Is Amazon Mechanical Turk Legit: In Depth Review!

I first heard about this website on one on side hustle nation. 

Where one man, (Mike) actually made $21,000 on Amazon Mechanical Turk, over the course of two and a half years.

In fact, he even wrote a book about it on Amazon.

I found this intriguing because, for the most part, these get-paid to websites really don’t pay very much at all.

So, is this site different?  Is Amazon Mechanical Turk a legit way to earn some extra money…  how does it work?

I’ve been meaning to do an Amazon Mechanical Turk review for sometime, so it’s about time that I checked it out.

There are some people calling Amazon Mechanical Turk a scam, but plenty of others seem very happy with it.

So, what’s the truth!?  Let’s dig in and find out!

You May Also Like…

• My Top 10 Survey Sites USA.
• My Top 10 Survey Sites UK.

How Does Amazon Mechanical Turk Work?

This platform gives students, business owners and researchers a place to post up mini-tasks that require a human to do, (so, cannot be done by computers) and which can easily be completed remotely.

I’m sure you can envisage many time consuming tasks, which could easily be completed with very simple instructions and no prior knowledge of your business, research or study.

These tasks posted up on Amazon Mechanical Turk are called HITS, (an abbreviation of “Human Intelligence Tasks,”).

Those who most up these HITS, are known as “Requesters.”

The requester’s post the HITS and the workers pick them up to complete, in the comfort of their own home.

Signing up is pretty easy as you can connect with your current Amazon account.

However, when you first sign up, it says you will need to wait for an invite via email, which can then take up to 3 days.

I guess they’re checking you out during this time!

Amazon Mechanical Turk HITS, How Much Can You Make?

How much you can make is really going to depend on a few factors:

• How long you take completing tasks/how long you have.
• What the average pay of HIT you complete.
• How many HITS you can manage to complete in the time you have.

So, I went and browsed the available HITS.

The first couple of posts were pretty deflating….  $0.01 for a task!?!!

There were  some higher ones, one was for over $5.50.

However, I noticed that many jobs were locked and that, to be accepted, you needed to fulfil certain qualifications.

Some of those included:

• Being an Advanced task master, (unsure what level that requires).
• Having completed over over 1000 HITS!! (whoa… that would take a while).
• Completed over 100, or 500 HITS.
• Reside in a certain location, (e.g. the US).
• Speak another language, (such as French in the example I saw).

In fact, the only work that I could accept right away was between $0.01 and $0.50 as a max.

Plus one more  I could complete for $1.00…  But that was an online survey!

All the others I saw, required some qualification or other.

I’m struggling to see how someone could make thousands of dollars on this site…

Maybe there were better jobs back then, (this was a couple of years ago).

It would seem though, that once you reach certain qualifications, you are able to access slightly better paying jobs.

Qualifying levels are at 100, 500 and 1000 HITS.

With some of these HITS being as low as $0.01…  You could potentially complete 1000 of these tasks for only $10!?

Apparently, in Mikes experience, the average amount he made per task was $0.24.

He also did quickly reach all the qualification levels, (enabling him to find better paid tasks) and completed an impressive 87,000 tasks in total!

Amazon Mechanical Turk Pros Vs Cons

PROS

• Work remotely anywhere,
• Spend your earnings directly on Amazon, or withdraw your earnings to bank account, (bank account US/India only at the moment)
• No minimum cashout amount,
• Earn more once your “qualify,” for different levels,

CONS

• Higher paying work comes during regular working hours, so if you can only access the website outside these times, you’ll likely earn less.
• You need to keep an eye on the site regularly, as the good jobs will get snapped up right away.
• US and India can withdraw cash – other countries can only get paid in Amazon gift cards.
• Once you’re accepted, you will need to complete 1 HIT a day for 10 days and cannot withdraw your earnings during this time.
• You probably won’t earn much unless you’re checking the site all the time for good paying tasks coming in.
• It looks like there is less work if you’re in not in the US.

Mechanical Turk Reviews Online:

I wanted to have a look and see what other people make of this platform online.

Considering the amount of people obviously signed up, I was surprised to see only a handful of reviews over at Trustpilot.

It has a disappointing 3.0 stars.

However, most of the negative reviews seemed to be from people who either, had not been accepted at all, or who have had their accounts suspended.

People have their accounts suspended for all sorts of reasons and it doesn’t make the company a scam.

Unfortunately, they often won’t tell you the reason behind the account suspension, which is really frustrating.

This platform had slightly better feedback on Sitejabber, with 3 and a half stars.

The reviews here seemed a bit more favourable.

Again, the negatives are often from people who have had their accounts suspended, or relating to the low pay.

But many others do enjoy completing the tasks, even as a hobby that happens to bring in a little bit of extra cash on the side.

I think how you find this site really depends on the effort you’re willing to put in, to find those extra paying HITS.

But also, to also reach the higher paying surveys, by reaching those qualification levels.

If you’re just looking for somewhere to make money right now, you’re better off going to an online survey site.

Useful Post: My Favourite Extra Income Sites!

Amazon Mechanical Turk Tips:

• Don’t do the lowest paying HITS – your time is more valuable than working for $0.01!!
• Watch out for scammers – they are fishing for your personal info on this platform.  Don’t give out important information, they won’t be asking for those details here legitimately!
• Check out a requester prior to accepting a HIT, you can see how many requests they’ve made and also accepted.
• Get help and advice on forums online – you could check out Turk Nation Slack or you may like the MTurk forum.
• You can also find some useful help and advice on reddit, under m/turk.
• Make sure you refresh the HITS list so that you can find the most recent posts first.  You can do this by going to the “created,” tab and clicking on that.  You can see what I mean from the image below.

  

• If you’re looking for a specific type of task & amount; you can add your request in the search bar and then filter your results based on earnings.  So, say, nothing under $1, or whatever your lowest limit is.
• Carefully read the instructions and what is required.  You don’t want to make a silly mistake that leads to your work being rejected.
• Sometimes you will see a really high paying task and yet, the actual job looks really simple and quick.  There are still scammers on this platform, so tread with caution and don’t go for anything that looks suspicious.
• It may take a while to get to grips with the platform, which is when many will give up on it.  If you try and work out when the best HITS are and keep checking back, it’s possible you could make a reasonable amount at certain times.

Amazon Mechanical Turk Alternatives:

If you want to earn more from doing mini jobs, you should consider Freelancing on your own – setting yourself up on somewhere like Upwork, or People By Hour… which will pay more!

Something like Prolific, offers a unique survey-related experience, where you can participate in actual student research. (Review here).

They pay better than other survey sites and they also don’t screen you out.

With something like User-Testing, you can get paid around $10 per 15 minutes, testing websites, (usually giving feedback about new websites). (review here). (Review here).

Is Amazon Mechanical Turk Legit, Or A Scam??

Yep, it’s a legit platform.

However, unless you’re really going to put in a lot of effort to seek out some of the higher paying opportunities, then you’re not going to be earning very much at all.

This platform is quite unique from the sites I normally check out and there are a variety of ways you can earn.

Plus, there is always the chance of making a bonus.

You do have to be very careful to complete tasks and to pay attention – Amazon will chuck you off the platform if they think you’re trying to game the system somehow.

Also, remember to check out the requester before you accept a HIT and keep an eye out for potential scams.

If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments!