Contents:
1. Verifying your email
2. Verifying your phone number
3. Payment provider acknowledgement
4. Verifying your ID
- What happens if I fail verification?
- What do I do if I'm a UK resident who proves my country of residence status with a Share Code?

Related resources:
1. Verifying your identity FAQ
2. Sign up waitlist
3. Share codes

We're excited that you want to sign up and take part in studies here on Prolific!

Before you can begin, you'll need to verify your account by doing the following things:

Phase 1: Initial sign-up

  • Verify your email address

Phase 2: Once you're invited off the waitlist

  • Verify your phone number via SMS
  • Payment provider acknowledgement
  • Verify your identity

You can verify your Prolific account on the General Account settings page.

Phase 1:

Verifying your email address

  1. On sign up, we send you an email asking you to verify your email address.
  2. Click the 'Verify Email' button, or use the URL in the email to verify your account.
    • Please note: On occasion, your email won't show as verified straight away. If this is the case, try logging out and logging back in after a few minutes and your account should be updated.
  3. Once that's done you’ll be placed on the waitlist. Once you’re invited off the waitlist you’ll be asked to complete phase 2 of the verification process.

Phase 2:

When you begin phase 2 of the verification process, you should see this:

Here's some more information on each of the verification steps:

Verifying your phone number

1. Under 'Verify your phone number' select your country code from the drop-down menu. The code will be automatically applied, so you don't need to type it before your phone number.

2. Enter your phone number

3. Click ‘Send’

4. You'll receive a verification code via text message.

5. Enter the verification code when prompted. Note that the code expires in 10 minutes, and you have 5 attempts to enter it correctly.

6. Click 'Submit'.

Important things to know:

  • To maintain data quality, your phone number must have a country code matching your country of residence, and VOIP phone numbers are not accepted. However, there are some exceptions:
  • If you have a German phone number and are having trouble, try entering an additional '0' before your phone number. If you still need help, please just message our Support Team using the button at the bottom of the page.
  • If you've previously deleted a Prolific account and want to sign up again using the same phone number you used before, you'll need to contact our Support Team using the link at the bottom of this article.

Please know that your phone number is collected for verification purposes only. This information will not be used for marketing purposes in any way.

Payment provider acknowledgement

We use Hyperwallet (a company by PayPal) to pay participants for taking part in studies.

You’ll need to acknowledge that you're happy to create a Hyperwallet account in order to receive your payment for taking part in studies. Do this by clicking ‘I understand, continue’.

Verifying your ID

This will be done through our trusted partner Onfido, which stores your data safely.

  1. Take a photo of your ID. This must be a current, valid ID document with your photo, issued by your declared country of residence. For a full list of accepted IDs and eligible countries, see this article
  2. Take a selfie. Remove any hats or glasses while taking a picture and position your face in the oval.
  3. We use Onfido, a third party vendor, to complete the verification process. To do this we need your consent. Once you’re ready check ‘I consent’.
  4. Click ‘Continue’

You can read more about how to verify your ID and any problems you might be having here: Verifying your identity FAQ

What happens if I fail verification?

If you've completed each verification step and you pass our verification steps, you should see this in your account:

If you fail our verification checks, then we won't be able to offer you a participant account. If this is the case, then you'll see this message:

What do I do if I'm a UK resident who proves my country of residence status with a Share Code?

At the time of writing, the UK government has not given businesses a way to verify UK immigration status Share Codes automatically. We are working on an identity verification solution for UK residents who rely on Share Codes to verify their resident statuses, and will proactively be in touch.

Other forms of UK photo ID may be used on Prolific for identity verification, including the UK provisional driving license, which you can find out more about here. (Please note: There is a cost associated with applying for a UK provisional driving license for which you would be solely responsible, so you should take this into consideration before deciding whether or not to apply. Also, applying for a UK provisional driving license does not guarantee you will be accepted onto Prolific, nor does it guarantee any studies will be made available to you.

Verification FAQs

You can find more info about verification on our Verification FAQ page, and general info in our FAQ sections.

If you've followed the guidance above and you're still having difficulties, click below to send a message to our Support Team.

Need further help?
Click here to contact us