Skip the guides: Calculate user research incentives without the guesswork

Incentives come in many forms

Incentives for UX research can be anything under the sun. From financial compensation to gift cards, discounts, or donations, and yes…even not offering any.

Examples include:

• Monetary compensation (cash, direct deposit, digital payments)

• Gift cards (Amazon, Visa prepaid, etc.)

• Charitable donations (choosing a nonprofit)

• Discounts (product or service discounts)

• Company swag (not ideal for external participants, but common internally)

• No incentive (in rare cases)

Each has its own context and tradeoffs.

With finite budgets and tight timelines, determining the appropriate incentive definitely matters when recruiting participants who can provide insights that shape key business and product decisions.

Too little, and you risk no-shows or disengaged participants. Too much, and you're spending more than necessary (which never makes stakeholders too happy).

So, what’s the best incentive to attract high-quality participants who show up to your study?

Drawing from 7.4M participants and $11.5M in issued incentives via Ethnio, we hope to help you answer this existential question.

(And built a calculator that easily applies our learnings to your future studies & eliminates all that guesswork. 👇)

No need for another 50-page best practices guide or generic checklist to figure out what to pay research participants. Here’s how to benchmark, validate, and simplify your incentive strategy.

Fine-tune your study parameters

Context is everything. Your study type, target audience, company size, and timeline all influence the right incentive approach.

The goal: align your incentive type and amount with participant expectations, the demands of your study, and your budget.

Starting with the basics, we set recommendations for incentives based on what type of participants you need to talk to, where your sessions will take place, and whether your sessions are moderated or unmoderated. Let's get into it.

What type of study are you running, & what is being asked of the participant?

The first step is understanding the type of research study you are conducting.

Moderated vs. unmoderated studies

Moderated usability tests need a facilitator to host, support, and collect responses whereas unmoderated tests see the participant complete tasks on their own. Both provide essential usability insights in product design and development but vary significantly in terms of participant time commitment and the level of facilitation needed. Understanding this difference is key when setting your incentive structure.

1:1 Interviews

1:1 interviews are moderated sessions where you interact directly with participants, often using remote tools like Zoom or Google Meet. Because these sessions involve more personal interaction and a greater time commitment, they usually command higher incentives that vary depending on the session length, complexity, and the specific participant pool.

Surveys

Surveys are unmoderated and involve participants completing questionnaires or engaging in self-moderated sessions, often with video or screen recording. They usually require less involvement and time commitment compared to 1:1 interviews, but should still offer fair compensation, especially for more complex or longer surveys. Like with interviews, the incentive rate can fluctuate depending on session length and participant expertise.

Location and international considerations matter (a lot)

Where are you and your participants based? Cost of living isn’t universal.

Research studies involving participants in higher-cost regions will typically require higher incentives to ensure participation. Ethnio's incentive calculator adjusts for these factors automatically, whether your participants are in the U.S., Europe, or elsewhere.

If you're conducting international studies, Ethnio automates both currency conversion and local market adjustments so you can offer fair, region-specific incentives without guesswork.

Remote: the most common these days

Running remote sessions — the most common format today — usually means you don’t need to factor in travel time or expenses, but in-person sessions should account for those additional participant costs.

Study time commitment considerations

The amount of time you’re asking participants to dedicate directly impacts the incentive offered:

• Short sessions (e.g., 30 minutes or less): Offer a lower incentive.

• Longer sessions (e.g., 1 hour or more): Require a higher incentive because of the greater time commitment.

Audience complexity

How easy or hard is it to recruit participants for your study?

Some participants are harder to recruit. Incentives should match the challenge. Specialized participants often have less availability or higher opportunity costs, so they expect higher compensation for their time.

Factor in urgency

Your study timeline can also affect incentive amounts:

• Immediate or same-day recruitment: Add a 15% premium.

• Next-day recruitment: Add a 10% premium.

• Flexible timelines: Typically, no adjustments are needed.

The faster you need participants, the more compelling your incentive should be.

Matching incentives to hourly rates (another option)

If your organization has rules around pay rates, this can be a great way to stay compliant with those policies.

For example, some organizations like to calibrate incentive payments to research participants with their target pay rates by region or role. For example, if your organization targets a base pay rate of $100/hr USD for B2B contractors in the United States, you can enter that in the optional section "match incentives to hourly pay."

The tricky part to keep in mind is that all the above complexity from the formula is still applied.

How Ethnio’s incentive calculator works

Ethnio crunches:

Recommended Incentive Range

Ethnio uses vast amounts of study data to recommend an incentive range. For example, a moderated 1:1 interview in the United States for a startup organization (funded under $100M) might recommend an incentive of $60 to $100 per hour based on the audience complexity and study length.

How is the Incentive Amount Calculated?

Incentive amounts are based on:

Study type (Moderated vs. Unmoderated)

Location (country-based adjustments)

Audience complexity (how hard it is to recruit participants)

Time to complete (the length of each participant’s involvement)

The Ethnio UX Research Incentive Calculator takes all these variables into account, adjusting incentives based on the study's specific parameters. For example, if you’re paying for a moderated remote interview that lasts 1 hour with participants located in the U.S., the suggested range may be $60 to $100 per participant.

Forecasting your research incentive budget

Planning incentive budgets doesn’t have to feel like a second job. Leadership cares about ROI. Frame incentives as investments, not costs. Once you have determined the right incentive amount, you need to think about how to present your incentive budget internally for approval.

Here’s How to Create Your Incentive Budget:

Adjust the Incentive: Start by setting the average incentive for your study (e.g., $75 for a remote 1:1 interview).

Estimate Participants: Multiply the incentive by the number of participants you'll need for your study.

Estimate for Multiple Studies: If you have multiple studies or an ongoing research project, multiply your total incentive by the number of studies or the frequency of the research.

Here are some common scenarios for budgeting:

One Study: Simply multiply the incentive amount by the number of participants needed.

Multiple Studies: Multiply your total incentive by the number of studies you’ll conduct.

Annual/Monthly Budgeting: Estimate the total number of participants per year or month and multiply by your average incentive.

Example Budget:

Participants per Month: 20

Incentive per Participant: $75

Monthly Incentive Budget: $75 x 20 = $1,500

Viola! Now Present It Strategically

Frame it around:

Strategic value: Better incentives = better research quality

Predictability: No surprises

ROI: Higher participation, faster cycles

Use simple tables or visuals to make approval frictionless.

Ethnio vs. other tools: what’s unique?

Built for UX research

Unlike general market research tools, Ethnio is designed specifically for UX research, offering recommendations based on study types like 1:1 interviews and unmoderated surveys with automatic yearly tracking limits across incentive providers.

Global reach, local data

Ethnio provides localized incentive suggestions based on participant data from 189 countries.

Ease of use

Set parameters, calculate incentives, move on with your day.

Reporting

We also just launched a new reports module with logic that makes it easy to generate incentive spend reports and flag participants getting close to the yearly threshold. Definitely a lot simpler (and safer) than juggling manual Google Sheets!

Feature comparison

Get incentives right the first time

Part of effective user research is showing your participants that their time and feedback is appreciated by your organization. But at scale, it’s easy to slip up.

Here are some common pitfalls you can easily avoid to get incentives right the first time:

❌Common pitfall # 1: Payment delays erode participant trust.

✅Solution: Set clear internal SLAs (e.g., 24-48 hours) for delivering incentives, so participants feel valued and your process remains on track.

❌Common pitfall #2: Currency issues due to fluctuating exchange rates that complicate budgeting for international studies.

✅Solution: Automate it. Tools like Ethnio handle local currencies and conversions so you stay accurate and on-budget, everywhere.

❌Common pitfall #3: Tracking gets sloppy without a single source of truth.

✅Solution: Centralize it. A platform like Ethnio tracks every payout, keeping you audit-ready and in compliance with participant limits and tax thresholds.

❌Common pitfall #4: Fraud risk, especially in high-incentive studies.

✅Solution: Layer in ID verification tools to confirm authenticity upfront. Want a deep dive? Check out our blog on Participant fraud prevention and detection in user research for solutions designed to detect fraud before it impacts your studies.

Five best practices when setting incentives

1. Don’t Over-Emphasize Incentives

While incentives are important, they should not be the main driver for participant engagement. Overemphasizing incentives can lead to skewed results, with participants exaggerating qualifications or providing less authentic feedback.

2. Be Generous to Avoid No-Shows

A $25 Amazon card might be fine for casual surveys, but big sessions need real compensation. If your incentive is too low, participants may not feel motivated to show up, leading to no-shows. To ensure a smooth process, offer an incentive that reflects the value of their time and the complexity of the study.

3. Show Appreciation

Always take the time to thank your participants. Whether it’s after the session or via a follow-up email, showing gratitude builds goodwill for future research.

4. Get Leadership Buy-In

Without leadership buy in, you risk being unable to ensure participants know how and when they'll receive compensation — transparency builds trust.

Use hard numbers when possible. ("Offering $20 more per participant increased our show-up rate by 30%.")

5.Use Ethnio’s calculator for accurate, data-backed suggestions to optimize your participant incentives and streamline your budgeting process.

TL;DR

💡 Incentives done right = better research= insights that inform better business and product decisions

The key considerations for determining your incentives:

Good Incentives Build Great Relationships: Retain participants with fair treatment.

Respect Time Commitment: Pay fairly for participant effort.

Study Type: Determine whether your study is moderated (e.g., 1:1 interviews) or unmoderated (e.g., surveys), as this will influence the time commitment and the incentive range.

Time Commitment: Longer sessions and more complex research should come with higher incentives.

Participant Complexity: Specialized or harder-to-find participants, like doctors or engineers, will require higher compensation.

Location: Be mindful of currency and cost of living adjustments for international studies and participants.