12 Best Apps to Earn Free Gift Cards [2024]: Maximize Your Earnings

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a few extra gift cards at the end of the year with very little effort? Some of the best apps to earn gift cards include Capital One Shopping¹, Ibotta, Fetch Rewards, Survey Junkie, Swagbucks, and more. They all pay in gift cards for completing various activities such as shopping online, scanning receipts, taking surveys or watching videos.

We’ve reviewed the top 12 best gift card apps to see how they work and help you decide which one(s) may work best for you.

How we evaluate products

Gaming apps are a fun way to pass the time, but they can also be a great way to make extra income.

We rate gaming apps based on payout options, the minimum redemption threshold, app store ratings, and how much fun they are to play.

Comparison of the best gift card apps

App	Best for	Usage	Minimum redemption	Learn more
Capital One Shopping	Online shopping deals	Online	$0.01	Visit Capital One Shopping
Ibotta	Grocery shopping	Online and in-store	$20	Visit Ibotta
Fetch Rewards	Earning rewards from receipts	Online and in-store	$3 ($10 for 1st-time redemption)	Visit Fetch Rewards
Rakuten	Online shopping cash back	Online and in-store	$5.01	Visit Rakuten
Dosh	Everyday cash back	Online and in-store	$15	Visit Dosh
Honey	Online shopping cash back	Online	$10	Visit Honey
Survey Junkie	Online surveys	Online	$5	Visit Survey Junkie
InboxDollars	Online surveys	Online	$30	Visit InboxDollars
Branded Surveys	Online surveys	Online	$5	Read Branded Surveys Review
Swagbucks	Online shopping and activities	Online and in-store	$3	Visit Swagbucks
MyPoints	Online shopping and activities	Online	$3	Visit MyPoints
Upside	Local offers and cash back	In-store	$20	Visit Upside

Keep in mind that many of these apps offer sign-up bonuses for new members, which can almost immediately help boost your earnings. Many apps also provide referral bonuses where you can earn rewards for referring friends to sign up and use the app.

These sign-up and referral bonuses can help you earn more than enough rewards to get a gift card at one of your favorite stores. Common redemptions include iTunes, PlayStation, Target, Walmart, Starbucks, Best Buy, Xbox, and Amazon gift cards.

1. Capital One Shopping

Capital One Shopping is a free one-stop shop or tool for earning rewards from online purchases. You’ll save money with online coupons and price drop notifications. You don’t need to be a Capital One cardholder or account holder to use the shopping app.

Capital One Shopping’s browser extension is easy to set and forget. You are already shopping at Amazon, Target, and one of the other 100,000 stores included, so why not get rewarded for it. In addition to connecting you with online coupons, you will also earn cash back on specific stores.

To get the most out of the app, access the trending deals page to see which stores are offering a coupon code and cash back. If a store offers a 20% coupon code and 3.5% cash back, your $100 order can be reduced to $80 with $2.80 back.

Visit Capital One Shopping | Read our Capital One Shopping review.

2. Ibotta

Ibotta is a mobile shopping app that provides cash back for some online and in-store purchases. It allows you to earn rewards by submitting receipts, and you can redeem your rewards for real money or gift cards to various retailers.

We enjoy using Ibotta for our grocery trips because it’s easy to open up the app and see if there are any good offers we can use while shopping. Several times, we have received close to free items because of high-value coupons and cash back offers. We also appreciate that there are many opportunities to order a little cash back on staples of any brand, like $0.50 on any brand of milk. Using the offer is as simple as adding it, making the necessary purchase, and scanning the receipt or barcode to redeem the offer.

Visit Ibotta | Read our Ibotta review.

3. Fetch Rewards

Fetch Rewards is essentially an app that rewards you for scanning receipts. We haven’t necessarily earned loads of rewards using Fetch, but it’s easy to use, and almost any receipt will work. You can maximize your earnings by referring friends or taking advantage of special in-app purchases.

We like that Fetch Rewards is user friendly and straightforward, allowing us to quickly and easily upload receipts and start earning rewards. The app offers a broad range of reward redemption options, including gift cards to many popular retailers.

Visit Fetch Rewards | Read our Fetch Rewards review.

4. Rakuten

Rakuten is a cashback platform that allows users to earn rewards for shopping online through its app or website. Rakuten offers online cashback rewards and in-store cash back by linking your credit card or debit card to the app.

Rakuten is one of our favorite cashback apps because it’s so easy to use. If you do a lot of online shopping, simply download the Rakuten mobile app or browser extension and then activate your cash back before making a purchase at an eligible retailer. Rakuten doesn’t provide a gift card redemption option, but you can opt for a PayPal deposit, a mailed check or earning Amex Membership Rewards points if you have an eligible Amex account to link.

Visit Rakuten | Read our Rakuten review.

5. Dosh

Dosh is an easy-to-use cashback app that enables you to link a debit or credit card and then use that linked card at specific retailers that have cashback offers.

We appreciate how easy it is to use Dosh. You don’t have to save any offers, you simply link your card and then use it like you normally would. So if there’s an online cashback offer at Adidas, you wouldn’t have to do more than use a linked card to make a purchase on the Adidas website.

Dosh is also a great app to have on hand for spending outside of retail and grocery shopping. You can earn cash back with Lyft, AT&T, Disney+ and more.

Visit Dosh | Read our Dosh review.

6. Honey

Honey is a browser extension and shopping tool similar to Capital One Shopping and Rakuten. It helps you save money on your online purchases by automatically finding and applying available coupons, promo codes and discounts to your online shopping carts. You can also earn rewards for making purchases with certain retailers.

We like that the Honey browser extension is easy to install and use. It automatically searches for and applies the best available coupons and promo codes for your purchases, but in our experience, many of the coupons can be outdated, and it can take a few minutes for the app to go through all of the codes.

Visit Honey | Read our Honey review.

7. Survey Junkie

Survey Junkie is an online survey platform that allows you to earn rewards for taking surveys. You can complete surveys on various topics, including new product opinions, brand preferences, and lifestyle habits, and earn rewards such as cash, gift cards, and merchandise in return.

We view Survey Junkie as one of the top online survey sites because it’s been around for a while, it’s easy to use and it has great app ratings and reviews. Some of the surveys can feel repetitive or time-consuming, especially when you compare them to the reward amount you receive. If you love taking surveys, we recommend you track your time to ensure the rewards you receive are worth the effort.

Visit SurveyJunkie | Read our Survey Junkie review.

8. InboxDollars

InboxDollars is a rewards platform that can give you cash-earning opportunities by participating in online surveys, playing games, and performing other tasks. The platform is free to join, and it pays out rewards via PayPal, checks, gift cards, or prepaid Visa gift cards.

We view InboxDollars primarily as an online survey app, but you can also earn rewards in other ways. For example, you can download and play mobile games or use InboxDollars as a cashback portal when making online purchases. In general, you may not always have available surveys, and the payoff for certain surveys might not be worth the amount of time it takes.

Visit Inbox Dollars | Read our InboxDollars review.

9. Branded Surveys

Branded Surveys is all about online surveys, similar to Survey Junkie. Branded Surveys pays you to provide your opinions through online surveys. You’re rewarded with points that can be redeemed via direct deposits, gift cards, PayPal, charity donations and more.

We like how Branded Surveys provides multiple ways to earn bonus points, including taking premium surveys and participating in different competitions. For example, you can earn badges for completing a certain number of surveys. As you earn higher badges, your survey payouts increase. You can also compete against other users for top survey spots on different leaderboards. If you make it high enough, you earn bonus points.

We don’t love how surveys can seemingly offer a random number of points. For instance, 36 points for a 16-minute survey. We’re not sure how the points total is calculated because we also saw a 21-minute survey offering 36 points.

Read our Branded Surveys review.

10. Swagbucks

Swagbucks is an online portal where you can participate in a large number of different activities to earn rewards. This includes making online purchases, playing mobile games, signing up for different products, and more.

We found Swagbucks to be especially useful when it comes out with special offers that provide more rewards or Swagbucks than normal. For example, some offers can reach into the tens of thousands of Swagbucks, which is the equivalent of hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards. We used Swagbucks when it was first created and earned about $200 in gift cards that first year. However, most of the tasks now have low payouts.

Like other online shopping portals, Swagbucks sometimes has issues tracking your purchases, which often results in not receiving the rewards you thought you would receive. We have had this problem a few times in the past, reported it to customer service and it was a hit or miss if the points were rewarded.

Visit Swagbucks | Read our Swagbucks review.

11. MyPoints

MyPoints is very similar to InboxDollars and Swagbucks, offering a variety of ways to earn rewards for online activities. This includes playing games, taking surveys and making certain purchases.

We like using MyPoints as an alternative option in a line of survey and rewards platforms. This means we check it every now and then and keep tabs on any special offers that MyPoints may have that other sites don’t. Using this strategy, we can maximize our earning potential across multiple apps.

Visit MyPoints | Read our MyPoints review.

12. Upside

Upside is interesting because it’s a cashback app that shows you nearby offers where you can earn rewards. This may include the gas station, grocery store, or restaurant down the street. Upside is similar to Dosh in that it works by having you link a card and then use that card at a retailer with an offer, but make sure to claim relevant offers in the app.

We love that some of the cash back offers get fairly high. When we checked, Burger King has a 24% cash back offer and another local restaurant had a 16% cash back rate.

Visit Upside | Read our Upside review.

How to choose the best app to earn gift cards

Consider these factors as you try to figure out how to make money from apps that help you earn gift cards.

Compatibility

It’s important to consider your preferences when deciding between different types of apps that could help you earn gift cards.

Most gift card apps can be used on phones, tablets and computers via an Android app, iOS app or website. But you may find that you prefer using a mobile app because it’s easier to access on the go. Or you may prefer using a web browser on your laptop because it’s easier to view and use while you’re at home.

The best gift card apps are typically available on iPhones, Androids, web browsers and sometimes as browser extensions.

Ease of use

The harder it is to use an app, the less likely you are to fit it into your schedule. Fortunately, many gift card apps can easily align with busy schedules.

For example, it’s not difficult to jump on a survey site and take a 15-minute survey whenever you have some free time. Or to link your credit card to a cashback app that provides extra rewards for purchases you already plan on making.

Reviews

A quick search online can reveal what people think about different apps. If the reviews are generally bad, stay away, especially if it seems like there are issues with reward redemptions.

You can check out specific app reviews on the App Store or Google Play for apps that use those platforms.

Types of gift cards

You’re here for the gift cards, but what types of gift cards do you want to earn? Amazon, Walmart, or Target? Or maybe you want Apple or Microsoft gift cards.

You can typically find out what gift cards are available on an app’s website by checking with their customer service team or by using an app and redeeming your rewards. If an app doesn’t have the gift cards you’re looking for, you might want to move on.

Rewards amount

Earning gift cards is fun, but at what cost? And by that, we mean the time you have to spend to earn the gift card. You may not be spending any actual money, but your time is valuable, too.

So if it feels like using an app is too much of a hassle for the potential rewards, maybe it is. Keep in mind that these types of apps aren’t meant to make you rich, and they most likely won’t replace your full-time job.

However, if you don’t mind taking a certain number of 30-minute surveys to earn a $5 gift card, then there’s no problem. The point is to be aware of whether you mind how much time you put into some of these apps in relation to your earned rewards.

FAQ

Bottom line

The best gift card app for you depends on your shopping habits and how you like to spend your time. But overall, Capital One Shopping is an excellent choice for finding shopping deals online and earning rewards on purchases.

Still, the beauty of these apps is that you don’t have to pick just one. Many of them work well together, which helps increase your opportunities to earn gift cards.

For example, you could use Capital One Shopping to find a great online shopping deal and then use Rakuten to earn cash back on your purchase. Or you could use Ibotta to earn rewards for in-person shopping trips and then use Fetch to scan your receipt for more rewards.

For more ways to help earn and save money in your spare time, check out our list of the best side hustles.

Methodology

To determine the best apps for earning free gift cards, we prepared a list based on various criteria such as the number and variety of reward options, earning potential, ease of use, availability of gift card redemption, and free sign-up.

Note that some apps on this list don't offer gift cards as a redemption option, but you can still redeem for cash or cash-like options, such as direct deposits. Keep in mind that we didn’t review every available option in the market. Some of these companies have been or are current FinanceBuzz partners.