What Paid Studies Really Pay Per Hour

Almost every guide to paid research studies ranks them by the headline payout. That is the wrong number, and it will cost you money.

A study paying $150 for fifteen minutes is worth more of your time than one paying $200 for three hours. Sorted by payout, the $200 study wins. Sorted by what you actually earn per hour, it is not close.

This site publishes the hourly rate on every study card, which as far as we can tell no other focus group directory does. Here is what the numbers look like across the studies open right now.

What the typical study works out to

Of the 376 studies open on this site today, 301 state both a payout and a duration, so their hourly rate can be worked out exactly. Across those:

• Half pay more than $85 an hour. That is the midpoint, not the average, so a handful of very large clinical payouts are not dragging it up.
• A quarter pay under $60 an hour — the low end, and usually the longer in-person sessions.
• A quarter pay over $120 an hour.
• The best rate open right now works out to $600 an hour.

Those figures come from the live catalogue and change as it does. They were last refreshed in September 2026.

Rates by type of study

The difference between study types is mostly a difference in length, not in generosity:

• Clinical Trials: about $130 an hour, from a typical session of 60 minutes (3 open now).
• Focus Groups: about $100 an hour, from a typical session of 60 minutes (179 open now).
• Online Surveys: about $100 an hour, from a typical session of 60 minutes (6 open now).
• UX Testing: about $60 an hour, from a typical session of 27 minutes (113 open now).

Notice what that means in practice. A shorter study type can pay less per session and still be the better use of an afternoon, because you can do several of them in the time one long session takes.

Why short studies are often the better deal

Researchers pay for access to a specific kind of person, not for hours of your time. A fifteen-minute survey aimed at, say, Salesforce administrators or insurance underwriters can pay as much as a ninety-minute consumer group, because the hard part for the researcher is finding you at all.

That is why the highest hourly rates on this site are usually short, professionally targeted sessions, and the lowest are long in-person groups open to almost anyone.

What the hourly rate does not tell you

It is a useful sort, not the whole picture. Before you judge a study on rate alone:

• Travel is unpaid time. An in-person session at $100 an hour is a different proposition if it is a forty-minute drive each way.
• Screening is unpaid too. Most studies start with a short screener, and not qualifying is the normal outcome, not a failure.
• The stated duration is the organizer's estimate. Sessions run over.
• Multi-visit studies do not divide neatly. A clinical trial paying five figures covers weeks of visits, so we do not print an hourly figure for it at all.

How to find the best-paying studies by the hour

Every study card on this site shows its rate next to the duration, so you can compare at a glance. To sort by it directly:

• Open the search page sorted by best hourly rate.
• Browse every online study if you would rather not travel — remote sessions have no unpaid commute.
• Check studies paying $200 or more when you want the largest single payouts regardless of length.

Ready to compare? The highest hourly rates open right now are updated twice a day, or read our guide to how much focus groups pay per session.

Disclaimer

FocusGroupMoney.com is an independent directory. We are not the organizer of any study listed here, we are not paid to list one, and we cannot decide who qualifies or how quickly anyone is paid — the organizer sets eligibility, timing and terms. Figures in this guide are drawn from the studies open on this site at the time the page is loaded and will change as the catalogue does. Nothing here is medical, legal or financial advice. A legitimate study never asks you to pay a fee to take part.