Pinecone Research Reviews and Features

Pinecone Research website screenshot

Pinecone Research

85 Broad Street, New York, New York  10004 US
Tel: 800.864.1224   Contact: https://members.pineconeresearch.com/#/ContactUs
Operated by: The Nielsen Company, LLC

KEY FEATURES:

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PAYMENTS OFFERED

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HOW TO PARTICIPATE

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REDEEMING REWARDS

Typically, rewards are delivered within a few business days or sometimes even immediately after completing a survey. Your first 100 points will equate to $1, which will be sent to your home address.

Pinecone Research is a trusted leader in the survey panel industry. They are owned and operated by the market research company Nielsen, whose operations are headquartered in New York.

Pinecone Research focuses on improving the quality of tomorrow’s products through collecting research via paid surveys and product testing opportunities offered to consumers.

How Pinecone Research Works

pinecone research website

Pinecone Research Sign Up

Pinecone Research is an invitation-only survey panel, where members can earn rewards for participating in online surveys and product tests. Potential new members must be invited by other members to join, or they must find a join link posted on a website. SurveyPolice currently offers Pinecone Research signup links for Americans, Canadians, and people living in the UK: » Join Pinecone Research here.

To learn more about how to sign up for Pinecone Research, including tips on joining and why there are membership restrictions in place to begin with, check out our article on how to find an invitation to join Pinecone Research, as it should help answer any questions you may have about the process.

Payment and Rewards

pinecone research rewards

Reward Types and Amounts

For each survey successfully completed, Pinecone Research awards its members a minimum of 100 points, which equals $1.00 in your local currency. For example, Americans will earn $1.00 USD per survey, Canadians typically earn $1.00 CAD per survey, while Britons earn £1 per survey completion. There are a variety of rewards options that accumulated points can be exchanged for. These include:

    • Amazon e-Cards - You can choose to receive an Amazon gift card with your collected points. The e-card will be sent directly to your email account.
    • Other Gift Cards - Pinecone Research offers a variety of gift card options including Starbucks, Apple Store, Walmart gift cards, as well as many others. Gift cards may be digital or in physical format and are listed under these categories.
    • Merchandise - Pinecone Research offers an extensive merchandise catalog consisting of various small electronics, household items and more. Merchandise rewards will be mailed directly to your home.
    • Prepaid Virtual Visas – prepaid Visa cards are available for redemption, however, they may only available to US residents.
    Points Value: 100 Pinecone Research points = $1.00.

    Redeeming Rewards

    To redeem your rewards, simply visit the Pinecone Research website and log in to your account. From there, click the "Redeem" button to access the reward site. Under the SHOP tab next to HOME tab, select the reward items you wish to redeem and once you click on an item you are interested in, click the shopping cart icon to add the item to your cart. Click the shopping cart icon on the right side of the page to complete your order.

    Note that PayPal is no longer offered as a rewards option and was replaced by bank transfers.

    Earn your First Check/Bank Transfer Automatically

    Once you complete your first survey, which is always worth a minimum of 100 points, Pinecone Research will automatically send you a check for $1.00 to the mailing address on your profile, or will ask you to cash out via bank transfer. This is a security measure to establish your profile and account. After your first check/bank transfer (or 30 days of being an active Pinecone member, whichever comes first), you will have the option to choose the form in which you would like to receive your future rewards.

    Visit Pinecone Research's website 

    Survey Taking Experience

    Survey Types

    Interesting online surveys are e-mailed to members, and are on a variety of different topics. As a Pinecone Research member, you are part of an elite group that represents consumers and households like yours nationwide. Your opinion is important to manufacturers who count on people like you to help predict which products will be developed and which may not be suited for launch. Paid surveys opportunities usually take about 15 to 20 minutes of your time to complete and you will be notified by e-mail when one becomes available.

    Product Testing Opportunities

    Occasionally, Pinecone may mail out products for their members to test from home. These may be physical products, or food items that may come delivered in a cooler. A follow-up survey is usually provided as part of the product test. These opportunities are highly sought after, as you may receive free food (or a product that you might be able to keep), as well as a paid follow up survey!

    Visit Pinecone Research's website 

    Community Features

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    Pinecone Research App

    If you prefer to take surveys on the go, you can download the Pinecone Research app onto your iOS or Android mobile device. The app will allow you to view available surveys, take online surveys, view and redeem your points, view your account history and more. Just remember to first join the Pinecone Research panel itself before attempting to take surveys through the app!

    Quick Customer Service

    If you have a question on anything Pinecone Research-related, do not hesitate to send in an inquiry through the website. The response time is usually 1-3 business days, or even quicker depending on the workload of employees during the time of your question.

    Is Pinecone Research Legit or Scam?

    pinecone research legit or scam

    Is Pinecone Research Legit?

    Pinecone Research is legitimate and is not a scam. This survey program is over fifteen years old and has paid out millions of dollars in rewards to its members. Pinecone offers quality paid surveys and product tests to its members and is known for offering fair rewards. Operated by Nielsen, a market research leader, Pinecone Research is not a scam and is a completely legitimate website.

    Eligibility: Available in select countries including USA, UK, Canada, Pinecone Research is an invitation-only panel.


    Please note that PInecone Research has been targeted by a cashier's check scam. If you receive a large, unexpected check seemingly from Pinecone, DO NOT attempt to cash it!

Pinecone Research Reviews (721)

5 Star Reviews (383) 53.1
53.1
4 Star Reviews (94) 13.0
13.0
3 Star Reviews (53) 7.4
7.4
2 Star Reviews (44) 6.1
6.1
1 Star Reviews (147) 20.4
20.4

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too many rejections

December 1, 2025 by Vlad from United States

I got survey invitation on May 08, but webpage does not work. "This site can’t be reached" screen. No way to contact them. Karen Scott email had responded "It looks like you’ve tried to contact us through direct email. Please note that this is an unmonitored Inbox. The best way to contact us is to go to our website https://members.pineconeresearch.com/#/ContactUs".
It's a catch 22.

Update: as of today, June 08, 2023 the website is restored. They plan to add Pay Pal. So, my star rating go up.

Update March 29, 2024: They had error for the survey but compensated me. My rating goes up.
Site make changes which offers more surveys, but majority of them indicate that i am not qualified.

Sad cause they used to be the best

November 25, 2025 by Kimberly from United States

I have been a member of Pinecone Research since 2011. I always promoted it as the one place that you didn't have to worry about filling out half the survey and not getting paid. You got $3 every single time.
Once they changed the site, I knew there would be issues. I have hardly participated since, because I kept getting kicked out of surveys like all the other sites do.
The last two I did, I fully completed, and it thanked me for completing, and then a separate page comes up stating that they have closed the survey as they have received all the data they need! Grrrrrrrrrrrr! WASTE OF TIME!
I have 700 points that will just go to waste, because I can't complete any to get to the 1000 points limit now. So infuriating. I can't believe Karen let it go to this. She must have been bought out or something.
STAY FAR FAR AWAY!
Prolific is the only one that I know of for now, that actually lets you complete and always get paid. Been using them since September 2018, and so far, they are still great. So give them a try if you are looking to get paid for EVERY single survey you do. College researchers mostly do the surveys, similar to MTURK, but way better, as there are no scams.

Big problem

October 27, 2025 by Mitchell from United States

Last review on this site i won't be back to it and i do hope there are happy. I have reached out to them for help on cashing out as i could not find out why it won't let me but it's not worth it to keep this going anymore so watch out when working with this site i read reviews saying things about this site that didn't look to be true but now i can see they were. All i can say is this site doesn't give any help when you have problems. I lost a lot of money with them. If you try this site good luck.

Ripoff

October 13, 2025 by William from United States

I just spent 15 minutes doing a survey that asked all kinds of preference questions and which-would-you-buy questions and questions about what I own and what I do, going on for pages and pages and....just when I expected to find the survey was done and I was paid they said sorry you do not qualify for the survey! What? I just TOOK a whole damned survey, you lying cheaters! This is an outright act of cheating and absolutely outrageous. I immediately unsubscribed, and I hope everybody on their mailing list eventually does the same. Pinecome has been taken over by bald face cheaters! Stay far away.

new Pinecone website

October 13, 2025 by Kathryn from United States

Agree with everyone's complaints about the new Pinecone website. Don't waste your time, they will have you complete full surveys then after the last question when you are expecting to be returned to the website for crediting, you receive no credit and their message, we are sorry your profile is not a fit! it takes them 25 minutes and a fully complete survey to decide this! Wish I could give them negative stars!