9 Best Apps to Make Money Fast – Real Cash Payouts!
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With inflation a little above 2%, who couldn’t use extra money these days? While some people turn to start a side hustle to make money, not everyone has that kind of spare time. Still, there are plenty of ways to make some extra coins in your free time, including with apps on Android and iOS. No matter your needs or interests, here is a review of the best money-making apps.
In this article
Overview of the best money-making apps
- Best for making money playing games: Mistplay
- Best for students: Swagbucks
- Best for survey fans: InboxDollars
- Best for grocery shoppers looking to save: iBotta
- Best for online shoppers seeking cashback: Rakuten
- Best for in-person shoppers: Shopkick
- Best for small, automatic investments: Acorns
- Best for walkers who want to earn while they burn: Sweatcoin
- Best for selling old electronics: Decluttr
Compare the best money-making apps
App | Service | Mobile Platform | Payouts |
Play games and use apps | Android | Gift cards, cash | |
Play video games, watch ads or take surveys | Android/iOS | Gift cards, cash | |
Online surveys | Android/iOS | Gift cards, cash | |
Cashback on purchases | Android/iOS | Gift cards, cash | |
Cashback on purchases | Android/iOS | Cash | |
Coupons and deals at retailers | Android/iOS | Gift Cards | |
Rounds up purchases and invests the difference | Android/iOS | Cash | |
Earn points for every step you walk | Android/iOS | Virtual Currency | |
Sell items to make money | Android/iOS | Cash |
Best for making money playing games: Mistplay
Pros & cons
Pros
- Free app.
- Offers several games to choose from.
- You can redeem points for gift cards.
Cons
- Low redemption values.
- Games are region-specific.
If you like the sound of free money just for having your user data accessed to improve different mobile apps and games, then Mistplay is the money-making app for you. Each month, you’ll play various games and use various apps, earning reward points. Once you’ve accrued enough reward points, you’ll be able to get a payout for your time spent.
One nice thing about Mistplay is that it’s just an added layer to many things you already do on your phone. Unlike other apps that require you to do specific tasks to earn cash rewards, Mistplay silently works in the background.
Mistplay is only available for Android users, so if you’re rocking the new iPhone 16, you’ll need to look elsewhere for extra cash. Once you’ve downloaded the app from the Google Play Store, you only need to create a new account and start earning. If you like to play games on your phone already, the card games and strategy games Mistplay offers will be a welcome addition to your existing game rotation.
To use Mistplay, you must be at least 13 years old and live in the United States, Canada, or many European countries. Additionally, you should know that you can only cap $50 a month using the app. That $50 can be spent on rewards like Steam credit or retailer gift cards.
Or read Joywallet's review of Mistplay.
- Get paid to answer surveys. Anytime. Anywhere.
- Share your opinions by completing online surveys to earn extra cash. From single-question polls to 30-minute market research questionnaires, there's always time to earn Swagbucks.
- Cash back shopping online & in-store.
- Swagbucks is one of the most extensive shopping rewards programs on the internet. Find coupons, promo codes, deals, and cash back offers to your favorite stores. Combine with your preferred credit card to earn additional cash back.
- Entertainment that pays.
- From web browser games to our popular Swagbucks Daily Trivia app, you can get paid to play games. Create or discover the latest short videos on Swagit.
Best for students: Swagbucks
Pros & cons
Pros
- Free to use.
- Rewards can be redeemed for gift cards.
- Can help with routine shopping at retailers like Target.
Cons
- Not easy to qualify for all surveys.
- You need to be active and take action to earn the points regularly.
Swagbucks offers a variety of ways to earn money, making it one of the best apps if versatility is important to you. Most tasks you complete online via Swagbucks involve playing games, watching videos or ads, or taking surveys. In addition to having an app, you can also use Swagbucks on your laptop or desktop computer.
Swagbucks earnings are accrued via Swagbucks points, which can be redeemed for Amazon gift cards or sent to your PayPal account. From there, you can cash out your PayPal earnings by sending them to your bank account via direct deposit.
What Swagbucks offers in variety, it loses in terms of earning potential. Most tasks don’t pay much, although it’s possible to sort by how long they will take to complete or how much they pay to help hedge you best. Even so, you get $10 as a welcome bonus but with strings attached. With dedication, you may make up to $60 or $75 a month, which at least covers one of your utility bills or a night out with friends.
Due to its variety and lack of earning potential, Swagbucks is ideal for students looking to kill time riding the bus or between classes. If you work in a city and ride public transit, you may also find a way to fit Swagbucks into your daily routine. And, of course, you can always complete the tasks while watching Netflix, thanks to their simplicity.
Visit Swagbucks
Or read Joywallet's review of Swagbucks.
Make $500+ Your First Month With KashKick!
- Transparent information on each offer for earnings and tasks.
- Money is deposited quickly and securely
- Featured offers maximize earnings
- First-class referral program
Best for survey fans: InboxDollars
Pros & cons
Pros
- Multiple opportunities to make money.
- $5 signup bonus.
Cons
- Limited number of surveys available.
- Minimum cashout limit of $30.
If you’re interested in making money by taking online surveys, InboxDollars is a great platform. While you won’t necessarily qualify for all the surveys offered via the app, it can still be a simple, straightforward compliment to your full-time job.
Beyond offering surveys, you can also perform other tasks in the name of market research. Some of these are a bit more entertaining (such as watching a video or playing a game), while others, like reading emails, are less exciting. You can also earn money with InboxDollars by using their search engine or completing instant scratch-offs through the app.
So, can you make real money using InboxDollars? Some surveys may pay upwards of $5 for your time; however, many are less than a quarter. As such, InboxDollars is less of a way to generate a passive income and more of a way to save up some spare change.
To cash out with InboxDollars, you’ll need to have earned at least $30 using the app. Thankfully, when you create an account, you’ll get $5 just for joining, giving you a bit of a head start.
Visit InboxDollars
Or read Joywallet's review of InboxDollars.
Earn Real Money Fast by Filling Out Surveys!
- Sign up for FREE & complete your profile
- Earn points for taking surveys
- Redeem your points for cash or gift cards
- $55k+ Paid to Survey Junkie members daily
- Complete 3+ surveys a day, earn up to $100/mo.
Best for grocery shoppers looking to save: iBotta
Pros & cons
Pros
- Free app.
- Earn and save on items you plan to buy.
- 2,000 retail partners.
Cons
- Inactivity fees.
- Not all retailers have offers.
If you’re a frequent shopper looking for a rewards app that earns you cash back, iBotta is worth looking into. As a cashback app, it started in 2012 with a primary focus on grocery shopping; however, it’s now expanded to cover other retailers and brands, too. Some retailers offer a percentage of your cashback purchase, while others provide more coupon-like deals for a specific dollar amount.
You’ve got two options for verifying your purchases with iBotta to earn rewards. If you have a shopping loyalty card with the place you’re buying from, you can link your account with the iBotta app. Alternatively, you can take photos of your receipts with eligible purchases and submit them for approval.
Another way to make money with iBotta is to use their referral program. The app also has a welcome and referral bonus for new members. This is a great way to make an extra boost as you work to earn payouts via PayPal, gift card, or Venmo.
Visit iBotta
Or read Joywallet's review of iBotta.
Best for online shoppers seeking cashback: Rakuten
Pros & cons
Pros
- Cash back rewards on gift cards
- Different ways to save.
- Referral awards.
- Influencer program.
Cons
- Spend money to make money.
- The payment is processed once in three months.
Rakuten is a cashback app and browser extension that makes it easy to earn money while shopping online. Formerly known as Ebates, once Rakuten is installed on your device, you’ll easily create a shopping trip through Rakuten and earn that bonus whenever you're browsing a website with eligible cashback options. While cashback percentages can vary from retailer to retailer, some websites offer as much as 10% or even 25% back.
Beyond being super easy, Rakuten is also beneficial as a platform that stacks with other apps on this list, thanks to its pop-up nature. For example, you can earn additional savings by shopping with Rakuten, submitting your receipt to iBotta or another platform, and “double-dipping.” You can also stack Rakuten cashback with credit card cash-back categories for even more bonus bucks!
The biggest perks of using Rakuten are the ability to stack your cashback offers with other apps and the fact that it’s such a seamless experience. There isn’t much effort involved in earning cashback with Rakuten other than clicking a button when savings are available.
One drawback of Rakuten is that you’re paid out quarterly instead of whenever you’re interested in withdrawing. If you’re patient, though, it’s worth the wait, considering some of the savings you can net. Payments are made via PayPal. You can also get a check mailed to you if you’d prefer to get paid that way.
Visit Rakuten
Or read Joywallet's review of Rakuten.
Best for in-person shoppers: Shopkick
Pros & cons
Pros
- Mobile app is easy to use.
- You can make money without visiting the store in person.
Cons
- Can only be used on a mobile device.
- Limited earning opportunities.
Do you love to browse stores — even if you have no intention of buying anything? If so, Shopkick is an app that you may want to look into. In addition to offering coupons and other deals to help you save money on your purchases, it also rewards you for just browsing through stores!
How does it work? In simplest terms, the Shopkick app allows you to earn a bit of pocket change by scanning items or checking into stores in your neighborhood. These earnings are accrued in the form of “Kicks.” Many Kicks are straightforward check-ins at places where you might be running errands already.
Beyond earning Kicks for checking in at a specific retailer, you can also earn extra Kicks for scanning your receipts and barcodes of items in the store. While it’s awesome to earn free money just for showing up at a store, one limitation of Shopkick is how rewards are paid out. You can only exchange your Kicks for gift cards, which means that things are a bit narrow in how you can spend your money.
If you run many errands, Shopkick can be a great way to earn some extra pocket change. On the other hand, if you’re prone to impulse buys, Shopkick could encourage spending at places you wouldn’t otherwise visit.
Visit Shopkick
Or read Joywallet's review of Shopkick.
Best for small, automatic investments: Acorns
Pros & cons
Pros
- Easy to use.
- Automated investing.
- All accounts in one place.
Cons
- Only five investment portfolio options.
- High fees.
One of the only investment apps on this list, Acorns is also a sneaky savings tool. Once you set your investment goals and link up your bank account, you’ll be on autopilot to earn some extra money by making small investments in the stock market that slowly snowball and grow thanks to your contributions and compound interest.
How does Acorns accomplish this? It does this by automatically rounding up every purchase you make and investing the difference. For example, if you head to Target or Walmart and your total purchase is $43.18, Acorns will round the purchase up to $44, investing the difference of $0.82.
While Acorns doesn’t give you free money like other platforms when you use it, it is a way to save some spare change in a virtual piggy bank. Thanks to stock market gains, the only significant difference is that your money may grow more in this account than in a standalone piggy bank.
Acorns also offers a $10 welcome bonus when you create your account, and there are often referral bonuses. Even so, with fees ranging from around $3, $6, and $12 per month, as you’re starting, you may have a significant amount of your account eaten up by these fees until you’ve created more of a financial buffer.
Visit Acorns
Or read Joywallet's review of Acorns.
- In under 3 minutes, start investing spare change, saving for retirement, earning more, spending smarter, and more.
- Make your first successful Recurring Investment (min $5) - get your $20 bonus within 10 days of following month
- Over 13M All-Time Customers
- Over $22B Invested
Best for walkers who want to earn while they burn: Sweatcoin
Pros & cons
Pros
- Make money while you walk.
- Does not require you to set aside time to earn coins.
- Easy to use.
- Redeem the coins for products.
Cons
- Not totally free.
- May not be suitable for everyone.
Do you walk a lot? Did you buy a Fitbit but need some extra incentive to get those legs moving? Sweatcoin might be able to incentivize your walking goals.
Sweatcoin is an app that pays you to walk, which admittedly sounds too good to be true. However, it works as advertised! You start by downloading the app and creating an account. From there, you allow Sweatcoin to run in the background of your phone and track your steps. As you walk, you earn 1 “sweatcoin” for every 1,000 steps. This means that if you’re hitting your 10,000-step goal each day, you can earn 10 sweatcoins a day.
Sweatcoin has two plans. The free plan lets you earn 1 sweatcoin for every 1,052 steps but caps your earnings at 10 sweatcoins a day. The premium tier, which costs $4.99 per month, allows you to earn 2x sweatcoins from the same numbers of steps, and it doesn't limit your daily earnings potential.
What can you do with those sweatcoins? Each day, there are various deals that you can redeem your hard-earned sweatcoins for, ranging from fitness products to restaurant gift cards and access to discounts on iPhones and Apple Watches.
Visit Sweatcoin
Best for selling old electronics: Decluttr
Pros & cons
Pros
- Get rid of old items.
- Ship them for free.
- Minimum cashout at $5.
Cons
- Low payout on the items shipped.
- Do not receive the item back if it is not accepted.
- Possibility of earning more on the items than the amount paid by Decluttr.
Especially nowadays, there are so many technological advancements that even a late adopter of new tech probably has some extra electronics around their home. If you’ve graduated from CDs and DVDs to services like Spotify and Netflix, your old items may occupy extra space and gather dust. Decluttr is an app that lets you sell these items to make some extra money.
Used items you can sell through the Decluttr app include video games, Blu-rays, DVDs, CDs, books, tablets, and phones. Download the app, decide what you want to sell, use the app to scan the item's barcode, and you'll get an offer on it!
After accepting an offer, you ship the item off (for free!) to its new destination. Decluttr has a limit of 500 items per order, so if you’re selling off your prized DVD collection, you may need to do it in batches.
In terms of what you can make selling to Decluttr, it depends on what you have. Some DVDs and books pay as little as $0.15, while others pay closer to $1 or $2. Video game consoles and tablets offer prices up to $200 depending on what you’re selling. Decluttr offers payment via check, PayPal, and direct deposit once you’ve earned at least $5.
The only major drawback is that you can't get back if you ship your items to Decluttr and they aren’t accepted due to their condition or functionality. While this ensures that Decluttr doesn’t get scammed by people sending broken tablets or other items their way, it can be a major drag if you don’t want to test all of your CDs and DVDs before shipping them.
Make $500+ Your First Month With KashKick!
- Transparent information on each offer for earnings and tasks.
- Money is deposited quickly and securely
- Featured offers maximize earnings
- First-class referral program
How much money can you make from these apps
It is advisable to be very clear about this right from the beginning. You will not make a lot of money to be able to leave your full time job or to pay your bills. You cannot get rich with these apps. Only use these apps in your free time and consider them as small savings. They are ideal for when you are commuting, watching Netflix or simply waiting for your pizza to be delivered.
Why you should (or shouldn’t) use these apps
If you could get used to any of the apps above, then it’s worth looking into them. Whether you’re taking surveys, watching videos, playing games, or walking, there are many different ways to save up a little extra coin each month. While earning $50 extra each month isn’t a huge amount, if it’s applied as an extra payment amount on a loan, you may find yourself paying that loan down much faster.
You shouldn’t use these apps if you really need to be looking for a more serious side hustle. While the apps on this list are a great way to get some extra pocket change or cover a utility bill, they won’t cover all your living expenses. If you’re looking for an app to make more consistent, bankable income, consider signing up for a platform like DoorDash, GrubHub, or Uber.
Make $500+ Your First Month With KashKick!
- Transparent information on each offer for earnings and tasks.
- Money is deposited quickly and securely
- Featured offers maximize earnings
- First-class referral program
FAQs
Are the apps on this list legit?
Yes! The apps on this list are not scams and offer legitimate ways to earn extra money.
Can you earn a lot with these apps?
It depends on your definition of “a lot.” Nobody will get rich or even be able to quit their full-time or part-time job with any of these apps. However, if you’re trying to accelerate debt paydown or increase your monthly savings or budget for eating out, the apps on this list can help you reach that goal a bit faster.
Is my information secure when using the apps above?
All of the apps on this list use encryption to protect your banking information and other data in terms of financial security. Some personal information may be collected if you’re using Mistplay or completing market research tasks, though.
The bottom line
The apps above make earning extra cash back or other perks relatively easy. They are portable, another major boon, especially if you commute on public transportation often. While you won’t get rich using any of these apps, they definitely could play a role in your overall financial goals. From increasing savings to paying off debt faster, every little bit helps. As such, if any of the above apps seem exciting to you, they’re definitely worth looking into.
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Writer
Brent Ervin-Eickhoff is a Chicago-based writer, stage director, and filmmaker with a background in digital marketing and content creation. In addition to Joy Wallet, Brent has written for Complex, Volkswagen, HowlRound, Picture this Post, and Third Coast Review, among others. He currently serves as the Associate Director of Marketing for Content Creation at Court Theatre at the University of Chicago. Brent graduated from Ball State University with Academic Honors in Writing.
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