Build the estimate

Enter your estimates, then calculate.

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Read the result as a feasibility check

Total active time combines visits, round-trip travel, remote sessions, home tasks, and preparation or recovery. Net cash subtracts estimated unreimbursed expenses from compensation. The calculator can divide net cash by active hours to create a logistics figure.

Do not interpret the figure as the value of your health, risk, privacy, discomfort, or contribution to science. Use it to identify missing travel reimbursement, underestimated home tasks, and schedule conflicts.

Add constraint time in words

Write restrictions the calculator cannot represent well: fasting, medication timing, contraception, avoiding other studies, staying near the site, inability to drive, sleep disruption, limited travel, or waiting for cohort confirmation. Mark the start and end date for each.

A ten-minute diary can control an entire evening when its window is narrow. Record both active minutes and the constraint.

Run three scenarios

  1. Expected: use the schedule the site describes.
  2. Delayed: add one rescheduled visit, extra support call, and late payment.
  3. Early exit: include completed activities, return travel, safety follow-up, and accrued payment.

Ask the site about the variables that move the result most.

Sources for this guide

Official guidance controls regulatory claims. Peer-reviewed research is identified when participant experience requires evidence beyond agency guidance. Links were checked September 5, 2026.

  1. Office for Human Research Protections. Questions to Ask About Volunteering for a Research Study (opens in a new tab).
  2. National Institute on Aging. Clinical Research: Benefits, Risks, and Safety (opens in a new tab).
  3. Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections (SACHRP), HHS. Addressing Ethical Concerns: Offers of Payment to Research Participants (opens in a new tab).
  4. National Institutes of Health IRB Office. Compensation for Research Participation (opens in a new tab).