Find Out the Pros and Cons of Making Money Through Remotasks

Remotasks is becoming all the rage in side hustle culture. But what is Remotasks? How much will you actually get paid for your services when you sign up?

We’re going to answer all your Remotasks questions so you can decide whether training AI for the company is a good side hustle for you – or not.

What is Remotasks? 

Remotasks does a lot of the heavy lifting in the world of AI training. Big-name clients like OpenAI (the people who brought you ChatGPT) use its services. It’s kind of like the Amazon Mechanical Turk of the 2020s. You’ll read, write and edit AI prompts and responses. These are things the AI is trying to learn how to do better, and as the human, you are its teacher.

Is Remotasks Legit? 

Yes, Remotasks is legit, but there are a few asterisks. Just like with Amazon Mechanical Turk, sometimes you’ll happen upon a lucrative task. Other times, you’ll get paid $1 for your work on a task. And there’s no telling which will be available when. In fact, usually you don’t know what the total payout will be until after you’ve completed the work.

Remotasks uses an army of independent contractors across the globe, and it has come under fire in regard to ethical considerations. Many of the people working on these jobs are located in less advantaged countries. Remotasks has been accused of exploiting them, with the label “digital sweatshop” being thrown around.

It gets particularly complicated when you consider the payment isn’t always transparent. Plus, if you lodge a complaint because you think you’ve been shorted, the company does have a history of disabling accounts rather than actually resolving the payment issue.

How Do I Sign Up for Remotasks? 

To sign up for Remotasks, you’ll have to link either your Google account or your Facebook account, then you’ll verify your identity with government-issued documents like your license or state photo ID.

Once you’ve verified your identity, you’ll enter a lengthy training phase. The good news is this training is paid. While the rate is subject to change, right now it’s about $90 for 3.25 hours of training. That’s the equivalent of about $27.69 per hour. Again, that’s just training pay — not what you can expect to make on a daily basis.

To get the highest paying tasks — or sometimes even to get approved at all — you’ll need to prove you have excellent English reading and writing skills. If you’re a native English speaker, this part shouldn’t be too overwhelming.

How Much Do You Get Paid at Remotasks?

The amount you can make on Remotasks on any given day depends largely on which tasks are available. Sometimes, you might log in and there’s nothing for you. Other times, you might stumble upon a task that pays you $60+ an hour.

In the U.S., tasks usually come with a base pay somewhere around $1 for 5 – 10 minutes of work, but it’s highly variable. A reasonable amount to hope for (on the days when there are tasks available) is $13 – $20 per hour. Some days the hourly rate may work out to be more. Other days it is far less.

Pro Tip: Sometimes a task will require you to use a separate online time tracker on your computer. That’s all well and good if you’re willing to use one, but for some people this feels too invasive.

Can I Use Remotasks on My Phone? 

You can try, but generally speaking, no. The company encourages you to complete your training and tasks on a laptop or desktop computer. So this isn’t necessarily a side hustle you can work on while you’re waiting in the pick-up line.

What is Better than Remotasks?

When Remotasks has tasks available, the pay isn’t too shabby for a non-committal side hustle. That said, it’s not reliable work, and you do have to be willing to provide them with a lot of access to your personal information (and sometimes your browser.)

If you’re looking for alternative side hustles, here are more options.

Rent out your pool

Using an app like Swimply, you can conceivably make triple the rate you typically do on Remotasks with a lot less mental labor.

Resell sneakers

This is a scalable side hustle that you can do remotely. If you have passion behind it, you could take it from a part-time gig to a full-time business. (Some people gross over six figures per year while flipping kicks.)

Get a part-time job as a caregiver

Caregivers are in high demand – especially after the pandemic decimated the labor force in this industry. You can get a job with little more than a GED, and pay starts around $16/hour. You can do this full time, but if you just want a side hustle, agencies are desperate enough for caregivers they’re more likely to work around your existing schedule.

Online side hustles

If you’re really not trying to talk to people in real life, there’s no shortage of online side hustles you could try on. We’ve rounded up the 22 best online side hustles in 2024, and most of them provide far more consistent work than Remotasks. Plus, they pay just as much (and in many cases, even more.)

Online focus groups

If you’re cool with sporadic work, try signing up for online focus groups. These work opportunities are few and far between, but the payout is massive – it can be hundreds of dollars per hour.

Money-making apps

If you don’t like that you can’t use Remotasks on the go, be sure to check out these money-making apps. The hourly pay isn’t as high, but you can do “work” throughout the day as it’s convenient for you.

Pittsburgh-based writer Brynne Conroy is the founder of the Femme Frugality blog and the author of “The Feminist Financial Handbook.” She is a regular contributor to The Penny Hoarder.