Generating passive income by “watching” videos or ads—typically by allowing them to play in the background while you attend to other activities—used to be a favored way to make money on sites like Swagbucks.

Unfortunately, many platforms have eliminated this option, and those that continue to offer it tend to have very minimal payouts, often only a few cents for an hour of viewing.

Outside of rewards sites, many TikTok videos suggest you can earn $45 per hour (or more!) by tagging videos for Netflix. However, our research shows that while “Netflix tagger” jobs do exist, they are extremely difficult to land and typically require years of experience in the entertainment industry.

Here’s a breakdown of how much you can earn with the limited platforms still paying for video watching, along with alternative side hustles related to watching shows and movies.

Analyzing the Last Few Reward Sites That Pay for Watching Videos

Here are the results from our most recent round of research, conducted in December of 2024:

Here’s what we discovered about the five remaining reward sites that offer payment for watching videos and ads in your free time, after thoroughly testing each platform:

1. Klover: is a U.S.-based app primarily offering cash advances, but it also allows users to earn points by engaging with videos, completing surveys, and participating in various offers. Signing up is free, and while there’s a $4.99 Klover Plus subscription, it’s not required to accumulate points. Watching short app trailers or video ads, usually about 45 seconds long including end screens, earns 5 points each. Points are valued at $0.002, and 2,500 points are needed to cash out $5. Higher-paying options like surveys and offers can help you reach the $5 threshold more quickly, so you don’t have to rely solely on videos. While there isn’t an official welcome bonus, setting up an account can earn you around 225 points.
2. InstaGC: Much like PrizeRebel, InstaGC provides videos from PixelPoint TV and maintains the same earning rates, viewing time expectations, and payment system—earning 3 cents for each ad viewed. The platform boasts a low minimum withdrawal limit of only $1, enabling you to cash out your earnings through PayPal, Bitcoin, or choose from a variety of free e-gift cards for well-known retailers such as Amazon and Walmart.
3. QuickRewards.net: is a rewards platform accessible to people in the U.S. and Canada. Users can accumulate points by watching brief videos, including cooking tutorials, movie trailers and reviews, gaming updates, and health-related content. Generally, each video earns 25 QP, equivalent to 0.025 cents.
4. Earnably: Offers videos from PixelPoint TV and Loot.TV, the same provider previously used by Swagbucks. However, during testing, we only earned $0.75 per hour. The platform has a minimum withdrawal threshold of $1.
5. PrizeRebel: Features videos from PixelPoint TV, where each ad watched earns you 3 cents. I watched a nearly 4-minute comedian interview that included 30-second video ads at both the start of the video and every minute, for a total viewing time of 6 minutes. I was paid 12 cents, which translates to an hourly rate of about $1.20. You can cash out your earnings as Amazon gift cards or PayPal cash once you reach the low $5 payout threshold. To help you get there faster, the site also offers paid surveys.

Better Ways to Make Money Watching Videos

Watching ads online may not be the best use of your time, but the side hustles listed below provide real opportunities to earn extra money. While they may be harder to begin, they all present solid earning potential.

Audit Movie Theaters

Theater auditing is a form of mystery shopping where businesses hire individuals to visit retail locations and assess various aspects like customer service, cleanliness, product selection, and quality.

There are different kinds of movie theater mystery shopping tasks, typically involving a visit to a theater during a designated period to ensure that the correct movie trailers are being shown.

Here’s a list of some of the types of assignments offered:

• Trailer checks: Make sure the right trailers are played before the feature film.
• Open checks: Count the number of attendees at specified showtimes (it’s called “open” because the theater knows you’re doing it).
• Blind checks: Secretly count the number of attendees at specified showtimes.
• Advertisement checks: Take notes on the ads that run before the trailers come on.
• Sneak checks: Attend a pre-release screening of a film and take notes on the audience’s reaction.
• Comprehensive checks: All of the above.

Write Subtitles

If you’ve spent time on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, you’re likely aware of the vast amount of video content being created every day.

To ensure their videos are useful for users browsing with the volume off and accessible to those with hearing impairments, content creators need to include subtitles.

While AI tools can now handle the majority of this work, they are still far from producing correct grammar and 100% accurate translations. As a result, many creators opt to hire freelancers to handle this task for them.

For the easiest projects, you can expect to earn about minimum wage with basic video editing skills. If you bring some type of added value to the table — such as the ability to translate the audio into a different language, or create video graphics along with the captions — then you can command significantly better rates.

Review Movies and TV Shows

In addition to the fact that this option allows you to watch almost anything you want, it also has the highest earning potential of any option on this list.