User Interviews

User Interviews is a research recruitment platform that operates at significant scale. The company was founded by three entrepreneurs and has grown to 139 employees spread across 33 states. In late 2024, UserTesting acquired User Interviews to combine two research platforms into a unified customer insights offering. As a standalone recruitment platform, User Interviews focuses on matching researchers with study participants across a variety of research methodologies and participant backgrounds.

The platform maintains a participant pool of over 6 million people and has facilitated 188,000 studies to date. This scale suggests steady study availability for active participants, though as with all panels, your personal invitation rate depends on how well your profile matches researcher needs at any given moment. User Interviews emphasizes that it recruits participants of many types, from everyday consumers to professionals in specific industries and roles, so the platform can support both consumer research and specialized B2B studies.

The types of research available span standard methodologies. One-on-one moderated interviews are a primary offering, where you speak with a researcher in a scheduled video or phone conversation and answer questions about your experience with a product, service, brand, or topic. Usability testing sessions involve you working through a website, app, or prototype while your actions and reactions are captured. Focus groups bring multiple participants together for a facilitated group discussion, usually on a specific product or concept. Diary studies ask you to submit updates and reflections over multiple days, typically tracking your experience with a product or service in real-world conditions. Unmoderated tests let you complete tasks and provide feedback on your own schedule, recording your screen and voice as you move through the assessment. Surveys are also offered, though they typically pay less than moderated research. The platform also runs studies for AI training, where you might evaluate the output of language models or help label data for machine learning applications.

The schedule for User Interviews' recruitment is designed around speed. The platform reports a first match within one hour and can move quickly from initial invitation to active participation. This quick turnaround is helpful if you are looking for work that comes rapidly rather than studies that require planning weeks in advance. The platform automates much of the scheduling and consent process, reducing the manual back-and-forth that can slow down recruitment at other panels.

User Interviews does not publish specific participant compensation rates on its public-facing website. Researchers set compensation amounts independently and can adjust them based on study complexity, participant requirements, and how quickly they want to fill the study. This means pay can vary widely across different studies on the platform. A researcher running a short survey might pay a small amount, while a 60-minute professional interview might pay significantly more, though exact ranges are not disclosed by the platform itself. User Interviews offers an Incentive Calculator tool for researchers to help them set appropriate pay rates, but individual participant earnings are determined by researchers, not by standardized rates published by the platform itself.

This variability in compensation is both an advantage and a limitation. The advantage is that specialized participants and high-value research can be rewarded accordingly. A researcher running a paid study that requires specific professional expertise can offer more to attract those participants. The limitation is that you cannot easily compare pay rates across studies in advance or plan your earnings with confidence. You will see compensation details only after being invited to a specific study and reviewing that invitation.

Researchers use User Interviews through a subscription or pay-as-you-go pricing model. Individual study pricing for researchers is $49 per consumer session or $98 per B2B participant session on a pay-as-you-go basis. Subscription plans reduce the per-session cost for researchers who plan to run many studies. This researcher pricing is separate from participant compensation, which researchers fund independently. The fact that researchers pay for both the platform and participant incentives suggests that participant pay tends to be reasonable on average, as researchers have a vested interest in attracting serious, reliable participants.

The platform provides tools for managing participant engagement. An Incentive Calculator helps researchers determine appropriate pay. Built-in screeners allow researchers to ask qualifying questions before adding you to a study pool. A re-contact feature lets researchers bring back participants for follow-up studies, which can be useful if you have demonstrated reliability and engagement on prior studies. Automated scheduling and consent management reduce friction, so once you match with a study, the process moves forward quickly.

User Interviews emphasizes that it has taken security and compliance seriously. The platform has AI-powered matching and fraud detection systems running to reduce no-shows and low-quality responses. Participants report a 98 percent positive session feedback rating, suggesting that most studies go well and most researchers are professional and clear about their expectations. The platform has raised $44 million in funding, which indicates financial stability and backing for continued development.

One advantage of User Interviews' integration into UserTesting is access to a larger ecosystem. UserTesting operates as an enterprise insights platform with additional capabilities beyond recruitment, so researchers using both tools may prioritize studies on User Interviews to keep their workflow in one place. This could mean more consistent study volume for participants who are a good fit.

The platform integrates with 22 plus third-party research and analytics tools, ranging from usability testing software to survey platforms to data analysis applications. If you are participating through a study that uses an integrated tool, the technical setup is usually smoother than having to learn a new platform for each study. This integration-first approach reduces the friction for both researchers and participants.

The fact that User Interviews is now part of UserTesting positions it within a larger research infrastructure company. UserTesting Inc. is a publicly traded company with a substantial market presence and customer base. This gives User Interviews stability and the resources to continue investing in the platform's capabilities. Researchers at large companies often already work with UserTesting for some research needs, which can translate to more regular studies flowing through User Interviews for qualified participants.

User Interviews is most suitable for participants who want regular research opportunities and do not need to know pay rates in advance. The large participant pool of 6 million suggests plenty of activity, and the platform's automation and speed mean you might receive invitations and complete studies quickly. The variety of research types means you have options between quick surveys and longer interviews. The lack of published pay rates requires you to accept each opportunity based on the description rather than comparing pay against other studies up front.

For anyone comfortable with variable compensation and looking for a platform backed by an established research company, User Interviews offers a clear path to steady research participation. The ecosystem connection to UserTesting, the 6-million-participant scale, and the speed of matching suggest that active participants will see reasonable study flow. Participant earnings are ultimately set by individual researchers, not by the platform, so your income depends on the mix of studies available and your willingness to engage across a range of compensation levels and study types. The 98 percent positive feedback rating indicates most participants find the experience worthwhile, even without knowing the exact pay in advance.