12 Apps That Pay You Real Money in 2025

If you want to start a side hustle, you might feel overwhelmed when researching your options. Ideas like starting an online business sound great on paer.

However, if you need to make money quickly and have a packed schedule, starting a business probably isn’t feasible.

Luckily, your next moneymaking idea might already be at your fingertips. There’s a variety of apps that pay you real money and free gift cards you can download to start making money today.

While many of these apps won’t seriously boost your monthly income, you can definitely make a positive difference in your finances when you combine several of them.

10 Apps That Actually Pay You Real Money

Here are the best apps you can download today to start getting paid:

Survey Junkie
InboxDollars
Swagbucks
Freecash
Capital One Shopping
Drop
Rakuten
Dosh
Ibotta
Fetch Rewards
Upside
ReceiptPal
DoorDash

Survey and Game Apps

If you want a fast way to make money in your spare time, survey and game apps are an excellent choice.

Companies are willing to pay for your feedback and to try new mobile games. These apps take more effort than cash-back reward apps but are perfect for using while you’re on the go or relaxing at home.

1. Survey Junkie

Many survey websites aren’t worth it because they barely pay anything and take months to redeem your earnings.

Thankfully, Survey Junkie, a leader in the paid survey space, sets the bar for what to look for in a survey website.

Once you create a free Survey Junkie account, you complete a questionnaire that helps match you to relevant surveys. This helps reduce your disqualification chances and also makes surveys more interesting. Considering many survey websites frequently disqualify you mid-survey, which wastes your time, this is a nice feature.

You can answer surveys from your computer, but Survey Junkie also has an Android and iOS app. You cash out through PayPal, direct transfer, or free gift cards. Additionally, you only need $5 in your account balance to cash out, which is realistic to earn after completing several surveys.

2. InboxDollars

InboxDollars is another paid survey website that you can use to earn extra cash in your spare time. However, unlike Survey Junkie, InboxDollars offers more than surveys, and lets you earn by:

Playing online games
Using scratch-and-win tickets
Answering polls and watching videos
Earning cash back for shopping
Trying coupon codes

There’s also a $5 sign-up bonus. You need $30 to cash out, but the variety of earning methods and sign-up bonus help you reach this requirement faster. Redemption options include PayPal or check.

If you want more earning options than Survey Junkie and Mistplay, InboxDollars’ Android or iOS app is definitely worth testing.

3. Swagbucks

If you like InboxDollars’ variety of earning options, Swagbucks is another popular platform you can use to earn rewards in your spare time.

Swagbucks is one of the most recognizable companies in the space and pays out 7,000 free gift cards every day to members according to their website. With Swagbucks, you earn points by:

Answering surveys and daily polls
Playing games
Downloading apps
Shopping online
Watching videos
Searching the web

Surveys are the most consistent way to earn points, although Swagbucks has some lucrative cash-back rewards if you shop online at their partners.

You can download Swagbucks for Android and iOS or use the web version. Reward variety is also a perk, with options including PayPal, charitable donations, and gift cards to companies like Amazon, Walmart, Boston’s Pizza, Starbucks, and Best Buy.

You won’t become rich from this platform, but Swagbucks certainly has a variety of earning options to give you control over how you earn rewards. The platform also has a lower cash-out threshold than most competitors, which is nice for occasional users.

4. Freecash

Freecash is a highly-rated app that pays legit cash when you complete offers on its platform.

With Freecash, you can get paid for a variety of tasks, including the following:

Playing games
Taking surveys
Making deposits
Signing up for apps
Making purchases

The app is free to use. Once you sign up for an account with your email address, you’ll be able to skim through thousands of offers and use filters to find the ones that interest you most.

Freecash claims that most of its users make their first cashout within about 17 minutes.

Before you choose an offer, you can see the earning potential and popularity rating based on how many people have completed it.

When you’re ready to cash out, you can choose between PayPal, gift cards, bank transfers, or crypto payouts, making Freecash one of our top choices for earning with flexibility.