The 6 Highest Paying Online Surveys Sites in Canada

Canadians are feeling the financial crunch of higher inflation and rising interest rates. Costs are rising and many people are looking for some easy side hustles to pay for groceries or gas. One simple way to make some money is to check out some of the highest paying online survey sites in Canada. 

Signing up for the best survey sites in Canada is easy and you don’t need to be a techie or computer expert to do them. Most of the best survey sites offer you cash compensation instantly for only answering a few minutes worth of questions. Others provide compensation through gift cards or merchandise. 

If this sounds appealing to you then what are you waiting for? All it takes is a few minutes to sign up for these survey sites to begin earning money. If you’re wondering which sites to use, you’re in luck. Here is our list of the 6 highest paying online survey sites in Canada for 2023.

Opinion Outpost

Opinion Outpost is an American online survey site that is available to residents of the United States and Canada. In my experience, signing up for Opinion Outpost was simple, but creating your profile was a long process. Overall, it took nearly 20 minutes to fill out my entire profile with over ten different questionnaire topics ranging from your employment to hobbies and leisure. Opinion Outpost does note that keeping your profile 100% filled out provides more survey opportunities with higher point rewards. 

One good thing about Opinion Outpost is that there is no shortage of surveys to take. Unlike other sites that didn’t match me with any, Opinion Outpost had six surveys available right off the bat. Even though I didn’t match with a couple of them, it was nice to be able to earn points right away. Also, for those surveys that I didn’t match with, I still earned 1 bonus point for trying. 

The rewards system on Opinion Outpost is similar to other online survey sites. You can earn reward points for every survey you complete and exchange them for gift cards, Airmiles, and cash payouts via PayPal. For a $10 gift card, you will need to exchange 100 points, so each point is actually worth about $0.10. 

In the short amount of time that I had to fill out surveys with Opinion Outpost, I managed to do fairly well. I earned 39 points in the first hour or so of using the site, which equals about $3.90. This is by far the most money I’ve made on any online survey site so far. Opinion Outpost is known for lower minimum thresholds for redeeming points. You only need 100 points to redeem a $10 gift card from your favourite retailer. 

Badges are simply accomplishments that you have completed along the way. Unlike sites like Leger Opinion, the badges do not really serve much purpose on Opinion Outpost so I would focus more on completing surveys and earning points. Opinion Outpost is a fine site for taking short online surveys, although be prepared to be rejected for many of the survey offerings. There is also no mobile app for Opinion Outpost, so you won’t be able to earn any points on your phone or tablet. 

Survey Junkie

Survey Junkie is based in Glendale, California and has over 10 million registered users from Canada, the US, and Australia. It is certainly one of the most popular and widely known online survey sites in Canada and provides users with an opportunity to earn cash for taking part in surveys, product testing, focus groups, and phone questionnaires. 

It took no time at all to create a profile with Survey Junkie and it was easy to sign up using my Google account. For signing up for an account you get a free 25 bonus points and another 25 points for filling out your profile, which requires confirming your account via email. You also get 10 points for filling out various profiles to help find you the best surveys. That is about 160 points for just getting started. 

Unfortunately, I only qualified for one survey with my profiles which paid me 20 points and took about 15 minutes. For several others, I received 3 points despite my profile not matching the requirements of the survey. After about 30 minutes of using Survey Junkie with a new account, I had amassed 187 points. Each point on Survey Junkie is worth $0.01, so I earned about USD $1.87 or CAD $2.47. Unfortunately, this was shy of the minimum threshold of 500 points you need to withdraw funds from Survey Junkie. 

To redeem points from Survey Junkie you will need to verify your account. This requires sending in photographs of government-issued documents like a driver’s license or passport. After that has been accepted, Canadians can redeem their Survey Junkie points into cash that can be sent to a PayPal account. Americans have the option to do a bank wire transfer or convert points into gift cards from a long list of participating retailers. 

Survey Junkie was a good experience although it had a serious lack of surveys when first starting out. There is no tier system to boost your point earnings, nor is there a premium tier for active users. Canadians are also limited by only being able to withdraw points into cash. I was able to make a decent amount in my first 30 minutes but most of that was from filling out my profile. 

Branded Surveys 

Branded Surveys is an American online survey company that is based in San Diego, California. The site allows residents from the US, Canada, and the UK to earn rewards for taking consumer surveys that match their user profiles. Various rewards can be earned including gift cards to sites like Amazon, Apple, Best Buy, and Nintendo. If you feel like just taking the cash you can also send your payment to a PayPal account or choose a Mastercard or Visa Gift Card. 

Creating a profile with Branded Surveys is extremely easy and only took me a couple of minutes. You can sign up using your Google or Facebook account details or you can create a profile using an email address. After a confirmation email to activate your account, you are free to begin taking surveys. 

To start, you will receive a 50-point bonus for registering and a further 50 points when you complete your profile. On top of this, there are daily polls you can take for 5 points as well as a 50-point bonus for every new member you refer. 

By completing your profile you will also be eligible for Branded Surveys premium surveys which can pay you more points than regular ones. After I created my Branded Surveys account I was only eligible for one survey which paid me 57 points. I was offered one other survey but ultimately my profile was not a match and I only received 1 point. Branded Surveys keeps track of all of your activities on the site: 

After about 30 minutes, I earned 168 points. The minimum payout threshold is 500 points which is the equivalent of about USD $5.00. For Canadians, 500 points is equal to about CAD $6.75. 

It’s not an insignificant amount but I wouldn’t say using Branded Surveys will let you quit your day job! In 30 minutes I made a total of CAD $2.27. There are ways to boost your earnings which I haven’t reached yet. It is a tiered system that adds a multiplier to your point earning based on how many surveys you complete. When you reach Gold status, you can earn 19% more points on every activity you perform. There are also daily, weekly, and monthly leaderboard bonuses for the site’s most active users. 

In terms of payout methods, Branded Surveys has plenty of options for Canadian users. Choose gift cards from dozens of retailers or as I mentioned, simply take the cash payment to your PayPal account. 

Overall, the experience with Branded Surveys has been positive. The interface to the site is very user-friendly and the tier system adds an element of gamification that provides an incentive to take more surveys. 

Leger Opinion

Leger Opinion is a Montreal-based market research firm that was founded in 1986. It is the largest Canadian-owned market research company with operations across Canada and the United States. 

Signing up with Leger was fast and easy. As with other online survey sites, Leger Opinion provides you with reward points for completing your profile. Without doing much work I was able to amass over 1,000 reward points without even doing a single survey! For those who are looking to earn some cash while on the go, Leger also has a very intuitive and easy-to-use mobile app for both iOS and Android. 

When you first log in to the Leger dashboard you’ll notice a very vibrant and intuitive site. You’ll also notice that there are a ton of different things to do. Leger has three different reward systems for you to earn points with. Regular reward points can earn you retail gift cards, cash payouts via PayPal, Airmiles rewards, and charity donations. 

Blue stars can earn you an entry into weekly and monthly contests for prizes and gift cards. Finally, badges can be earned by completing certain tasks like referring friends. These badges can provide bonus points or blue stars for additional entries into contests. 

The value of Leger reward points varies per prize, but for the most part, 1,000 points is equal to $1.00. The lowest reward value is to exchange 20,000 points for a $20 gift card or 10,000 points for 30 Airmiles or 250 Aeroplan points. You can also exchange Leger points for bonus contest entries. 

So how was my Leger experience? The website is very easy to use and the signup process was very straightforward. In terms of how much I was able to earn, after about an hour on the site I had made 1,550 points, 18 blue stars, and 1 badge for a cash value of about $1.55. 

Swagbucks

You might not immediately think of Swagbucks as an online survey site. This company offers several different products including the popular Swagbucks Trivia mobile app and the Swagbucks Shop where you can earn free gift cards just for shopping online. Signing up for Swagbucks is a simple process and you can make it even easier by using your Google or Apple account.

One email confirmation is all it takes to start earning money by taking online surveys. You even get a small bonus for completing your profile before you get started. I hope that your early experience with Swagbucks is better than mine! After completing my profile, I immediately dove into looking for surveys. But before I finally qualified for one I was disqualified from five other surveys first:

I still earned 1 or 2 Swagbucks for each disqualification, but it did waste a lot of my time which could sour some people on continuing to use the site. Overall, through the first hour or so of using Swagbucks, I only earned 106 SB. The reward values for Swagbucks vary quite a bit, especially since there are some gift cards that are on sale and discounted. On average, one SB equals about $0.01 as a rough calculation. Using that math, I earned about $1.09 during my first hour of using Swagbucks. 

Not only can you earn gift cards or cash payouts via PayPal, but you can also enter your SB into Swagstakes lotteries. You can wager anywhere from 2 SB to 25 SB to win one of the jackpots. The lowest gift card prices on Swagbucks are for 1500 SB and the lowest cash payout via PayPal is $25 for 1900 SB. 

Users can also earn additional Swagbucks by using site links for online shopping at sites like Best Buy or Walmart, as well as take part in special offers like downloading and playing mobile games. 

Ipsos iSay

Ipsos iSay is a global market research brand that is based out of Paris, France and was founded in 1975. iSay is the online survey division of Ipsos that has millions of members across more than 50 global markets. In terms of reliability and reputation in the market research industry, Ipsos is second to none. 

Unfortunately, my first experience with Ipsos iSay was an uneventful one. Creating an account with Ipsos iSaw was very simple and straightforward. You will require an email address to register, as well as a mobile phone number for SMS confirmation. Once you have created an account there are six different categories to fill out to create your user profile.

Unlike other survey sites, Ipsos iSay does not provide any rewards for creating an account or completing your profile. I thought that once I completed my profile I would be able to immediately begin earning money by answering surveys. Unfortunately, there were no available surveys that matched my profile, which means for the first day of my Ipsos iSay experience, I made $0.00. 

The point system on Ipsos iSay rewards you with a certain number of stars for every survey you successfully complete. These stars can be traded in for various rewards including retail gift cards, money transfers via PayPal, and even donations to charities. Each star is the equivalent of $0.01, so 500 stars will earn you a $5.00 reward. The minimum threshold for money transfers is 510 stars, the lowest gift card is for 500 stars, and the lowest charity donation is for 200 stars.