My Honest Swagbucks Review 2024: How I Earn Free Money With Swagbucks!

We will receive a commission if you make a purchase through our affiliate link at no extra cost to you. Please read our disclosure policy for more information.

Today, I’m going to give you my honest Swagbucks review so you know if Swagbucks is safe to use and if it’s worth your time.

I joined this rewards site back in 2009, so I’ll share my personal experience with you and let you know the truth about whether Swagbucks is a scam or a legitimate website that pays you cash and free gift cards.

If you follow my blog, you’ll know that I mention Swagbucks a lot!

I can’t help it because they are one of my favorite surveys and rewards programs since I have used them for over 10 years! It’s hands down one of the best side hustle apps. That’s how my husband and I got our hands on those delicious free drinks at Starbucks as broke students back in the day!

Being able to redeem free $25-$100 gift cards (such as Amazon, Walmart, Sephora, and Starbucks) from Swagbucks was a great way for us to earn extra money on the side!

 

Swagbucks Review

Overall, I really can’t complain about the FREE gift cards and cash that we earn with Swagbucks to help with our spending. I will elaborate more on how I use Swagbucks to make extra money.

Don’t worry, I’ll let you in on my Swagbucks hacks and secrets I’ve learned over the years throughout the post so you can maximize the money you can make with Swagbucks to get the most out of this absolutely free money resource. 

But first, let’s go through what Swagbucks is and how it works so you know what to expect.

 

PIN (OR BOOKMARK) THIS PAGE: I’ll be updating this post so make sure to pin this image here and save it to your Pinterest board. That way you’ll be able to come back to this page and learn everything you need to know about Swagbucks and how you can earn extra money with it!

 

 

What Is Swagbucks?

Swagbucks is a FREE online rewards program that allows you to earn free gift cards and cash by taking paid online surveys, surfing the web, shopping online, playing games, uploading receipts, and more!

They have a Trustpilot score of 4.2/5 from 35K user reviews, making it one of the highest and most trustworthy survey sites.

Swagbucks is owned by the parent company, Prodege, LLC, which is a reputable internet and media company that started in 2005. The company also owns these popular brands:

• MyPoints
• InboxDollars
• Upromise
• CouponCause
• Ysense
• Tada

 

How Does Swagbucks Make Money?

Swagbucks makes money by partnering up with brands and companies who want to know what their customers think. It’s a form of market research for companies to improve products and services.

They then share a portion of that money with us, the consumer, in the form of rewards and free gift cards!

 

Swagbucks Sign-up Promo

When you sign up for Swagbucks for FREE here, you can start earning money online immediately and claim your $5 welcome bonus!

Swagbucks is legitimate since they have paid out over $781,805,169 to more than 20 million members!

 

 

Is Swagbucks Safe and Legit?

Just like you, I was skeptical about this website. I’ve asked myself questions like “Is Swagbucks real or fake?” or “Is Swagbucks safe?” countless times. I first wanted to know if it was safe to sign up.

After using this free rewards website and app for over 10 years, I can attest that Swagbucks is 100% legitimate and safe. It’s a credible way to earn real money in your spare time.

Would any fake and spam sites pay out more than $781 million to its members? I highly doubt it.

Similar to other survey sites like Branded Surveys, Swagbucks is absolutely free to use and one of the most legitimate ways to make money online without paying anything.

 

Swagbucks Review on BBB

To put your heart at ease, Swagbucks has been in the business for 18 years with a B rating under the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

I’ve been an active Swagbucks user since 2009 – I know, it’s been more than a decade already! My husband is a user himself. My friends and his friends are all users as well.

And since the time we’ve all been using Swagbucks, we never had any issue redeeming our gift cards and cash!

In fact, we’ve heard and seen many positive Swagbucks reviews, such as this one here:

 

“My most rewarding moment with Swagbucks is using the gift cards I earn to buy gifts for my child’s Christmas and February birthday.” Kim, Member since 2009

 

On top of that, here is a screenshot of other reviews on BBB:

 

Is Swagbucks Free?

Again, Swagbucks is absolutely free to sign up for and use. You can create a FREE Swagbucks account and get a $5 sign-up bonus today!

🌟 Important note: Make sure you verify the e-mail from Swagbucks in your inbox so that you can start earning and redeeming your rewards! All it takes is one simple click on the “verify” button. Grab your FREE $5 offer before it’s gone!

 

 

Be careful of scams where survey companies ask you to pay a small fee to have the opportunity to complete unlimited paid surveys. As survey takers, you get paid to answer surveys, not the other way around. Avoid companies these companies like a plague.

 

How Does Swagbucks Work?

You earn Swagbucks (SB) points by taking quick paid surveys, searching the web, shopping online, playing games, and trying new services in exchange for FREE gift cards or cash through PayPal. You can redeem free gift cards from retailers, such as Amazon, Starbucks, Walmart, Target, Sephora, and more!

 

How many Swagbucks is $1?

Answer: Every 100 SBs is equivalent to $1.

So 1 SB is worth $0.01.

 

How To Make Money On Swagbucks

Now, I will go through the tutorial and hacks to show you how to use Swagbucks to earn some extra cash!

Swagbucks is available to use on both desktop and mobile. With the mobile option, you can use the Swagbucks app if you like the idea of making money with your smartphone!

 

1. Take paid surveys online with Swagbucks Surveys

You can earn Swagbucks Points (SB points) by taking paid surveys.

I’ll be honest. Even though you can earn money with the Swagbucks app, taking surveys online won’t replace your full-time income. NOT. EVEN. CLOSE! So, whoever tells you that you can earn thousands of dollars every month is lying.

However, you can earn extra money effortlessly by taking easy surveys in your spare time while you’re relaxing in your room listening to music, or waiting for your food to be delivered.

I personally take surveys with the Swagbucks app when I’m sitting in the passenger seat while my husband is driving. You can earn enough to buy a few rounds of groceries, fill up a tank of gas, or stack up on those free gift cards worth over $100 with these hacks.

Based on my personal experience, Swagbucks is one of the best survey sites with the highest payout you’ll find online. 

Here’s a quick pro-tip and Swagbucks hack that I use to earn and collect more SBs.

When you decide which surveys to answer, I highly recommend you sort the survey by “Time to Complete” to see which ones require the least amount of time to complete.

Surveys that take longer to complete will normally pay out more SB points, but it’s up to you whether or not you want to put in the extra effort.

I prefer to answer shorter surveys so that I can complete more of them and earn more SB points within a shorter amount of time. This also allows you to bank your SBs for completing short surveys. Swagbucks won’t compensate you unless you complete the survey so if you quit a survey halfway, you won’t get anything.

Use your judgment and attempt surveys that provide the highest SBs given the shortest amount of time.

For example, it may require 1 minute of your time to earn 20 SBs. This payout may not be high but they do add up, especially when you are mindlessly answering surveys during your free time. You won’t get rich doing this, but taking paid surveys with Swagbucks when you have time to kill is definitely worth it.

Keep this in mind and always check the “Time to Complete” column before you start a survey to make sure you can complete it.

 

2. Use Swagbucks Swag Codes

Aside from getting paid to take surveys with Swagbucks, you can earn SBs by hunting for Swag Codes online. This is like an online scavenger hunt for cash.

A Swag Code is a string of text that could look something like this: DYSON1DayteRgPY5 (this is just an example). You must enter the code exactly as it appears on your Swagbucks account since it is case-sensitive. Your best bet is to directly copy and paste the Swag Code.

When you redeem Swag Codes into your Swagbucks account within a certain period of time, you can earn extra Swagbucks points. These points, in turn, can be redeemed for gift cards or PayPal cash.

The catch is you have to be quick at finding and redeeming the codes before they expire!

You can find these Swag Codes by adding the SwagButton browser extension. Once installed, you can click on the “Check for Swag Code” anytime you want and it’ll let you know if there’s a live Swag Code available. When there’s an active Swag Code for you to claim, the alerts will tell you where to find the codes (e.g. “Check Facebook” or “Check the Blog!”).

 

3. Searching the web with Swagbucks

If you’re always searching for things or doing research online, why not get paid for it?

Swagbucks will reward you with SB points when you use their search engine (powered by Yahoo!). My husband and I installed and used the Swagbucks search engine every day to look for typical things such as daily news, weather, and online retailers’ websites (Amazon). You use it just like you would with Google. Personally, I still use Google when I’m on my desktop doing research, but with my laptop, I use the Swagbucks search as my default search engine for leisure browsing.

To this day, I still don’t know the exact amount of SB points you earn when you use their search bar (because it’s completely random and Swagbucks doesn’t say much about this), but you can easily earn 30-50 SBs a day by using Swagbucks’ search bar for all your daily searches. Again, it’s completely passive and doesn’t require any effort, so why not make some money on the way? I’ll take whatever is free and effortless! 

 

🌟 You can activate the Swagbucks search bar here to start passively earning money online.

 

4. Shop online and earn cash back with Swagbucks

Another great feature of Swagbucks is you can earn up to 30% cash back just by shopping for the things you normally buy. The norm is anywhere between 2% to 10% with stores like Amazon, Etsy, Gap, Best Buy, and many more!

This is very similar to the Rakuten cashback program (formerly called Ebates), and I believe Swagbucks has recently stepped up their game with their cashback program.

I personally still prefer using Rakuten when it comes to earning cash back. But that shouldn’t stop you from using Swagbucks for this feature (plus, they have other activities that allow you to earn rewards). In fact, I’m starting to see that more people are using Swagbucks for their cashback deals today.

 

🌟 Swagbucks is currently running a promotion where you’ll get a FREE $10 welcome bonus for making any purchase over $25. That’s equivalent to getting $10 off your $25 Amazon purchase that you were going to make! Claim your FREE $10 off before the offer ends!

 

Using the SwagButton

Before I forget, I really want to let you know that you should install SwagButton on your computer. I installed it on both of mine so I never miss out on getting the highest rewards for my online purchases.

SwagButton notifies you whenever you’re on a website with sales, coupons, or cashback offers. It automatically shows you how much cashback you can earn with the purchase you’re going to make on a website.

So when you’re on an online store like Sephora, it will notify you how many SB points you can earn. If you’re satisfied with it, you just have to click the SwagButton so your rewards can be activated.

I love the SwagButton because it also offers Swag Codes that let you unlock exclusive coupons and rewards. You won’t get these Swag Codes without the SwagButton extension, so I really suggest you get it.

Other than getting notifications for offers, I also use this extension to do a quick comparison between Swagbucks and Rakuten. Instead of just mindlessly picking one between the two, I get to see which one has a higher payout for my online purchases.

Although I use Rakuten most of the time for my purchases, there are some instances when I see that Swagbucks’ offer is more worth it. For example, Rakuten may have a 2.5% cashback at Sephora, but then I’ll see with the help of the SwagButton extension that Swagbucks has a 4-SBs-for-every-$1 offer. That’s equivalent to a 4% cashback, so I’ll use Swagbucks instead.

Using the SwagButton can help you witness the savings and earnings that you might otherwise miss out on. Just think of the extra money you could make by using the extension wisely!

 

Here’s a quick screenshot of how the SwagButton looks on my computer (the little blue logo of Swagbucks on the top right):

 

5. Earn Swagbucks points by uploading your grocery receipts

Many people discard their receipts without a second thought after receiving their items. After all, they’ll just pile up in our pockets or wallets. They’re trash to most of us. However, did you know those seemingly insignificant pieces of paper might be quite valuable? I was shocked when I found out that instead of tossing them out, I could actually turn them into physical cash.

Like other cashback apps, Swagbucks will reward you for uploading your grocery receipts on the platform. All you have to do is upload a photo of your receipt to your account and wait for Swagbucks to verify your purchase. Once approved, you can earn part of your spending back in SB points. So instead of feeling like you’re tossing money away with your grocery shopping trips, just take a few seconds of your time to snap a photo.

What I love about this is that both offline and online purchases qualify for the cashback.

The points you’ll earn from your receipts will depend greatly on the stores you purchase from. But typically, the cashback rate is around 1% to 5%. For example, if you spend $100 at Walmart, which has a 1% cashback rate, you could earn 100 SB points.

There is a catch, though: not all products in a store are eligible for cashback, so make sure you know which offers are available before you start putting items in your shopping cart.

I have to admit that their cashback on grocery items isn’t a lot of money, but who doesn’t like saving money on their groceries? Any amount you save is a big deal since it comes from a purchase you’re already making. Over time, you’ll be surprised at how many SB points you’ve accumulated just by doing this.

 

6. Play video games to earn money online with Swagbucks

If you enjoy playing video games after a long, stressful day at work (or even during your spare time), then you may as well get paid for it! This makes Swagbucks one of the best side hustles for guys.

There are many fun games to choose from and Swagbucks includes both free and paid games. For the paid version, you’ll have to buy them to earn points.

Still, you can play the free version and earn SB points. The games they offer popular games, such as Bingo, Bejeweled, Solitaire Rush, Wheel of Fortune, Deal or No Deal Slots, Angry Birds Champions, and many more!

 

🌟 You can start earning and redeeming rewards by playing games online via Swagbucks. Again, get a FREE $5 bonus when you start using Swagbucks.

 

Here is a sample screenshot of how the games section looks on my account:

 

7. Get SB by Discovering New Deals

Swagbucks has a section called “Discover” that displays all the latest deals from their partner stores. This is similar to Rakuten’s “Hot Deals” page where they showcase current coupons and promo codes. The difference is that with Swagbucks, you’ll earn SB points for installing new games and apps.

For example, you can earn 15,000 SB points with crypto.com by creating an account with them, depositing $100 into the account, and making your first trade. So if you were interested in trying out a new crypto trading platform, this would be a great way to get started and earn some rewards.

There are deals for online retailers, credit cards, grocery stores, and more. And the best part is that these deals are always changing so you can discover new deals every day.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of this activity because it takes up space on my phone and I don’t really use the apps after I’ve installed them. But if you’re into trying new things, go ahead and give it a shot! It’s an easy way to earn some quick SB points.

 

Swagbucks Gift Cards (MyGiftCards Plus):

Swagbucks also offers something called MyGiftCards Plus, where you can buy gift cards online at a discount of up to 30%.

Here is a screenshot (below) of the Swagbucks gift card shop when I select Banana Republic.

In this example, I can choose a $100 gift card (choice of an eGift or Physical) where Swagbucks will reward me with 500 SBs for the purchase (equivalent to $5 or 5% off). The best part is you can combine their deals (e.g., discounted gift card + cashback deal) with sale prices (e.g., the store promo) to save even more!

Who doesn’t like to stack deals to save money, especially when it doesn’t require much effort? As financial experts always say, $1 saved is $2 earned! 🙂

 

How Much Can You Earn With Swagbucks?

There are Swagbucks users who put in more effort to earn $100 to $200 each month with Swagbucks. That’s pretty good considering that Swagbucks is absolutely FREE to use!

Some people even report making an extra $500 per month alone with Swagbucks but that is extremely rare and I would discount those claims — they’re either spending A LOT of time on surveys or spending a lot of money shopping online (which defeats the purpose of saving money)!

With that said, you definitely won’t earn several thousand dollars per month.

Realistically, even if you’re a casual user, you can still expect to earn an extra $300 to $1,000 per year, which is a good amount of money to put towards your holiday shopping!

 

At the end of the day, how much money you earn with Swagbucks really depends on various factors such as:

• your demographics and whether you qualify for more surveys (always answer the survey questions truthfully).
• if you’re willing to put in a bit of effort to do some surveys.
• whether you enjoy watching videos and/or playing games.
• how many searches you do in a day.
• how often you shop online and whether Swagbucks is offering any BONUS cashback deals at that particular time (e.g. 5% cash back instead of the regular 2.5%).
• whether you take advantage of their new feature, MyGiftCards Plus, which I talk about next.

 

Earn an extra $50 to $100 per month with survey sites like Swagbucks:

If you’d like to earn an extra $50 to $100 on top of Swagbucks, I recommend checking out these other highest-paying survey sites that are similar to Swagbucks.

 

Earn with Survey Junkie

For example, another free reward and survey app I use is Survey Junkie. This is another great survey site that I enjoy using during my spare time to earn extra for the month.

Swagbucks (4.2/5) and SurveyJunkie (4.2/5) are two of the best survey sites with the highest ratings on Trustpilot Reviews.

 

Is Swagbucks Worth It?

Now that you know you can’t actually make a fortune with Swagbucks, you might be asking yourself “Is Swagbucks worth it?”

Swagbucks is worth it when you’re looking for ways to make an extra $300 to $1,000 per year during your spare time by doing paid surveys, watching videos, surfing the web, and playing games.

It’s also worth it when you’re looking for an efficient way to save money by 1) getting cash back from your online purchases and 2) buying discounted gift cards from their shop.

With that said, almost anyone can benefit from signing up for a FREE Swagbucks account today.

Despite the fact that I have a full-time job and make money blogging on the side, I still use Swagbucks as a fun side hustle to earn extra money each month — it’s really just icing on the cake! 🙂

On the other hand, Swagbucks is NOT for those who are looking for a real side hustle to replace their full-time employment or retirement supplement. It’s also NOT for those who want to get rich quickly! Just a side note, there is no such thing as getting rich quickly without putting in any effort!

 

What’s better than Swagbucks?

If you’re looking for higher earning potential, you can check out these creative ways to make 100 dollars every day. You may also want to look for ideas on how to make $500 or even $600 a day.

But just because you are looking for full-time opportunities, it doesn’t mean you can’t try Swagbucks to see how you like it.

After all, Swagbucks is free to test out here. Worst comes to worst, you don’t ever have to use it again.

 

Can you make $100 a day with Swagbucks?

It’s possible to make $100 a day with Swagbucks if you’re making a big purchase to receive cash back and taking advantage of their MyGiftCards Plus feature. You just can’t expect to earn $100 a day consistently with Swagbucks. For most people, I would say it’s more realistic to expect to make an extra $100 per month with Swagbucks.

 

Summary of My Honest Swagbucks Review

Overall, Swagbucks is 100% legitimate and you can definitely earn FREE gift cards (e.g. Amazon, Starbucks, Walmart, etc.) as well as a bit of extra money each month just by doing surveys, surfing the web, shopping for things you normally buy, watching some funny cat videos and playing games online.

It is NOT something that can replace your full-time income or supplement your retirement, but it can make spending more affordable.

Like I always say, I like how I can use the free gift cards or money towards groceries, coffee, a tank of gas, birthday gifts, household items, and Christmas spending.

 

Pros:

• Free sign-up with a welcome $5 bonus.
• You can earn cash in various ways (e.g. taking paid surveys, shopping online, uploading receipts).
• A fun way to make money on your smartphone.

 

Cons: 

• Similar to other cash-back apps, online purchases aren’t tracked all the time (need to open a ticket with Swagbucks Support).
• Questions for survey screening are repetitive.
• Earning SBs by watching videos is no longer available.

 

FAQs about Swagbucks

Most of my readers, friends, and family have used Swagbucks for over a decade to earn freebies, including Amazon gift cards, Starbucks coffee and drinks, Sephora beauty products, free food, and more. However, I still get many frequently asked questions about Swagbucks, so I decided to answer them in this section for you.

 

1. Is it possible to make $100 a day with Swagbucks?

I have to admit that it used to be A LOT easier to earn with Swagbucks but nowhere near $100 a day!

So, no, you’re not likely to earn $100 per day with Swagbucks if you’re taking surveys alone.

The most you’ll earn is probably $100 ($200 at most if you’re lucky) a month and you actually have to be active. At that rate, you’ll need to reassess if it’s worth your time.

Consider this personal feedback from the user, pdills12, on Reddit:

“I have been using it casually for at least five years now, typically only about five days a week, and spend approximately an hour or less doing surveys. I prefer to avoid messing with Discover offers because credit isn’t always guaranteed. That being said, I usually manage to cash out around 30-40 bucks per month through PayPal, which ends up being my Christmas gift money by the end of the year. The approach that has worked well for me is not treating it like a job. I aim to earn around 150-300 SB (Swagbucks) for the day and then call it a day.”

If you really want to earn $100 a day, then you’ll need to consider other $100-a-day side hustles on this list. But I highly recommend checking out these best ways to make $200, or even $300 a day.

 

2. What about cash back on Swagbucks shopping?

$100 a day on Swagbucks is stretching it, no matter what you do with this money-making app.

Sure, it may be possible to earn more from online purchases compared to taking surveys and other activities. But the catch is you’d have to make A LOT of purchases through their shopping portal.

Similar to Rakuten, you can earn money back on your purchases. However, to earn $100 or more, you’d most likely need to purchase a big-ticket item and catch a special event that rewards you with more than 10%.

In that case, you are better off using Rakuten to earn cash back on your purchases – it’s what I prefer using whenever I shop online!

 

3. Can Swagbucks be trusted?

I get the suspicion, really. When I found out about Swagbucks, it seemed like it was too good to be true. When you see some reviews online saying that Swagbucks is a scam, it’s impossible not to ask, “Is Swagbucks legit?” But despite those claims, Swagbucks is a legitimate platform.

Those who claim that Swagbucks isn’t legit may have just been frustrated at being disqualified for surveys or getting low payouts. These instances don’t mean that the platform isn’t to be trusted.

Swagbucks never claimed that taking surveys and doing online activities will replace your full-time job, but it is an added income source. It’s been awarded a B rating from the Better Business Bureau and a 4.2/5 rating on TrustPilot. Those ratings are enough to show that the platform is trustworthy.

 

4. How to get 10,000 Swagbucks fast?

There are many things you can do on Swagbucks to get 10,000 Swagbucks points, but using their shopping portal is the fastest way to do so. And you can do it with your first purchase.

Any successful purchase of $25 or more at a Swagbucks featured retailer will give you a one-time cash bonus of $10, which is equivalent to 10,000 Swagbucks points. If you’re going to shop anyway, it’s a great deal that you should consider.

Swagbuck’s shopping portal is similar to Rakuten and it has a wide selection of featured stores. They’ve partnered with stores like Bed Bath and Beyond and JCPenney, and there are over 7,000 more retailers to choose from. You’ll most likely find the shops you love there. Personally, my favorite is Sephora!

It’s a convenient way to earn extra cash while shopping from your favorite places. It’s an added bonus if you were already planning on buying from the stores.

 

5. Is Swagbucks legal?

Yes, Swagbucks is all legal and on the up-and-up. Prodege LLC, the company behind Swagbucks, has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and a 4.3 out of 5 on trustpilot.com, so they’re legit.

Swagbucks follows all those important privacy laws like GDPR, CCPA, COPPA, and more. If you’re interested in all the legal details, you can check out their privacy policy.

 

6. Can you get real money from Swagbucks?

Yes, Swagbucks is all about letting you earn real money. That’s what makes them legit.

Although doing activities like answering surveys and shopping on their portal gives you virtual points, these virtual points, also known as SB, can be converted to cash. Every 100 SB you earn on the platform is equivalent to $1.

Once you get enough points, you can either exchange them for funds that can be sent directly to your PayPal or redeem the points as gift cards. These gift cards can be used for a wide variety of stores like Amazon, Starbucks, Walmart, iTunes, and Google Play.

But what’s really great about all of this is that converting the points to cash comes at no cost!

 

7. Does Swagbucks pay cash?

Absolutely. If you’re a Swagbucks member, you can turn those points, known as SB, into real value. You can choose to exchange them for PayPal cash that can go straight into your bank account, Visa Rewards Cards that are usable wherever Visa’s taken, or even credits for Amazon or Walmart. For a lot of online shoppers, those credits are just like having cash. The best part is they don’t have an expiration date.

 

8. How many Swagbucks is a dollar?

In the Swagbucks world, 100 SB points are equivalent to $1.00, which can be converted into PayPal Cash or free gift cards from popular brands like Amazon, Visa, Walmart, Starbucks, and others.

These SB points are what members earn for doing their regular online activities through Swagbucks. If you’re looking at international equivalents, it’s the same: 100 SB equals $1 in Canadian or Australian dollars, 1€ in the Eurozone, and in the UK, you’d need 130 SB to make £1 GBP. It’s a digital currency with real-world value!

 

9. What is the maximum you can earn per day on Swagbucks?

Based on my own experience using the app, there’s no set minimum or maximum limit to how many Swagbucks points you can earn in a day, week, or month. Obviously, it is more challenging to increase your earnings because, as I mentioned, it’s not a platform where you can earn a boatload of money and become rich. However, the amount you can earn depends on the availability of surveys and other earning options, as well as your ability to complete them successfully.

 

Readers, I hope you enjoyed my Swagbucks review. Have you ever tried earning extra money with Swagbucks? If so, what’s your favorite Swagbucks hack?

 

Enjoyed this post? Don’t forget to bookmark and share it on Pinterest! 🙂