How incentives work on UsersArabia
August 20, 2026
Incentives are the quiet engine of a research study. Set them well and recruitment closes in days. Set them badly and you spend three weeks chasing no-shows. This post explains exactly how incentives work on UsersArabia, and how to pick an amount that recruits.
The short version
- You decide the incentive for each participant when you set up the study.
- You fund it with credits. One credit is one US dollar.
- Publishing a study reserves the credits so the money is committed up front.
- When you mark a participant as completed, their payout is recorded.
- We disburse the payment to the participant.
You always know the cost before you publish, and participants always know what they are being paid before they apply.
Credits, in plain terms
Credits are a single currency across the platform. One credit equals one US dollar of value, which keeps the mental arithmetic simple. You buy credits as you need them, and there is no subscription required to recruit.
Credits cover two things:
- Participant incentives, which is the large majority of most budgets.
- Premium in-app usage such as video sessions and AI insight generation, if you are on the Premium plan.
Purchased credits do not expire. Credits included with a Premium subscription roll over for one cycle before they lapse, which is worth knowing if you research in bursts rather than continuously.
How to choose an amount
The most common mistake is anchoring on what feels generous rather than on what the participant is actually giving up. A useful default is to think in terms of an hourly rate and scale it to the length of the study.
Our builder suggests an amount based on roughly forty US dollars per hour, prorated to the duration you entered. A twenty minute study lands near thirteen credits, a sixty minute interview near forty. The suggestion is only a starting point and you can override it freely.
Adjust upward when:
- The audience is specialised or senior. A finance director's hour costs more than a general consumer's.
- Incidence is low, meaning few people qualify for your screener.
- The task is demanding, involves travel, or requires preparation.
- You need people quickly.
Adjust downward carefully. Under-paying rarely saves money. It slows recruitment, skews your sample toward people with the most time rather than the most relevance, and raises no-show rates.
> A cheap study that recruits the wrong people is more expensive than a fair one that recruits the right people.
Diary studies and multi session research
Longitudinal work needs its own logic. A diary study that runs for seven days is not one session, it is seven touchpoints, and participants drop out when the reward does not reflect that. Price the whole commitment, not a single entry.
The same applies to any study where you plan to come back to the same person twice.
Reserving and spending
When you publish a study, the total cost, which is participants multiplied by the incentive, is reserved against your credit balance. This matters for two reasons.
First, you cannot accidentally publish a study you cannot pay for. Second, participants can trust that the incentive advertised is actually funded, which is a large part of why people apply.
If you close a study early, unused reserved credits are handled as part of that project's ledger rather than silently disappearing.
When participants get paid
A payout is recorded when you mark a participant's application as completed. That is the signal that the person did what was asked.
Mark completions promptly. Payment speed is the single strongest driver of a participant's willingness to take part in your next study, and word travels quickly in a panel. A researcher with a reputation for paying fast fills studies faster.
What participants see
Participants see the incentive amount before they apply, alongside the study length and format. There are no hidden deductions presented to them and no surprises at the end.
To receive payment, participants add their payout details to their profile. If you are running a study and someone has not, we will chase it rather than leaving the payment stuck.
Budgeting a study end to end
A realistic budget has three parts:
- Incentives, which is your participant count multiplied by the amount.
- A recruitment buffer. Over-recruit slightly for moderated sessions, because some people will not show.
- Premium usage, if you are running video sessions or AI insights in the app.
For unmoderated studies, the buffer can be small. For moderated interviews, plan for a realistic attendance rate rather than an optimistic one.
Common questions
Can I pay different amounts to different participants in the same study? The incentive is set per study, so keep separate audiences as separate studies when their value differs.
What if a participant does not complete properly? You control completion. If someone clearly did not engage with the task, do not mark them complete, and tell us so we can act on it.
Do I pay for people who apply but are not accepted? No. You pay for participants who take part.
Getting started
Set your incentive in the study builder, top up credits from the billing page, and publish. The cost is shown before you commit.