Prolific Platform Help
Prolific (prolific.com) is a developer-native online research-participant panel — it recruits,
screens, and pays vetted participants from a 13M+ global pool (130+ countries) for surveys,
online tasks, and AI human-data collection at scale. Participants pass ID + live-video +
government-document verification and Prolific runs active bot / AI-answer detection + a manual
data-quality team, hence its research-grade data integrity reputation.
It's the bring-your-own-instrument panel: you host the survey/task in your own tool (Qualtrics,
Google Forms, a custom app, a prototype) and Prolific supplies the humans. Unlike the recruit-only
interview marketplace Respondent (/sales-respondent), Prolific's edge is a self-serve public REST
API with an instant Token key — plus HMAC-signed webhooks, an MCP server, and an open-source CLI —
so recruitment can sit in a real pipeline. It's also the recruitment backbone usability tools plug into
(e.g. Useberry recruits via Prolific).
Two things to say almost every time:
- Real people answering ≠ demand. A large, vetted sample is strong signal for problem/behavior
research — but "I'd pay" is still not a purchase; keep the why and take a go/no-go to a real behavior test (
/sales-idea-validation, /sales-funnel).
- The sticker reward is not the cost. A platform fee rides on top (best-effort 42.8% corporate / 33.3% academic) — budget reward + fee and run the cost calculator first (prolific.com/pricing).
Step 1 — Gather context
If references/learnings.md exists, read it first for accumulated platform knowledge.
Ask only what you can't infer:
- What do you need?
- A) Recruit / target — filters, screeners, representative samples, eligible-count checks, quotas
- B) Study lifecycle — create → cost → publish → monitor → review/approve submissions
- C) Pay / bonuses — approve, reject, pay bonuses, understand the platform fee + minimum pay
- D) Automate / integrate — the REST API, webhooks, the MCP server, or the CLI in a pipeline
- E) AI human data — annotation/eval Batches or original-data Collections via the AI Task Builder
- Where does the task live? (Prolific supplies participants; your survey/task/app is external.)
Skip-ahead: if the user wants to compare research/recruit tools across the market or the
validate-before-building method, that's /sales-idea-validation — route in Step 2.
Step 2 — Route or answer directly
| If the user's question is about… | Route to |
|---|
| Comparing research/recruitment/idea tools across the market, or the validate-before-building method | /sales-idea-validation {question} |
| The data-quality-first peer panel — Sentry screening + a support-provisioned API (no self-serve token/webhooks) | /sales-cloudresearch {question} |
| Recruiting B2B / hard-to-reach professionals for moderated interviews (a recruit-only marketplace) | /sales-respondent {question} |
| An all-in-one recruit + run + repository research suite | /sales-great-question {question} |
| Running a usability / IA test (card sort, tree test, prototype tasks) on a built artifact | /sales-uxtweak or /sales-lyssna {question} |
| Running a real behavior demand test (smoke-test page, waitlist, pre-sale) after research | /sales-idea-validation or /sales-funnel {question} |
When routing, give the exact command: "This is a {domain} question — run: /sales-idea-validation {original question}"
Otherwise, answer Prolific-specific questions using Step 3.
Step 3 — Prolific reference
Read references/platform-guide.md for the full reference — the capability/automation-surface table
(API vs webhook vs MCP vs UI), pricing/plan gates + the fee and minimum-pay math, the Study → Submission
→ Participant data model, filters/representative samples, the AI Task Builder (Batches vs Collections),
integrations, and quick-start recipes. Read references/prolific-api-reference.md for the verbatim
API surface (Token auth, base URL, study & submission objects, filters, webhooks + HMAC verification,
cost calculator, CLI, MCP). Answer using only the relevant section — don't dump the full reference.
Step 4 — Actionable guidance
- Say the caveat: a vetted sample is not demand. Prolific gets real, verified people to answer (a
strong signal — genuine behavior/language) but a stated "I'd pay" is not observed demand. Keep the
why; take the go/no-go to a real behavior test (pre-sale, smoke test) →
/sales-idea-validation.
- Budget reward + platform fee, and use the cost calculator. Total ≈ reward + platform fee
(best-effort 42.8% corporate / 33.3% academic), and Prolific enforces a minimum pay rate
(best-effort £6/$8/hr, recommended £9/$12/hr — higher for specialized AI/coding/STEM work).
Call
POST /api/v1/study-cost-calculator/ with reward + total_available_places to get the
VAT-and-fee-inclusive total before publishing. Present all figures as best-effort — confirm at
prolific.com/pricing.
- Fix "participants don't fit the brief" with filter/screener design, not the panel. Prolific is
ID/video-verified, so off-brief responses are a targeting/screener issue: apply prescreening
filters (
GET /api/v1/filters/, then a select/range payload), check the eligible count before
launch, add custom-screening questions with attention checks, and use quotas to balance the
sample. Report genuinely bad submissions for data-quality review.
- Guard against AI-generated open-ended answers. The top data-quality threat now is humans pasting
ChatGPT into free-text. Mitigate with behavior-specific prompts, timing/attention checks, and
copy-paste detection in your own instrument — then reject or request a return on failing
submissions, and reserve bonuses for quality.
- Run the API pipeline — create → publish → approve — self-serve and instant. Create a Researcher
token in account settings (no expiry, full permission) and send
Authorization: Token <token> to
api.prolific.com/api/v1. Flow: POST /studies/ (external_study_url with {{%PROLIFIC_PID%}},
reward in cents, filters, completion codes) → publish via POST /studies/{id}/transition/. A
submission pays — gate on your quality check, then auto-approve valid completions
(a completion-code auto-approve action, or APPROVE / bulk-approve).
Use (, , …) and ( over , base64, constant-time)
before trusting the body; add a ()
so a missed event never leaves a submission unpaid.
If you discover a gotcha or tip not in references/learnings.md, append it there with today's date.
Gotchas
Best-effort from research (2026-07) — pricing (platform fee 42.8% corporate / 33.3% academic, min pay
~£6/$8/hr, rec. £9/$12/hr), panel size ("13M+"), and API/webhook specifics all move; verify at
prolific.com/pricing and docs.prolific.com.
- The reward is not the total. A platform fee sits on top (best-effort 42.8% corporate / 33.3%
academic) and a minimum pay floor is enforced (best-effort £6/$8/hr, rec. £9/$12/hr — low pay also
drags quality). Run the cost calculator before publishing so the fee + VAT don't surprise you.
- A Researcher API token has no expiry and full permission. Treat it like a password — never expose
it client-side, scope it to a workspace, and rotate if leaked.
- Verify the webhook signature, and don't rely on delivery alone. HMAC-SHA256 over
timestamp + body, base64, constant-time compare against X-Prolific-Request-Signature. Also
reconcile with a status poll — treat webhooks as best-effort and payments/approvals as the source
of truth.
- A vetted sample ≠ demand. 1,000 verified people answering "I'd buy this" is stated preference at
scale, not a purchase — take the WTP go/no-go to a real behavior test.
- AI-generated free-text is the new data-quality threat. ID/video verification stops bots, not a
human pasting ChatGPT — add attention/timing checks and copy-paste detection in your own instrument.
- "Participants don't fit the brief" is a filter/screener problem, not a bad panel. Prescreen with
filters, check the eligible count before launch, add screening questions + attention checks, quotas.
- Prolific supplies people, not the survey. You host the task (Qualtrics/Forms/your app), pass
{{%PROLIFIC_PID%}}/{{%STUDY_ID%}}/{{%SESSION_ID%}} in the URL, then return a completion code.
Related skills
/sales-idea-validation — The validate-before-building method + the full research/recruit/validator tool landscape (a research "yes" is not demand). Install: npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-idea-validation -a claude-code/sales-cloudresearch — The data-quality-first peer panel: the same recruit class, but its edge is Sentry data-quality screening and a support-provisioned X-API-KEY (no self-serve token, no webhooks/MCP — poll to reconcile), where Prolific's is an instant token + HMAC webhooks + MCP + CLI. Pick CloudResearch when screening is the priority, Prolific when a self-serve pipeline is. Install: npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-cloudresearch -a claude-code/sales-respondent — The recruit-only B2B/professional interview marketplace (Prolific's edge is broad online samples + a self-serve API; Respondent's is hard-to-reach professionals + a partner-provisioned API). Install: npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-respondent -a claude-code/sales-great-question — The all-in-one recruit + run + repository suite (Prolific is recruit + collect only; you bring your own instrument and repository). Install: npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-great-question -a claude-code/sales-useberry — Prototype-first usability testing that recruits its participants via Prolific — pair them when you need usability testing on top of Prolific's panel. Install: npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-useberry -a claude-code/sales-funnel — Build the smoke-test / fake-door landing page that turns a research hypothesis into a real demand test. Install: npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-funnel -a claude-code/sales-do — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install: npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do -a claude-code
Examples
Example 1: "How do I create a Prolific study and auto-approve submissions from my own backend?" (developer/automation)
User says: "I want to launch studies and pay people through Prolific's API without clicking around the dashboard."
Skill does: Explains the self-serve flow (Step 4's API pipeline) — Researcher token +
Authorization: Token, POST /studies/ → publish transition, subscribe to
participant.submission.created webhooks, verify the HMAC signature, and APPROVE valid
completions (approval releases payment) with a reconcile poll so nothing is left unpaid.
Result: The user runs the whole study lifecycle from their backend with the payment gate correct.
Example 2: "Half my Prolific responses look low-effort or AI-written"
User says: "I'm getting open-ended answers that read like ChatGPT — is the panel bad?"
Skill does: Reframes it as a data-quality/instrument issue, not a bad panel (Prolific is
ID/video-verified with bot/AI detection). Prescribes behavior-specific prompts, attention +
timing checks and copy-paste detection in your own survey, tighter prescreen filters with an
eligible-count check, and rejecting / requesting returns on failing submissions while reserving
bonuses for quality; report genuinely bad submissions for Prolific's data-quality review.
Result: The user cleans the sample by fixing screening + attention checks instead of switching tools.
Example 3: "What will an n=300 study actually cost on Prolific?"
User says: "I want 300 participants at a 10-minute survey — what's the real bill?"
Skill does: Explains total ≈ reward + platform fee (best-effort 42.8% corporate / 33.3%
academic) with an enforced minimum pay (best-effort £6/$8/hr, recommended £9/$12/hr), and shows the
POST /study-cost-calculator/ call (reward in cents + total_available_places) that returns the
VAT-and-fee-inclusive total in cents before publishing. Presents all figures as best-effort —
confirm at prolific.com/pricing.
Result: The user budgets reward + fee up front and sizes the study to their spend.
Troubleshooting
"My API calls 401 / where's my API key?"
Symptom: Requests fail auth.
Cause: Prolific uses a Authorization: Token <token> header (not Bearer, not two-header), and
the token is a Researcher token you create in account settings.
Solution: Create a Researcher token at app.prolific.com/researcher/tokens/, send
Authorization: Token <token> against https://api.prolific.com/api/v1/. The token has no expiry and
full permission — keep it secret and workspace-scoped.
"My webhook fired but I'm not sure it's really from Prolific / I missed some events"
Symptom: Untrusted or missing webhook deliveries.
Cause: Webhook bodies must be signature-verified, and delivery is best-effort.
Solution: Recompute HMAC-SHA256 over X-Prolific-Request-Timestamp + body with your secret,
base64-encode, and constant-time compare against X-Prolific-Request-Signature. Also run a
status-filtered reconcile poll (GET /studies/{id}/submissions/) so a dropped event never leaves a
submission unreviewed or unpaid.
"A participant says they weren't paid"
Symptom: A completed submission wasn't rewarded.
Cause: A submission only pays once it's APPROVED (RESERVED → ACTIVE → AWAITING REVIEW →
APPROVED); left in review it stays unpaid, and rejected/returned/timed-out/screened-out submissions
don't pay.
Solution: Review the submission status via GET /studies/{id}/submissions/, transition it to
APPROVED (or bulk-approve), and use a bonus payment for extra compensation. Automate
"valid completion → approve" but keep a manual review path for disputes.
