How To Sell Internet Data And Earn Money In 2024
I've always loved finding new ways to create passive income streams. And this has been true ever since my phone farming days back in college.
That's why today, I'm covering a new passive income hustle I've been testing: selling internet data for money.
This post is covering how this side hustle works. It's also covering some of the top companies you can use to earn money by sharing internet bandwidth with your devices. Let's dive in!
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How To Sell Internet Data And Earn Money
Table of Contents
1. Honeygain
Out of all the ways to sell internet data for money, Honeygain is by far the most popular.
This passive income app lets you sell unused internet through your phone, computer, or laptop. And it's available around the world on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android devices.
As you share your unused internet with the app, Honeygain pays you credits. You then cash out via PayPal once you earn at least $20 or you can choose the cryptocurrency JumpTokens to cash out immediately.
How much you earn with apps like Honeygain depends on a few factors like where you live, how many devices you run, and your internet speed. However, if you have decent bandwidth speeds and live in North America or Europe, you might find this is a pretty effective money-making app.
Overall, Honeygain is the most popular way to sell your internet connection. And the fact it pays you with cash or crypto and not just gift cards is a selling point.
Sign up for Honeygain and use the code ‘webmonkey5' for a free $5 upon sign up!
2. Pawns
Pawns, formerly known as IPRoyal, is another great option you can consider.
This company lets you share bandwidth to earn money, and it's by far the best-paying and easiest to use company in this space.
For starters, you get a $1 sign up bonus when you sign up as an Pawns. From there, you get paid $0.20 per gigabyte of data that you share as a proxy node.
You only need $5 to cash out as well, which is much lower than most companies that let you sell internet bandwidth. Pawns lets you redeem your earnings for free PayPal money, Bitcoin, and various gift cards.
Between the sign up bonus and higher payout-per-gigabyte, you can definitely earn some nice passive income every month with Pawns.
How much you earn for your unused internet depends on your location and how long you keep the application running. But Pawns is available on desktop and for Android devices.
Earn money by sharing bandwidth with Pawns!
3. Nielsen Panel
Nielsen is a massive market research company that's been in business for decades. And it's also a company I've been making money with since my phone farming days several years ago.
This platform is a popular way to get paid for your data. All you have to do is download Nielsen's app for your computer or smartphone to begin.
From there, you earn points as you share data with Nielsen about how you browse the web. And on its mobile panel, you earn $60 per year worth of points that you redeem for free gift cards and merchandise. The computer panel pays you with sweepstake entries into massive cash prizes as well.
This is an incredibly easy way to snag some free cash, just by sharing your data. And Nielsen anonymizes all data to keep its users safe.
4. Repocket
Repocket is a newer player in the internet bandwidth space, and it has a new Android app that's in Beta that lets you earn money by selling internet data.
According to its website, customers use your internet bandwidth to “monitor prices, search Google, monitor stock pricing, competitor research and similar activities.”
You can cash out for PayPal money once you earn $20. And new users get a $5 bonus to start, which means you can reach your first cash out even faster.
Repocket shows an example on its website of how much you can earn per month, and two devices sharing 2GB of data per day earns $24 in a month. However, earnings aren't guaranteed, and your location, device type, ISP, and how much data you share all influence how much you make.
Repocket does have plans to expand to Windows, iOS, and Mac in the future, so there are exciting updates around the corner as well.
5. EarnApp
Like Honeygain and Pawns, EarnApp is another passive income side hustle you can use to earn with your internet.
Once you download its software, EarnApp pays you for sharing data with people from around the world. You can then cash out with PayPal money or free gift cards at only $2.50.
How much you earn per gigabyte of data depends on where you live. In the United States, EarnApp pays $0.36 per GB of data you share and says most people make about $10 to $20 a month in passive income.
Sure, you won't make $5,000 a month with this application. But it's another simple and effective way to sell internet data for money. And the platform also has some great referral bonuses you can take advantage of by inviting your friends to join.
6. PacketStream
PacketStream allows users to become nodes in their network from anywhere in the world, provided you have a residential IP address.
If you sell your internet bandwidth through PacketStream, you earn $0.10/GB as the software runs in the background of your computer.
PacketStream charges buyers $1.00/GB, and part of the problem is that free platforms like TOR essentially allow users to browse the web anonymously as well. From what I gather, this means PacketStream is a bit weak on the buy side currently, so your earnings will probably be slow and steady.
PacketStream states that their main clients are businesses who need to test web applications/ads without running into IP bans or detection (which is pretty common with VPNs).
You can run PacketStream on Windows, Linux, and Mac, and payouts are done via PayPal once you reach $5.
7. Privatix
Privatix is another method to sell your internet bandwidth for money, although this platform comes with a crypto flavor!
With Privatix, “any user can sell his spare or idle Internet broadband to the Network and get paid for it instantly with crypto. The payments come from buyers, who purchase the bandwidth via third-party applications or directly.”
Privatix software can be run on PCs, Mac, or Linux, and the software is free. Most of the buyers in Privatix's network are VPN providers and CDNs from what I gather, and Privatix is attempting to make a secure Ethereum token-based network where this bandwidth can be exchanged.
Privatix issues users PRIX tokens for participating in their blockchain. Although its software is still developing and how much you can earn seems to vary quite greatly from what I've read.
8. Mysterium Network
The Mysterium Network provides another option to sell your bandwidth for cryptocurrency, and the concept is incredibly similar to Privatix.
Mysterium functions as a ‘decentralized VPN service,' with a focus on user privacy/anonymity and end-to-end encryption.
The Mysterium Network is currently running a node pilot project that is available on Windows, Mac, and Raspberry Pi, which is pretty neat if you ask me.
Once you are part of the network, you can rent out your bandwidth for Ethereum. As with Privatix, how much you earn really depends on your upload speed and a variety of other factors (I believe your location might play into it as VPN traffic probably prefers U.S. IPs for many tasks over other countries).
Extra Reading – How To Make $50 A Day – The Best Methods.
9. LoadTeam
LoadTeam is another option you can use, and the platform is similar to companies like Pawns and Honeygain. All you do is share your internet bandwidth and let your device complete “tasks” to begin earning.
You can use the LoadTeam calculator to estimate how much you could earn on a monthly basis.
Your account balance will update periodically as your computer completes tasks, and you can tweak how hard your computer works in the background on this application. Users can cashout via PayPal upon reaching $1 with LoadTeam.
Extra Reading – How To Earn Money On Autopilot.
What Is Bandwidth & Why Do People Sell It?
According to TechTerms.com, internet bandwidth “describes the maximum data transfer rate of a network or Internet connection. It measures how much data can be sent over a specific connection in a given amount of time. For example, a gigabit Ethernet connection has a bandwidth of 1,000 Mbps, (125 megabytes per second).”
As it turns out, most online activities barely come close to maxing out your bandwidth for most residential internet plans.
Unless you're downloading some hefty files or running many intensive applications at once, you probably have a lot of unused bandwidth at any given time…and this isn't even considering the hours you spend asleep or out of the house.
So, a handful of companies have made it possible to sell your unused bandwidth to them (since you have a lot of it) in exchange for cash or cryptocurrency. These companies then rent out your bandwidth and allow other users or companies to use it (through your IP address).
Usually, these companies operate as or sell their services to VPNs, which allow users to access the internet through a different IP address/country than where they reside.
How Much Can You Make Selling Internet Data?
If you live in an area where your IP address and bandwidth is in demand like the United States or parts of Europe, you might be able to make $5 to $50 per month by selling your internet bandwidth.
However, for many regions of the world, this isn't a very viable side hustle idea. This is because without enough demand, you're only earning pennies for your bandwidth. I live near Toronto, and many apps and websites I tested barely paid at all or flat out didn't work.
If you want to generate passive income, I think you're better off trying hustles like renting things out for profit or investing your money instead.
For example, Fundrise lets you invest in income-generating real estate, and you only need $10 to get started.
When you compare these sorts of investing ideas and rental businesses versus selling bandwidth, I think it's clear what options are superior. Plus, you can still earn passive income online if that's what you prefer.
Learn more about investing with Fundrise!
Extra Reading – How To Make $3,000 Fast.
Final Thoughts
I'm going to conclude this whole article with an important statement: selling your internet data is a very weird, digital side hustle.
Overall, selling Bandwidth is not something you should do without thought. Depending on where you live and what ISP you use, you might have more stringent laws surrounding what your IP address is used for.
Personally, this would be the sort of passive income stream I would 100% use when I was back in college and living in a building with hundreds of people on the same network. But I don't think I'll run it on my home network.
You won't get rich by selling your internet bandwidth either. But if you're comfortable with the process and you do your due diligence, you can probably make some quick money and reliable passive income if you have fast upload speed.
A new passive income idea, or a recipe for disaster? Who even knows! But I hope you can earn some free money and rewards if you give this idea a try.
Looking for even more money-making ideas? Checkout:
Disclaimer: This is an endorsement in partnership with Fundrise. We earn a commission from partner links. All opinions are my own.
