How Terac screening works: the AI interview, screeners and what comes after

Why this matters

Terac does not have a single gate like a one-time exam. Its own documentation describes a light account setup, then a separate screening step for each opportunity you apply to. Some of those screeners are a short AI voice interview. Being screened out of one study does not close the others, but it can happen often, and Terac does not tell you why.

This guide is built on Terac's expert documentation (terac.com/docs/experts). Worker reports are kept in their own section and labeled as such. For how Terac works as a platform (what it pays, how work is matched), see the Terac company page.

The flow, in order

Terac's Getting Started page lists these steps:

1. Create an account. You sign in with LinkedIn or another provider. No password is needed.
2. Complete onboarding. Verify your phone number, connect LinkedIn or upload a resume, and review the profile Terac generates, including your preferred hourly rate.
3. Take the onboarding interview (optional). A voice conversation of about 10 minutes with Terac's AI interviewer, called Sophia. You can skip it and take it later from Home.
4. Browse or accept invitations. Open studies are under Explore. Invitations appear on Home.
5. Apply. Each opportunity has its own steps, usually screening questions followed by tasks.
6. Get paid. Approved work goes to your Terac balance. Before your first cash out you complete a one-time identity check.

Terac says only phone verification is required to finish onboarding and apply. It also says completed profiles are more likely to be approved for opportunities.

The onboarding interview

Per Terac's documentation:

• It is about 10 minutes, in English, and optional.
• It is a voice conversation about your background and the work you want, used to help match you with opportunities. Terac does not explain how matching works in more detail.
• It needs a working camera and microphone. A pre-check asks you to share your entire screen on a computer, allow camera and microphone, and center yourself in the frame.
• You can leave and resume it. Your answers are saved. Once completed, it cannot be retaken.

Resumes must be PDFs up to 10 MB. Terac pre-fills experience, education and certifications from your resume or LinkedIn, usually in 15 to 30 seconds, and you review the result in four parts: About You, Experience, Education and Rate.

Screening, study by study

Terac's Apply to Opportunities page says every opportunity has its own steps, shown in a sidebar. The ones that matter for screening:

• Basic Info. Missing profile details. Your answers are checked against the opportunity's requirements on submit, and a mismatch ends the application at this point.
• Screening. A short form, a quick AI voice interview, or a file upload.
• Tasks. The work itself, such as a survey, a file upload, a booked session or a contract.

Terac's glossary describes a "screener" as early qualification questions that decide whether you are eligible for a study. Each opportunity page has a "Who Should Apply" section, which is where Terac tells you to check whether you qualify.

The glossary also lists "Automated Review", a quality system that reviews work instead of a person. According to the glossary, it can approve a screening, and it can reject one below the quality bar if rejecting is enabled for that opportunity. Terac's apply page says some reviews are automatic and others are done by Terac or the research team, and that work can be reviewed after screening, after tasks, or both.

The AI screening interview

Some opportunities use a quick AI voice interview as the screening step. From Terac's Working on Studies page and FAQ:

• Length. About 3 minutes, sometimes longer, with no hard time limit. The estimate is shown before you start.
• Language. The opportunity's language. If several are offered, you choose before starting.
• Who decides. The interviewer does not decide approval. A person on the team reviews the recording and transcript. On some opportunities an automated review can approve or decline.
• Camera. Must stay on for the whole interview. Some opportunities work only on a computer.
• Pre-start checks. Disconnect external monitors (on a computer, for screening interviews), share your entire screen rather than a window or tab where screen sharing is possible, allow camera and microphone, then center yourself in the outline and click "I'm ready."
• Recording. Terac records video of your camera and shared screen, audio, and a transcript. It also logs events such as switching tabs, leaving the window, exiting full screen, muting, turning off the camera or stopping screen share, and these are visible to the reviewer.
• Retakes. A finished interview cannot be retaken. One that dropped or that you ended early can be restarted from the beginning.

What Terac tells you to do during it

The documentation advises you to listen to each full question and answer in your own words, to keep pauses short because long silences may be read as the end of your answer (you can say "let me think"), and to give specific, real examples from your experience. To finish properly, say you are done and let the interviewer wrap up. Clicking "End interview" ends it at once with no confirmation, and an interview ended before the interviewer wraps up is not saved.

The documentation also warns not to reload during a live interview, because that ends the call. If it froze, check Home: if the opportunity shows "Under review", "Waiting for review", "Client reviewing" or "Submitted for review", the interview saved. If the row still shows the interview as the next step, it did not save and you start again.

Text-box screening questions block pasting by default, so you type your answers. Some questions, such as ones asking for a link, allow pasting.

After you apply

Terac says you get an email when a decision is made, and the screen you land on after submitting explains what happens next. Its apply page and FAQ give no typical timeframe.

Possible outcomes, according to the apply page:

• Approved. For one-time studies, earnings are added to your balance. For project-based work, you work from the project handbook and are paid for hours or tasks on the project's payout schedule.
• Screened out. You see a message such as "let's find you something better." The glossary says being screened out is common and not a judgment of you. The FAQ says it can mean you did not match what the study needed or your group was already full.
• Early mismatch. "This study isn't available in your country right now" or "This study wasn't the right profile match." Neither message gives the specific reason.
• Spot filled. If the study fills while you apply, your progress is saved and you can resume if a spot reopens.
• Not approved. Your submitted work did not pass review, and the screen does not show a reason.

Rejections on one study do not affect your other applications. Declining an invitation is final: it ends your place in that study for good.

Identity verification and payout

Identity verification is a one-time check of a government photo ID, run by Terac's payout partner Whop in a form on terac.com. Terac's FAQ says it is required before your first cash out, not for onboarding. Terac's pages also say opportunity pages can list it as a step. Your name, date of birth and address must match your ID exactly. If you see "Verification Blocked" or "Needs Review", Terac says retrying will not help and you should contact support. For what these checks involve in general, see identity verification on AI training platforms.

What listings on our site show

From listings on our site, dated 30 October 2026, current Terac pay is per hour or per task and varies by study. Examples: radiology residents at $90 and $105 per hour, pharmacists at $90 per hour, technical professionals at $110 per hour, business professionals at $70 per hour, and chemistry PhDs and master's holders at $70, $77 and $112 per task. Each listing has its own requirements, so check the screener before you invest time.

What reviewers report

Everything in this section is what people say, not what Terac publishes. We read Terac's Trustpilot page on 30 October 2026; on 3 November 2026 it showed a TrustScore of 4.3 from 57 reviews. We found no Reddit threads on Terac's screening, so this is a thin base.

• Fast approval is reported. A 5-star review from August 2026 says "You are approved very fast after applying."
• A paid trial was described. A 5-star reviewer from October 2026 said the assessment focused on real-world engineering standards and that the trial was paid. Another October 2026 reviewer called the process fair after a paid trial was approved.
• Disqualification is the main complaint. A 1-star reviewer from late October 2026 said they spent two hours on the process and were told they did not qualify. Another 1-star reviewer said they are constantly disqualified from opportunities they are clearly qualified for. This fits Terac's own statement that screening out is common.
• A privacy objection. One October 2026 reviewer objected to being asked for LinkedIn sign-in details and a birthday before a qualification decision. Terac replied on the page that the information is needed to verify suitability and offered account deletion through support.
• Payment timing is mixed. Some reviewers say they were paid within minutes or on time. One says many projects stay pending for weeks, and one reviewer who said they were not paid for several weeks later edited their review to say they were paid after about three weeks, with Terac attributing the delay to its payment provider.

Trustpilot does not fact-check reviews.

How to prepare

Each item ties to something Terac publishes:

• Finish your profile before applying. Terac says completed profiles are more likely to be approved, and your answers are checked against each study's requirements.
• Read "Who Should Apply" on the opportunity first. Some studies target specific professions, locations or groups.
• Use a PDF resume under 10 MB so the profile pre-fills correctly, then correct anything it got wrong.
• Test your setup. Chrome or Edge work best. Allow camera and microphone for terac.com, disconnect extra monitors, and use headphones in a quiet, well-lit room.
• Do not leave the interview window. Tab switching and muting are logged for the reviewer.
• Answer with specific examples from your own work, and keep pauses short.
• Do not click End interview early. It is not saved and you must restart.
• Keep your documents ready. Your ID name must match your profile for the later payout check. General advice on tests is in how to pass AI training qualification tests and assessments.

What Terac does not publish

• No pass mark or rubric for the AI interview or the screeners
• No pass rate or acceptance rate
• No typical wait for a decision after you apply
• No reason for a rejection; the screens do not show one
• No list of countries it works in. Country eligibility is shown per study
• How matching works beyond saying that your profile and the onboarding interview help
• How long recordings are kept, as far as we could find on the pages we read

Sources

• Terac expert documentation: Getting Started, for the account and onboarding steps
• Terac expert documentation: Apply to Opportunities, for application steps, review, statuses and rejection messages
• Terac expert documentation: Setup Your Profile, for the onboarding interview, resume rules and profile
• Terac expert documentation: Working on Studies, for the AI screening interview, recording and logging
• Terac expert documentation: FAQ, Troubleshooting and Glossary, for interview length, retakes, identity verification and definitions
• Trustpilot page for Terac, for worker reports, attributed above

Last checked 30 October 2026. Worker reports are attributed to Trustpilot reviewers above and are not Terac's statements. We are not affiliated with Terac and we do not process applications.