Can you really earn money by watching ads online?
Yes, but not much. A few UK sites and apps pay you in points for watching videos, answering surveys and trying offers. You then swap the points for cash or gift cards, such as Amazon vouchers.
Don’t expect big sums. You won’t get rich, and the hourly rate is far below the National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour. It can still be worth it if you have spare time, for example on a commute.
When we first wrote this list, it had seven sites and apps. We checked each one again in October 2026. Only two are still open to UK members and worth your time.
1. Swagbucks
Swagbucks is still the best known. You earn points, called SB, for watching videos, answering surveys, playing games, searching the web and shopping online through its links. You can swap SB for PayPal cash or gift cards from well-known shops.
Points are worth roughly 0.77p each when you redeem them. When we tested Swagbucks for a month, surveys paid around 50p an hour. We made £44 in total, most of it from sign-up offers rather than videos or surveys.
Realistic earnings: a few pounds a month from videos and surveys, more if you use the shopping cashback and offers.
Watch out: read the small print on paid offers. During our test, a £1 lottery offer turned into a weekly subscription and cost us £12.
2. Maximiles
Maximiles, run by the market research firm Bilendi, pays points for surveys, product tests, reading emails, playing games and shopping online. You exchange the points for products, gift cards and vouchers from its catalogue. Its site doesn’t mention paying for videos, but it’s a good second site to run alongside Swagbucks.
Realistic earnings: a few pounds a month in vouchers, depending on how many surveys you qualify for.
Sites we’ve removed
We’ve taken the other five off the list:
- InboxDollars: only open to US residents.
- Gift Hunter Club, Qustodian, Cash King and Get Paid to Play: we couldn’t confirm that they still operate or accept UK members, and the app store pages we linked to no longer work.
Be careful with apps that promise large payouts for watching ads. Many set high cash-out thresholds that are hard to reach, and some disappear before you’re paid.
Final thoughts
To make the most of your time, sign up to Swagbucks and Maximiles and use whichever has tasks available. Mix videos with surveys and cashback so you don’t get bored. You can join Swagbucks for free here.
Watching ads pays pennies. Making videos can pay far more. Through the YouTube Partner Programme, creators get a share of the ad revenue on their videos. To join, you need 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 hours of public watch time in the past 12 months or 10 million Shorts views in the past 90 days. A channel with a loyal audience, or a video that goes viral, can earn thousands of pounds a month from content you enjoy making.
For better-paid ways to earn online, read our guide to making £2,000 a month from freelancing.
Pedro is passionate about finance, marketing, and technology. He is a growth manager at several online projects and a former digital marketer for a fintech company.
Good Article. I have been using Nutmeg for over a year now and just love this new hassle free way of investing!
Is investing through this platform limited to UK residents only or is their service eligible for an investor living abroad?
Hey Prakash. As far as I am aware, you can as an overseas investor invest via the General Account type (You can always ask the nutmeg team for confirmation – they are extremely helpful). However, you cannot invest through an ISA or Pension unless you are a UK resident.