GreenPanthera says that once you sign up, it’s easy to make a little extra money. That’s what a lot of survey sites promise, and GreenPanthera is just one of them.
Except this one is among the most popular, because it works in a lot of countries, not just the United States.
And that’s the whole problem with paid surveys and GPT-type sites. You really can make some extra money online with them, but only if you find the right one. If not, you’ll fall into a trap that takes up your time and effort (which is exactly what you wanted to put to work). I think that’s why it’s important to know what you’re getting into beforehand, because no one will pay you back for the time you lose.
I tried GreenPanthera and remained a member for a few years. I know it inside and out.
Is it legit? Is it worth signing up, or is it a waste of time? That’s why I’m writing this review.
In it, you’ll find the details that matter, my advice, a few warnings, and everything GreenPanthera has to offer (the good and the bad), so you’ll know exactly what to expect.
And by the time you reach the end, you’ll know whether or not you want to spend your time on this site.
What is GreenPanthera and how does it work?
January 12, 2015. That’s when the domain greenpanthera.com was registered through GoDaddy.com, LLC, and I checked the WHOIS to see if the registration year was also confirmed in the registry. It’s confirmed. Behind it is the company A & K International Inc., headquartered at 157 Barlow Drive, South Brooklyn, NY 11243, and eleven years of operation for a survey site is a solid sign of trustworthiness (it doesn’t guarantee payment, but it’s a solid foundation to start from). So what does it actually do? First and foremost, it’s a paid survey site where you get paid to share your opinions on all kinds of topics, plus a few other ways to earn money on the side.
I know it pays because it’s paid me many times. I also know it’s not for everyone, because I’ve received a lot of feedback that shows exactly that.
This is most evident in the ways to earn money, so I’ll go through them one by one, explaining how worthwhile each one is, so you can see if this is a site for you or not.
GreenPanthera survey
Open the main menu, go to “Earn Money,” and that’s where you’ll find them, the paid surveys, because GreenPanthera is, first and foremost, a survey site, and that’s where most of the money comes from. Usually, several pop up each day. When I checked my account, I counted about 13, plus one that’s different from the rest.
That’s the profile, the first one on the list, which pays $0.25 and is recommended before any other survey, because whether or not you receive surveys depends on it.
Click on it and you’ll be taken to the “Personal Data” page, where you enter your first name, last name, PayPal email, country, city, ZIP code, gender, education level, marital status, whether you’re employed, your household’s annual income, and a few other details. That’s a lot to write for 25 cents (I know, it’s not exactly a sum you’d be eagerly anticipating). But without a profile, you won’t get anything, so you fill it out and move on.
How much do the others pay? For the ones I’ve received, between $0.62 and $3, and the amounts can vary depending on the country you’re logging in from. But not everything on the list is actually available. You don’t qualify for some. Others don’t work anymore. This happens on any survey site, and I don’t think there’s one that doesn’t have this issue, but on GreenPanthera it happened to me more often than on the sites that pay the best, such as Earnopolis and GG2U (I know both from my own testing). And it’s not just the list, because you also get emails with links that no longer open or invitations to surveys that have already closed.
If you ignore them and don’t give up, the list of surveys you eventually have access to is actually quite long.
Get Paid To Play Offers
Go to the “Earn Money” section (the same one as for surveys) and you’ll find an offer wall with paid offers there.
There are several types of offers. You can download an app or a game on your phone and receive a reward, sign up on a website, and there are others as well. But most of the offers on Green Panthera are games.
What you see depends on the device you’re using to log in. You can choose your device type between Android, iOS, and Desktop. And the list of games changes accordingly. On my account, I counted 75 games for Android and 72 for iOS, so on your phone you have pretty much the same selection regardless of the operating system, with just three extra games on Android. The desktop version only got 2 (yes, two).
Two games on a computer is practically nothing, so these offers are really for your phone.
I found some good offers among them, with big rewards.
But the reward comes with conditions. Some ask you to play the game for a certain amount of time. Some ask you to agree to be contacted by a company that’s advertising. There are other options as well, so I read them all before accepting any offer.
Why does this matter? Because if you don’t know exactly what you’re supposed to do, you’re playing for nothing, and you won’t get the reward.
I think we’re all in a rush to get the money, so read the terms and conditions before you start playing.
Refer your friends
Log in to your account, open the “INVITE YOUR FRIENDS” in the dashboard, and from there, get your unique link or promo code. I sent the link because it opens directly, so the person doesn’t have to type anything. Anyone who signs up through it receives $2, credited directly to their new account balance. It’s not a lot of money, but it’s not starting from zero either.
You earn 10% of the cash value of all the tasks and surveys your friend completes and gets approved for, and the commission isn’t a one-time payment, but continues as long as they keep working.
Does the word “approved” matter? A lot, because a rejected survey won’t earn you any money.
You might be tempted to say that a second account in the name of someone in the household wouldn’t bother anyone. Except that GreenPanthera’s Terms of Use specifically prohibit this, along with multiple accounts in the same household, fake identities, and any self-referral scheme designed to manipulate the referral tracking system (the rules are there to prevent fraud, and I understand that).
Break the rules, and you lose your account.
And along with it, you lose everything you’ve accumulated in your balance, including the commissions from your friends’ work.
I read these terms before sending the link.
I think the program is worth it, but strictly on your own account. Two dollars per friend and a 10% commission aren’t worth the risk of losing your balance.
How do you get paid?
Between $0.62 and $3. That’s what you get for a survey on Green Panthera, and you can cash out what you earn from surveys and offers via PayPal. This method worked well for me because PayPal is simple and easy to use.
You can’t even sign up without a PayPal account.
The form has a field that says “PayPal account” and that’s it (no indication that they want an email address). I spent more time on that field than on the rest of the form. That’s where you enter the email address you use for PayPal. I filled it out, it worked, and I’m telling you this so you don’t waste time on that field either.
The rest is a matter of timing, and some of these take a while:
- 5 to 15 minutes, which is the average time it takes to complete a survey.
- 1 or 2 days until the money appears in your account, according to them. For me, it took 3 to 5 days, and for some surveys, approval took even longer, so if you don’t see anything after a few days, just give it some more time.
- 2 weeks, at most, for payment via PayPal, although I received my money sooner.
- 60 days from the payment confirmation email to check your PayPal balance.
- A few months of regular surveys until your first withdrawal, with a $30 threshold.
Don’t count on any leeway beyond the 60-day period. If money is missing, if the payment was returned, or if it was sent to a different email address, notify support within this timeframe, because after that, no further claims will be processed.
I’d set up a PayPal account the very day I receive the confirmation email.
Thirty dollars is a lot for a survey site. Timebucks or Attapoll (also survey sites that pay via PayPal) have a much lower payout threshold. But how long does it take to reach that amount? With surveys paying $3 each, you’d need ten of them. The thing is, many pay less, some as little as 0.62, and for those of us who earn just a few dollars per survey, the road to 30 gets longer. I reached the threshold too, but it took patience.
What happens to rejected surveys? Well, I read the terms and conditions, and it clearly states that they’re counted. If you accumulate more than 5 rejections due to “poor quality” or suspected fraud, your account is permanently closed, and any pending funds are forfeited.
I think this is the harshest rule on Green Panthera, because it can hit you right when you’re close to $30, after months of taking surveys.
How much money can you make?
How much you earn from GreenPanthera depends entirely on how many surveys are a good fit for you and how many you manage to complete.
I mostly came across surveys that took 5 to 15 minutes, and I generally found the pay to be good for the time required. The homepage states that they’ve paid out over $40,000,000 to users worldwide since the site launched. But independent tests conducted by consumers tell a different story when looking at the individual user. The hourly average remains low because a lot of surveys kick you out right at the qualification stage (something that huge number doesn’t show you). So what matters? Not how much they pay per survey, but how many you actually get to take.
I’ve written this in all my reviews of paid survey sites, and I’ll write it here too. It won’t make you rich. It won’t provide you with a full-time income.
And if you go into it expecting to make a living from surveys, I’ll say it again, you’ll most likely be disappointed, and once you’re disappointed, you’ll stop taking surveys, so in the end, you won’t earn anything.
How do you ask for help
If you’re missing a payment, you send an email and wait for a reply, because there’s no faster way.
I looked for a live chat on the website. I also looked for a phone number or at least a bot that could answer me right away, and I didn’t find anything.
Does it matter? When it comes to money that hasn’t come through, I think it does.
There are four places left where you can write (I’ve checked them all against their terms of service), each for a different type of issue:
- [email protected], the main contact address. This is where you should send general questions, account issues, missing payments, and complaints, so this is where I’d write first if a payment is missing.
- The official GreenPanthera contact portal, accessible via your browser, where you enter your name, the email address you used to register, and a brief description to open a support ticket.
- [email protected], the contact address for the data protection officer, regarding data access, modifications, or GDPR matters.
- Customer support for the store where you made your purchase, if the issue is related to a purchase or delivery through the “Shopping” portal (available only on GreenPanthera UK, Canada, and the U.S.).
The form is a good option if you don’t feel like looking up the email address. It doesn’t ask for much, so you can fill it out quickly.
And in the end, you really have no other choice. GreenPanthera support doesn’t handle purchases or deliveries from “Shopping”, according to their terms, so you have to go directly to the store’s team, since they have no way of knowing what happened to your package. It makes sense. But it’s good to know this before you buy, not after you’ve written to them for nothing.
For those of us waiting for payments from here, we’re actually only interested in the first address.
GreenPanthera Trustpilot
They say that account suspensions are due to clear reasons, inconsistent responses, a VPN or proxy connection, or a mismatched location. That’s what the company behind greenpanthera.com writes on Trustpilot, under the reviews of those suspended for “Quality concerns.” And they write this often, because they actively respond to negative reviews. I’ve come across their replies to several of them.
However, almost every time, the blame falls on you for not meeting the quality standards of the survey providers (external providers, not their own).
On Trustpilot, I found 444 reviews. I didn’t read them all, I worked with a sample, so I can’t give you exact percentages. In the sample, the two sides are roughly equal, and both are at the extremes, either very satisfied or very upset.
Satisfied users say the site is reliable, has plenty of surveys, and that customer support responds extremely quickly. Why are they so satisfied? Well, because they reached the threshold and cashed out, and for them, the number of surveys was important.
The terms of use set the threshold at $30, paid via PayPal within 4 to 10 business days (I verified this on the site itself, not in reviews).
Dissatisfied users mainly complain about two things, the low pay per survey and sudden account suspensions. Several users have completed entire surveys and received between $0.036 and $0.07 per survey. How long does it take to save up $30 with payments like that? A long time, and one user even writes that it’s hard to reach the threshold. Others confirm that payment takes time, and I’m not surprised, because with these amounts, the threshold seems very far away to me.
You waste time on surveys that pay just a few cents. You waste time until you get close to the threshold. And sometimes you even lose your account, right before you can cash out.
But these complaints, about less than 10 cents per survey and accounts being blocked due to “quality concerns,” appear in reviews written by people who have no connection to one another, so we’re not just talking about a few isolated cases.
I see a pattern here.
Red Flags you should never ignore
11243 is not a valid ZIP code, and yet it appears in the address they provide in their privacy policy: 157 Barlow Drive, South Brooklin, NY 11243. Barlow Drive South does exist, it’s a street with houses in Mill Basin, Brooklyn, but the ZIP code there is 11234, not 11243. And 11243 is a ZIP code in Brooklyn, but in a different area (one with no registered residents).
And the place name isn’t standard either (South Brooklin isn’t a commonly used form), so this address can’t be verified. For a company that holds your money in an account, that’s no small matter.
Other than that, I came across four issues that directly affect your money or your data:
The Terms of Service state that, after receiving more than 5 quality-related rejections from customers, they will permanently close your account, without payment and without providing any explanation. There’s no way to appeal, and everything is decided based on other people’s ratings.
The Terms also state that an account that has been inactive for 6 months will be deleted, along with any remaining balance.
The Privacy Policy says they don’t sell or share your data with anyone, but it also says they send it to third parties outside the European Economic Area (it seems hard to me to have both at the same time).
Some users on Trustpilot outright call it a scam, due to low payouts and accounts being blocked out of the blue.
Are they right? Not entirely, because the company does process some withdrawals via PayPal, so the accusations are based on people’s experiences, not on proven fraud.
But I looked at the clauses regarding rejections and inactivity, and I understood where the complaints were coming from. You don’t need fraud to lose money here. All it takes is a few bad reviews from customers or a break that’s too long. And in both cases, your balance disappears without anyone telling you why.
I take the complaints seriously because they’re directly tied to what’s written in their Terms of Service.
Who can use GreenPanthera?
You must be 18 years old to create an account on Green Panthera.
There’s one more requirement, and I read it twice in the Terms of Use because it’s the one that could cost you your account. The Terms clearly state that you must be physically located in the country you selected during registration. If you log in or take surveys from another region, the automated anti-fraud filters will flag your profile. From there, you’ll either no longer qualify for surveys, or your account will be permanently suspended.
Want to take one more survey while on vacation? You can’t. You can’t even do it when you cross the border for a simple visit.
The official list includes 48 countries (plus an “International” portal for those living outside of them). When I signed up, there were fewer, and I think it’s a good sign that the list has expanded.
On many of them, you can set the platform to the local language. What doesn’t work everywhere? A few ways to earn money (cashback offers, for example) are only available on Green Panthera UK, Canada, and the U.S., as I mentioned above, while the rest are available in any of the countries on the list, with no difference.
And no matter where you sign up, your balance is displayed in dollars.
Signing up is free. The $2 bonus was credited to my balance as soon as I clicked the verification link in the email (in France, the amount is adjusted to the local currency, 1.50 euros).
I completed the form directly on my country’s portal, and it has five fields:
- Email address, which also serves as the username (I used one that I actually check, because that’s where the verification link is sent)
- Password
- First and last name
- Date of birth
- Gender, where you can only choose between male and female
Five fields and one click, that’s all the platform requires to get those $2. But without that click, you won’t see a single penny of it.
Can you use it on your phone?
Open Safari or Google Chrome on your phone, go to GreenPanthera, and your account is right there, just like on your computer. The main dashboard, the list of surveys, and the “Earn” section automatically adjust to fit the screen, whether on a phone or a tablet. I’ve logged in this way several times and completed entire surveys without struggling with tiny buttons. It’s good that it works in the browser, since there’s no other official option.
I couldn’t find a GreenPanthera app in either the App Store or Google Play (I searched for it on both iOS and Android, just to be sure).
So how do you find out when you have a new survey? Only via email, at the address you used to sign up.
You don’t receive notifications on your phone because there’s no app to send them, which is why GreenPanthera relies heavily on invitations sent that way.
You open the link in the invitation right from your phone’s email app, and the survey launches in your browser where you complete it, so I think it’s worth using an email address you actually check, not a forgotten backup one.
There’s also a copy and an APK file for Android circulating on some websites, called “GreenPanthera Rewards.” But it’s not official. A & K International Inc., the company that owns GreenPanthera, didn’t release it and doesn’t maintain it.
If you download it from a site that no one checks, you’re putting your personal data at serious risk. If you install it, you might end up with a virus on your phone.
It’s not worth risking your phone for a file that even the company itself doesn’t endorse.
Is GreenPanthera LEGIT or SCAM?
On Green Panthera, you can lose funds you’ve already earned with no recourse, because their terms allow them to close your account in a rather aggressive manner.
That scared me more than the withdrawal threshold.
The withdrawal threshold is $30. I’ve read several accounts of extremely low payouts per survey (I’m referring to user reports, not my own impression). How long does it take to reach $30 with payouts like that? A long time. And the user experience is difficult. I went through it myself and didn’t feel like sticking around.
But it’s a legitimate market research platform, and that’s what matters. It’s been around for 11 years, and the support team actually responds when someone complains, and I’ve seen that they don’t leave complaints unanswered.
Who would I recommend it to? Someone who’s patient, who knows how to measure quality in market research, and who accepts that surveys take time to complete and pay poorly.
It’s not for anyone looking for a quick and guaranteed side income. It’s also not for you if you leave your account untouched for months on end. Given their account closure policies, I wouldn’t risk it, as I think you have a lot to lose.
I’d love to read below what comments, questions, or experiences you’ve had with Green Panthera.