Every Friday, The Testing Shortlist sends a handful of paid product tests and research studies open to people in the UK. What you don't see is everything we looked at and left out. This page is that pile.
The numbers so far (3–24 October 2026)
We tracked 98 specific paid tests and studies:
54 passed our checks and were good enough to send.
11 had already closed. At least one still showed an "Apply" button after the organiser had listed it as expired.
14 are on hold because something important was missing or contradicted itself. One page gave two different session lengths, for example.
8 were binned outright (reasons below).
11 are still waiting to be checked.
So of the 87 we finished checking, 54 made it and 33 didn't.
We also looked at 59 "tester clubs" and panels you can join. Several aren't what they look like from a search result.
Why things get binned
It's a prize draw, not a test. "Monthly free product trial" turned out to mean a draw for five people. Another "test and keep" listing was a prize-draw sign-up with marketing data-sharing, and it had already closed.
There's no pay, and there's homework. One big-brand haircare "tester" offer was products only, but you had to make Instagram or TikTok videos, write four reviews and fill in a survey. Free shampoo isn't nothing, but it's not a paid test.
It isn't open to you. One well-known brand's UK tester club says on its own page that it only accepts the company's employees. For two big beauty brands, the only tester sign-up we could find was on a US or Australian site,Closed studies can stay up with the Apply button still showing.ith the Apply button still showing. We check the organiser's own page or expired list before anything goes out.
The page doesn't say what you'd actually do. If a listing won't tell you the task, the time and the pay, we hold it until it does.
Our bar
To make the Shortlist, an opportunity has to:
pay at least £25 in cash or vouchers;
work out at £20 an hour or more when the time is stated (or be worth at least £75 for an in-person or home trial with no time stated);
cost you nothing to join;
say clearly what you do and where.
At least half of every issue is open UK-wide or online.
Want the 8 checks we use, so you can run them yourself? Before you apply
Get the ones that passed
We check them. We bin the rubbish. Each Friday at 6pm: a short list of paid tests that passed, with the pay, the time and the catch. Free. Subscribe here.
We only state what an organiser's own page says. Being binned here means "didn't meet our bar", not "scam". If you run one of these and something's changed, reply to any issue and we'll re-check.