Top 22 Free Money Making Apps in 2024
These days, most of us have two things in common — we all like making some extra money on the side, and all of us spend an enormous amount of time on our phones. Well, what if you could combine the two for ultimate profit?
Yep, there are plenty of free money making apps out there — all you’ve got to do is to select the best ones. And we’re going to help you with that by showcasing almost two dozen of our favorites right here! Depending on how you spend your time and whether you want to use your phone for passive or active earning, all of these are excellent choices.
With that in mind, in no particular order, let’s take a look at these top picks!
Do you want to start trading Forex? Open an account on Roboforex!Swagbucks — $10 Sign-Up Bonus
If you’ve ever searched for money making apps, you’re bound to have come across Swagbucks. It’s one of the most popular choices out there — and not only does it provide you with half a dozen ways to earn money without ever leaving your chair, but the app also gives you a $10 sign-up bonus.
So, how do you earn money on this app? Well, by playing games, responding to quick surveys, watching videos, buying and selling items at specific shops, or just browsing specific webpages.
Once you earn some of the eponymous SwagBucks, you can easily redeem them for actual money deposited to you through PayPal.
MyPoints — Quick 10€ and other gifts
This is another alternative to SwagBucks that we’ve reviewed above — and it’s particularly effective for European users, because it natively pays out in Euros. That means you won’t have to lower your earnings due to currency conversions upon payout.
Once you install the app and start using it on a regular basis, you’ll find that you can accumulate points fairly quickly. And these aren’t just redeemable for cash — you can also receive both physical and digital gifts, as well as digital gift cards. You won’t exactly get rich off this app, but you can earn a couple of hundred bucks through it on an annual basis — and that’s not anything to scoff at.
Interactive Brokers - Best Stock Investing App
If you’re looking to earn a passive income through money making apps, and you’re ready to learn about the intricate world of finance — finding a great stock investing app is probably the best way to go.
Interactive Brokers is one of the world’s most reputable trading platforms, allowing you easy access to countless financial markets and pretty much every commodity that’s regularly traded online. However, bear in mind that Interactive Brokers is not an app for beginners — the learning curve is fairly steep, and we don’t recommend investing a huge chunk of your savings all at once. Start small, and you’ll soon be on your way to building wealth.
Pinecone Search
Plenty of the money making apps we’ll feature here allow you to make money through various actions — and a huge chunk of them have survey features. The basic principle is fairly simple: you go through a survey regarding a product or service, and the app pays you a certain rate for your trouble.
Pinecone Search separates itself from other polling apps because it has a very transparent, easily understandable payout system. You don’t have surveys available all the time throughout the day — but when you do, you get $3 for each survey. A lump sum — as simple as that.
Ebates — Best Digital Rebate App
You may have heard of this digital reward and cash-back platform for desktop computers — but you may not have known that Ebates exists as a mobile app as well. Their payout policy is generous and easy to make use of.
The concept is simple — you buy digital and physical items in various stores through Ebates — and the platform earns their profit by referring you to the store. In return, they give you cash rebates and special promotions throughout the year. There are instances where you can get as much as 12% of your purchase back! Plus, their coupons can be stacked for even more savings.
Ibotta — Best Food and Groceries Rebate App
When you start shopping for consumer goods, clothing, and digital items, you can get plenty of your money back through Ebate rebates. But what happens when you want to buy some basic stuff, like groceries and food?
That's where the Ibotta app comes along to help you achieve savings in that category as well. It’s popular around the world, and its “food stamp” program covers plenty of food items we all buy every day. Plus, there’s an extensive affiliate program that saves you even more money by inviting friends to become users as well.
Dosh
One of the downsides of free money making apps is that they can be awfully fiddly — you have to keep your receipts and then scan them, while extensively keeping track of every purchase. However, that’s not the case with Dosh.
Its simplicity is the app’s main selling point — it gives you cash back automatically in thousands of different stores and places where you dine, book hotels, and shop. You don’t need to fidget with receipts or coupons — just download Dosh and start using it. And it’s compatible with Jelli and Venmo as well, for added ease of use!
Acorns — Best Savings App
If you’re like most people, saving money is not something that comes naturally and intuitively to you. Luckily, there are more and more apps that turn your spare change into a passive income and long-term savings opportunity. And Acorns is definitely one of the best ones on that list, allowing you to set up investment accounts for your family and yourself in just 5 minutes!
Plus, you can use it for checking, retirement, and as a learning base for creating a steady passive income! It takes about five bucks a month, and it turns that small amount of money into a comfortable safety net.
Rover — Best Dog Walking App
Dogs are absolutely lovely — and as cynical as this may seem, they can also be a great side gig opportunity if you’ve got an hour or two of spare time during the week. If you love playing with every single doggo, you can use Rover — an app that connects dog lovers with people who need dog sitting and pet walking services.
Start monetizing your free time by signing up and becoming a part-time, freelance dog sitter. You’re free to set up your schedule any way you see fit — and you’re in control of the services and prices as well.
Skillz Mobile Games
Many of us spend a huge amount of our (already considerable) phone time on playing mobile games. And how can we not? Graphics and gameplay design have come a long way since the days of rudimentary games on your old Nokia phone.
But did you know apps like Skillz Mobile Games allow you to actually earn cash by playing games? Sure, you’re limited to the specific games on the platform — but there are hundreds of different games available, all stacked with actual cash prizes. There’s only one catch — the Skillz Mobile Games app is only available in the United States.
Mistplay
Here’s another app that lets you earn money by playing its games — but unlike our previous pick, Mistplay casts a wider net in terms of users that it’s available to. In fact, Mistplay has been downloaded from the Google Play store a staggering ten million times. And since its inception, it’s paid out around $9 million to its games in rewards.
The premise is fairly simple — you download the app, and you can immediately start playing games on it. As you do, you earn Mistplay points, and these points can be redeemed in exchange for gift cards like Visa Prepaid cards, Amazon gift cards, etc. And it’s available in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States!
InboxDollars
Here’s another app that provides you tons of great rewards. InboxDollars is fairly similar to Swagbucks — and they’ve got millions of different members, all of whom have received a collective $60 million in cash from the platform so far.
All you have to do is to create a free account, fill your profile, and start playing games, taking surveys, reading emails, watching videos, redeeming coupons, and shopping at various stores. Once you earn enough points, you can redeem them for cash through PayPal, or you can get valuable gift cards usable on various online shopping platforms. It only works for US citizens, though.
Sweatcoin
Sure, it’s great to earn a passive income by doing nothing at all — but did you know you could actually earn money by exercising? You’re killing two birds with one stone here — keeping yourself healthy and financially sound at the same time!
The app that allows you to do this is called Sweatcoin. As you exercise and walk, you earn points — the titular Sweatcoins. Later, you can redeem these for anything from free Yoga classes to cash and various merchandise. A thousand steps will get you, at the current rate, 0.95 sweatcoins. So what are you waiting for? Install it, and start walking and earning!
Rakuten
This is one of the finest cash back apps out there — allowing you to earn money by doing the stuff you do already: shop at your favorite stores.
And Rakuten is a great app because it collaborates with the likes of Sephora, Macy’s, and Walmart. When you use Rakuten to purchase something from them, you can get as much as 40% of your purchase back! All digital purchases are tracked automatically, so there’s no fiddling with scanning receipts or keeping them. If you find someone to refer you, there’s even a $30 welcome bonus. The only tricky part is that it only works in Canada and the United States.
Instacart
This is another great side hustle app, allowing you to make money by preparing grocery orders or physically shopping for people in stores and delivering the goods to their home addresses. As a full-service shopper, you’re acting as an independent contractor — allowing you to only work when your schedule allows it. Plus, you get payments for each batch of completed orders and all of the customer tips go to you.
Trim Financial Manager
This is a very unique money making app that acts as your personal assistant — and it’s there to save you money on medical, Internet, phone, and cable bills across the United States. Trim will automatically negotiate all of your ongoing accounts to make sure you’re paying the absolutely lowest possible costs for each service. You just sign up, and link the details of your bank account. Once you receive your next bill, Trim will do its magic to save you a ton of money each month.
KashKick
This is another website that allows you to get paid with small amounts of money for extremely easy activities — some of which you’re already doing for free anyway. Watching videos, responding to surveys, surfing the web, and finding online deals — all of it gives you money with KashKick. Just create an account and see what opportunities are currently available on the KashKick dashboard. When your balance goes above $10, you’ll be able to withdraw the money.
Opinion Outpost
Opinion Outpost is one of the biggest market research panels for huge corporations — and it represents a decent money making app for individuals who participate in their surveys, test products, and watch adverts. When you complete the sign-up process, Opinion Outpost will start providing you with surveys and other content from their partners. And when you interact with it, you’ll get points. Once you go above $5 in points, you can redeem your funds through PayPal and various gift cards.
Fiverr
Many of us have plenty of marketable skills that we aren’t even aware of. And while you don’t want to use these skills to find a full-time job because you may already have one, you can use your free time and marketable skills to land plenty of one-time gigs on websites and money making apps like Fiverr.
Of course, this type of app is a bit more demanding because the amount you earn will depend on the kinds of tasks you’re able to do.
DoorDash
Here’s another app that’s great for people that don’t mind doing some harder work in their spare time. If you live in Canada and the United States, chances are you’ve already heard of DoorDash — it’s one of the premier food delivery apps in North America. And the app is also an excellent side hustle for people that want extra money without dealing with yet another boss.
If you start delivering food in your area via scooter, bike, or car — you can earn as much as $20 per hour!
What is the Best App To Make Money?
These dazs, around 35% of all the workers in the United States are a part of the gig economy in one way or another. And the plentiful number of money making apps that are available these days have done wonders for getting many people the extra money they need.
However, there’s no singular best app that is better than all others at helping you earn money. The app that’s best for you will depend on what your personal financial goals are. For instance, some apps can help you find work that you will use to achieve total financial independence. On the other hand, apps can fund your favorite hobby, supplement your current income, or help you pay off some of your debt. It all depends on what you want to achieve.
How to Choose the Right Money Making App?
As you might have been able to see from the apps we’ve listed above, different people are comfortable with different money making apps. There are plenty of factors that affect what kind of app you’ll opt for.
For one, the amount of free time you’re ready to invest in this type of income matters a lot. Someone who only wants to dedicate an hour a day to this type of stuff will be best off with one of the survey apps — while people who have more free time to dedicate to this might want to look into copy trading apps or financial trading in general.
Plus, the amount of energy you’re ready to put into this matters a lot too. Apps like DoorDash can help you earn a ton of money, but they’re basically another job.
How much can I earn?
Before you’ll know what kind of earnings you can expect from these apps, you’ll have to take the stuff we’ve considered above into account as well. For instance, the rebate apps we’ve listed here don’t give you an additional income in the form of an hourly rate — they give you rebates on the stuff you’re buying anyways. So, in that case, your income from the app will depend on how many things you’re buying.
On the other hand, apps like the survey viewers or paid gaming won’t bring you a lot of money — but they’re fairly consistent, and the work is basically effortless. With those money making apps, you can earn a few bucks an hour. Still, stuff like DoorDash or Interactive Brokers can give you anything from $20 an hour to huge long-term earnings — you just need to be ready to learn and spend a lot of time on this side gig.
Summary
There are plenty of free money making apps out there: survey apps, paid gaming apps, rebate apps, financial trading apps, and others. All of them can be a great source of both active and passive income, as long as you know what you’re doing and how much money you can expect from each one.
FAQs
Which app gives real money for free?
Cash back apps are great for rebates on your real-life purchases, and gig apps like Swagbucks pay real money as well.
What is the number 1 money-making app?
If you’re ready to work freelance, Fiverr and Upwork will probably bring you the most money.
How can I earn fast money?
Apps that provide microtasks in exchange for small amounts of money tend to pay out fast.
How can I get money from Paypal?
Most of the apps we’ve listed here support PayPal as a withdrawal method.
Glossary for novice traders
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1
Broker
A broker is a legal entity or individual that performs as an intermediary when making trades in the financial markets. Private investors cannot trade without a broker, since only brokers can execute trades on the exchanges.
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Trading
Trading involves the act of buying and selling financial assets like stocks, currencies, or commodities with the intention of profiting from market price fluctuations. Traders employ various strategies, analysis techniques, and risk management practices to make informed decisions and optimize their chances of success in the financial markets.
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Extra
Xetra is a German Stock Exchange trading system that the Frankfurt Stock Exchange operates. Deutsche Börse is the parent company of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
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4
CFD
CFD is a contract between an investor/trader and seller that demonstrates that the trader will need to pay the price difference between the current value of the asset and its value at the time of contract to the seller.
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5
Index
Index in trading is the measure of the performance of a group of stocks, which can include the assets and securities in it.
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Team that worked on the article
A professional English-Spanish translator, writer, proofreader, transcriber. Jose Antonio Gastelum offers his services for website content, blogs, research papers, documents, books and manuals about technology, finance, investment, tourism and insurance. In addition, he has some experience in web and app development, content marketing and SEO optimization.
Olga Shendetskaya has been a part of the Traders Union team as an author, editor and proofreader since 2017. Since 2020, Shendetskaya has been the assistant chief editor of the website of Traders Union, an international association of traders. She has over 10 years of experience of working with economic and financial texts. In the period of 2017-2020, Olga has worked as a journalist and editor of laftNews news agency, economic and financial news sections. At the moment, Olga is a part of the team of top industry experts involved in creation of educational articles in finance and investment, overseeing their writing and publication on the Traders Union website.
Mirjan Hipolito is a journalist and news editor at Traders Union. She is an expert crypto writer with five years of experience in the financial markets. Her specialties are daily market news, price predictions, and Initial Coin Offerings (ICO).