How to get paid to be a friend, and what the job is really like

Yes, you can get paid to be a friend. Someone pays you by the hour to keep them company at something they've already planned: a dinner, a concert, a long walk, a wedding. It stays platonic. The money is real but uneven, and nobody guarantees you bookings, so most people who do it treat it as side income. Below is how the work runs, what people are actually paid (each figure with its source and date), where the legal line sits, and the scams aimed at people searching for this job. We checked every figure on 9 November 2026.

What is a paid friend?

A paid friend, sometimes called a professional friend, charges for their time and company, usually by the hour. The client brings the plan. You come along, talk, listen and take part. Typical bookings are a meal, a gig, a gym session, a shopping trip, a day out, or standing in at an event the client doesn't want to face alone.

It isn't therapy and it isn't romance. Japan's best-known paid friend, Shoji Morimoto, calls himself a "rental person who does nothing". Clients have hired him to wait at a marathon finish line and to sit in a cafe within sight while one of them handed over divorce papers, CNBC reported in January 2025. He'll do anything asked except sex. Client Partners, a Tokyo rent-a-friend agency, works to two house rules, according to a 2016 AFAR feature reprinted by The Week: no romance, and no lending money.

How rent-a-friend jobs work: four routes

There are four ways in: a profile on a marketplace site, an agency, a local booking platform, or finding clients yourself. What changes between them is who brings the clients, who handles the money, who checks the client, and how much of the fee is left for you.

Marketplace sites. RentAFriend.com, running since 2009, is the name every list repeats. Members pay the site a membership to contact friends: US$19.99 a month for the standard plan when we read its sign-up page on 28 October 2026. The fee for your time is agreed between you and the member, and its blog says most friends start at around US$10 an hour, negotiable. Its terms say it doesn't run background checks on members. On 9 November 2026 every page of rentafriend.com showed an "Under Maintenance" notice, so check it's back before you count on it. We cover the member's side in is rent a friend legit?

Agencies. Japan has the oldest ones. In the AFAR piece, a writer paid Client Partners roughly US$115 for two hours with one of its friends, and the agency kept a percentage. That friend averaged 15 bookings a week, with hours that ran from day into night. The writer's verdict on the money: fine, not incredible.

Local platforms. Newer platforms check IDs and stick to one country or region. Phriend in the Philippines, launched in 2026, lists rates of P300 to P1,500 an hour, takes no commission from friends, checks ID with a selfie and keeps meetups public. The client pays half in cash on arrival and the rest afterwards (Newsbytes.PH, September 2026). Friendly Connections in Ontario lets its friends charge $5 to $25 an hour and vets them with a background check and an interview (CP24, June 2025).

On your own. Some people post on social media and take bookings directly. A 20-year-old Bangkok university student in a Kyodo report from September 2026 served more than 50 clients in about two months. She checked each client's social media first and met only in public places. You keep the whole fee this way. You also chase payment, judge every stranger yourself and carry every risk.

What do paid friends really earn?

No service publishes what its friends make in a month. What's on the record is a set of rates and a few individual cases:

Read these as ceilings, not averages. Morimoto's year came with about 1,000 requests and years of press coverage. Most profiles get far less. The hourly rate isn't what you take home either: travel to each meeting, the messages before it and the gaps between bookings are unpaid, and agencies keep a share. The "$10 to $50 an hour" range on most side-hustle lists isn't backed by any survey, and none of those lists says how many hours a month anyone actually gets booked.

What the work is like day to day

Most of the job happens before you meet. A request comes in: the plan, the day, how many hours, where to meet. You decide whether it suits you, ask what you need to know, and agree the details in writing. Then you get yourself there, often at your own cost.

The booking itself is ordinary. You eat, walk, watch and talk. A good paid friend asks questions, remembers names, laughs in the right places and keeps an eye on the time. Some clients want to talk the whole way through. Others want someone beside them and nothing more. Morimoto built a career on that second kind, and he still turned down a request to help move a fridge and another to go to Cambodia, Fortune reported.

The hard parts are the same everywhere:

• Saying no. To bookings you don't want, and to clients who push past what you agreed. The Bangkok friend-for-hire in the Kyodo report turns down anything that threatens her safety or makes her uncomfortable.
• Irregular hours. People want company in the evenings and at weekends, and requests come in bursts.
• Wear. A man in China who sold chats by the hour told CNA he averaged 200 requests a day, and stopped after 18-hour days of talking began to feel like a breakdown. Everyone in that report had dealt with harassment or an uncomfortable client.

Who it suits, and who it doesn't

It suits people who are easy to talk to, on time, curious about other people's plans, and fine with income that comes in bursts. Students and people with day jobs can fit it around their own hours. A second language helps, since many clients are visitors.

It doesn't suit you if you need the same income every month, or if you find it hard to say no. You also need to be 18 or over: the platforms that check ID won't take anyone younger. And if what you want is to drink with customers in a bar for a commission, that's hostess work, a different job with different risks.

The legal line, and staying safe

Paid friendship runs in the open in Japan, North America, the Philippines and Thailand, as the reports above show. Being paid for sex is a different thing, and it's illegal in many countries. Thailand is one of them: its Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act of 1996 also makes it a crime to advertise it, with six months to two years in prison or a fine of 10,000 to 40,000 baht. So a "friend" profile that hints at more can break the law on its own, and it draws exactly the clients you don't want.

The safety habits people in this work keep coming back to:

1. Meet somewhere public, always the first time: a cafe, a mall, a station exit. Never a private room or someone's home.
2. Agree the plan, the hours and who pays for food and tickets in writing before you go.
3. Look the client up first, the way the Bangkok student checks social media.
4. Tell someone where you'll be and when you'll be back, and share your location.
5. Get yourself there and home, and keep money for the ride back.
6. Go easy on alcohol, and skip drinking plans entirely if you're under the legal age where you live (20 in Thailand).
7. Set your rules before the first booking, as the sociologist in the Kyodo report advises, and leave if they're broken.

Scams aimed at people who search for this

Scammers know people search "get paid to be a friend". The pattern is the same each time. A message offers simple work chatting or hanging out, then asks you to pay first: a registration fee, a "verification", a deposit, or money to "unlock" bookings. Some pay out a little at the start to win your trust, then ask for bigger deposits, often in crypto. The US Federal Trade Commission's rule covers all of it: never pay anyone to get paid. Its job scams page adds that no honest employer sends you a check to deposit and then asks you to send part of it back. Thailand's Anti-Fake News Center warns about simple jobs with good pay that want a fee or a deposit before you start.

Genuine services charge the client, not you. RentAFriend's fees are paid by members, and Phriend takes no commission from friends. If anyone asks you for money before you've done any work, walk away and report it: ReportFraud.ftc.gov in the US, Thai Police Online in Thailand.

Being a paid friend in Thailand

If you're working out how to make money in Thailand on the side, being a paid friend is one option among the usual part-time and freelance work. Our Thai-language guide to side income covers the rest.

On Rent Thai Friend, members book a friend by the hour to come along to their own plans in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket or Pattaya: dinner, a night market, a concert, karaoke, a day at the beach. The member picks the plan and pays for food, drinks and tickets. You don't plan the day.

• You set your own hourly rate and minimum hours, say when you're usually free, and accept only the bookings that suit you. Once you've said yes, you stay for the whole time booked.
• It's free to apply. We keep a share of each booking and tell you exactly how much before your profile goes live. You're paid by PromptPay or bank transfer after each booking.
• You apply with LINE and 3 to 6 photos, in about 5 minutes, and we answer on LINE within 24 hours.
• You must be 18 or over, checked against a Thai ID card or passport, and 20 or over for drinks and nights out.
• It's strictly platonic: no sex, no kissing, no harassment, no hotel rooms and no hostess work.
• You need to live in Thailand, in one of those four cities, and have the legal right to work there.

The catch is the same as anywhere: bookings aren't guaranteed. Members choose friends by their profile, the languages they speak and when they're free. And side income is taxable: Thailand's Revenue Department explains who pays personal income tax.

If that fits, apply to be a friend. The steps for friends show what happens from the application to your first payment.

Questions people ask

How much do paid friends make?

It depends on the service, the city and how often you're booked. Published rates run from around US$10 an hour on RentAFriend.com to 1,000 baht (about US$30) an hour for one Bangkok friend-for-hire in a September 2026 Kyodo report. At the very top, Japan's Shoji Morimoto made about US$80,000 in a year, CNBC reported in January 2025. No service publishes monthly earnings, and we don't publish what our own friends earn, since each one sets their own rate.

Is being a paid friend legal?

Yes, when it stays platonic. Being paid for your time and company is ordinary gig work, and agencies and platforms run openly in Japan, North America, the Philippines and Thailand. Being paid for sex is a different thing and illegal in many countries; in Thailand, even advertising it is a crime. What you earn is taxable like any other income.

Is RentAFriend.com real?

Yes. RentAFriend.com has run since 2009 and says it is strictly platonic. Members pay a membership to contact friends, and each friend agrees their fee with the member. Its terms say members aren't background-checked. When we checked on 9 November 2026, every page of the site showed an "Under Maintenance" notice, so it may be changing.

Do you have to pay to become a paid friend?

No. Genuine services charge the client. If a site or a stranger asks you for a registration fee, a deposit or money to "unlock" bookings, it's a scam. The US Federal Trade Commission puts it in one line: never pay anyone to get paid.

Can foreigners be a paid friend in Thailand?

On Rent Thai Friend, friends need a Thai ID card or passport, checked to confirm they're 18 or over, must live in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket or Pattaya, and need the legal right to work in Thailand. The work is strictly platonic: no sex, no kissing, no harassment.