Is Panda Research Legit Or A Scam? (My Honest Review)

If you look for simple money making ideas online, you’re going to find a ton of paid survey sites.

Survey websites let you earn rewards like free PayPal money and gift cards. Overall, they're a very easy side hustle idea to try out.

Websites like InboxDollars, Survey Junkie, and Swagbucks are just a few of the popular ones that earn you money.

But, one lesser-known survey site is Panda Research, an American market research company that pays you with PayPal cash for sharing your opinion.

So, is Panda Research legit? And how much does this survey site pay?

I signed up for Panda Research to test it out. And my Panda Research review is covering everything you need to know about this survey website.

Looking for better ways to make money online? Checkout:

• Branded Surveys – Share your opinion to earn PayPal cash and free gift cards!
• Freecash – Another fun way to get gift card and cash prizes!

What Is Panda Research?

Panda Research is an online market research and survey company that lets you earn money for answering survey questions and completing offers.

The company began in 2005 in Illinois, and  thes parent company A&A Marketing Inc has created a few survey sites over the years.

Some of the more notable sites under this company include InboxPays and MindsPay. Overall, Panda Research is also a pretty versatile get-paid-to website.

In fact, Panda Research has grown over the years with new money-saving features such as coupons, discounts, and giveaways.

The survey site pays out twice a month and even lets you earn rewards for reading emails or checking out a product.

But, as this Panda Research review is going to explain, actually earning rewards is harder than it looks with this platform.

How Does Panda Research Work?

As long as you have a working phone or computer and a stable internet connection, you can sign up for Panda Research. I found that the sign up process was pretty simple, and this site works like most other survey platforms.

Panda Research works in seven easy steps:

1. Sign up
2. Complete your profile
3. Answer Panda Research surveys
4. Refer friends
5. Score discounts and coupons
6. Earn rewards with paid emails
7. Cash out your prizes

Let's take a look at how everything works and all the earning options the site has.

1. Sign Up

You must be at least 18 years old and live in the U.S. to use Panda Research. To sign up, head over to pandaresearch.com and hit the “Sign Up” button. You need to enter your email first to begin the sign up process.

The site is a bit old looking which can throw you off at first. Plus, the sign up form requests things like your address, phone number, and date of birth.

Most survey sites don’t usually require this information right at sign up, but Panda Research claims that it needs this information to you safely.

You also enter information like your gender and ethnicity before choosing your password for the site.

2. Complete Your Profile

Once you sign up, Panda Research sends you an email confirmation with a link you need to click on to activate your account.

Activating your account pays you a $3 sign up bonus which is actually pretty generous in terms of beermoney sites.

Once you confirm your email, you get sent to a page where you’re spammed with a bunch of random offers.

For example, there are a ton of “Do you want to win a $1000 gift card?” buttons and discounts on insurance companies and stuff.

The whole thing is just a bit unorganized and confusing to say the least. However, you can skip straight past that if you don’t want to push any of those buttons and move on to the surveys.

3. Answer Panda Research Surveys

As with most survey sites, Panda Research takes you to a dashboard where you can see all of your offers in front of you in a list.

Each survey includes information like:

• How long it takes to complete
• How much a survey pays
• What the survey is about
• How many other Panda Research members have already completed it

To start a survey that you’re interested in, just hit the “Begin Now” button and continue into the survey. As you can see from my dashboard, many Panda Research surveys I can answer pay between $0.15 to $1.80.

Just be careful not to get confused between surveys and offers as both of them are mixed together on the same page.

If you’re redirected to a new and random page, chances are that you selected an offer.

The surveys page is honestly confusing and you’re never quite sure whether or not you're actually completing a survey or just giving your information away.

Overall, the old website layout and random, spammy offers is pretty offputting right out of the gate.

Survey sites like Survey Junkie and Swagbucks have way cleaner user interfaces and don't spam you with such sketchy offers, so this is a massive downside to Panda Research.

4. Refer Friends

Similar to sites like InboxDollars, you can refer friends to further increase your earnings. Panda Research rewards you 10% of your referral’s earnings.

For example, if you refer a friend and they earn $100, you get $10 transferred into your account.

Keep in mind that this money isn’t taken from your friend. Rather, it's an additional 10% on top of what your friend makes.

You can refer as many people as you want, and overall, the Panda Research referral program is pretty similar to Grindabuck and GG2U which both pay you percentages of referee's lifetime earnings.

5. Score Discounts & Coupons

Another way to make money online with Panda Research is to use its discounts and coupon features.

However, this feature sounds a lot better on paper than it does in reality.

The coupons and savings page is a page that essentially bombards you with a ton of offers that you have to complete in order to earn the discount.

The discounts aren't for any significant places or companies. Most of them are to save 12% on some unheard of insurance company.

There are also various spammy offers like ones that state you can earn $10,000 just for playing a simple game, which is obviously too good to be true.

Either way, I would probably steer clear of trying to redeem any of these “discounts” that Panda Research claims to have.

There are so many other legit reward apps out there or ways to get paid for playing games, so you don't need to rely on this Panda Research feature at all.

6. Earn With Paid Emails

While this isn't a common feature for micro task websites, you can make money with Panda Research by completing email offers and even reading emails.

In a nutshell, Panda Research sends emails with offers and tasks for you to complete in order to earn cash.

These emailed offers are usually pretty simple, but don’t pay that much.

Also keep an eye out for offers that want to ship a product to you and request credit card information because you can end up paying for an offer you think is free money.

Some people have had issues with the paid emails feature on Panda Research, so make sure you’re picking out the ones that are just basic surveys.

Overall, this survey site makes it really hard to understand what’s legit and what isn’t. It’s safe to say that the emails might not be worth putting effort into.

7. Cash Out

Panda Research  pays you with PayPal money on the 1st and 15th of every month. Transfers take between 2-5 days to reach your account.

However, there's a big catch with Panda Research. The minimum payout amount is $50!

This means you need to earn $50 before you can even get paid by Panda Research. And, even when you do get paid, Panda Research sends you exactly $50.

So, if you make $60 by the time you cash out, you’d still have $10 left in your account after Panda Research pays you.

Most survey sites have a minimum payout of around $10, making Panda Research a difficult survey site to cash out with.

For example, Swagbucks has various gift cards starting at just $1. Similarly, Pinecone Research lets you cash out every time you answer a survey and earn the flat rate of $3.

Extra Reading – The Best Survey Sites For Gift Cards.

Is Panda Research Legit?

Panda Research is legit, and the website pays you with PayPal cash for answering surveys and completing short online tasks. However, I don't think it's worth using because of the high $50 minimum cash out requirement.

Honestly, a $50 minimum cash out requirement is a bit scammy in my opinion. It makes it very hard to cash out quickly with the site, so I imagine many people answer surveys but give up before cashing out.

Plus, survey platforms like Branded Surveys and Prolific let you cash out at just $5. And there are even apps that pay you instantly, like QuickRewards, which has a $0.01 cash out requirement.

How Much Does Panda Research Pay?

This wouldn’t be an honest Panda Research review if we didn’t discuss the earning potential for this survey site.

Here’s the truth: the earning potential for Panda Research is extremely low.

Not only is it low, but you won’t even be able to cash out soon enough to want to continue earning money.

Sure, you might be able to answer a few 10 minute surveys and get paid $3. However, even these smaller surveys are uncommon and aren’t worth it.

You’re better off sticking to more popular survey sites like Prolific to earn some legit money.

Extra Reading – The Best Online Jobs That Pay You Daily.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Easy sign up process
• Earn $3 bonus for confirming email
• Pays out through PayPal
• Offers discounts and paid offers

Cons:

• Low earning potential
• Outdated site design
• $50 minimum payout
• Risky offers and page redirects are somewhat scammy

Other Panda Research Reviews

One of the best ways to tell if a survey site is legit or not is to check what other users are saying. And by the looks of things, Panda Research has a reputation for not paying its users on time.

There are users who have been waiting years to get paid and there are too many of these users discussing it online for this to be a coincidence.

Take a look at a review from a user on Site Jabber:

“Been waiting a year for $100 in completed surveys to be credited to my account. You would have more success walking around parking lots and collecting pennies.”

You can also read this Reddit thread discussing if Panda Research is legit. Here's what user jjharkan says about Panda Research:

“It isn't a scam. it pays. BUT you have to reach the $50 minimum. Daily mails cannot account for more than half of that and many of the tasks are difficult to do, not worth the time, or just too scammy.”

As you can see, Panda Research isn't legit and there are too many scammy components within it that don’t make it worth your time.

And the $50 cash out minimum requirement is way too high in my opinion, so don't waste your time.

The Best Panda Research Alternatives

Clearly, Panda Research isn't a premium survey website where you should spend much time.

But if you want to try other websites like Panda Research that actually pay, you have numerous options:

• Pinecone Research (U.S. Only): Earn $3 per survey and cash out instantly!
• Branded Surveys: A leading survey site that lets you earn PayPal cash and gift cards.
• QuickRewards: Answer surveys, play games that pay cash, and watch ads to earn rewards.
• Swagbucks: This popular rewards platform pays you to answer surveys, shop online, play trivia, and more!
• Kashkick: A newer but growing survey platform with a $10 cash out minimum.

Tom also made a YouTube video that covers some of my favorite paid survey sites if you want even more ideas.

Of course, none of these survey sites can make thousands of dollars, but they're much better options than using Panda Research.

As a side note, if you want to make more considerable money, you're better off using side gig apps like driving for DoorDash or making money with Instacart.

These gigs pay way more and are much more reliable, so just keep the opportunity cost of using paid survey websites in mind.

Extra Reading – How To Make Money Online For Beginners.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Panda Research A Scam?

Panda Research isn't a complete scam, but it's very misleading. A $50 cash out minimum is pretty unrealistic to reach, so many users are upset since they can never cash out. And some people report very slow payouts and claim that the website is a scam.

There are just so many better online jobs for beginners or survey platforms you can use that actually pay. In my opinion, Panda Research isn't worth it whatsoever.

How Do I Get Money From Panda Research?

You need to earn at least $50 to cash out with Panda Research. You get paid through PayPal on the 1st and 15th of every month after requesting a cash out.

Is There A Mobile App?

Panda Research doesn't have a mobile app so you must use this survey site through your computer.

You can read my post on the best jobs you can do from your phone if you want some alternatives to make money with your smartphone.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully this Panda Research review provides more insight into the site’s earning potential and whether or not it’s worth using.

The truth is, you’re way better off using any other popular survey site like Branded Surveys or just spending 30 minutes completing a delivery order for a gig like DoorDash.

There are also lots of ways to earn free money without answering surveys, so don't feel like Panda Research is your only option!

Unfortunately, Panda Research isn't worth using in my opinion, but I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Thanks so much for reading.

Looking for better ways to make extra money? Checkout:

• The 18 Best Passive Income Ideas.
• How To Make $50 Every Day.