The time it takes for places to start filling in a study can vary, as this is influenced by multiple factors. For example, the time of day and number of eligible participants can affect how quickly study places are filled. You can see information about when our participants are most active here: When are Prolific participants most active?
Most studies start recruiting participants very quickly. We cannot guarantee an exact timeframe for this, but if you have any concerns or your study has not started recruiting participants after an hour, please feel free to get in touch.
Recruitment time calculator
The recruitment time calculator estimates how long it will take to recruit participants for your study based on your study setup and target audience.
How it works
The calculator becomes available once you:
Enter the number of participants you want to recruit
Add the screeners you want to use to target relevant participants
The calculator then estimates how long it will take to recruit the requested number of participants from Prolific's participant pool.
When it's not available
The recruitment time calculator will not work if your study uses:
A participant group
An allowlist
This is because recruitment speed for pre-defined participant lists can't be reliably estimated.
The estimate is indicative, not a guarantee. Actual recruitment time may vary based on participant availability and demand.
Adjusting your screeners or participant count will update the estimate.
Please note that studies published at the same time as one another may recruit participants at different rates. Also, even if a study is a duplicate of another, it will not necessarily recruit participants within the same timeframe as the previous version.
At the moment we are unable to support time-sensitive studies and these would be run at the researchers' own risk.