14 Best Receipt-Scanning Apps to Earn Money by Shopping

Receipt-scanning apps give you rewards for shopping (either in stores or online). There are three ways to register your spending with these apps:

• Scan a recent receipt with your phone’s camera.
• Connect a debit or credit card and allow the app to automatically register your purchases.
• Install a browser extension and shop online.

Once you’ve registered a purchase, you’ll be rewarded with points you can redeem as cash back, gift cards, discounts, or giveaway entries.

What’s the catch?

Before we launch into our list of the best receipt apps, a word of warning. Using these apps can be a fun way to cut the costs of your everyday purchases. You can even use multiple apps to increase your savings. However, be aware that these apps are ultimately designed to make you spend money—not save it.

Receipt-scanning apps and the like are paid by companies to incentivize you to shop at their stores. They offer deals and gamify the shopping process to entice you to spend more money, more often.

In most cases, the payouts you’ll receive (as you’ll see throughout this article) will also be very low.

Keep this in mind if you want to use these apps to save money effectively. While they’re a fun way to knock pennies off your purchases, avoid spending more than you normally would just because a cashback deal or sweepstakes promise caught your eye.

To save you time and hassle, we’ve researched the top receipt-scanning apps available for download right now. Here are our top picks and what you need to know about each app.

1. Fetch

One of the biggest names in this space, Fetch rewards you for snapping pics of your paper receipts or scanning your digital receipts.

Receipts must be uploaded within 14 days of the purchase and cannot be returns receipts, experience receipts (e.g., for seeing a movie or going to a concert), bills receipts, or airline receipts.

Point values vary based on the gift card you want, but Fetch says that you’ll get about $1 per 1,000 points earned.

2. ReceiptPal

ReceiptPal is another app that lets you earn digital gift cards by submitting valid receipts. There are three ways to register receipts with ReceiptPal and earn rewards:

• Take pictures of paper receipts on your phone.
• Link your Amazon account.
• Connect your email account.

In addition to earning points, the receipts you submit will also be entered into the weekly sweepstakes for cash prizes.

ReceiptPal doesn’t specify exactly how much points are worth, but images from its website suggest that a $5 gift card will cost 2,200 points, whereas a $10 gift card will cost 4,000 points. This means that 1,000 points are probably worth around $2.27–$2.50 (i.e., you get 0.2–0.3 cents per point). Since you’ll earn 25 points for each receipt you scan, each receipt will be worth approximately 6 cents.

ReceiptPal has a tiered points system. The more receipts you upload, the more you’ll level up, which will get you access to more rewards. You’ll also get “level rewards”—$5 gift cards for popular retailers.

3. Makeena

Makeena is a receipt rewards app that encourages you to buy what they refer to as “the good stuff” (i.e., healthy food and environmentally friendly products). You earn rewards with Makeena by shopping with affiliated brands and scanning your paper or digital receipts along with the barcodes of eligible items.

Most points are earned through brand rebates. Look for rebate offers (e.g., 5% back) with specific retailers, make purchases, and then upload the eligible receipts.

4. TopCashback

Founded in the UK in 2005, TopCashback is more well-known in its country of origin, but it has gradually expanded to other countries in recent years, including the US.

Rewards can take a while to process. That’s because the platform won’t make your cash back payable until the retailer’s return window has expired on your purchase.

The site claims that members earn an average of “$450 cash back a year,” but it’s not clear where this number comes from, and we weren’t able to corroborate it. That said, TopCashback has fairly transparent cashback offers, so you can see how much you’ll earn while shopping through the app or site.

Keep in mind that you may earn a 5% bonus if you redeem your rewards as a gift card. In addition, you can boost your earnings by inviting other people to join TopCashback. Whenever someone signs up with the app using your unique referral code, you’ll receive a $10 bonus once that person earns their first $10 in cash back.

5. Drop

With the Drop app, you can shop for offers through the platform and earn a set cashback amount for each purchase you make.

With Drop, you earn points, which you can then redeem for your choice of gift cards (where $1 is equivalent to 1,000 points). The type of rewards they offer may change over time. Be sure to check their website regularly for updates.

You can earn a referral bonus of 5,000 points ($5) when someone uses your referral code to sign up, links a card, and confirms their email account within the first six months. You’ll see your referral bonus once the person you refer has successfully made a qualifying purchase. You can refer up to 10 people.

6. CoinOut

CoinOut takes rewards gamification to the next level. It offers a lot of ways to earn rewards for submitting your receipts, including multiple earning levels and a slot-machine-style program called CoinFrenzy.

To earn “Coins” or Game Play credit (which you can use to earn more Coins), you can scan receipts, connect your email and retail accounts, or acquire badges in the app.

According to the platform, these are the tiers and corresponding point values for the first 25 receipts you submit each week (up to 125 monthly receipts): 1

• Bronze Level: 10 Coins per receipt
• Silver Level: 20 Coins per receipt
• Gold Level: 30 Coins per receipt
• Platinum Level: 40 Coins per receipt
• Diamond Level: 50 Coins per receipt

7. Receipt Hog

Founded in 2011, Receipt Hog is a straightforward receipt-scanning app. Just shop, submit a paper or digital receipt, then earn rewards.

One of the big perks of Receipt Hog is that it rewards your spending on small local businesses, like bodegas or your neighborhood grocery store, along with the big-name brands that other apps favor.

In addition to coins, you can enter sweepstakes and earn wheel spins for more coins when you upload receipts. 1,000 coins are worth approximately $5.

8. Checkout 51

The Checkout 51 app rewards you for making everyday purchases like gas, groceries, and goods.

The way it works is that you can browse offers in the app and add them to your shopping list. Afterward, head to the store, buy the items, and take a picture of your receipt to upload it.

This is another app that scores points for transparency. You’ll know just what you’re getting with Checkout 51 rewards. Each offer is for a (clearly indicated) amount of cash back on a particular purchase. Once you redeem the offer, your account will be credited with the cashback amount.

9. National Consumer Panel

Owned by the consumer intelligence company NielsenIQ, the National Consumer Panel app is more interested in your shopping data than in taking a commission on your purchases.

You won’t be scanning receipts but barcodes on the products you purchase. They may also ask you to provide information on non-barcoded items you’ve purchased (e.g., fruit and vegetables), stores you’ve visited, and the total amount spent.

As a member, you can also enter sweepstakes, which offer various prizes, including points, gift cards, and even cash.

National Consumer Panel doesn’t share information about how much points are worth, exactly, but its website features some images from the app that suggest $5 gift cards cost 5,000 points (meaning that points are probably worth around 0.1 cents each).

We also know that rewards increase the longer you’ve been a member, and reports online suggest that you can earn around 150–325 points per week, which will potentially translate into around $0.15–$0.33 per week in rewards.

10. Shopkick

Another receipt-scanning app you can use to monetize your shopping trips and earn rewards is Shopkick. Shopkick rewards you with points or “kicks,” which you can then redeem for cash or gift cards. One kick is worth around $0.004.

In addition to making qualifying purchases, you can also earn kicks by completing microtasks, such as walking into stores (with your app open and Bluetooth turned on), scanning products, watching videos, and inviting friends to join the app. The kicks you can earn vary by task.

11. Swagbucks

As one of the most widely-used rewards apps, Swagbucks offers plenty of ways for you to make money (which you can read about in our Swagbucks review), including uploading receipts. Like many of the apps we’ve listed in this article, Swagbucks offers you redeemable points, which they refer to as “Swagbucks” (SB). 1 SB is equivalent to 1 cent.

You can earn SB by uploading receipts from in-store purchases with the following types of businesses: 

• Grocery stores
• Big box and warehouse club stores
• Drug stores 
• Home improvement stores
• Department stores
• Clothing stores
• Fast food and casual dining restaurants 

Notably, online shopping receipts are not accepted.

While receipts from most stores are worth 2 SB each, certain department and clothing stores may offer special promotions, allowing you to earn up to 15 SB per receipt. You can upload up to 60 receipts in a month; the receipts must be uploaded within 10 days of the purchase date.

12. Rakuten

A go-to cashback app for many users, Rakuten partners with various popular brands, such as Walmart, Sephora, Bloomingdale’s, and Adidas, to name just a few.

To get you started, this app will give you an instant signup bonus worth $10 when you make a qualifying purchase of $25 or more and fulfill certain conditions (including a 90-day deadline).

With Rakuten, you don’t have to scan and upload your receipts after every purchase to earn cash back. Simply shop online through their app or download their browser extension. Alternatively, you can shop in-store with a linked credit card.

That said, you should keep your paper receipts when you shop in-store, at least until you’ve received your cash back. On the rare occasion that Rakuten doesn’t credit your cash back to your account, you’ll need to provide the receipt for them to verify your transaction.

13. Ibotta

The way Ibotta operates is very straightforward—you look for offers on the app, purchase the items in-store, and submit your receipt or link your store loyalty account to the app to earn cash back.

Ibotta also lets you earn rewards by shopping online with participating merchants. When you shop on your computer, simply find the brand you want to shop with, click “activate,” and check out normally. You don’t have to submit receipts for online purchases, as Ibotta will automatically handle your cash back.

Again, when you shop in-store with a linked account, it’s a good idea to hold on to your paper receipt until you see your cash back appear on the app. This way, if your cash back hasn’t been processed properly, you can submit your receipt as proof.

14. InboxDollars

The last platform on this list is InboxDollars, a well-known rewards app that lets you make money by shopping online and completing microtasks, including scanning and uploading receipts. You can learn more about the other features of the platform in our InboxDollars review.

You can earn an additional $0.02 per receipt you upload to the app on top of the cash back you earn on qualifying purchases. Keep in mind that the receipt you submit must be no more than 14 days old. You can submit up to 60 receipts per month. InboxDollars currently doesn’t accept online receipts.

Other microtasks you can do to earn rewards with InboxDollars include taking surveys, playing games, and reading emails. Note that, in 2020, InboxDollars removed its $3 payment processing fee, meaning that you can now withdraw your InboxDollars earnings for free.

As you already know, receipt-scanning apps usually partner with different merchants to reward their users for making qualifying purchases and uploading valid receipts. Consider using multiple receipt-scanning apps in tandem with each other. This way, you can earn from the maximum number of merchants offering cash back.

In addition, keep an eye out for receipt-scanning apps that double up as signup bonus apps. They typically don’t offer much, but it’s a nice boost to your earnings for simply joining an app that you were going to anyway. Check whether you need to take any extra steps—beyond creating an account with the app—to earn the bonus.

Lastly, it’s worth reiterating that, even if the app doesn’t require you to manually scan and upload your receipts, you shouldn’t throw them away until you see your rewards in your account. That way, you’ll have proof of your transactions if, for whatever reason, you didn’t receive your rewards.