Swagbucks Review [2025]: Is it a Legit Way to Make Extra Money?

What is Swagbucks?

Swagbucks is a get-paid-to app that pays members to answer surveys, play games, shop, and search the web. It's owned by Prodege LLC, a market research company that specializes in customer engagement.

Swagbucks offers members many ways to interact with products and brands, paying members in SBs or Swagbucks in exchange for time spent doing certain activities. It's free to join Swagbucks, and you can choose which activities you will participate in to earn money.

Is it legit?

Swagbucks is a trustworthy and reputable platform that won't try to scam you or feature "fake" offers or opportunities. You can earn real money, but how much you make depends on which offers you try, how consistent you are about checking for new opportunities, and what redemption options you choose.

Swagbucks has a Trustpilot rating of 4 out of 5 stars, which is respectable for a make-money app, and the Swagbucks mobile app is available in both the Google Play store and Apple App Store, with 4.5- and 4.4-star ratings, respectively.

How Swagbucks works

Swagbucks allows members to earn Swagbucks points (they're called SBs) that are redeemable for free gift cards from retailers and cash rewards for activities like:

• Online shopping
• Signing up for exclusive deals
• Participating in surveys
• Playing games
• Watching videos

You access most of these tasks in the platform's online portal, but you can also earn Swagbucks through its mobile app, the SwagButton Chrome browser extension, or by using the company's search engine. I get the most offers and use out of Swagbucks using its online portal, but the mobile app is nice when I'm out and about and have some downtime to fill.

After signing up with Swagbucks, you can choose how you earn by logging into your account and viewing the available tasks.

For example, you might log in and see videos available for viewing, a new survey to take, or exclusive offers at your favorite stores. Each offer tells you how many SBs you'll earn if you accept the task and what's required of you to earn them.

Ways to make money

Online shopping and deals

The online shopping and offer deals are arguably the best opportunities on Swagbucks because they're the easiest to qualify for. If you're already planning to shop for something specific or frequently visit certain sites, checking for offers through Swagbucks is a quick extra step that could shave a good chunk off your total. 

The platform will recommend offers for you, typically based on which ones offer the best value, feature popular and new retailers, and let you "favorite" options you want to come back to. Between cash back and promo codes, you may save by paying yourself back on purchases or reducing your upfront costs.

Surveys

The "Answer" tab of the Swagbucks platform is where you'll go to take surveys. But first, I suggest filling out the Survey Profiler completely and honestly for the best chance of being matched with surveys. As will always be the case with survey sites, you're not going to qualify for every survey you want to take. It's smart to check back often, even daily, to catch new opportunities when they come around.

Swagbucks isn't a bad option for taking paid surveys, but it's generally going to have a more limited selection than dedicated paid survey platforms like SurveyJunkie.

Games

If you visit the games part of the platform, Swagbucks may first try to push specific offers on you. Navigate back to the home page to see all available offers and choose the ones you're interested in. The best promotions are typically right at the top.

Swagbucks probably wouldn't be my first choice for finding legit game apps that pay money because some of the limits for how much you can earn on a particular game are pretty low (I saw some for less than $20). Check out Freecash, Scrambly, or Cash Giraffe if you want to test out a lot of games.

Cashing out

After earning SBs, you can redeem them for gift cards or PayPal cash. Each SB is worth roughly $0.01, but you may catch some gift cards "on sale." A few examples include:

• 1,000 SB for $10 PayPal cash or a $10 Amazon gift card
• 500 SB for a $5 prepaid Mastercard
• 1,500 SB for a $15 Starbucks gift card

Here were some gift cards available when I last checked.

Who can use Swagbucks?

Anyone with a valid email address over 13 can sign up for Swagbucks; however, they encourage teens to get their parents' permission first. I always tell my friends and family to download and use the app in their free time.

As I said earlier, you won't pay bills with the money you earn, but who doesn't love getting free gift cards for answering market research surveys or shopping for items you'd normally buy?

I use apps like Swagbucks in my downtime, such as when I'm sitting on the couch watching TV, standing in a long line, or waiting in a waiting room. They help me turn my downtime into money and I find it's a good cure to doom scrolling.

How much can you earn with Swagbucks?

Because of the wide variety of ways to earn with Swagbucks, actual earning potential varies significantly. As we mentioned above, different activities pay different rewards.

The rewards vary greatly depending on their complexity, if you must spend money, and how much time it takes. Here are a few examples of what you might earn:

• 500 SB for taking a 20-minute survey
• 2,800 SB for signing up with Hulu
• 5 SBs for redeeming Swag Codes (codes they release daily on their social media)
• 10% of any referral's SB earnings if you share your referral code

Here's a breakdown of some sample earnings with Swagbucks:

Activity	Swagbucks earning	Dollar value
Purchasing a gift card	1% to 20% cash back	$0.01 to $0.20
Signing up for a deal	Two to 15,000 SB	$0.02 to $150
Taking a survey	40 to 200 SB	$0.04 to $2.00

Something that surprised me is how long it takes to receive a Swagbucks reward. Gift cards come via snail mail, and PayPal transfers can take anywhere from 10 to 14 business days.

A few other important points about Swagbucks rewards:

• Rewards are non-transferable and can't be traded or sold between users.
• Points expire after two years (even in active accounts), and accounts that have been inactive for more than a year may be closed by the company.

How to maximize your earnings with Swagbucks

Time is money, so here are my best tips to help maximize your earning potential with Swagbucks:

• Determine what you like to do, for example, if you dislike market research surveys, but love playing games, stick to the games
• Set up a separate email for Swagbucks so you never miss a deal or offer that might interest you
• Download the Swagbucks mobile app so you have it with you whenever you find downtime
• Make Swagbucks your default search engine so you can earn SB while you search
• Check your dashboard daily for your daily goals and try to accomplish them

Try to log into Swagbucks daily to see what's new. Everyone gets new daily goals, that if you achieve, will earn you the stated SBs. The tasks are basic, and often include watching a video, answering a survey, and answering the daily poll.

FAQs

Swagbucks alternatives we recommend

Although Swagbucks offers a fun way to earn some money, it won't be for everyone. What it has going for it in variety, it lacks in potential payouts for certain activities. 

Here are three options we suggest checking out if you're not sold on Swagbucks.

Freecash

Freecash is a legitimate get-paid-to platform that, like Swagbucks, lets users earn money for a variety of tasks. When we tested it, we found ourselves gravitating toward the games on this platform because there were so many to choose from, and you often get paid based on how far you progress into a game. You'll see higher potential payouts with Freecash than you will on most games through Swagbucks, and Freecash doesn't have cashout minimums.

Download Freecash | Read our full Freecash review

Testerup

If the limited opportunities to test out offers and platforms for money appeal to you about Swagbucks, you'll do better with Testerup. Testerup is a platform that will pay you for games, surveys, and product testing, and it has one of the highest hourly rates we've found in our extensive testing of apps to make money (we earned over $70 during five hours of testing). Like Freecash, it's a good option for trying out new games, but we'd also recommend it for people interested in completing other types of tasks like visiting and clicking around on websites or reviewing platforms. 

It takes a little more focus to maximize your earning on Testerup, but it can be a really rewarding one to visit once you know where to look for the best offers.

Download Testerup | Read our full Testerup review

Survey Junkie

If it's paid surveys you're after, Survey Junkie reigns supreme. This platform will be one of the first ones you hear about if you look into survey sites, and for good reason. It's got massive reach and a user-friendly platform that won't drive you crazy (you'd be surprised how much of an issue this can be with other sites), and it gives you more surveys to choose from than a lot of other options. 

Survey Junkie is a good place to start on your paid survey journey and a good place to stick around for consistent, legit opportunities to profit on your opinion.

Download Survey Junkie | Read our full Survey Junkie review

Bottom line

If you're looking for a side hustle you can work in your free time, Swagbucks should be on your list. You can earn money with Swagbucks, but it won't be a ton. Consider it something to do when you have some downtime and want to have a little fun.

Consider checking Swagbucks before buying items, answering surveys as often as possible, and playing games when you need to pass the time. You'll earn $0.01 per SB, but with consistent effort, the earnings can add up.