8 Games That Pay Real Money Fast Via PayPal (Plus Gift Cards and Other Rewards)

Freecash promises to pay you for testing games, including “the best casual games, MMORPGs, sports games, and just about every other genre available.”

It tops our December list of the 3 best apps due to its active online community, especially the r/FreeCash subreddit, which is actively maintained by the game’s staff and has over 44,000 members.

Freecash includes an Android app and a web version you can use with your browser.

Freecash promises to pay you for other tasks in addition to games. These tasks include:

• Downloading apps
• Signing up for websites
• Watching videos

Freecash may offer you a signup bonus, but the amount will vary, so it’s not completely clear how much you’ll get.

Another point of confusion is the exact amount you need to withdraw for the first time, which is also variable, depending on where you’re located and when you join.

However, Freecash does guarantee fast payouts. They say that rewards typically arrive instantly, though there are occasional instances where processing can take up to 30 minutes.

People on Reddit are enjoying KashKick this month, with some saying they prefer it to Swagbucks—one of the most famous microtasking platforms out there (which we also mention later on our list). There’s also plenty going on in the official KashKick Facebook group, which has 26,000 followers.

KashKick includes apps for both Android and iOS devices as well as a website. It focuses mainly on surveys but also features games and a few other tasks.

This platform promises fairly quick payouts, as it says your money will typically take 1–3 days to arrive. When we tested the site ourselves, we were indeed able to get our rewards within this timeframe.

However, it took us quite a long time to actually reach the redemption threshold (which was $10 when we tried out the site).

Scrambly is another platform getting quite a lot of attention online this month—although maybe not quite as much as Freecash. We recommend keeping an eye on Scrambly social media for promo codes with free rewards and other offers, which have been forthcoming this month.

Scrambly usually offers a signup bonus, and it features a wide range of games, including puzzle games, strategy games, casino games, and arcade games.

It also includes offer signups as an extra way to reap rewards. Perhaps best of all, it promises “lightning-fast cashouts.” These are a major selling point of the platform, making it one of the fastest ways to earn by playing games.

You can use the Scrambly app with either Android or iOS devices, and it also has a web-based version for browsers.

Mistplay is a top choice among paid gaming opportunities. And, unlike many apps on this list that are available only for Android mobile devices, Mistplay has both Android and iOS versions (so it’s suitable for iPhone and iPad users).

Mistplay is free to use, and offers games in a wide variety of genres, such as:

• Strategy games
• Adventure games and RPGs
• Simulation and tycoon games
• Puzzle and brain games

You can download these games via the Mistplay app and then play to earn Units, which are Mistplay credits redeemable for rewards. When redemption time rolls around, you can exchange your Units for PayPal cash or redeem them via other payment methods.

When you sign up for Mistplay, it gives you a welcome bonus to get you started. When you’re ready to cash out, Mistplay says that your PayPal reward should normally arrive within 48 hours of your redemption.

Cash Giraffe is one more app that works with Android and iOS devices. It focuses mainly on games, but it may also offer more ways to earn, such as surveys and other apps to download.

If you get a signup bonus with this platform, it’s unlikely to be an impressive one, but you should still be able to cash out pretty quickly. If you use PayPal to withdraw, Cash Giraffe says you should get your money in less than 2 days.

Although Cash Giraffe doesn’t specify a set threshold for redemptions, and reports online vary regarding how much you need to cash out, some reports suggest that you should be able to cash out with less than $1 worth of rewards (although PayPal won’t necessarily be the fastest payment option).

Swagbucks is a little different from the other platforms we’ve seen so far. It doesn’t focus predominantly on games but offers a wide variety of paid tasks. Notably, surveys are a major focus, and Swagbucks is arguably one of the best platforms for taking paid surveys.

We’ve already mentioned that free apps and websites like Swagbucks are often described as “microtasking platforms.” Swagbucks may sometimes also be referred to as a cash-back app, passive income app, or receipt-scanning app (as it rewards users for making qualifying purchases and uploading receipts).

PayPal is one of the payment methods Swagbucks includes for redeeming rewards, but it also has redemption via prepaid debit cards or gift cards (or even charity donations).

If you want to get paid ASAP, Swagbucks might not be as good as some other platforms we’ve mentioned. It will probably expect you to meet a high minimum threshold for your first redemption (e.g., we had to reach the $15 mark), making it more difficult to cash out fast. However, the threshold may go down substantially after the first redemption, as this happened when we used the site ourselves.

After you struggle to the redemption threshold, you could then face another wait. Swagbucks says, for most users, payments take a couple of days to arrive, which is what happened when we redeemed Swagbucks rewards via PayPal. However, it also says you could wait up to 10 days to receive your reward in some cases, depending on which redemption method you pick.

InboxDollars is similar to Swagbucks, and it’s run by the same people; namely, a company called Prodege. Like Swagbucks, InboxDollars can be accessed via web browsers or mobile apps (for both iOS and Android devices), and it includes mostly the same payment methods Swagbucks does, with PayPal among them.

InboxDollars is also like Swagbucks in that it offers a wide variety of ways to earn. Surveys are a major focus (and, in our experience, tend to be the most lucrative task on these types of platforms), but there are also numerous games, including in-app games you can play via the InboxDollars platform itself and games that require you to download a separate app.

When we tested the platform, we managed to cash out within just 3–4 hours (partly because we got a generous $5 signup bonus to kickstart our earnings), so, with a bit of luck, you too may be able to get a quick redemption.

For InboxDollars withdrawals, processing times can vary, and they warn that you could wait up to 10 days. With that said, we got our payment within a day when we tried out the platform ourselves (although we redeemed via a virtual prepaid card as opposed to PayPal).

MyPoints is yet another Prodege platform featuring a variety of paid tasks in addition to games (e.g., offers, surveys, and online searches). Again, you may see many of the same games and offers that feature on Swagbucks and InboxDollars here.

Like the other Prodege platforms we’ve mentioned, MyPoints is available as a website or as a mobile app for either iOS or Android, and it offers mostly the same payment methods as InboxDollars and Swagbucks (including PayPal plus prepaid cards). It’s also another good way to get gift cards by playing games.

Again, MyPoints will likely have a high threshold for your first redemption (as it was $15 when we used the site ourselves). However, you may be able to withdraw smaller amounts for subsequent redemptions.

Once you cash out via PayPal, MyPoints’ website says you should allow up to 5 business days to receive your money.

If you look for other games that pay via PayPal, you might run into several that aren’t on our list. We chose not to include some popular games for relatively benign reasons (i.e., low payouts), but others failed to make the cut because they’re either broken (meaning they crash when you try to cash out) or are outright scams.

Make sure to research any other apps you’re thinking of trying carefully before downloading them.

Money Jewel

We recommend avoiding one game in particular: Money Jewel. We’ve included this note because this game is easy to find on Google—it appears prominently for searches like “games that pay via paypal”—but its reviews are overwhelmingly negative.

The makers of this jewel-themed matching game claim that it pays real cash, but users report that this isn’t the case. The app’s reviews complain that cashing out from Money Jewel requires reaching a very high earnings threshold ($200), and that once you do, the app requires you to watch a large number of ads (400) before it will release your earnings.

The handful of users who claim to have actually done this generally claim that the app crashes as soon as you finish, or that the required number of ads increases even further (e.g., to 500). We aren’t aware of a single legitimate report of someone successfully cashing out from Money Jewel.

Again, do your due diligence before downloading new apps, especially if they don’t have a well-established online presence.

If you haven’t already got a PayPal account up and running, you’ll need to do this before you can receive PayPal payments from gaming apps and websites.

If necessary, create a PayPal account with your name, email, address, and mobile number (which may also involve some verification steps during the setup process).

Note that you’ll also usually need to link your PayPal account to the platform you’re using for games before you can initiate payments.

Online games have pros and cons as a way to make money. Some of these are obvious, and others are less obvious.

Pros

• Fun: Entertainment value is an obvious upside to earning with gameplay. We’ve used many games from our list, and we found that they’re usually good fun.
• Convenient: You can play mobile games whenever and wherever you want, so you can easily fit them around your other commitments. They’re a great way to make money whenever you have a little downtime or even while you’re on the go, such as during commutes or while you’re queuing at the supermarket.
• Fast payments: Many online games pay real money instantly—or almost instantly. Some of the apps from our list promise payments within a day or even faster. This makes them a speedier way to get paid compared with many other earning opportunities.
• Get freebies: Many apps and websites on our list offer bonuses when you sign up with them. These signup bonus apps offer welcome gifts that can sometimes be as little as a few cents or, in the best-case scenarios, as much as $5 when you start using them.

Cons

• Poor earning potential: We’ve used many apps from our list, and we usually found that they were fun but yielded disappointing rewards. One common complaint with these apps is that users can initially earn a lot but then take longer and longer to accumulate rewards.
• In-app purchases and ads: We’ve presented a selection of apps that are completely free to download and use. However, as we’ve already highlighted, there are numerous apps that will tempt users to spend money on credits, cash tournaments, and other purchases. You may also have to watch ads in some cases (although we didn’t find this to be a major problem in our experience testing many such apps).
• Hidden fees: Gambling and tournament games, in particular, often have hidden fees for withdrawals and other hidden costs that might seem small but add up over time.
• Risk of overall loss: As we’ve already mentioned, the gambling and tournament-based games we’ve listed are very likely to end up losing you money overall instead of generating profits.
• Location restrictions: Many states have rules about gambling, which will affect your access to some of the games on this list. You may also have problems accessing some of them if you travel abroad.

Overall, while gaming apps can be a fun and convenient way to earn a little extra cash, they’re rarely a reliable source of income. If you enjoy playing and take the risks into account, they can be worthwhile.

However, if you’re looking for serious earning opportunities, there are many other money-making apps and more conventional side hustles that will pay better.