My Wild Ride with Yandex Toloka: From $22,028 in 4 Days to a Reality Check

I've been on the hunt for ways to supplement my income, especially with my fluctuating salary and the occasional sick leave. That's how I stumbled upon Yandex Toloka, a platform that lets you earn some extra cash by completing various tasks. It's a popular spot for people looking for online side hustles, and I'm no exception.

I've had some experience with other platforms, like irecommend, where I earn around $100 a month. Dzenn, on the other hand, brings in just a few bucks despite having 3.5k subscribers on my channel. And let's just say YouTube monetization has been a bust for me, so I'm left with a handful of platforms that still offer decent payouts.

I joined Toloka back in 2018, but I didn't stick around for long. I managed to earn $2.12 in a week, but the tasks were just too confusing and poorly paid. It was a real turn-off.

The work on Toloka is always some wild, unrealistic task. I was shocked by the sheer amount of profanity and explicit content I had to sift through, sort, watch, and listen to. It felt like I was wading through a dumpster.

There are tons of free tests to take, and you'll spend a decent amount of time on them, just trying to figure out the rules and conditions for each task. It's like trying to navigate a maze.

Things started looking up. The terms of working with marketplaces got a lot clearer. You need to determine the length of the item (by clicking on the product card on Wildberries), the type of filler in the jacket, the color of the shoes. The cards just keep going and going. You can pick up $5 at a time, yeah, it's tedious and you'll get frustrated, but one task block with ten transitions to the site only costs 1.5-2 rubles. To earn 100 rubles, you'll have to put in some serious effort! On the other hand, the longer you stay on Toloka, the more you start to appreciate the value of money. You understand just how hard it is to earn even these small amounts. But when you see your piggy bank growing, you manage to stay afloat. I'd recommend leaving your dollars in your wallet for as long as possible to avoid losing your mind when cashing out.The fun ends when you encounter those crazy commission fees. You're already barely scraping by, spending an hour to earn just $1, and then you lose a significant chunk of your earnings when you cash out.

Getting paid out is a real pain. You have to withdraw your earnings from Toloka to your QIWI account, but your balance is in dollars, so you need to convert it to rubles and pay another commission. I lost around 150-200 rubles of my earnings trying to withdraw them. And I'm not even sure if I'll have to pay taxes on my income, since I'm a freelancer. It's a joke! I earned three rubles, but I had to give up a whole ruble to the commission. It's like they're trying to cut me off.Long story short, I couldn't keep myself busy on Toloka for long.

The generous bonus on the site only lasted for four days. Then, the easy tasks disappeared, and I was left with nothing but new training modules and tasks with unfamiliar topics. Honestly, it's really frustrating to constantly learn new things. I wish they had some basic tasks available all the time. You get used to one thing, study the instructions, remember the details, and then they take it away from you. You're forced to read the rules again and learn new schemes. And if you make too many mistakes, some tasks become unavailable. So, you have to go through the training again. It's such a waste of time! At least, writing reviews would be more stable.

Toloka pays you peanuts! 0.50 rubles or a whole ruble for a standard task that involves watching a ton of videos, listening to audio, and clicking on suspicious links. I'm always scared to click on links, what if they have viruses? My laptop would cost more to fix than I'd earn on this spam. Some links don't even open on my smartphone.As for the interface, Toloka's profile is pretty easy to understand. Everything is in Russian, and there's a reward system that doesn't seem to make any difference. There's a mobile app, but it's not as convenient as using the website because you have to open new windows or search for something in the browser all the time.

Would I recommend Toloka? If you've already tried all the online earning options and you need some money that you can earn remotely, then maybe Toloka is worth a shot. But be prepared to put in some serious effort. There's no room for laziness here. And don't even think about trying to predict how much time you'll spend on this platform. Sometimes there are no tasks available when you're free, and other times there are plenty, but you'll need to rush off and do other things.I earned $22,028 in just 4 days, so I thought I'd give it a bit more time, but soon I dropped it when I realized that the good tasks were gone. I withdrew 1,900 rubles to my Sberbank card and even went shopping with that money once. It's a decent amount, to be fair. I'm not complaining. It's not like it's going to make you rich. But if you think about it, if I'd managed to keep that pace up, I'd have earned $150 per month = 13,500 rubles. But this is just a pipe dream, because THERE ARE NO TASKS. And even if you want to, you can't (let alone try) make a decent living on Toloka, which is roughly the average regional minimum wage.

The platform just isn't giving you a chance. You spend 20 minutes learning a new instruction, fill out some free practice cards that don't even pay you, and then you're offered a paid task - just one, worth 0.003 dollars. And that's it for that particular mission. You have to keep searching for a new one, where the condition is, once again, a free test. Sometimes the test is all you get.

I've come to realize that Toloka is more of a lottery than a reliable way to earn money. You might catch a wave and find some lucrative offers, but stability is key. And Toloka just hasn't become a platform you can rely on.

The tasks are often confusing and poorly paid. The platform is not stable, and tasks can disappear at any time. The commission fees are high, and you'll lose a significant chunk of your earnings when you cash out. The interface is not user-friendly, and the reward system doesn't seem to make any difference. The mobile app is not convenient, and you'll need to open new windows or search for something in the browser all the time.

Overall, I would not recommend Toloka as a reliable way to earn money. While it may seem like a good option at first, the reality is that it's a platform that's more of a lottery than a stable source of income. If you're looking for a way to earn money online, I would suggest exploring other options that offer more stability and better pay.

Rating: 2/5 stars