Toluna Review: Is It Legit or a Scam?
Last updated: November 28, 2024
Toluna Influencers, or Toluna, is a survey site where you can earn money by taking surveys and participating in market research.
Toluna Influencers is managed by the renowned Toluna Group, which specializes in conducting online market research. With more than 21 million users in 50 countries, Toluna claims to be “the world’s largest social voting community.” The company has also been praised for offering many surveys, but its low rates have made some users question its legitimacy.
So, is Toluna legit or a scam? Let me cut to the chase: Toluna Influencers is a legitimate survey site. However, that does not mean it is the right option for you. In this Toluna review, I’ll go into detail to give you a clear picture of what it is, who should use it, and whether or not it might be the right option for you.
What is Toluna?
This survey panel’s name used to be just “Toluna.” In 2018, the company officially changed its name to Toluna Influencers. However, most people still refer to the survey site by its original name.
Toluna was founded by three friends, Alex Eyre, Danny Felton, and Lee Scholte, looking for better ways to make money from their opinions.
They felt that other paid survey sites were not giving their honest feedback the value it deserved. So, they started Toluna to ensure people’s opinions would be heard and rewarded for sharing them.
For over 20 years, the Toluna Group has been a global market research firm. It assists businesses all over the world in conducting paid surveys and market research to develop products based on consumer trends.
Simply put, large corporations such as Coca-Cola, Amazon, and others pay the company to analyze trends and behaviors. Survey participants then receive a portion of that money. This could be you!
Through the years, Toluna Influencers has become more than just a survey site. It’s now an entire social network with features like blogs, games, and chat rooms where you can hang out with other members while earning points.
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How Does Toluna Work?
Like other paid survey websites, Toluna rewards its subscribers with points for participating in various online activities. Points can be redeemed for merchandise from well-known retailers or cash. Toluna is free to join.
What are Toluna Points?
Toluna points are virtual currency awarded to members for completing specific actions, such as registering with Toluna, taking surveys, playing games, and joining their community.
When you have accumulated enough points, you may exchange them for rewards such as vouchers from famous stores and brands.
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How Can I Make Money with Toluna?
All good survey sites give you various earning opportunities; experienced survey takers know this. Let’s look at what Toluna Influencers offer:
1. Sign Up
Toluna gives new users 500 points simply for signing up. Setting up an account takes only a few minutes. To get started, enter basic information like your gender, age, and country of residence. Verify your account by clicking the email link and receive an instant 500-point credit.
2. Profile Surveys
Answering profile surveys will earn you 100 points. You will be prompted to complete the optional profile surveys when you first access your account. These surveys are intended to help better match you to surveys, ensuring that you are only offered surveys for which you qualify.
You will be rewarded 100 points for each completed profile survey. You can gain additional points by updating your profile surveys every six months. The ‘Profile Surveys’ option is at the screen’s top under the surveys tab.
3. Toluna Surveys
The primary way to earn rewards on Toluna is through online surveys. Toluna boasts an extensive range of survey topics. Survey takers can complete several surveys a day and choose from different subjects. Potential survey subjects include business, product testing, technology, and lifestyle.
Survey invitations display the survey topic, estimated completion time, and total payout. This gives you transparency on how much you will earn for each survey completed.
There are several ways to find survey opportunities on Toluna. This includes:
- Surveys you’re selected for. You can be automatically matched with a number of surveys as soon as you join Toluna, which is great because it means that you won’t have to wait long before being able to start earning rewards.
- This is your dashboard, where you can browse all the current surveys available for your country and language (or languages). The number of options in this section will depend on your profile information, such as your location, age group, and gender (since some surveys require specific criteria).
- The “trending” section. These are featured surveys from around the web that may be relevant to your interests or demographic data.
Payouts vary depending on the topic and length of the survey. You can earn 1,200 points for surveys that take up to 10 minutes. Surveys that take longer than that can pay up to 3,000 points – that’s worth $1 in rewards.
Toluna may offer you a follow-up survey after completing an online survey, though this is not advertised on its member dashboard.
4. Sponsored Polls
Sponsored polls are short polls about a particular topic that can earn you 15 points. These polls give small rewards but only take about 10 seconds to complete. You can even discover interesting trends in survey results once you have completed the poll.
Once you log in, you can look in the recommended section and the news stream to see if there are any available polls. Sometimes, there will be many available, and other times, there won’t be many. Many users find the quickest polls through the Toluna Influencers mobile app.
5. Content Creation
This sets Toluna apart from many similar sites. Posting in the Toluna community can earn you points, but this isn’t guaranteed. Not every piece of content is rewarded with points. Toluna prefers high-quality content that receives lots of positive votes from other users.
You could receive up to 1,000 points for each chosen content post.
6. Contests
Toluna often runs contests in which you can win bonus points. These include photo contests, trivia questions, finding hidden codes on the platform, and other types of games. They can last a few days or up to a month, providing more income in your account.
Once logged in, you may view the most recent announcements and see whether there are any new contests. Alternatively, contest announcements can be found in the forum section.
The number of contests varies by country. Some have daily, weekly, or even monthly contests.
7. Daily Games
Games on Toluna are a great way to kill time. They’re easy to play, and they don’t require any skill. Plus, no ads or in-app purchases are involved—they’re completely free!
Toluna offers many different kinds of games. Some are trivia-based, and others involve word puzzles or even other types like quizzes.
One of the most popular games is the daily Toluna Wheel, which awards up to 1,000 free points.
8. Mobile Surveys
You can register your phone number on Toluna. As a registered user, you’ll be able to receive exclusive mobile surveys—in addition to the standard ones available for all users.
However, you should not expect a large number of surveys like this. However, you may receive surveys over SMS that may not be available on the platform.
You will not be required to answer the survey via text message. The SMS you receive will include a link to the survey.
Please ensure a good internet connection before accessing a survey from your smartphone. To prevent additional costs on your monthly bill, you should use a secure Wi-Fi connection rather than surveying your Mobile Internet Plan/Mobile Data.
Normal, common sense security aside, Toluna is trustworthy and reliable, so there’s no reason to worry about them misusing your phone number. Therefore, you should consider registering your mobile number to maximize your earning potential.
9. Toluna Mobile App
Toluna Influencers has a mobile app available for both Android and iOS. Like mobile surveys, some exclusive surveys are only available on the app.
In addition, this app makes it possible to take surveys wherever and whenever you choose. As a result, you will have more chances to earn points.
You can also redeem your points and get rewards directly through the app.
10. Refer a Friend
Your unique referral link is under the ‘Refer-a-Friend’ button in the Account section of your dashboard. You can share this with friends and extended family by inviting them to join Toluna.
You can earn 500 points for each new member you refer to the program, up to 10 monthly referrals.
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How Does Toluna Pay You?
Determining how much money you’ll make with Toluna is tricky because it depends on how much work you will put in.
Surveys are the best way to make money with Toluna. Most surveys on the site pay between 1,000 and 2,000 points, with a handful paying much less or more.
However, you won’t see the points earned on your account until the following day. This is because it takes a while for the survey company to confirm your participation and responses before awarding you points.
Users should consider how long surveys can take to complete and the total payout. Look for the shortest surveys with the highest payouts to maximize your points per attempt.
You’ll need to earn roughly 3,000 points to get $1. You can cash out once you have 60,000 points—about the equivalent of $20.
Please remember that your prizes may take up to 8 weeks to arrive. This is a significantly longer wait time than the other survey sites.
What are the Ways to Exchange Your Points?
You may redeem your points in several ways. Your reward request usually arrives in up to 3 weeks.
All rewards are delivered electronically, so check your inbox regularly to ensure you don’t miss any!
Reward options will vary based on your country, but here are some examples of what they might be:
PayPal
PayPal is the only option for cash redemption. It can be used to receive payments at a minimum of $30 or 95,000 points. In addition to the high redemption minimum, PayPal charges a service fee.
Gift Cards
The redemption minimum for many gift cards is $10, but some brands have higher requirements. For example, Amazon gift cards require a $25 balance.
Bitcoin
Investing in crypto? You can redeem 114,000 points for $30 worth of Bitcoin, which will be credited to your BitCard account.
Charity Donation
Like other survey platforms, you can donate the points you accrue to charity instead of taking cash or gift cards.
Do Toluna Points Expire?
Even if you are an active member, any unspent points expire 16 months after you earn them. Taking additional surveys will not replenish your expired points.
Who Can Join Toluna?
To join Toluna in the U.S., you must be at least 16. However, the minimum age to join may differ in other countries.
The criteria for redeeming rewards are different. Participants must be at least 18 years old to redeem the points they’ve earned. Until then, their legal guardians are the only ones who can do so on their behalf.
How Do You Join Toluna?
Signing up for Toluna Influencers is simple. All you have to do is click the “Register” button and choose your country. You will be taken to the site where you fill in basic registration details: name, age, and gender. This part of the process usually takes 1 minute to complete.
Once you sign up, you will receive an email confirmation. To confirm your account, open the email and click the link. After that, you may begin answering surveys.
Download the Toluna Influencers App
You can stay connected to the latest market research opportunities with the Toluna Influencers app.
The app has been downloaded over 5 million times and offers users a way to view their account information, take photos while on the go, and access rewards straight from their phones.
It also allows you to complete surveys from anywhere, increasing your chances of acquiring points.
The Toluna Influencers app is free on Google Play and Apple’s App Store.
Toluna Customer Service
Toluna’s impressive track record partially results from the company’s exemplary customer service. Toluna’s website makes it simple to get in touch with the company.
Members who require assistance from Toluna can easily send an online support ticket. Logging in and redeeming prizes are common issues that users encounter.
If you have more general questions, Toluna Influencers provides a comprehensive FAQ that answers many common queries. So I recommend starting there to seek assistance.
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Toluna Reviews
Although Toluna pays far less than other survey sites, most users are happy with the company and say it is a legitimate business. They make money through surveys, polls, and games.
Toluna has a good reputation in the industry, so it will likely continue to be around for many more years.
Is Toluna Trustworthy?
Yes, Toluna is a trustworthy survey company with a good reputation. It has been around for more than ten years and has paid its members over $50 million in rewards.
They collect personal information such as your name, address, gender, and birthday to better match you to the appropriate market research projects.
This information is also used to fulfill any rewards you may have earned.
Other personal information requested from you will be solely used to develop and maintain a global panelist database.
Respondent’s survey answers are confidential and will not be used to identify them personally.
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Pros and Cons of Toluna
Let’s wrap up this review by summarizing the pros and cons so you can get a better picture before deciding whether or not to join:
Pros:
- It is a respected company that collaborates with well-known industry names.
- Joining is free, and it’s available in many countries around the world.
- Aside from surveys, there are other ways to earn points, like games, contests, and polls.
- Many exciting surveys with a broad range of topics are available.
- There are different ways to exchange points.
- They have a user-friendly interface.
- They have a mobile app that allows you to earn money anywhere.
Cons:
- The minimum cashout of $30 is high and challenging to reach, and you must work extremely hard to earn points for gift cards. This is one of the most common complaints among Toluna reviews.
- Some of the longer questionnaires are time-consuming, but the accompanying points are not much.
- A few Toluna reviews complain about waiting too long to be paid or rewarded.
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Final Verdict: Is Toluna Legit or a Scam?
Toluna is a legitimate option for taking paid surveys and earning extra money. The company promises to make its surveys more interesting for survey takers by offering various topics and questions.
It can be a great way to make some extra cash, but it shouldn’t be your only source of income. One major drawback of Toluna is that its pay rates are not as competitive as other survey sites
like Survey Junkie or LifePoints. However, the multiple ways to earn money and the various rewards are encouraging factors to keep earning.
Overall, suppose you have spare time to answer numerous surveys without being bothered by the tedious point accumulation process and long waiting time for rewards. In that case, you can give Toluna Influencers a try.
FAQS
How old do you have to be to join Toluna?
To join a Toluna panel, you must be at least 16 years old, but this varies depending on your country of residence. If you are under 18 years old, Toluna will award it to your legal guardian when you win or receive your award.
Does Toluna cost anything to join?
Toluna’s registration is completely free. Moreover, the points you earn by participating in fun community activities like content and games can be exchanged for rewards.
How do you join Toluna and start earning points?
To register for Toluna, simply click on “Register.” You will be asked to provide basic information when creating your account. After signing up, you will receive a confirmation email asking you to click on the link to finalize your registration.
Once you have signed up, you will receive 500 bonus points! Now that your account is active and ready to use, it’s time to start earning rewards by completing surveys, writing content, and playing games.
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