This is my review of the popular Field Agent app.
I’ve heard about the app on various lists of side hustle ideas for years, and was excited to finally put it to the test.
The tl;dr version of what I found is that the app is legit (they do really pay), it’s easy to use, and is actually pretty fun. But don’t expect this to replace your day job!
Field Agent Review
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Sign-Up Process
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Ease of Use
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Earning Power
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Gig Availability
Summary
Field Agent won’t replace your day job, but is a fun and interesting way to make a little extra cash. Check out the full review below to learn how the app works, how to maximize your earnings, and some potentially better-paying alternatives to consider.
How Field Agent Works
Field Agent connects brands and businesses that want feedback with Agents (like you!) to collect that feedback.
What that looks like in real life is getting paid to:
- Check inventory levels
- Verify store displays and product placement
- Test employee knowledge by asking a few questions
- Provide feedback on packaging and marketing
- Try new products
If that sounds like fun, you can download the app for free and see what jobs are available nearby.
My Field Agent Review
Is Field Agent Legit?
Yes, Field Agent is a legitimate mystery shopping app that pays you for completing small odd jobs around town. Since launching in 2010, the app has paid out more than $20 million to Agents like you.
The company is headquartered in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and facilitates jobs throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.
How Much Can You Make with Field Agent?
Most Field Agent gigs pay between $3 and $10, depending on the complexity and estimated time to complete. On an hourly basis, that might optimistically pan out to $10-25 an hour — not counting your drive time.
It would be difficult to turn Field Agent-ing into a full-time income stream, but the app is a fun and interesting way to make extra money.
Personally, on a recent “mission” I made $9 for about roughly 30 minutes of actual work.
Finding Jobs on Field Agent
Finding jobs on the Field Agent app is simple.
To get started, download the app and create an account.
Then you can either use the “list view” or “map view” to see what Field Agent jobs are available. I’m more of a visual guy, so I like the map view:
At press time, there were lots of gigs available, but of course that will vary based on your location.
To learn more about the nearby jobs, you can click into each one to see what it entails. This description will tell you how much the job pays, how long you have to complete it, and a rough idea of the work required.
Types of Field Agent Jobs
There are several different types of jobs available through the Field Agent app. Those include:
- Buy and Try – Get paid to test out new products and share your opinion. Field Agent will reimburse your purchase.
- Buy, Try, and Share – the same as above but with the added requirement of posting about the product on social media.
- Audits – Check the status of a product display, availability, or section of shelving.
- Mystery Shop – You may be given sample scripts or questions to ask employees. (And you must not divulge your secret agent status!)
- Ticket Jobs – These are unpaid gigs, but don’t require any travel and enter you into a monthly prize drawing. (More on these below.)
Accepting a Job
If you find a gig that looks good, there will be a button to accept it at the bottom of the screen. As soon as you do, the countdown timer starts ticking.
Important note: This is your time to go to the location, complete the audit or purchase (if necessary), and try the product. This didn’t end up being an issue for me, but just something to be aware of. If you miss deadlines, it can hurt your rating within the app or cause you to not get paid.
Completing the Job
When I embarked on my first Field Agent mission, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. When I pulled up to Target (my first stop), I opened the app and just followed the instructions.
It told me to:
- find the product in the aisle
- take a picture of the whole shelf display
- answer a few questions about first impressions / packaging
For Buy and Try gigs, you’ll want to get your purchase on a separate receipt to make it easy. I was able to use the self-checkout so this wasn’t a problem.
(At my second stop, the cashier had no problem ringing the item up separately.)
The app was very straightforward walking through the steps. For the jobs I accepted, most of the questions were multiple choice, which made it pretty quick. During the product testing portion, it asked for 2-3 sentences of personal feedback on a couple questions.
In my case, Field Agent also requested a picture of the opened product next to the packaging, and a picture of my receipt for reimbursement.
When you’re all done, you’ll have a chance to review your answers before you submit. If everything looks OK, you can send off your job for approval and you’ll see a screen like this:
How Long Do Field Agent Jobs Take?
For this first $3 gig, it was about 10 minutes from the time I entered the store to the time I was done checking out. If I tack on the additional product trial questions when I got home, those added another 5 minutes.
So $3 in 15 minutes (not counting drive time) rounds out to the equivalent of $12 an hour — and we got to try a new product for free.
Do They Really Reimburse You?
One concern I had with Field Agent Buy and Try gigs was getting reimbursed. Here I am fronting my own money for this app job, with the hope they end up paying me back.
But yes, within a couple days of submitting my job for approval, the app approved and issued the full payment and reimbursement. I got an email notification like this:
And inside the app I could see the payments credited to my account:
Important Note: I’ve found that alcohol gigs don’t offer full reimbursement. I’m not sure if this is for legal reasons, but the job description will specify your reimbursement amount.
I did a hard seltzer Buy and Try that paid $6 for the job and $10 in reimbursement. Essentially that meant I got the hard seltzer for about half off and made $6 for my time and feedback.
So don’t go crazy accepting Field Agent alcohol jobs and buying stuff you know you won’t consume!
Field Agent Gig Strategy
What can you do to optimize your Field Agent earnings?
For starters, I probably wouldn’t make a dedicated trip for one job. But if you’re already out running errands, it might make sense to see if there are any nearby.
Beyond that, here are some ideas.
Stack Multiple Gigs in the Same Location
The most common Field Agent strategy is to complete multiple jobs in one stop. In fact, the app seems to encourage this.
For example, when multiple jobs are available, you’ll see a message like this in the job description:
“Earn up to $20 more at this location!”
Read the Job Description
See if you can find hints as to how time-intensive a job is going to be. When you click into a job for more info, Field Agent does a pretty good job of summarizing the work required.
But not all jobs take the same level of effort.
For example, I was excited to find a peanut butter Try and Buy near me, until I saw this:
That’s 57 questions about peanut butter for $4?? I mean, I love the stuff but what could you possibly have 57 question about?
Enable Notifications
In the app settings, make sure you have push notifications enabled. I’ve only received one of these so far, but if you want to be the first to know about new gigs, this is probably the best way.
I’ve never gotten any emails about new jobs, so you might just have to make a habit of checking the app before you head out the door.
Consider Your Drive Time
Think about these jobs in terms of their hourly rate.
One $3 gig took me about 15 minutes of actual “work,” (equivalent of $12 an hour) but if I factor in the 10 minutes drive time to and from the store, it starts to look much worse.
Unless it was a really great-paying job or a product I really wanted to try, I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to complete these. Instead, see if you can work the app into your existing trips and errands.
How Does Field Agent Pay You?
You can cash out your Field Agent earnings directly to your bank account.
After I input my account information in the app — complete with security codes and even a small test deposit to verify — it took a couple days to for the money to hit my account.
At press time, it does not appear that PayPal is an option.
Field Agent Taxes
Yes, the money you earn on Field Agent is taxable.
Now it’s true that you won’t receive a 1099 unless you’re on track to earn over $600 in a calendar year, but keep in mind that there’s still an electronic record of your payments. (Since they pay via direct deposit.)
On the plus side, your independent contractor status with Field Agent means you can deduct expenses related to your work. The biggest of these will be mileage.
If you’re diligent about tracking your mileage and strategic about aligning Field Agent jobs with trips you were going to make anyway, I can see this being a potentially creative way to save on taxes.
Disclaimer time: I’m not an accountant, nor do I play one on the Internet! Please do your own due diligence here and consult with a professional.
Stack Your Cash Back
If you’re working on a Field Agent gig that requires a purchase, make sure you’re maximizing your cash back outside the app.
Credit Card Rewards
For starters, use a rewards credit card. This is a solid choice:
Credit cards like the Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card offer a $200 sign-up bonus after you spend $500 in your first 3 months — with no annual fee. That's up to 40% cash back!
If you know you’re gonna spend $500 in the next 3 months, that’s #freemoney. This card also gives you one of the highest cash back rates, with unlimited 1.5% back on every dollar you spend.
Cash Back Apps
On top of your standard credit card rewards, I recommend a handful of cash back apps as well. Here are my top choices:
- Fetch Rewards – You earn extra cash back when you buy any of 250+ popular brands, just by snapping a picture of your receipts. Then redeem points for gift cards to retailers like Best Buy, Sephora, Staples, Gap, and more. (I’ve been cashing in for Amazon gift cards.)
- Ibotta – Not as easy to use as Fetch, since you have to scroll through each store or search to see if you bought any eligible products, but I still use it after every trip.
- Dosh – With Dosh, there are no codes to scan or receipts to upload. You’ll earn automatic cash back at lots of locations locally.
Other Ways to Make Money with Field Agent
Inside the Field Agent app, there are a couple other ways to make money.
1. Ticket Jobs
When you open the “Find Jobs” section of the Field Agent app, you’ll notice a heading for “Ticket Jobs.”
These are unpaid jobs, but completing them enters you into Field Agent’s monthly cash prize drawing. Per the app, the more of these you do, the higher your payout if you win.
Here’s how it breaks down:
- 1 Ticket = entry to the drawing and $100 prize if you win
- 2-3 Tickets = $200
- 4-5 Tickets = $300
- 6+ Tickets = $500
The good news with these is you can do them from anywhere — no travel required. That, and they’re super short. I did 6 of them (to max out my potential prize money!) in about 10 minutes. I’ll let you know if I win big!
The drawings are held on the 5th of every month for tickets earned the previous month. According to the Field Agent site, the final drawing is January 5th, 2021, so this potential earning option may be discontinued in 2021.
2. Refer Friends
Field Agent has a built-in referral program where you can earn money for recruiting new “agents.”
When friends of yours join through your specific referral link, you’ll earn 10% of each approved job they complete, up to a maximum of $10 per invite. If you have a large network, you can see how this might start to add up.
Field Agent Alternatives
The other app that is most similar to Field Agent is Gigwalk.
However, it didn’t have the volume of available jobs near me that Field Agent does. Gigwalk had nothing within 15 miles.
But what else can you do to earn some extra cash?
ProductTube
ProductTube is a legit app that pays you — in Amazon gift cards — to share your opinions about your online and in-person shopping experiences.
It probably won’t fund your retirement, but you can earn some extra money with relatively little effort. Our independent ProductTube reviewer, Joddie Taylor, earned over $100 in two months, very part-time.
Remote Market Research
If you enjoy this type of market research work, there are a few companies you should know about that specialize in online focus groups and paid consumer studies.
And the best part? The average compensation is in the $50-200 an hour range, and most of the time you don’t have to leave your house!
Earn $50-150/hr, with thousands of new studies added each month.
Earn an average of $75 per project, and get notified of upcoming studies you may qualify for.
Patients and caregivers can earn $120/hour while helping advance medical research.
User Interviews is a great resource for connecting with remote consumer research studies. I’ve made $105 in about an hour and a half so far — here’s my full User Interviews review.
Respondent is one of the best paying online survey companies I’ve found. Usually the surveys are one-on-one interviews either in-person or over the phone / video chat, and they pay an average of $140 an hour.
Rare Patient Voice pays patients and caregivers $120 an hour to assist with medical research. You can browse a full list of available studies on their site—nearly all of which are phone or webcam interviews.
If you suffer from any sort of medical condition (even if it’s not super rare), this one is worth a look.
The site is open to residents of United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.
Other Survey Apps
The survey apps below don’t pay as well, but can also be done from home on your own schedule.
- Swagbucks – Earn up to $35 a survey with this mega-popular app, and get a $10 bonus just for signing up!
- Product Report Card – Get notified about higher-paying product tests, clinical trials, and online focus groups.
- KashKick – Get paid to answer surveys, test games, and try new products.
- Survey Junkie – Take 3 surveys a day and earn up to $40 a month.
- InboxDollars – Get a $5 bonus just for signing up!
- American Consumer Opinion – Join millions of free members and earn up to $50 per survey.
Test Mobile Games
KashKick is a newer app that pays you to answer surveys, test new games (up to $150 each!), and redeem money-saving offers.
With the slogan “get paid to have fun,” KashKick is rated 4.2-stars in the Google Play store.
Delivery Gigs
If you don’t mind driving, delivery apps tend to pay $10-25 an hour, with similar flexibility. These include:
- DoorDash – Make up to $25 an hour as a food delivery driver for DoorDash. For more, check out our full DoorDash review.
- Instacart – Earn $14-18 an hour delivering groceries around town. Here’s our full Instacart shopper review, featuring one side hustler who brought in $10,000 doing this in his first 6 months.
Mobile Notary Service
Loan signing agents have much higher earning power than Field Agent workers. Of course, there’s an upfront investment in education and equipment here, but this is a popular gig among Side Hustle Nation.
Several listeners have reported earning thousands of dollars a month with their mobile notary business, including Brian Schooley, who first learned about it on The Side Hustle Show podcast.
The award-winning Side Hustle Show is a
Top 10 Entrepreneurship podcast
with over 1,200 5-star ratings!
Listen in your favorite podcast app or directly in your browser.
Field Agent Conclusion: Occasional Extra Cash, Not Much More
The free Field Agent app is a legit way to make a little money on the side, but it’s not going to replace your day job.
Where it makes the most sense is to accept jobs where you’re already going, or to try free or discounted products you’re already interested in.
Have you tried it? Let me know about your experience in the comments below!
Looking for more options? Here are some easy part time jobs that might be worth checking out.
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Secret agent photo courtesy of Depositphotos.
Mystery shopper sounds interesting! I’m an 80 yr old lupus pt so don’t get out much and I miss it!
Thanks so much this is interesting!
Beware, it sounds good but after completing 11 jobs they went into review after 48 hours they still hadn’t been approved. I reached out to them and was told the employer was no longer using them and I wouldn’t be paid.
Ugh lame! Sorry to hear that, Chasity!
For some reason I can’t get my account verified to get my money anyone else have this problem
Yeah I did field agent for 2 years a few times a month and made $1000 with the app total ofc not including money I paid out for buy and try. I found I made about 10 dollars an hour on average in my province where min wage is 14. Just do it for pocket change when you are doing errands and don’t expect to get paid. At least I didn’t get taxed so 10 isn’t tooo bad compared to taxed 14. Here is the thing: I went across town to Costco for a lengthy 1 hour task($14 payout) and got stiffed because their rules were not possible. Ofc you don’t see the entire task until you are there going through it. There is no one to contact for emergency directions you only have the rules and “tips” in the task. When you complain they deactivate you!!! They are horrible to their agents. How do you take 1 picture per product/pallet with it’s corresponding price tag when there are 3 products stacked on one pallet with 3 price tags jumbled above it. There wasn’t one product per pallet. If I take one pic I don’t follow instructions: 1 photo per product. If I take 3 like I did for 3 products so they know there are 3 products I am denied pay for multiple photos the same. Just delete the 2 extra photos? But no they decide to not pay you because they look for any chance they get so you don’t get paid but they do (savings for them!). BEWARE. They do this often. If all stores are the same the task will probably work but most stores aren’t exactly the same. Got denied payment another time for a photo that they wanted HORIZONTAL of all products in a section but the aisles were too narrow to back up enough to get the very top and very bottom. Vertically it could have been done but not Horizontal.
I have used field agent for about 3 years now. Most of my experiences have been fairly good. Lately though, they are testing out PayPal and it pays $4 per job plus $10 reimbursement and the $10 can be used for gasoline. I went to the locations, had money in my paypal, follow the instructions on my end and the cashier didn’t know what she was doing so on two occasions I was denied payment. Both were because the cashier couldn’t get the payment to go through as they were not trained properly, and one they told me that I was seven miles away from my location! I provided them with the actual receipt showing that I was at that location. I sent them message explaining the situation and they said after reviewing that since I could not use the PayPal they would not pay me.
I will spend less time doing field agent and more time working on others.
DON’T SIGN UP FOR THIS!! I undertook a Costco task that took a fair amount of time to do. The task was to see if they sold Tim Horton’s decaf single use pods and Tim Horton’s caffeinated single use pods. Costco does in fact sell BOTH. Unfortunately Costco had mislabelled their pricing sign over the caffeinated version and labelled it with the decaf sign. I was denied because Costco made an error. I asked what I was supposed to do in that situation, ie: do I say that they don’t sell it (even though the product is sitting there, with the incorrect sign) or do I go and ask management to change the sign? Seems reasonable to me, no? The response from Jeff, who’s is apparently the general manager, was “you took a picture of the incorrect product and this is the last we will discuss this”. This is NOT the correct response from any one never mind the general manager. If this guy gets fired then I may try this service again. Until then people I don’t suggest you sign up for this.
It’s actually ridiculous how much they scrutinize the posts. This Jeff person has no respect for the field agents and reject submissions at every opportunity – such a scam!!!
I was going to try this but after ready the reviews from previous agents I don’t trust this I will get paid from this company
I went around stores for 2 hours and only made 10$, i then cashed out to my bank account with Alaska USA and that was over 5 days ago I’ve never seen a dime from this bullshit app.
If they actually approve your submission, you will get paid. HOWEVER, I wouldn’t bother signing up for this app because they look for any reason at all to reject your submission and not pay you. I do not have time to do these tasks, some which take a while, to only get paid $4 or $6 – IF they approve my work. I went to Costco to do a grass seed audit yesterday and did everything to a T and was denied because apparently my pictures were blurry… BLURRY?! I can read everything when I look at the pictures. Maybe they should have their eyes examined. They want a photo of grass seed on a pallet and the price sign above – all in one photo – yet how am I supposed to get an optimal photo of that in a 3 foot wide aisle when the price sign is 5 feet above the pallet? I did my best and the photos were legible – nope, still denied. Same thing – Costco mission that took me about 30-40 minutes, and wanted photos of endcap displays of food only. I took all the photos of food endcap displays in the store and it wouldn’t let me submit because they wanted 5 more photos of endcap displays – but there weren’t any more of food. Yet I couldn’t submit… so I took photos of non-food items and made a note. DENIED – because all my photos weren’t of food. But I did the mission properly and couldn’t submit because I had to upload photos to all the sections. Would be great if all stores were the same size but they aren’t. Don’t waste your time with this app.
I’ve just started this month (wish I would of come across this article/comments sooner). I’m going to cash out now at about $150. I’ve mostly been taking higher paying jobs close by my house where I can do 5-6 jobs at a time (i live in the bay area, calif. So we have a lot of availability – shout out to the Author Nick!).
I too have lately been finding that they are asking things that are just not possible. Today in fact they wanted aqua-flasks (who knew these were a thing) anyways the sporting good store had aisles and aisles of these things on shelves 2 ft taller than me but only gave me 4 pics to complete it! I couldn’t complete it in 15 pics I bet.
They so far have denied me 3 jobs total but when I have written them asking for specifics on what was wrong, they failed to respond and instead just paid me for the jobs – but they also leave my score dinged (you have a score after completing 11 jobs based on percentage of denied vs completed jobs). So since I’ve been paid for all jobs, I should have 100% UT they still are counting the 3 against me.
I did several today cause I was doing my running errands anyways and have a feeling several will be denied because they weren’t possible to do.
The last thing that I don’t like is a job will come up as ‘soon to be available’ and it’s shaded out but readable. It will have the time it’s going to be available but several times now it’s been there up until 5 minutes before its suppose to be available. They’ve been doing that all week with little Ceasars pizza and the last 2 weeks with Starbucks. But somehow my account says I completed and paid for a Starbucks job. Something is really Goofy with their software so if you’re going to try it, make sure to keep your own notes of where you went and what they were suppose to pay.
*and the thing about the alchol reimbursement differs by state. Read their faq before taking the job. Here in Calif. It’s only a 90% reimbursement and I don’t think they do tax or CRV (cash redemption for the can/bottle that has to do with recycling) which makes it reimbursement lower. So e states I don’t think reimburse at all but don’t remember for sure.
I saw that there were a lot of negative comments so I thought I should get on here and share my experience with field agent. I have been doing the app for 3 years and I have made over $7,000. I have done TONS of jobs and have only had 3 denied. Those were denied for mistakes on my part. I have had a few other jobs denied that was actually an incorrect denial in the system and after requesting a review they were reviewed and found to be acceptable so I got paid for them. For the most part I have no issues and my jobs get approved within a day or two. I am picky about what jobs I take-I won’t take jobs that they want too much work for what it will pay. If I’m unfamiliar with the job I will preview it after accepting it-even moving forward through the job without actually completing it to make sure I can/want to do the job before I even head to the location. If there’s a job that seems too hard or part of it not possible-I just cancel it. I will say attention to detail for these jobs is crucial as one little mistake will get your job denied. Keep that in mind if you try the app. Overall though I love the app and my favorite jobs are the scavenger hunts. Best pay for least amount of work if you know what you’re doing. Good luck!
They ask you to do the job, then they review it if they don’t approve it you don’t get paid. They give the most ridiculous excuses as to why, meanwhile they still submit your work and THEY still get paid for it.
Meanwhile your out time and money not to mention any gas you had to use getting to the store.
I did 5 jobs at one store. Pictures were all done the same way etc. they approved 2 and denied me 3 when I asked why they said the pictures shouldn’t have the floor in the picture.
Most recently when I cashed out my money there was $10 deducted when I asked why they said it was a bank error and they couldn’t reverse the charge
Needless to say I’ve given this company the so many chances it’s disgusting how they continue to take advantage of Canadians
Only worth it if you are going to the store anyway. This app normally pay measly $3-5 for almost 30-40 mins worth of work and no guarantee you will be paid.