19 Apps That Pay You to Sign Up

A signup bonus is a type of reward that companies offer new users to incentivize them to create an account. The bonus often comes in the form of a small amount of cash, a gift card, or reward points.

While some platforms will give you the bonus simply for signing up with them, others may require you to complete a few small tasks to earn it. For instance, a common requirement is that you must make qualifying purchases of a certain amount within a specific timeframe.

Without further ado, let’s get into our list of apps with sign-up bonuses. Whether you’re interested in cashback apps, survey-taking apps, gaming apps, or passive income apps, we’ve got you covered. We’ll give you an overview of each app and explain what requirements you have to meet to get its bonus.

Ibotta is an app that lets you earn cashback rewards when you shop at participating grocery stores and online retailers.

Here’s how to earn cash back on qualifying purchases with Ibotta:

• Shopping on your phone: Take photos of your receipts and upload them, or link your store loyalty accounts to the app.
• Shopping on your computer: Just click the app to activate it, then check out normally from participating online stores.

You can find cashback offers by browsing products in the app or on your computer. Alternatively, you can download Ibotta’s browser extension, which will notify you whenever a retailer offers a cashback deal.

Requirements for the signup bonus

To qualify for the Welcome bonus, you also have to actually use the app by redeeming a certain number of offers. Refer to the “Bonuses” page in the app to find out how many (the amount changes over time).

The size of the welcome bonus also changes regularly, but reportedly, you can expect to receive several dollars. Some sources suggest that it’s sometimes possible to get as much as $20, but we haven’t been able to confirm that, and other anecdotal reports claim that it’s inaccurate and that Ibotta’s bonuses are never that high.

Don’t try creating multiple accounts to get more than one bonus; if Ibotta catches you, your accounts will be deactivated.

Formerly known as Ebates, Rakuten is another platform that lets users earn cashback rewards when they make eligible online purchases at participating stores.

To earn cash back on Rakuten, you must shop on its official website or use its app or browser extension.

Requirements for the signup bonus

You must be a new member of Rakuten (must have signed up in the past 90 days) and must make eligible purchases totaling at least $25 within 90 days of signing up.

The exact amount you’ll receive depends on Rakuten’s welcome promo at the time you sign up. In the past, they’ve variously offered bonuses of $10 and $30.

Fetch is one of the most popular receipt-scanning apps out there. In addition to scanning and uploading receipts, you can also earn redeemable points by playing games.

With Fetch, you can scan a maximum of 35 receipts within a rolling 7-day period, earning a minimum of 25 points for each receipt.

You can use the points you earn to redeem gift cards from a store of your choice. Fetch partners with a variety of brands, including Starbucks, Amazon, Target, and Barnes & Noble.

Requirements for the signup bonus

To earn Fetch’s bonus, you must sign up using a referral code. If you missed entering your referral code when signing up, you can add it later, but it will only be effective if you enter it before scanning any receipts.

You earn points when you sign up with Fetch. Since 1,000 points are equivalent to about a dollar, you’ll probably earn between $0.50 and $1 at most as a signup bonus.

If you don’t have any friends who use Fetch, search for referral codes online.

RebatesMe is a cashback platform that gives you the opportunity to earn up to 40% cash back on eligible purchases with any of their 6,500+ partnering stores.

In addition to downloading their app, you can add the RebateMe Chrome extension to your browser, which will give you updates on their latest offers.

Requirements for the signup bonus

To receive your bonus, you must spend at least $15 on qualifying purchases within 30 days of your joining date. The cashout date of your signup bonus is the same as the cashout date of your latest qualifying purchase.

Gift card orders and purchases from this list of merchants can’t activate signup and referral bonuses with RebatesMe.

Like RebatesMe, BeFrugal is a cashback platform that lets you earn up to 40% back on eligible purchases with their 5,000+ partnering stores.

BeFrugal has an extension you can add to Chrome so you can keep up with the latest offers.

If your account remains inactive for over a year, it may become dormant. BeFrugal may debit a monthly maintenance fee on dormant accounts until their balances reach $0.

Requirements for the signup bonus

You must be a new member of BeFrugal and earn at least $20 in cash back by making eligible purchases within one year of joining. You can cash out your signup bonus once you have a minimum of $20 in payable cash in your account.

Upromise is a cashback platform that primarily targets people who are saving for college tuition and other large expenses. As with other cashback apps, you earn rewards by making everyday purchases.

You can link any financial account to your Upromise account to receive cash back. The app particularly encourages users to link their 529 plans or student loan accounts by offering them a bonus when they do so.

The maximum amount of money you can transfer to your linked account in a monthly transfer cycle is $5,000.

Requirements for the signup bonus

You must verify your email to earn the $5.29 bonus. To earn the additional $25 bonus, you must link your 529 or student loan account to your Upromise account within 30 days of signing up; moreover, the account must be active from the time you sign up to the end of the 30-day cashback rewards redemption period.

Swagbucks is one of the largest online shopping rewards programs out there.

You can earn “swagbucks” (SB) by making eligible purchases, taking paid surveys, playing games, watching videos, and completing other small online tasks.

You need to earn the equivalent of $15 in SB the first time you redeem your points for rewards. The cashout threshold may be lower for subsequent withdrawals.

Requirements for the signup bonus

You must verify your email to receive the first $2 bonus and complete a short profile quiz (which will take around 3 minutes) to receive the $0.50 bonus.

Swagbucks offers a 200 SB bonus (worth $2) to new members, and a further 50 SB bonus ($0.50) when you fill out your profile.

They also offer an additional $10 discount that you can put towards eligible purchases of $25 or more made through their platform, but this is strictly a discount. You can’t directly convert it to SB or actual cash.

Survey Junkie is an online market research platform that lets you earn points by taking paid surveys and participating in focus groups. It’s very similar to Swagbucks, but with a tighter focus on surveys.

When you earn $5 in rewards, you can redeem them for cash or e-gift cards from partnering brands.

Requirements for the signup bonus

To earn your bonus, you must confirm your email address and complete the small tasks listed below.

You’ll earn no fewer than four small bonuses when you sign up:

• $0.25 for providing your email and filling out a few pieces of basic personal information (age, location, etc.)
• $0.50 for taking a short survey about your job, hobbies, and so on
• $0.05 for taking a short tour of Survey Junkie’s site
• $0.05 for completing a tutorial that shows you how to take surveys

All told, you’ll earn a bonus of $0.85.

Like Survey Junkie, LifePoints is an online market research platform that rewards its members for taking online surveys.

LifePoints gives you points, which you can redeem for your choice of reward. On average, 1 point is equivalent to 0.87–0.97 cents; they’re slightly more valuable when redeemed as gift cards and donations.

Requirements for the signup bonus

LifePoints doesn’t offer a very large signup bonus, but they don’t have additional requirements you need to meet to earn it. You just need to create an account with them to receive your reward.

MyPoints is yet another online platform that lets you earn points by completing small, minimal-effort “microtasks,” such as shopping online, taking surveys, watching videos, and playing games.

MyPoints lets you redeem your points for gift cards or coupons from a variety of partnering online stores, as well as other businesses, such as airlines, hotels, and restaurants.

Requirements for the signup bonus

Signing up with MyPoints is very straightforward. Simply enter your email address and password, wait for MyPoints to send you a confirmation link, and click on the link to receive the bonus.

It should take you just a few minutes to sign up and get your bonus.

InboxDollars is an online rewards platform that lets you earn cash by participating in simple activities, such as taking surveys, playing games, reading emails, and shopping online or at grocery stores.

According to InboxDollars, most of their online surveys pay around $0.5–$5 and take approximately 3–25 minutes to finish. They say that some surveys may pay up to $20, provided that you match their demographic profile.

You can cash out your earnings once you have at least $15 in your account. After cashing out your first payment, you only need $10 for subsequent ones.

Requirements for the signup bonus

You don’t need to jump through many hoops to get the InboxDollars welcome bonus. You just need to provide and confirm your email address.

Branded Surveys is a fairly standard paid survey platform. Like the others we’ve listed, it rewards you for completing online market research surveys.

Branded Surveys rewards you in points, which you can then redeem as cash or gift cards when you earn 500 points.

Requirements for the signup bonus

To get your money, you need to sign up, provide a few pieces of basic personal info (e.g., your age and ZIP code), and take a short questionnaire about your interests, hobbies, etc.

Opinion Inn is an online platform that rewards you for taking surveys and sharing your opinions on various topics with companies.

The payment for each survey varies, ranging from $0.5 to $100 (although highly paid surveys like this are rare). You may qualify for more lucrative surveys if you have specialized knowledge or professional experience in an in-demand field, such as IT (because companies in that industry will be more interested in soliciting your opinions).

In addition to signup bonuses, Opinion Inn also offers a referral bonus of $5.

Requirements for the signup bonus

You just need to create an account to receive your bonus, but to actually cash it out via PayPal, you need to hit a (rather high) $25 minimum payout threshold.

Mistplay is a mobile app that lets you earn by playing games, participating in contests, and completing various other challenges and tasks.

Mistplay rewards you with “Units,” which you can redeem for rewards like gift cards, as well as in-app perks, like special display pictures.

You’ll earn 150 bonus Units each time someone uses your referral link to sign up and an additional 350 Units once that person reaches Checkpoint 5 in the game they’re playing.

Requirements for the signup bonus

To get Mistplay’s bonus, all you have to do is sign up, set a display picture, and answer a few questions about what games you like. If you don’t have any friends who use Mistplay, search online for a referral code.

Robinhood is a commission-free trading and investing app (i.e., a brokerage). You can buy and sell stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies with just $1.

Robinhood will give you a small amount of stock when you register and link your bank account.

You get to pick the company you want shares in, but the amount you’ll get will be randomly determined, ranging from $7 to $175. (Unsurprisingly, most bonuses are on the lower end of that range.) If the stock you pick is worth more than the amount you’re awarded, you’ll get a fractional (partial) share.

Requirements for the sign-up bonus

To get your free stock, you need to sign up, link a bank account, and deposit at least $1 into your brokerage account. Because Robinhood is a stock brokerage, you’ll have to jump through a few hoops to verify your account, including uploading a picture of a valid government-issued ID.

Fundrise is an “alternative investment platform” that allows you to invest in real estate funds, startup companies, and other assets that aren’t listed on public stock exchanges.

The shares you earn on Fundrise are meant to be held long-term; therefore, they limit when you can withdraw your earnings from certain shares.

Specifically, you must hold on to your eREIT and eFund shares for at least 5 years. If you liquidate your shares before that, you’ll have to pay a penalty fee of around 1% of your total share value.

Requirements for the signup bonus

You must be new to Fundrise, sign up via their promotional page or an advertisement, and make an initial investment of at least $10 within 30 days of opening your account.

Fundrise sometimes raises the amount of their signup bonus; in November 2024, their bonus stood at $25. They also reserve the right to completely terminate this promotional bonus at any time, so it’s a good idea to check whether it’s still current before you sign up.

Acorns is a micro-investing platform that lets its users invest their spare change automatically. It offers a selection of pre-built investment portfolios for you to choose from, depending on your financial goals.

The way it works is that you’ll link your credit or debit cards to your Acorns account, and Acorns will set aside spare change from your every purchase (rounding it up to the nearest dollar). They’ll invest the money for you once it reaches $5 or more. You can also set recurring (daily, weekly, or monthly) deposits.

Requirements for the signup bonus

You must create and verify an Acorns account and make a recurring investment of at least $5. You’ll typically receive your bonus within 10 days of the following month of making your first successful recurring investment.

MoneyLion is a financial service app. It offers loans, investment accounts, and banking services, as well as credit-building tools.

In addition to banking and investment accounts, you can sign up for a Credit Builder Plus membership, which comes with a $19.99 monthly account fee.

Other fees MoneyLion charges include administrative, transaction, and ATM withdrawal fees. Before signing up, check out MoneyLion’s complete fee schedule on their website.

Note that starting December 9, 2024, MoneyLion is closing all cryptocurrency accounts. Any remaining funds in your MoneyLion crypto account will be transferred at the current cash value to your RoarMoney account by that date.

Requirements for the sign-up bonus

You must sign up via an invitation link from MoneyLion or with a unique referral code from an existing user (here again, you can find these easily online).

As of the time of writing (November 2024), you’ll get $5 when you create a RoarMoney account (for mobile banking with MoneyLion) and an additional $50 if you set your paycheck to be directly deposited and go through with depositing a minimum of $100 at least twice.

See MoneyLion’s referral terms and conditions for their current bonus.

Cash App is a financial services platform that offers a wide range of services, including transferring and saving money, using a debit card, making investments, accessing personal loans, and filing taxes.

Investing with Cash App is free and simple. You can purchase stocks and ETFs with the money in your Cash App balance; insufficient money may be debited from your linked debit card.

In addition, you may round up your change to the nearest dollar when you make everyday purchases with your Cash App balance and use it to buy Bitcoin. You can set the percentage you want to invest in Bitcoin and change it at any time.

Requirements for the signup bonus

To receive a bonus, enter your referral code from an existing user when you sign up, link a new debit card or bank account to your Cash App account, and send $5 within 14 days of your joining date to someone else’s Cash App account.

Note that your debit card or bank account must remain linked to your Cash App account until you receive the bonus.

It’s certainly worth it to use a signup bonus app if the app is genuinely useful to you. Say you’re looking for a cash-back app to earn rewards on your everyday purchases—you might as well sign up for one that offers you a welcome bonus.

Just be sure to read the terms and conditions carefully before creating an account with any app. Pay attention to whether they have any requirements for receiving the signup bonus, and if so, what they are. You don’t want to end up purchasing items you don’t need just to get a signup bonus, especially if they cost more than it’s worth and will ultimately end up putting you in the red.

Note that the signup bonus apps we listed here are just some of the many money-making apps out there. Consider looking into other options that align with your interests, such as dog-walking apps like Rover and Wag! or delivery driver apps like Uber Eats or DoorDash.