolific roles and other platforms' roles every Monday, best-paid first. Free.
Typical pay
Studies must pay at least £6/$8 an hour; Prolific recommends £9/$12. Invited experts: $30-100/hr advised
Who can join
18+ residents of 52 listed countries; others can only join the waitlist
How you get in
Waitlist, then invite, then Onfido ID check and a short practice task; experts are invite-only
Payouts
PayPal only, £6/$6 minimum, daily after first four cash-outs (72-hour waits), no Prolific fee
Watch out
Waitlist can last months; automated account holds give no reason; rejected work is unpaid
What it is
- Official
Prolific is run by Prolific Academic Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (number 08991598) with its registered office at 483 Green Lanes, London N13 4BS. US participants may also contract with Prolific Research USA, Inc.
prolific.notion.site· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Companies House lists Prolific Academic Ltd. (08991598) as incorporated on 10 April 2014.
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Prolific says it was co-founded at Oxford University in 2014. Phelim Bradley is CEO and co-founder.
- News
Funding: in July 2023 Prolific raised £25M (about $32M), co-led by Partech and Oxford Science Enterprises. Its only earlier funding was a $1.4M seed round after Y Combinator. TechCrunch then described a network of 120,000 people and about $100M paid out in total.
techcrunch.com· checked 2026-10-15
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- Official
How it works: researchers list studies, and eligible participants choose which to take. Each study is a contract between the participant and the researcher. Most studies run outside Prolific, on the researcher's chosen tool. When a researcher approves your submission, Prolific pays the reward on their behalf.
prolific.notion.site· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Work types: academic surveys and experiments, plus AI work such as evaluating machine-learning models. Prolific's product pages list Agentic Evals and Benchmarks, a Human Feedback API, the HUMAINE leaderboard and Domain Experts tracks for healthcare and coding.
- Official
The homepage names Google, Hugging Face and Asana among its customer logos and says it holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification.
prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15
Coding work
- Official
No open coding job posting with a posted rate was found. Coding work runs through the invite-only Domain Experts group, not public listings.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Domain Experts: participants with verified qualifications or skills, including programmers, lawyers, financial advisors, healthcare workers, red teamers and highly fluent language speakers. Example coding work: reviewing code for accuracy.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Posted pay guidance: Prolific recommends that researchers pay Domain Experts $30 to $100 an hour. This is a recommendation to researchers, not a guaranteed rate.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Expert categories: the researcher help centre lists Language Specialist, STEM Expert, Programming Expert ("Python, JavaScript, Java, C++, and R"), General Healthcare Expert, Trust and Safety Expert and Senior Professional Expert. It says "Only top scorers are admitted to our expert pool."
researcher-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15
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- Official
How experts are chosen: Prolific messages you on the platform if your expertise is in demand. There is no external application or separate waitlist. Verification may include a short skills assessment, document checks (for example a medical licence) or a review of your qualifications or online profiles.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
AI taskers: a separate invite-only group for AI evaluation and training studies. Prolific invites participants with high approval rates and strong past performance to take a two-part AI Task Assessment. Base pay matches regular studies, but AI tasker studies "typically offer higher rewards".
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Assessment format: Prolific's researcher-facing page says the AI tasker exam takes 60 minutes and taskers go through a "3-stage qualification pipeline". Failing does not affect your account status. No retake policy is published.
Eligibility
- Official
Age: you must be over 18 and have a verified account.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Countries: the participant help centre (dated Sep 2, 2026) lists 52 supported countries: Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
The researcher help centre version (dated Jun 18, 2026) lists 49 countries. It does not include Egypt, India or Indonesia. The participant page is newer.
researcher-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Residence: eligibility depends on where you currently live, not your nationality. People in unsupported countries can join the waitlist, but access is not guaranteed.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15
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- Official
ID verification: Prolific uses Onfido (an Entrust company). You photograph a valid, unexpired ID issued by your country of residence and record a short video selfie while turning your head. Photocopies and screenshots are not accepted.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
What Onfido shares: only your first name, surname, date of birth and the country that issued your ID. Documents are encrypted and stored by Onfido.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Failed verification: if verification fails you will not be offered a participant account, and a closed account cannot be replaced with a new one.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
One account per person: you must not create more than one participant account or let anyone else use yours.
prolific.notion.site· checked 2026-10-15
How to get in (format only)
- Official
Steps: join the waitlist (about 3 minutes), accept an invite when one arrives, verify your identity and complete a short practice task (about 15 minutes), then pick studies from your dashboard.
prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Waitlist rules: invites depend on researcher demand for your demographic and expertise. The list is "not first come, first served". Some people are invited within hours and others wait months or longer. Support cannot give a status update or fast-track anyone.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
No account before invite: you have no account until you receive the invitation email, and invitation links are single-use.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Waitlist history: Prolific introduced the sign-up waitlist on 25 October 2021 after a record surge in sign-ups.
prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Study screening: researchers set pre-screening criteria, so you only see studies you are eligible for, based on your profile answers.
prolific.notion.site· checked 2026-10-15
Pay and payments
- Official
Minimum pay: researchers must pay at least £6 / $8 per hour. Prolific recommends £9 / $12 per hour or more.
- Official
How the rate works: each study pays a fixed reward based on the researcher's time estimate. Bonuses do not count toward the minimum. If people take much longer than estimated, the study is flagged as underpaying and the researcher is asked to make adjustment payments.
researcher-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Underpaying studies: you can report an underpaying study. Researchers have 22 days to make adjustments, and researchers who do not comply have their accounts suspended until they do.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Approval: you are paid only after the researcher approves your submission. Approval should take no longer than 22 days. If a submission is not approved, you get no reward.
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- Official
Researchers prepay: researchers must deposit the funds for rewards before launching a study.
prolific.notion.site· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Payment method: PayPal only. Rewards are cash, not gift cards or points.
- Official
Minimum withdrawal: £6 or $6. GBP and USD balances can be combined to reach it.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Cash-out schedule: once every 24 hours (resets at midnight UTC). Your first four cash-outs, and any cash-out after changing your PayPal address, have a 72-hour wait. Payments usually arrive within 24 hours.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Currencies and fees: you hold separate GBP and USD balances. Prolific does not charge cash-out fees, but PayPal may charge fees if it converts currency.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Taxes: you take part as an independent contractor, and you are responsible for paying tax on your rewards where you are tax resident.
prolific.notion.site· checked 2026-10-15
Work availability
- Official
Volume claim: Prolific says "a new task is published every 2 minutes".
prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Demand-driven: both waitlist invites and study access depend on researcher demand for your demographic, so supply differs by person.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Worker reports
Uneven supply: a review of 1,141 Reddit comments (published Sep 25, 2026) found participants describe availability as highly variable, from several studies a day to none for weeks. The review treats this as unverified.
annotation.academy· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Inactivity: if no rewards are credited for 12 months, Prolific may close your account and pay out unredeemed rewards to your linked payment account.
prolific.notion.site· checked 2026-10-15
Risks and controversies
- Official
Governing law: the participant terms are governed by the laws of England, with exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts. No arbitration clause appears in the summary terms.
prolific.notion.site· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Suspension and liability cap: Prolific can suspend or terminate your account at any time. Its liability to a participant is "generally capped at a maximum of £20.00".
prolific.notion.site· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Funds after termination: your balance is returned after termination, except that Prolific may keep some or all of it to offset anything you owe it.
prolific.notion.site· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Account holds: accounts are put on hold when automated systems flag issues such as location mismatches, VPN use, PayPal problems, failed identity checks or multiple accounts. Prolific does not say why a specific account was held. Appeals can take 4 weeks or more, and an upheld hold is final.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15
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- Official
Funds already in a held account can still be cashed out, even below the £6/$6 minimum.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
Rejections: researchers can reject submissions, for example for failed attention checks, finishing much faster than expected, low-effort answers or answers judged AI-generated or copied. Rejected submissions are not paid. You can dispute a rejection with the researcher, then with Prolific support after 7 days.
- Official
Data handling: Prolific does not give researchers your name, email or phone number, but researchers receive demographic, performance and pre-screening data linked to your Prolific ID. Prolific says it is not responsible for researchers' use or misuse of your data.
prolific.notion.site· checked 2026-10-15 - News
2021 TikTok surge: a July 2021 TikTok video drove a wave of mostly young women to sign up. Researchers reported samples that became about 90% women averaging 21 years old, and The Verge reported 4,600 studies were affected. Prolific offered fixes and sometimes compensation.
iflscience.com· checked 2026-10-15
Referral program
- Official
Occasional only: "Occasionally we run a paid referral program." The referral page only appears in your account when a program is live and you are eligible, and criteria, rewards and availability may change.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15 - Official
No published reward: no current referral amount or terms are public.
participant-help.prolific.com· checked 2026-10-15
Worker sentiment (reports, not verified)
Ratings: Trustpilot shows 4.5/5 from 15,452 reviews (8,995 in the last 12 months): 78% 5-star, 7% 1-star. Prolific replies to 0% of negative reviews.
trustpilot.com· checked 2026-10-15Positive (common): easy-to-use site, fast cash-outs and studies people enjoy, per reviews from Oct 12 to 15, 2026.
trustpilot.com· checked 2026-10-15Negative: automated identity re-verification with a short deadline that led to failed checks and forced re-onboarding, and accounts rejected after verification with copy-paste support replies (Oct 2026 reviews).
trustpilot.com· checked 2026-10-15Negative: some AI-training studies require video recording, studies fail on technical glitches, and tasks run longer than estimated.
trustpilot.com· checked 2026-10-15Reddit summary: a review of 30 Reddit threads (1,141 comments, July 2019 to Sep 2026) found scattered September 2026 reports of account holds, but too few to call a pattern. Unanswered support tickets and generic appeal replies appeared in individual accounts.
annotation.academy· checked 2026-10-15
Quick answers
- Is Prolific legit?
- Yes: Prolific is run by Prolific Academic Ltd, a London company, and studies must pay at least £6/$8 an hour, withdrawn via PayPal. The catch: the waitlist can last months, accounts can be put on hold with no reason given, and researchers can reject submissions, which then go unpaid.
- How much does Prolific pay?
- Studies must pay at least £6/$8 an hour; Prolific recommends £9/$12. Invited experts: $30-100/hr advised
- Who can join Prolific?
- 18+ residents of 52 listed countries; others can only join the waitlist
- How do you get into Prolific?
- Waitlist, then invite, then Onfido ID check and a short practice task; experts are invite-only
- How and when does Prolific pay out?
- PayPal only, £6/$6 minimum, daily after first four cash-outs (72-hour waits), no Prolific fee
- What should you watch out for at Prolific?
- Waitlist can last months; automated account holds give no reason; rejected work is unpaid
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