That $5 task might not pay $20 an hour.
A task that pays $5 and takes fifteen minutes looks like $20 an hour. But that's only true if every task pays, there's no waiting or checking, and work is available continuously.
Start with the obvious calculation
Divide the payment by time in hours. A $5 task completed in 15 minutes is a nominal rate of $20 per hour: $5 ÷ (15/60).
Now include the time you don't see in the advertised price: opening instructions, checking examples, quality review, correcting a rejected submission and transferring the payment.
Worked example: the difference is real
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Payment per accepted task | $5 |
| Completion time | 15 minutes |
| Average unpaid overhead | 5 minutes |
| Tasks accepted and paid | 80% |
| Fees | 5% |
Expected payment per attempt is $5 × 0.80 × 0.95 = $3.80. Each attempt consumes twenty minutes, so the modeled hourly rate is $11.40, not $20.
That's not a prediction of any particular platform. It's a way to test how different assumptions change your result. If a platform pays for rejected tasks or pays hourly for review time, use the method that matches its real contract.
Run the numbers for your task
Change the pay, completion time, approval percentage, fees and daily cap instantly.
Open the free calculator →Five details worth measuring
- Completion time. Track a batch, not just your fastest task.
- Unpaid overhead. Count reading, pauses due to instruction changes, checking and rework.
- Paid acceptance rate. Check whether rejected, revised or audited tasks are paid under your specific contract.
- Fees. Include platform, payout and currency-conversion costs if known.
- Availability. An effective rate tells you the value of time while working; it cannot promise a full day of tasks.
Don't confuse potential income with actual earnings
If you calculate $12 per hour but only receive 90 minutes of work today, your gross earning opportunity is about $18, not an eight-hour payday. Task limits and dry spells matter. Track completed, approved and paid amounts separately when possible.
For comparison with a standard hourly contract, see task pay versus hourly pay.
Disclosure: This guide provides arithmetic and general work-planning information. It is not affiliated with any AI-task platform, and the examples are hypothetical.