Anyone with a smartphone and connection to the internet has the ability to work at home — or from a library, coffee shop, car, or anywhere else they can get online.
Are you coming up short on bills every month and looking for a part-time hustle you can do from just about anywhere with your mobile phone?
Then read on for some of the best jobs you do from your cell phone.
11+ Best Jobs You Can Do From Your Phone
Here are the top jobs you can do from your phone.
- Complete Online Surveys
- Play Games
- Deliver Fast Food with DoorDash
- Deliver Groceries with Instacart
- Drive for Uber
- Complete Online Reviews
- Test Apps
- Pet Sit or Dog Walk
- Rent out Your Parking Spot
- Rent Out Your Storage Space
- Start a Podcast
- TikTok Creator
- YouTuber
1. Complete Online Surveys
Taking paid surveys is a side hustle you can do directly from your phone. It’s a fun way to get paid for your opinions. I myself have earned a couple of thousand dollars from cash surveys through a few different popular survey apps.
Brands and market research firms need consumer feedback, so they partner with survey apps. These apps have millions of members who are willing to share their honest feedback in exchange for cash and gift card rewards.
Most online surveys will pay $0.25 to $5. While you can’t make a full-time living from surveys — or even regular part-time wages — you could reasonably earn an extra $1,500 to $2,000 a year for doing online surveys from your phone. To reach this figure, you would need to put in consistent daily effort — earning at least $3 to $5 a day.
Some of the best paid survey apps to check out include:
2. Play Games
There are a number of apps and gaming platforms that will pay you for playing games on your phone. While you can’t earn a full-time living from mobile games, you can earn an extra $20 to $100 a month for this pursuit.
Considering you probably already play games on your phone anyway, why not earn an extra $240 to $1,200 a year for it?
There are a few ways to earn cash and gift cards for playing games on your phone.
- Sign up to play popular games of chance that pay cash, like Blackout Bingo, 21 Blitz, Pool Payday, or Solitaire Cube. You will need to wager cash, but you can wager less than $1 for games with smaller prizes. You can install a cash game directly to your phone from the app store.
- Play different games on gaming platforms like Mistplay, Gamehag, or Money Well. You’ll get paid for the total number of minutes played or for completing specific in-app actions within the game. These game platforms feature hundreds of titles, including many in the top 10 of app store game charts.
- Join a rewards app that features games among its different online earning activities. Apps like KashKick, Upromise, and MyPoints will pay you for installing and playing featured games from a variety of genres like casino, action, role-play, card, or word games.
For most of these game apps, you will receive payment via PayPal. Amazon gift cards, Venmo, Cash App, or prepaid credit cards may also be offered.
3. Deliver Fast Food with DoorDash
Delivering food for DoorDash is another outstanding way to make money using your phone. If you’d prefer chauffeuring food — not people — around town, then this is the gig for you. Wages can vary greatly based on when you work (lunch and dinner rush are busiest) and the market you live in.
There is also the opportunity to earn extra cash for peak pay or other bonuses and for referring friends.
Here are some of the basic requirements to drive for DoorDash.
- Age: Must be 18 years old to deliver.
- Eligible vehicle: No specific requirements — can be any car make or model.
- Valid insurance and driver’s license: The vehicle must be covered by auto insurance, with your name listed on the policy as the owner or a covered driver. The policy must adhere to all local and state laws.
4. Deliver Groceries with Instacart
Picking up and dropping off a load of groceries for your neighbor is a steady way to earn extra cash.
For Instacart drivers, the orders are all ready to go. But Instacart does have in-store shoppers — separate from drivers — who pick and assemble orders for drivers to deliver.
The total order size, the distance you will need to drive, and other factors can impact your potential earnings per delivery. The market or location where you live is generally the biggest driver.
To drive for either service, you must be at least 18 years old, have a reliable vehicle and valid driver’s license, and have auto insurance.
5. Drive for Uber
Driving for a rideshare service like Uber is a flexible side hustle that enables you to earn cash using a rideshare driver app and your vehicle.
Potential earnings are greatly tied to specific markets. Drivers in large, busy cities tend to see the highest wages.
Here are some of the basic requirements to drive for Uber.
- Age: Must be 21 years or older to drive for either service.
- Eligible vehicle: Requirements can vary based on state or city. Generally, you must have a 4-door vehicle that is 15 years old or newer. A vehicle must also pass inspection, a service the rideshare company pays for. There are inspection locations for both apps throughout the U.S.
- Additional inspection requirements: In New York, your vehicle must pass a DMV inspection every four months and you are responsible for these appointments.
- Valid insurance and driver’s license: The vehicle must be covered by valid auto insurance, with your name listed as the policyholder or as a covered driver on the policy. The policy must meet all minimum state and local auto insurance requirements.
6. Complete Online Reviews
If you love music, TV, or fashion, Slicethepie could be a great way to make some extra money from your phone. This review site will pay you cash for offering your uncensored opinions on new artists, new styles, and upcoming TV shows.
The earnings are quite low — less than $1 per review or task. But if you already love discovering the latest trends, why not earn a little bit of cash while you’re at it?
It’s pretty straightforward. You’ll be shown a sample to view or listen to and then asked to rate it on a scale of 1-10 and then leave detailed comments. It will take you about 90 seconds to listen to or watch a clip, and your feedback must be 60 words or longer.
You can’t earn more than $1 to $2 an hour. But if you love being first in the know, this could be a great phone hustle for you.
You can cash out your earnings via PayPal once you reach at least $10.
7. Test Apps
You can get paid to test apps from your mobile device. As an app tester, you get to try new apps and answer a series of questions about how the app performs and how easy it is for you to find and perform specific functions within the app.
You’ll work with app developers and product managers to ensure the app you test is functional, user-friendly, and free of bugs.
You can also leave additional feedback about the graphic design or app aesthetics, menu layout, and overall enjoyability of the app experience.
Here are some user testing programs to consider:
- UserTesting: Earn $4 to $120 per test. Cash out via PayPal.
- Userlytics: Earn $5 to $90 per test. Cash out via PayPal.
- TryMyUI: Each test is 20 minutes long and pays $10. TryMyUI pays out via PayPal every Friday.
8. Pet Sit or Dog Walk
Walking dogs on Rover or Wag can be a great way to hustle in extra cash. There’s no laptop or office set-up needed for this gig; just a smartphone, an internet connection, and a love for dogs.
With Rover, it’s not just a phone-friendly gig. A phone is a must. You have to have the Rover app on while you’re working so it can track your movement via GPS, thus ensuring you actually stopped by the client’s house to let out the dog and that you took them for a walk.
Rover has dog sitters and walkers available in over 3,000 cities. Wag has a smaller footprint and is available in over 40 cities throughout the U.S.
9. Rent out Your Parking Spot
If you’ve got extra car room that you’re not using — in front of your house or in your driveway — why not rent it out and cash in on it?
There are a number of apps that allow you to list your garage stall or assigned parking spot for rent. Popular options include Spacer, CurbFlip, SpotHero, or Neighbor. These programs will charge a commission for each booking.
While you could list a parking spot yourself (i.e., Facebook Marketplace) and directly collect any payment, there are benefits to using a reputable app. The parking app will have a broad audience of people looking for parking that you can tap into, and it will handle processing payments and any liability issues.
You can list your parking spot by the day, for a one-time event (i.e. State Fair parking), by the month, or for indefinite storage.
Depending on the type of spot you have available — driveway, garage, or curbside — you could earn $25 to $300 a month. Even at $25 a month, that’s still an extra $300 a year in your pocket for a parking spot that you weren’t already using.
10. Rent Out Your Storage Space
Similar to renting out a spare bedroom or parking space, you can earn cash for renting out extra storage space in your home.
Whether it’s a crawl space under the stairs, an unused hallway closet, or an empty garage stall, you can monetize that extra square footage by renting it out to neighbors and other community members who need a space to stash their stuff.
You can list your available space on storage apps like Neighbor, SpareFoot, or StoreAtMyHouse. These apps will take a commission for any bookings, but they will also make the process go a lot smoother. They’ll connect you with people who need storage, recommend pricing, handle contracts, and deal with other logistics.
Depending on what you’re storing, the terms (length), and the kind of storage space you have available, you could make an extra $300 to $10,000 a year. And according to Neighbor — the app that bills itself as the Airbnb of storage — you could even make a whopping $15,000 a year or more.
11. Start a Podcast
Podcasts have exploded in popularity and are a great way to make money from your phone. This particular side hustle has the potential to become a full-time work-from-home job.
While fancy microphones and sound equipment can improve the audio experience, to get started you just need a smartphone and the ability to tap the voice record button. Good communication skills — to discuss a variety of perspectives — are a must.
As for topics, you can start a podcast related to just about anything. Murder mystery, lifestyle, fitness, mental health, wellness, current events, sports, and parenting are some popular genres.
You can upload your podcast episodes to Android and Apple podcast libraries. Make sure to make your content accessible for both device types.
With a podcast, there are a number of ways to monetize the content and your following:
- Sponsorships: Find brands and businesses who are interested in being featured on your show.
- Advertising or affiliate marketing: Make money by advertising or recommending products in your podcast.
- Patreon: This platform allows creators to charge their listeners or followers for access to exclusive content or other special benefits.
- Merchandise: Sell branded merchandise that’s related to your podcast, like t-shirts, stickers, mugs, or trucker hats.
- Speaking engagements: Many successful podcasters are invited to speak at various events or conferences.
12. TikTok Creator
Many businesses and digital marketers are intimidated by TikTok and Snapchat. Apart from static images and text updates on social media, they don’t really know how to do social. They will gladly pay content-savvy creators to make clips, reels, product photography, and other posts for them.
As a content creator for other brands, you don’t need to have a huge following. In fact, your following size probably doesn’t matter at all. You just need to be able to create engaging social posts.
13. YouTuber
Using your phone, you can build and monetize a YouTube channel. You can make videos and reels on just about any topic.
Here are some popular ideas:
- How-to videos
- Product reviews
- Unboxing videos
- Gaming videos
- Educational videos
- Comedy videos
- Vlogs
There are many ways to monetize your YouTube channel. The most common way is to join the YouTube Partner Program. To quality, you need at least 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 public watch hours in the past 12 months. Or 1,000 subscribers with at least 10 million valid Shorts views in the past 90 days.
As a program member, you can earn money from ads that you run in your videos. How much you earn will depend on how many views you get, how many ads you run, and the type of ads you enable. You can also earn money by displaying ads on your YouTube page.
As with becoming an influencer or blogger, it will take time to build a successful YouTube channel. But it is doable through steady effort. Cross-promoting your channel — through connecting with other YouTube creators and sharing your videos on social media — can help.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some common FAQs about remote work and smartphone jobs.
How can I go about finding jobs you can do from your phone?
Here are some tips to help you find the best jobs you can do from your phone.
- Use mobile job apps like Steady or JobGet.
- Update your resume. Some jobs, not all, will require a resume. Update it once and then you’ll be all set. This way you won’t get frustrated when you’re half-way through an application and you’re asked for your resume.
- Look for work that aligns with your interests. If you hate social media, steer clear from social media influencer work.
- Play up to your strengths. If you have a naturally outgoing personality, look for phone-app jobs that have an in-person component too — like the chance to interact with people when you drop off an order.
What other work can I do from my phone?
Beyond these app-based jobs, there are a number of other jobs that you can do remotely.
- Tech support
- Online tutoring
- Customer support
- Call center jobs
- Data entry jobs
- Proofreading and editing
- Social media manager or assistant
- Virtual Assistant
- Healthcare transcriptionist work
- English language teacher
- Photographer
- Paid surveys (to earn an extra cash, not full-time income)
In general, any work that’s cloud-based — work that you can access through websites and online programs — can be done as a remote job from your phone.
How can I work from my phone without a keyboard and a large monitor?
For less than $20, you can buy a portable, foldable keyboard that you can pair with your phone. For this same affordable price, you can also buy a portable display monitor that you can connect to your phone.
This can make your phone function just like a PC or laptop workstation where you even have two screens. And it’s a lot more portable. Even though I have a laptop, I often prefer just grabbing my phone and keyboard because they are much smaller and lighter. It’s way easier to camp out in a coffee shop this way.
Can I make a living from my phone?
Yes! We’ve covered a number of different work-from-phone jobs that you can complete, as well as more casual side gigs to earn a bit of extra cash.
And as discussed in our last section, for less than $40 you can transform your smartphone into a laptop-style workstation with a portable monitor and lightweight keyboard.
Bottom Line
If you want a side gig you can do on your phone to boost your regular income, or you want to find your next career, there are endless ways to make money from your phone.
We’ve shared with you a range of different options for you to consider, and insider tips on wages, work resources, and job boards.
Whether your next phone gig pays $3 an hour or $30 an hour, it’s a start. And any start is a good one.
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