Did you know that you can get paid to walk? Yep, that’s what I thought. But you really can! That’s got to be one of the best ways to make some extra money hasn’t it?
In this post I’m going to run through 13 apps that pay you to walk. So, you can start earning while you’re walking about… I mean it’s something that you’re doing anyway right? So, you might as well earn some extra cash while you’re at it?
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How Do Paid Walking Rewards Apps Work?
Most of the apps below work in a similar way. They work by tracking your activity either through your smartphone or a wearable activity tracker such as a Fitbit or Garmin device. The tracked steps are then turned into rewards points which you can redeem.
Where Does the Money for the Rewards Come From?
This was one of my first questions. How the hell can you get paid just for walking around? Well, all these apps work in a similar way to cashback and rebate apps. The rewards are funded by companies offering the discounts or offers and in-app ads. So, in short, the rewards money you rack up comes out of the advertising budget from the brands advertising on the platform.
So, without further ado, lets get into the list of apps that will pay you to walk.
13 Apps that will Pay You to Walk
- Sweatcoin App
- Achievement App
- WinWalk
- PK Coin
- Earthmiles App
- Lympo
- Better Points
- Carrot Rewards App (Canada Only)
- Gigwalk
- ShopKick
- Charity Miles App
- Weight Loss Bet by Healthy Wage
- StepBet
Sweatcoin App
First up is Sweatcoin, which is probably the most well-known and has been featured in the press quite a bit including in the Daily Mail, Forbes and the New York Times.
The Sweatcoin app tracks your steps throughout the day and pays you with their own currency – Sweatcoins. “What the hell’s a Sweatcoin?” I hear you ask… Well, a Sweatcoin is a digital currency that you can spend on products, services or gift cards in the Sweatcoin store.
So how does it work and how much money can you make?
The Sweatcoin app tracks your outdoor steps and converts them into their currency – Sweatcoins. This is important as you don’t earn anything for walking inside or a treadmill because Sweatcoin uses your phone’s GPS to track steps.
For every 1,000 steps outside you take you earn 0.95 Sweatcoins.
Ok, that’s all well and good but how much are Sweatcoins actually worth?
Currently, there’s an offer in the Sweatcoin store where you can get $1000 dollars in PayPal cash. It’s called the Marathon offer and you need 20,000 Sweatcoins to redeem it.
So, at that rate of exchange 1 Sweatcoin is worth $0.05 making 20 Sweatcoins worth $1. But it does vary from offer to offer.
Which Countries is Sweatcoin Available In?
North America
US and Canada
Europe
UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Austria, Romania, Poland, Croatia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland and Spain
Australasia
Australia, New Zealand
Middle East
United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Brunei, Israel
Africa
South Africa
Asia
Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam
The apps available on iOS or Android and you can sign up with Sweatcoin here.
Achievement App
Achievement is an app that connects to over 20 fitness apps including FitBit, Garmin, Apple Health, MapMyFitness and GoogleFit. It’s compatible with the following wearable devices:
- Fitbit
- Fitbug
- Garmin
- Misfit
- Withings – Nokia
It rewards you with points for healthy activities such as walking, logging meals and answering questions about yourself.
You can earn $10 for every 10,000 points you earn on the platform. Then you can redeem them via PayPal, direct into your Bank account or donate to your favourite charity.
You can earn up to 80 points a day for each type of tracked activity (walking, running, biking, swimming etc).
Based on this if you earned the maximum 80 points a day, it will take you 125 days to earn $10 with the app, which is around 4 months.
WinWalk
WinWalk is a nice app that tracks your daily steps, and rewards you 1 coin for every 100 steps you take. You can earn up to 100 coins each day (10,000 steps) and exchange them for e-gift cards from big brands.
WinWalk doesn’t use GPS so tracks indoor steps as well as outdoor steps. The WinWalk pedometer can also be synched with other apps such as Sweatcoin, Fitbit and MyFitness Pal.
You can download the WinWalk app on Google Play here.
PK Coin
PK Coin is another app similar to Sweatcoin that rewards you with digital currency – PK Coins. You can then use the PK Coins you earn to purchase offers in the PK Coin shop.
Offers include gift cards, experiences and fitness related offers.
You can earn 20 “Bank Coins” a day or 100 per week. (Bank Coins are the coins you’ve earned towards your bank balance).
PK Coin Leaderboard
A nice feature with PK Coin is the Leaderboard. This adds an element of competition to it if you’re using it as motivation to get fit. Especially if your friends are using the app too!
It can track your steps just by using your phone. But if you want to track more than just walking and running, you can connect either a Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor or Apple Watch.
By connecting one of these devices lets you earn PK Coins for other activities such as gym sessions or exercise classes.
PK Coin also says that by connecting a device your tracked results will be more accurate. This should increase your PK Coin earnings.
Unfortunately, Fitbits and Garmin devices aren’t compatible though which is a shame.
Earthmiles App
Earthmiles is yet another app that rewards you for getting fit. The Earthmiles app tracks your activity each day then pays you with Earthmiles. Think Airmiles for walking.
You can then trade these in for rewards in the app. Rewards are updated weekly so there’s always fresh offers to take advantage of.
Earthmiles rewards you more for more vigorous exercises.
You can earn:
- 1 Earthmile for every kilometre you walk
- 3 Earthmiles for every kilometre you cycle
- and an impressive 5 Earthmiles for every kilometre you run
Earthmiles is currently only available in the UK and the US. You can get it on either iOS or Android.
Task-Based Apps
The task-based apps are a bit more involved. With these apps you’ll either need to accept and complete a challenge such as a running or walking challenge. Or you accept tasks posted by companies in the app. In a way these are similar to task apps such as Streetbees.
Lympo
Lympo works in a similar way to Sweatcoin. You get rewarded tokens of their own digital currency for completing healthy tasks such as walking or running. Where it differs from Sweatcoin slightly is how you earn your points. Sweatcoin simply tracks your steps. With Lympo you complete walking or running challenges to earn your rewards. You can then spend in the app marketplace.
New walking and running challenges are available each day and you’ll be rewarded after completing each challenge.
What’s really nice about Lympo, is that it works indoors too, unlike Sweatcoin which only tracks outside steps. Not ideal if it’s freezing or chucking it down in the winter.
Better Points
Better Points is an app that rewards you for trying new activities such as walking to work or cycling. You can then spend your points on vouchers for high street shops or donate to your favourite charity.
Carrot Rewards App (Canada Only)
If you’re based in Canada, you can try the Carrot Rewards App. Carrot has over 1 million users and was voted the best Canadian App in 2017. After 7 days of using the app, Carrot will set you a daily step goal. You can then earn points each time you hit your daily step goal to use to claim rewards.
To use the Carrot App, you simply need to connect it to your Smartphone or Fitbit to track your steps.
Gigwalk
If you’re based in the US or Canada, you can become a “GigWalker” an earn money by completing tasks, or “Gigs” on the app.
Once you’ve downloaded the GigWalk app you can apply for paid “gigs£ that are posted by companies who need short tasks completing.
Once you’re approved for the Gig, you get instructions so you can complete the task and submit it for approval. Once approved you get paid via PayPal.
ShopKick
ShopKick’s another fun US app that works a little bit like a scavenger hunt. You can earn rewards points known as “Kicks” in 8 different ways using the app.
- Walking into stores
- Scanning barcodes of certain products
- Making purchases with a linked card
- Purchasing certain products then submitting the receipt in the same way you would do with cashback apps.
- Visiting certain online stores through the app
- Making online purchases through the app
- Checking out online offers through the app
- Watching videos
Once you’ve built up enough kicks you can redeem them for gift cards such as eBay or Amazon gift cards to name just two using the app.
You can get Shopkick here.
Charity Apps
Charity Miles App
If you feel like giving to a good cause, then Charity Miles could be for you. Charity Miles is a free app allows you to earn points for the Charity of your choice. The app lets you log all kinds of activity such as walking, running, cycling and even dancing!
For every mile, you move you earn rewards points for the charity of your choice.
Motivation Apps
Finally, we have the motivation apps, or weight loss bet apps. These apps are designed to motivate you to hit your fitness goals by introducing risk. If you hit your target you get a reward. But, if you don’t you can lose some money. This gives you “skin in the game”, so are best if your main goal is losing weight or improving your fitness not earning money.
Weight Loss Bet by Healthy Wage
Healthy Wage lets bet on your weight loss goals. The app uses cash prizes to make weight loss and exercise more fun and effective.
The fact that you’re betting on hitting your goal does add an element of risk to this one. But, if you’re trying to lose weight and want some more motivation then this could be a great option.
You can sign up with Healthy Wage here,
StepBet
StepBet works in a similar way to Healthy Wage. You “bet” on yourself to meet your weekly goals. You place your bet, which is usually around $40 and enter a game along with other StepBetters (is that a word???). Then if you meet your goals, you get a split of the pot with all the other winners.
Again, this one has an element of risk as the money you win will be from other contestants who haven’t met their goals, i.e. lost their StepBet.
StepBet is only available on Google Play currently. You can sign up with StepBet here.
My Take on Paid Walking Apps
You’re not going to get rich with any of these apps. But if you’re looking for a way to earn some rewards points for basically nothing, then their worth having on your phone.
They’re also a nice idea if you’re trying to get fitter and increase your activity levels. They can be a great motivator to walk or exercise more!
What I’d say though is treat these apps passively as you would with cashback apps for example. What, I mean by this is rack up your points for your normal activity and cash the points in for something you were going to buy anyway or actually want. Remember, all cashback apps and sites are ultimately funded by advertising money. So don’t buy something in the apps just because it looks like a good deal.
Watch your phone battery. While most of these apps claim not to affect battery life I’m not convinced. When running Sweatcoin and WinWalk together on my phone I did notice a drop off in my battery life. So this is something to keep an eye on if you’re installing a few of these.
All in all, though, they’re a nice way to earn some extra rewards or gift cards. Have you tried an app that pays you to walk? How did you find it? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
