A transparent snapshot of 8,478 current paid research listings in the Focus Group Panel feed—organized by category, format, city, and listed payout. Unlike a static “how much can you make?” article, these numbers are recalculated from the recruiting inventory people can browse today.
Data updated September 16, 2026 at 2:28 PM GMT · Methodology and exclusions below
Mystery shopping is the largest inventory block in this snapshot, followed by clinical trials and focus groups. Counts measure listings, not unique companies or guaranteed participant slots.
| Category | Listings | In person | Remote | With numeric pay | Median positive payout | Highest listed payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mystery Shopping | 4,787 | 4,127 | 660 | 4,511 | $25 | $250 |
| Clinical Trial | 3,566 | 3,566 | 0 | 1 | $800 | $800 |
| Focus Group | 93 | 53 | 39 | 88 | $185 | $800 |
| Online Study | 16 | 0 | 16 | 16 | $85 | $350 |
| Survey | 10 | 0 | 10 | 10 | $75 | $200 |
| Product Test | 6 | 4 | 2 | 3 | $125 | $165 |
Only explicit numeric payouts above $0 enter the payout distribution. “Varies,” “compensated,” reimbursements, sweepstakes, discounts, and unknown amounts are excluded rather than converted into invented dollar values.
The highest listed amount is $800, but an extreme listing is not a typical earning. Compensation is offered by the research provider and may depend on screening, completion, reimbursement rules, and session length.
5,019 listings include a specific city label. Nationwide and not-city-specific rows remain in the total inventory but are excluded from this city ranking.
Rows must come through the current research pipeline, have a title and category, pass the feed’s freshness flag, and not be past a supplied expiration date. Older WordPress/manual rows remain searchable elsewhere but are deliberately excluded from this report.
ClinicalTrials.gov recruiting status is checked directly by study ID on the weekly clinical cycle. Short-lived focus-group and mystery-shopping sources refresh on the daily cycle; explicit expiration dates and confirmed closure signals remove rows.
A listing is one opportunity record in the feed. It is not a promise that every visitor qualifies, that a provider still has every participant slot, or that the stated amount is guaranteed. Duplicate opportunities from different sources may exist.
The download is aggregated by city, state, category, and format. It includes counts and payout summaries without republishing application URLs or participant-level information. Snapshot date: 2026-09-16.
City pages remain separate by intent: focus groups, clinical trials, and mystery shopping are not blended into one generic local template.