24 Legitimate Passive Income Apps You Can Use to Earn Extra Money

What it is: Turo is a “peer-to-peer car-sharing platform” that lets you rent out your car for money. As the owner, you can choose to rent out your vehicle for as little as a day or as much as a year.

How to earn passive income with it: Renting your unused items is one of the easiest ways to earn money without actively working for it. The catch, of course, is that you have to be willing to let people use your things, which is a big ask when it comes to something as valuable as your car.

If you’re willing, though, this side hustle couldn’t be easier to get started. Just create an account with Turo and list your vehicle on the platform to begin collecting rent.

Sign-up requirements: You must be 21+ years old and have a valid driver’s license and car insurance.

In addition, your vehicle must meet the platform’s eligibility requirements, which include being less than 12 years old and having fewer than 130,000 miles on it.

Where to download Turo

App Store Google Play

What it is: RVshare is another peer-to-peer rental marketplace. As its name suggests, the platform specializes in connecting RV owners with people looking for rentals.

How to earn passive income with it: If you have an RV, the chances are good that you only use it a few times per year. If that’s the case, renting it out when you don’t need it is an easy way to earn extra passive cash.

Create an account on RVshare to list your mobile home. You’ll need to provide clear pictures of your vehicle and add an accurate description.

Sign-up requirements: You must be 21+ years old. RVshare is available for iOS (Apple) devices only.

Where to download RVshare

App Store

What it is: Like RVshare, Outdoorsy is a platform where you can list your RV for rent. In addition, you can also host outdoor “stays.” In other words, you can invite people to spend a night in a cabin, treehouse, or even a tent if you have an outdoor property. In a sense, Outdoorsy is a bit like Airbnb for campers.

How to earn passive income with it: Earning money from this app is simple: just create an account and list your RV or rental property.

If you’re renting an RV, you’ll need to meet the renter to give them the key and a rundown of the vehicle. Note that Outdoorsy charges a host fee comprising 25% of the price of each booking.

Sign-up requirements: You must be 18+ years old.

Where to download Outdoorsy

App Store Google Play

What it is: Neighbor is a social media app that you can use to interact with people in your neighborhood. It also functions as a peer-to-peer storage-sharing platform that lets you rent out unused space, such as a spare bedroom, garage, or shed, for people to stash their belongings or vehicles in.

How to earn passive income with it: Here again, you’ll earn money by letting people make use of your things—but in this case, all they’re using is your space, so they’re not putting wear and tear on your possessions.

Start by checking if you’re allowed to rent out space on your property (if you’re a renter yourself, you may have to confirm this with your landlord). Once you’ve cleared that up, create an account with Neighbor and list your space for rent. You should take clear, high-quality pictures of the space to accurately show its condition to potential renters.

Sign-up requirements: You must be 18+ years old and have a Social Security number (SSN) or Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and a valid bank account.

Where to download Neighbor

App Store Google Play

What it is: You probably know what Airbnb is. It’s an online rental marketplace that connects homeowners with renters who are looking for relatively short-term accommodations (often a few days to a few weeks, although you can list your property on Airbnb for stays that will last months).

You can rent anything from a single room to a whole house. As the host, you can stay in the same property or in a different living space entirely, as long as you make the situation clear in your listing.

How to earn passive income with it: Collecting rent on a spare property is a classic way of generating passive income. Granted, it’s a bit of a stretch to call Airbnb “passive”; you’ll need to put in some work to start a profitable Airbnb business, especially in the beginning. However, once your short-term rental side hustle is up and running, you can keep the process going relatively easy (or just hire a cohost to help you, although that will eat into your profits).

Sign-up requirements: You must be 18+ years old and may need to pass a background check.

Where to download Airbnb

App Store Google Play

What it is: There are several apps that will let you earn rewards simply by sharing your internet connection (i.e., your bandwidth). Honeygain is arguably the most famous of these.

When you install and run Honeygain on your device, the app will securely share your unused bandwidth (up to a limit that you set) with verified companies to help them complete “data-intensive tasks,” such as running price comparisons, verifying ads, and so on.

How to earn passive income with it: Sharing your internet with Honeygain will net you credits, which you can then convert to cash. You’ll earn 3 credits for every 10 megabytes (MB) of internet you share. 10 credits is equivalent to $0.01.

To start sharing your unused internet connection and earning passive income, create an account with Honeygain and install the app on your phone.

Types of rewards earned: Cash (via PayPal) or cryptocurrency (via JumpToken).

The minimum payout threshold for PayPal is $20 (20,000 credits). There isn’t a payment threshold for JMPT.

Sign-up requirements: You must be of legal age in your country and have a valid email address to register on your own. If you’re underage, you can register with your parent or guardian’s approval.

Where to download Honeygain

App Store

Honeygain isn’t available on Google Play, but you can still get it from their download page.

What it is: EarnApp is another app that will reward you for securely sharing your unused bandwidth with their clients, who’ll use it to collect publicly available data from the web. Their clients don’t collect private information, and will mainly use the collected data for market research purposes.

You have theoretically unlimited earning potential on EarnApp—there’s no cap on how much data you can share. In practice, you’re obviously limited by the speed of your connection.

How to earn passive income with it: EarnApp offers $1 per gigabyte (GB) to users in the US and $0.1 per GB to users abroad.

Register an account with EarnApp and run it in the background to start earning passive income.

Types of rewards earned: Cash (via PayPal or Wise) or Amazon Gift Cards.

Below we’ve listed the minimum payout threshold and transaction fees for the different types of payments:

Payment Methods on EarnApp

Sign-up requirements: You must be a legal adult in your country.

Where to download EarnApp

App Store Google Play

Note: The App Store link will take you to the page for the Bright Rewards app (which offers EarnApp’s features for iOS users in partnership with EarnApp’s company).

What it is: Pawns.app is yet another app that lets you earn money by sharing your unused bandwidth with individuals and businesses. You can also get additional rewards by taking surveys and completing other small in-app tasks, although that isn’t exactly “passive.”

How to earn passive income with it: If you want to get paid for doing something that requires minimal effort, sharing your internet is the way to go. The app will pay you $0.20 for every GB you share.

Types of rewards earned: You can earn cash (via PayPal), Bitcoin, or virtual gift cards. Not every payment method is available in every region.

The minimum payout threshold is $5, and you can cash out up to $140 per month.

Sign-up requirements: You must be of age in your country to register on your own. If you’re underage, you can still register with your parent or guardian’s approval.

Where to download Pawns.app

App Store Google Play

What it is: SavvyConnect is a data-sharing app that rewards users for participating in “behavior market research” and taking online surveys.

Participating in their behavior market research requires installing software and is completely passive; taking online surveys doesn’t require installing anything, but it takes work.

If you agree to participate in SavvyConnect’s market research program, the app’s clients will collect data on your online behavior when you browse the internet. They won’t collect your data when you activate “Private Browsing” or “Incognito Mode.”

How to earn passive income with it: If you’re willing to have your online activities scrutinized by companies, you can earn money from SavvyConnect’s market research program without changing your behavior.

You’ll earn $3 per month for each device you install the app on. The minimum payout threshold is $1, and you’ll receive your payment via a check.

Sign-up requirements: You must be 13+ years old to use this app.

Where to download SavvyConnect

App Store Google Play

What it is: The Nielsen Mobile App is an app by Nielson, a market research company. It offers a panel that rewards users for securely sharing their internet usage data for research purposes. (You can also take surveys, if you’re interested in that.)

You can join the panel by installing software on your computer or using Nielsen’s app. They won’t view the content of the websites you visit or collect any of your personal information—they’ll track your behavior, but it theoretically can’t be traced back to you.

How to earn passive income with it: Share your internet usage data with Nielsen to generate income by browsing the internet as you normally would. You can earn up to $60 in rewards points per year.

Types of rewards earned: Cash (via PayPal) or retailer gift cards.

Sign-up requirements: You must be 18+ years old.

Where to download the Nielsen Mobile App

App Store Google Play

What it is: Survey Junkie is another platform that allows its users to earn rewards by taking online surveys. However, it also offers certain passive income opportunities.

How to earn passive income with it: Although the primary way to earn rewards on Survey Junkie is to take paid surveys—which requires active effort, although not very much of it—you can earn passive income on it by participating in Survey Junkie’s Surf to Earn program.

The Surf to Earn extension will track your digital activities and compensate you with rewards. This means that, as with some of the other apps we’ve listed above, you can earn money simply by browsing the internet as you normally would.

Survey Junkie says that your sensitive information, such as your credit card numbers, will be kept secure.

Other things you should know: Exactly how much you can earn from using Surf to Earn is up for debate. Some online users, such as in this r/surveyjunkie thread on Reddit, report that they typically earn less than a dollar from the program each month.

It’s also worth noting that many users also claim that adding the extension slowed down their computer and caused other technical problems.

Types of rewards earned: You can earn cash (via PayPal) or digital gift cards. 100 points are equivalent to $1, and you can cash out at $5.

Sign-up requirements: You must be 18+ years old, reside in the United States, Canada, or Australia, and have a valid email address.

Where to download Survey Junkie

App Store Google Play

To join the Surf to Earn program, install Survey Junkie’s browser extension or opt in via the Survey Junkie app.

What it is: Swagbucks is a rewards program that offers the chance to complete various tasks, such as taking surveys and watching videos, in exchange for Swagbucks points (SB).

How to earn passive income with it: Most tasks on Swagbucks take active participation, but a few of them are completely passive, including:

• Making online purchases: You can earn cash back by purchasing selected items from partnered stores. Only buy things you actually need; it’s not worth changing your purchasing habits just to earn a few points.
• Making in-store purchases: To earn cash back on qualifying in-store purchases, add your credit card to your Swagbucks account and link the offers from the Swagbucks In-Store Cash Back page to your card.
• Searching the web: Change your search browser to Swagbucks to earn points when you search the web. Here’s how you can do it with different web browsers. Note that Swagbucks doesn’t guarantee you’ll earn points for every single search you do.

Types of rewards earned: Cash (via PayPal) or gift cards. Every 100 points is equivalent to $1, and you can cash out at $1.

Sign-up requirements: You must be 13+ years old and have a valid email address.

Where to download Swagbucks

App Store Google Play

What it is: InboxDollars is an app that lets you earn cash by participating in various online activities, such as playing mobile games, taking paid online surveys, and downloading apps. It’s quite similar to Swagbucks, and, in fact, is produced by the same company.

How to earn passive income with it: To earn money passively, focus on the activities you don’t need to go out of your way to complete, such as using InboxDollars’ search engine when surfing the internet or shopping as you normally would at partnering stores.

Types of rewards earned: Cash (via PayPal or Visa) or gift cards. You can cash out for the first time when you earn $15, and with just $10 for subsequent payments.

Sign-up requirements: You must be 18+ years old, reside in the United States, and have a valid email address.

Where to download InboxDollars

App Store Google Play

What it is: Ibotta is a mobile app that offers consumers cash back when they make qualifying purchases at partnering stores (either on the app or in person). It functions a lot like Swagbucks and InboxDollars, but their cashback features are more like add-ons, whereas on Ibotta, it’s the app’s main focus.

In addition to shopping at partnering stores, you can earn cash by buying gift cards directly from Ibotta. They offer gift cards for various large retailers, including Walmart, Starbucks, and Lowe’s.

How to earn passive income with it: You can shop and earn cash back through your smartphone or computer. Here’s how:

• Shopping via your phone: Find offers you want to buy and add them to the “your list” tab in the app. Once you’ve bought the items, you can submit your receipt in the app (if you didn’t previously link your store loyalty account with Ibotta).
• Shopping via a computer: Log in to Ibotta’s website or use their free browser extension when you shop online. Search for the shop you want to make a purchase at and click “activate” before checking out.

On a related note, if you don’t mind spending time scanning receipts to earn money, check out this list of other receipt-scanning apps that let you earn money by shopping. Ibotta is one of the biggest names in this space, but not the only one.

Types of rewards earned: Cash (via PayPal) or gift cards. You can cash out at $20.

Sign-up requirements: You must be 18+ years old and have a valid email address.

Where to download Ibotta

App Store Google Play

What it is: Formerly known as Ebates, Rakuten is one of the largest cashback apps out there. The platform partners with a variety of shops, including Nike, Adidas, Macy’s, and Target.

How to earn passive income with it: To start earning rewards on qualifying purchases, create an account and shop through their app, through Rakuten’s website, or via the platform’s Chrome extension.

Types of rewards earned: Cash via PayPal or check. You can cash out at $5.01.

Sign-up requirements: You must be 18+ years old and have a valid email address.

Where to download Rakuten

App Store Google Play

What it is: Dosh is another app that offers cashback rewards to members who make qualifying purchases with partnering merchants, both in-store and online.

The company claims to pride itself on letting consumers earn cash back automatically, without having to take extra steps, such as scanning receipts.

How to earn passive income with it: Download the Dosh app and link your credit or debit card to it to start earning rewards.

Your earnings will be deposited directly into your Dosh wallet; you can cash them out once you meet the minimum payout threshold.

Types of rewards earned: Cash (via PayPal, Venmo, or bank transfer). You can cash out at $15.

Sign-up requirements: You must be 18+ years old, reside in the United States, and have a US-based, non-VoIP mobile number.

Where to download Dosh

App Store Google Play

What it is: Fluz is another cashback app. When you buy something through their service, you’ll technically buy a gift card from them to pay for it. Fluz will then give you rewards for the purchase of the card.

How to earn passive income with it: Sign up with Fluz and link your bank account to the app to begin earning money passively when you make everyday purchases.

To maximize your earnings, you can also invite your friends and family to join Fluz by sending them an invite link or a referral code (click “Share Fluz” on your Home Tab to find the invite link or referral code). People who join Fluz using your invite link or referral code will be part of your network. Each time one of them buys something, you’ll earn 0.03%–0.3% of what they spent (depending on what they bought).

To qualify for this referral feature, you must have spent at least $10 on Fluz yourself, and must continue spending at least $15 every month. There’s no limit on how many people you can invite.

Types of rewards earned: Cash (via bank transfer / ACH, PayPal, Venmo, or virtual debit card transfer).

Sign-up requirements: You must be 18+ years old, have a smartphone, and have a credit card or debit card in your name.

Where to download Fluz

App Store Google Play

What it is: Robinhood is a commission-free investing and trading platform (i.e., a brokerage) that also offers its own cashback debit card, the Robinhood Gold Card. This platform lets you purchase and trade stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies. You can begin investing with just $1.

Note about investing as a side hustle: Investing is arguably the best and easiest way of generating passive income—it isn’t really a side hustle, but it is part of looking after your overall financial health. If you invest your money into something reasonably safe (like a fund that tracks the performance of the stock market, which tends to go up over time), you’ll probably earn money in the long term.

However, the words “long term” are very important: all investments come with an element of risk, and particularly in the short term, you could lose anything you invest. This risk is compounded if you make wild gambles on volatile assets, such as crypto.

Don’t jump into investing without doing your homework. It’s worth spending some extra time researching beforehand to make sure you know what you’re doing.

How to earn passive income with it: When you’re ready to start investing, create a Robinhood account and wait for the platform to approve your application. Withdrawing cash from your account is free, but ordinary withdrawals take a few days to process; instant withdrawals come with a 1.75% fee.

You can also earn cash back if you have the Robinhood Gold Card. This offers 3% on all purchases and up to 5% on eligible travel purchases. Once your 30-day free trial ends, you’ll need to pay a $5 monthly fee to access the Robinhood Gold premium services.

Sign-up requirements: You must be 18+ years old, a US citizen or permanent resident, and have a valid Social Security number (SSN) and a legal residential address.

Where to download Robinhood

App Store Google Play

What it is: Acorns is another popular investing app and brokerage. Their selling point is that they make it easy to use your spare change to begin investing.

The way this works is, you’ll link a credit or debit card to your Acorns account. Each time you make a purchase, the app will automatically round up the charge to the nearest dollar and invest the money for you.

Unfortunately, the app doesn’t allow you to trade individual stocks (or funds) with a basic account. Instead, you’ll have to choose from a selection of prepared portfolios. If you want to manage your own portfolio, you’ll need to spring for a premium account, as described below.

Other things you should know: You can open a checking account and a debit card with Acorns, so if you prefer, you can manage your money all in one place.

How to earn passive income with it: Create an account and link at least one credit or debit card to begin putting your spare change to work. Opening an account is technically free, but to actually use any of Acorns’s features, you’ll need to opt into one of three subscription tiers, which start at $3 per month (for a basic plan) and range all the way up to $12 per month (for a premium plan).

This is fairly expensive, especially given how many free brokerages there are out there. However, if you need Acorns’ automatic deposits to motivate yourself to invest, it could still be worth it—at least when you’re just starting out on your investing journey.

Sign-up requirements: You must be 18+ years old and a US citizen or permanent resident. You also must have a valid Social Security number (SSN) or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), a legal residential address, and a bank account.

Where to download Acorns

App Store Google Play

What it is: If you’re interested in cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.), you can look into Binance, which is an online crypto trading platform.

Cryptocurrency is a volatile asset, and we don’t recommend investing in it. That’s because it’s essentially a form of price speculation—buying something and gambling that it will go up in value purely because other people will get interested in it, not because the actual asset is generating any value.

However, if you’ve already decided that you want to step into the world of cryptocurrency, Binance is one of the more reputable apps you can use to do so.

How to earn passive income with it: Click “Register” on the Binance website and follow the instructions to sign up with them.

To reiterate, while it’s possible to generate passive income from investing in crypto, there’s also a very real risk of losing money. Don’t deposit any cash on Binance that you aren’t emotionally and financially prepared to lose.

Sign-up requirements: US users must be 18+ years old and have a valid Social Security number (SSN), home address, and email address.

Where to download Binance

App Store Google Play

What it is: Arrived Homes is an online investing platform that focuses on rental homes. You can buy fractional shares of pre-vetted rentals for as little as $100. The platform offers two types of rental properties: single-family residences and vacation rentals.

How to earn passive income with it: If you’re an investor, you’ll receive returns in the form of monthly dividends or capital gains (increases in the property’s value over time).

Be aware that investments on Arrived Homes come with associated fees, such as property management fees. You won’t have to pay them out of your own pocket, but they’ll come out of your returns.

This means that the money you’ll earn on your Arrived Homes investment might be lower than what you’d get if you simply deposited your cash into a high-yield savings account (or somewhere else relatively safe, such as a money market account).

Thoroughly research Arrived Homes before you try to earn passive income with them. As you’re probably gathering, this is something of a theme with all investment apps—it’s very important to do your due diligence before you commit.

Sign-up requirements: You must be 18+ years old and a US citizen or permanent resident.

Where to download Arrived Homes

App Store

Arrived Homes is not currently available for Android devices.

What it is: Prosper is a peer-to-peer lending platform that connects lenders and borrowers. It offers personal loans, business loans, student loans, and home equity loans.

How to earn passive income with it: As an investor, you can invest (e.g., chip in with your own money) in small portions of different types of loans with just $25. Depending on how hands-on you want to be, you can select the loans you’d like to invest in yourself or use a preset investment portfolio.

If you choose to auto-invest, Prosper will also automatically reinvest the interest you earn in new loans.

To get started, open a Prosper account, link your bank account to it, and pick your investments to start earning interest each month.

Sign-up requirements: You must be 18+ years old, a US citizen or permanent resident, and have a valid Social Security number (SSN) or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) and a checking or savings account.

Where to download Prosper

App Store Google Play

What it is: OnMyWay is an app that will reward you for driving safely (i.e., not texting or using distracting apps while driving).

How to earn passive income with it: OnMyWay activates automatically when you drive over 10 miles per hour. It pays you $0.02 for every mile you drive safely (i.e., without opening a texting app). You can still take calls via Bluetooth or access certain apps, such as your GPS-enabled map and music players like Spotify, but you can only actively use them while the car is stopped.

You’ll also earn a one-time $2 bonus each time someone you refer signs up, as well as $.02 for every mile that they drive safely.

You can link a bank account or up to three credit cards to your OnMayWay account to receive your earnings. However, there is a catch: you can only use the money to purchase items from OnMyWay’s partnered stores (which you can view in the app).

Sign-up requirements: You must be 15+ years old. If you’re under 18, you must register with your parent or guardian’s approval.

Where to download OnMyWay

App Store Google Play

What it is: Money SMS is an app developed by TelQ Telecom GmnH, a German telecom service provider. The app lets users earn money by receiving texts from the Money SMS network and their customers.

Telecom providers often send test messages to foreign countries to check if their service is working properly. That’s what you’ll be helping Money SMS with—and they’ll pay you for it, although you’ll make relatively modest amounts.

How to earn passive income with it: Download and register with the app to start receiving paid SMSes from them. They’ll pay you €0.02 (about 2.2 cents) for each SMS you receive.

The company doesn’t state how many SMSes you’ll get or when you’ll receive them. Be sure to keep the app running and your connection active so that you don’t miss any.

Types of rewards earned: Cash (via PayPal), Bitcoin, and Litecoin. The minimum payout threshold is €2.

Sign-up requirements: You must be of legal age in your country.

Where to sign up: Although Money SMS is a legit app, it’s not currently available on Google Play (and it isn’t available for Apple devices at all). You can download it for Android via Money SMS’s homepage.