You can’t reduce participant payments after a study has been published, but you can increase them.
If your study’s reward rate falls below either:
our minimum payment rate, or
the payment rate you originally set when launching the study
You’ll be prompted to make adjustment payments to participants. Learn more in How do I resolve underpaying studies?.
If the payment rate remains above both thresholds, you can still increase participant payments by sending bonus payments.
You can also explore our full guidance on participant payments in Paying participants.
How to adjust an underpaying study
For detailed instructions on adjusting underpaying studies, see How do I resolve underpaying studies? For a quick overview, see the steps below:
The option to make adjustment payments becomes available once:
At least one submission has been approved, or
At least 50% of study places have been filled
To update participant pay:
Go to your study submissions page
Click ’Adjust reward per hour’
Choose whether to adjust pay to:
The Prolific minimum reward rate, or
Your original estimated reward rate selected when publishing the study
Confirm the adjustment payment
You may need to top up your account before making adjustment payments, as these costs are not included in the original study pricing.
How to adjust study pay through bonus payments
For detailed instructions (including video tutorials) on paying bonuses, see How do I send bonus payments? For a quick overview, see the steps below:
Manual bonus payments
In your submissions list, select the participants you want to reward using the checkbox next to their ID
Click ’Bonus pay’ at the bottom of the list
Enter the bonus amount and select ’Review bonuses’
Check the payment details, then click ’Pay bonuses’ to confirm
Make sure only the intended participants are selected, as all selected participants will receive the bonus.
Bulk bonus payments
Download your study data using ’Download demographic data’
Create a list in the format:
<submission ID>,<amount>(one entry per line)In your study submissions page, open ’Bulk actions’ and then ‘Bulk bonus payment’
Paste your list and click ’Pay bonuses’
Bonus payments must use Submission IDs, not Participant IDs. Using Participant IDs will cause the payment to fail.
Bonus payments may take a moment to process. Do not retry unless you receive a failure message.