Swagbucks is the definition of 'easy money. It doesn't promise to bring in the big money, but it's easy to earn points on anything from watching videos to completing surveys.
At the time of writing, Swagbucks paid members over £362 million. They are rated 'Excellent' on Trustpilot by more than 23,000 reviewers.
This review explains how Swagbucks works and how to maximize your time to make the most money. All from the comfort of your home.
Start by creating a free account and you'll quickly be earning Swagbucks and rewards. Click below to claim a special Swagbucks bonus (new users only).
What is Swagbucks and how does it work?
Swagbucks is a portal that offers users reward points for doing simple tasks online. Things like searching the web, watching videos, and completing paid surveys.
You'll be 'paid' in Swagbucks points (shortened to 'SBs') which can be redeemed for gift cards or cash. The gift cards they offer come from over 1,500 retailers, including Amazon, iTunes, and Tesco.
If you'd rather make extra money using Swagbucks, you can convert points straight into your PayPal account as cash. Or you can donate to charity if you're feeling generous.
How much can you earn on Swagbucks?
To give you an idea of what SB points are worth, a £5 Amazon gift card will cost you about 850 SB, and you'll need to cough up 18,125 SB for £100 cash (via PayPal).
But they accumulate quicker than you might think. There are so many tasks and activities looped into Swagbucks, many of which you probably do already!
Swagbucks often run sales on their rewards too, meaning fewer SBs are needed to redeem the vouchers. For example, £100 of PayPal's credit is on offer for 20% off the usual price.
Is Swagbucks legit?
Yes. Swagbucks has been rated 4.3/5 by over 23,000 users. But given just how easy it is to earn money on the site, we wouldn't blame you for asking if Swagbucks is legit.
When we asked the members of our Facebook deals group to give us their thoughts on Swagbucks, plenty replied to say it was worthwhile.
Lots of people said they'd managed to claim gift cards from their time on Swagbucks. Common complaints included the time taken to earn rewards and being screened out halfway through a survey. This is when your answers indicate you're not a match for the type of respondent the company running the survey is looking for.
Here's a selection of what our Facebook group community had to say:
"[I] used it back in 2017, put Swagbucks Watch on my tablet and left it on all day on mute [and] low brightness to passively earn SB. I think I got around £5 per month from that and cashed it out on PayPal."
"I've found it quicker than Toluna or OpinionPanel in getting a voucher but much more annoying – get screened out halfway into a survey and quite often too, so you complete and get the points for maybe one survey in 10."
"I got a couple of gift cards from them, they’re not bad."
"I've had a lot of gift cards from them, and have nearly 13,000 points saved up for more [...] takes a little while to build them up, but once you're there it's pretty good. They've saved me a fair bit on Amazon, and you can also get cards for PayPal, etc. instead."
"One of the better survey sites I’d say but pay is never going to be great with these things."
11 ways to earn money on Swagbucks
Here are the best ways to earn money on Swagbucks:
Make Swagbucks your default search engine
The easiest way to start earning is to switch your default search engine to Swagbucks (rather than Google or Bing).
You'll automatically start racking up points just for surfing the web like you normally do but using their browser instead.
You can expect to tot up around 10 SB – 20 SB points for every 10 to 20 searches. The final total will depend on the search queries. After six months of everyday searching, this can equate to around £300.
Complete surveys and polls
Time-rich but cash-poor? Filling out a few short surveys each day through Swagbucks can be a really nice little earner.
They usually take between three and 20 minutes to complete and you'll earn around 40 SB –100 SB depending on the survey. There's also a daily poll to complete which literally takes two seconds and will earn you one extra SB.
Download apps and games to your phone
You can earn a broad variety of points for downloading, installing, and opening certain apps on your phone, tablet, or computer.
Although you'll sometimes get rewarded for simply installing the app, you'll usually have to complete some kind of action.
Sometimes these opportunities will be available via one of Swagbucks' partners (all of whom are also legit). You'll still be paid in Swagbucks – usually, several hundred SBs, if not more, depending on the offer.
But as ever, we'd recommend sticking to the free apps at first. There's no point in paying to download or use an app just to earn Swagbucks, as you're likely to earn far less than you spend!
Shop online and earn cashback
Now, obviously, we wouldn't advise shopping online purely for the sake of getting more points. But if you're planning to buy something online, go via the Swagbucks website and earn some points (similar to mainstream cashback sites).
Receive easy SBs from online stores like Adidas, ASOS, and eBay. So, before you part with your cash, do a quick search to find out if they're a participating Swagbuck earner.
For example, recently you could earn 4 SB per £1 spent at Expedia. As holidays tend to cost a lot of money, you could earn hundreds of points to turn into rewards or cash later.
Tell your friends
Get SB points stacking up while you sleep by getting your friends to sign up to Swagbucks with your referral code.
Not only will you and your friend get 300 SB when they sign up, but you'll earn 10% of your friends' SB earnings for as long as they're a member, too!
This is a great way to earn points passively, and your friends will benefit too. Plus, you'll get another 100 SB if the person you refer adds the SwagButton to their laptop or desktop (using your invite link).
Watch out for Swag Codes
Download the SwagButton browser extension to receive notifications about new 'Swag Codes'.
Swag Codes are code words or phrases that the company releases to create a bit of buzz around the site and get members back onto the homepage.
The notifications you get from the browser extension will tell you where to go to find the code. You then input it into the 'Swag Code' box in the sidebar on the left side of the page. Super easy instant SB points!
Complete daily goals
At the top of the screen, you'll see a button marked 'Daily Bonus'. Within here there's a 'to-do list' with a number of daily tasks that the site recommends you complete.
You'll accumulate points for each task you complete and get bonus points for crossing off everything on your list in a day.
Activate the Swagbucks 'daily goal' option (button in the header) and the site will set you a target amount of SBs to aim for that day. If you manage to reach your goal, they'll stick some extra bonus points on top for you!
Don't spend actual money on the 'Deal of the Day unless it's something you're genuinely interested in. The Swagbucks you'll get in return is worth a lot less than the cash you'll part with.
Enter competitions
If you fancy yourself lucky when it comes to entering competitions, enter yourself into Swagbucks' regular limited-time giveaways (or 'Swagstakes').
Prizes can be anything from tech gadgets, like Apple products, to a bigger bundle of SBs. This is a bit of a gamble, as you need to actually spend SBs to enter into each competition.
So, for example, you can enter a competition to win 50 SB, but it might cost you 2 SB to take part.
Play games online and on mobile
Your addiction to playing games on your phone is finally about to pay off!
Aside from paying you to download and play games, Swagbucks also host a few games of their own. You'll know which ones they are as they all contain the word 'Swag'.
You can earn up to 10 SB per game just for giving it a whirl. But as some games rely on you getting to a certain level before you can earn any SBs, it (literally!) pays to be good at these things.
If general knowledge is more your thing, try Swagbucks Live.
It's free to take part in the game and all you have to do is download the app. As with most live quiz apps, your goal is to correctly answer a handful of multiple-choice questions. Make it to the end, and you'll win a share of the total prize fund ($1,000s are paid out in Swagbucks every week). But as soon as you get an answer wrong, you're eliminated.
From experience, some of the questions can be obscenely difficult, so we'd recommend you refer your friends to the app. Each time you get someone to sign up, you'll get a free 'rejoin' which will throw you back into the game if you're knocked out.
Sign up for services
Signing up for free trials and subscribing to services like TV and online gaming can come with a substantial reward.
However, as with cashback opportunities, only use this option if you're planning on using the service anyway. This is because some of them require you to shell out some cash of your own to sign up.
But if they're free (like a credit report or a trial of streaming service), it could be worth your time since they tend to pay out a pretty decent number of points!
Watch videos
Yes, you really can earn Swagbucks points just by watching a few videos.
It's important to note here that Swagbucks Watch isn't as widely available as it once was. Most days it won't be available to most users. But as it's still an option, we figured it's still worth mentioning.
The payouts here aren't that high, but you're getting paid to be entertained! The type of content you'll watch varies massively, everything from adverts to news content and viral clips.
If you're really uninspired by the content you've been sent, you can just have videos running in the background as you get on with other stuff and not actually watch it.
Expect to earn 2 or 3 SB per playlist (each of which typically lasts 15 – 30 minutes). There's a limit of 150 SB per day up for grabs for this particular task.
