This up-to-date list of ways to get free Amazon gift cards lists strategies that are researched, tested and legit.
In most cases, they require trading either your time (like filling out online surveys) or your data (like letting companies monitor your online shopping habits). They won’t make you rich, but scoring $10 to $50 per month in free Amazon gift cards is realistically possible with a little bit of effort.
We’ve broken the methods down into the following categories, which are ranked based on a combination of time required, difficulty and earning potential. You can scroll through the article, or jump directly to the idea that sounds best by using the links below.
#1. Take Online Surveys
#2. Earn Gift Cards When Shopping Online
#3. Complete Promotional Offers
#4. Scan Grocery Receipts
#5. Complete Small In-Store Tasks
#6. Sell Your Internet Usage Data
#7. Play Games On Your Phone
#8. Win Amazon Gift Cards In Giveaways
#9. Get Free Gift Cards Directly From Amazon
#1. Take Online Surveys
There’s no shortage of survey sites willing to give you a few dollars in exchange for your honest opinion. Here are the best legit survey sites that let you earn points and exchange them for free Amazon gift cards.
There are many other good survey sites, but not all of them offer gift card redemptions. You can check out our list of the best paid survey sites and the best paid survey apps for options that pay in cash.
Best Option: User Interviews
User Interviews is an online market research platform that pays you for completing surveys, as well as for participating in one-on-one video interviews and online focus groups. We tested the platform and earned $360 worth of Amazon gift cards in five hours.
Studies on the site cover a wide variety of topics. You may be asked to tell a researcher about your shopping habits or brand preferences, or you may be asked to give feedback about new marketing materials or product designs.
The one downside to the platform is that studies usually take between 30-60 minutes, and they have to be scheduled in advance. (There are a limited number of studies that let you complete the tasks on your own time.) But if your schedule allows for it, there’s no quicker or more efficient way to get free Amazon gift cards.
Learn more in our User Interviews review or sign up here.
Other Good Options
- Survey Junkie: A reader favorite that’s consistently rated as one the best survey sites on the web. It has a low minimum payout of $5, which makes it easy to accumulate enough points to get an Amazon gift card, and it offers an unusually wide range of survey topics — from political questionnaires to rating new music and everything in between. Learn more in our Survey Junkie review.
- SurveyMonkey Rewards: Most people know of SurveyMonkey as a site that allows you to create your own online surveys, but the company also has a market research platform that rewards you for sharing your opinions. SurveyMonkey is a great option for taking surveys on the go, thanks to its top-notch mobile app and the fact that all surveys on the platform take five minutes or less to complete. Learn more in our SurveyMonkey Rewards review.
- Ipsos I-Say: This is one of the few survey sites that offers instant delivery of point redemptions. With other sites, you may have to wait days or even weeks to get your Amazon gift card.
#2. Earn Amazon Gift Cards While Shopping Online
One of the fastest ways to earn free Amazon gift cards is by utilizing cash-back shopping portals. Often, these sites and apps pay back between 2% to 10% of your purchase price. And typically, all you have to do is sign up and then click their referral links when you’re ready to shop. It usually takes less than 10 seconds.
Best Option: Capital One Shopping
Capital One Shopping is a free browser extension that rewards you with “shopping credits” when you make purchases at participating retailers. These shopping credits can be redeemed for Amazon gift cards, as well as gift cards for other stores.
Importantly, you do not need to be a Capital One account or cardholder to use this free service — it’s a standalone product that’s available to anyone.
Capital One Shopping consistently has some of the best reward rates we’ve found, but we’ve also ranked it as the best option because it offers a host of other valuable money-saving features, including:
- Amazon price comparison tool, which lets you know if an item you’re looking at on Amazon is available for less money elsewhere.
- Automated price protection, which can get you refunds at select retailers if you purchase an item that later goes on sale.
- Automated coupon codes, which tests all the discount and promo codes available in the service’s database when you’re checking out.
- Price drop notifications, which alert you when an item you’ve been thinking about buying is on sale.
You can learn more about how the service works in our Capital One Shopping review.
Other Good Options
- TopCashback: Our research shows that this site almost always has the best cash-back rate available at any given time, and it has a huge list of more than 4,000 participating retailers. Its interface isn’t quite as user-friendly as Capital One Shopping and it doesn’t offer any additional money-saving features, but it’s a great choice if you want to get the absolute maximum cash-back possible on each purchase. Learn more in our TopCashback review.
- Honey: Very similar to Capital One Shopping, Honey is a free browser extension that pays cash-back (called Honey Gold) when you purchases qualifying items at participating retailers. The two services have many of the same features; we’ve found Honey’s cash-back rates are a little bit higher on average, but its promo code feature doesn’t work as well. Learn more in our Honey review.
- Rakuten: Our favorite overall cash-back platform thanks to its consistently high rates, strong reputation for trustworthiness and near-perfect transaction tracking. Unfortunately, the platform only pays out via PayPal or paper check — not in the form of gift cards — and it only pays out once every three months. Still, if you’re willing to go through the extra step of spending your PayPal balance on an Amazon gift card, rather than getting that gift card directly from the platform, Rakuten is hard to beat. Learn more in our Rakuten review.
Pro Tip: Cashback Monitor lists all the current cash-back shopping offers from the major rewards portals, giving you an easy way to see how to get the best deal at any given moment.
#3. Complete Promotional Offers
These sites and apps let you earn free Amazon gift cards by completing offers like signing up for product trials. Often, they also have additional ways to earn rewards, such as by taking surveys and reading emails.
Best Option: Swagbucks
Swagbucks is the largest general rewards site on the web, having paid out over $700 million to its members since it was launched in 2008. The site offers an expansive list of 20+ ways to earn free Amazon gift cards, including promo offers such as getting a car insurance quote or signing up for a free trial period of an online service.
Often, you can score points worth a $5 to $10 Amazon gift card with just a few minutes of effort.
Here are five reasons why SwagBucks is our favorite online rewards site:
- There’s no minimum withdrawal amount (although rewards usually start at $3, including the lowest-value Amazon gift card).
- Gift card redemption is fast and hassle-free. Just choose your reward, verify your request by clicking a link that gets sent to your email, and wait for delivery. Swagbucks says redemption can take up to 10 days, but we’ve always received our digital gift card in 24-48 hours.
- Once per month, you can redeem your points for a gift card at a 12% discount. In other words, a $25 gift card only costs $22 worth of points.
- The site is legitimately fun to use. Swagbucks has mastered the gamification of “get-paid-to tasks,” meaning that you always feel like you’re working towards achieving a new goal.
- It offers excellent cash-back shopping rates. This is important, because cash-back shopping is one of the fastest ways to earn free gift cards.
You can learn more in our in-depth Swagbucks review, get some quick tips in our best Swagbucks hacks article, and sign up for the site here.
Other Good Options
- InboxDollars is owned by the same company as Swagbucks. The two sites have similar promotional offers, though they don’t always pay the same. InboxDollars has a significantly higher minimum withdrawal amount ($15), and we’ve found that offers sometimes pay better compared to Swagbucks — presumably because it’s harder to cash out. This makes the site a good option if you’re willing to do more than a couple of offers at a time. You can learn more in our InboxDollars review.
- Earnably gives you an estimate of how long each task or offer will take and how many points you can earn, which lets you focus on the options that will give you the best reward for your time. Offers on Earnably include things like downloading apps to earn amazon gift cards, playing games online and watching videos.
- PrizeRebel is unique in that it gives you access to multiple third-party “offer walls” within a single dashboard. Not all of the offers pay well, but there’s more available than on any other site.
#4. Scan Grocery Receipts
Market research companies and product manufacturers are eager to know what you buy, how often you shop, and what items you purchase in combination. As a result, a number of sites and apps will pay you for that information.
The companies on this list all provide the opportunity to earn free Amazon gift cards by simply scanning your register receipts. Some also provide coupons, cash-back and other money-saving opportunities.
Best Option: Fetch Rewards
Fetch Rewards pays you for uploading pictures of paper cash register receipts, using the data you provide for market research purposes. We tested the app extensively for our Fetch Rewards review and calculated that the average U.S. household can earn about $30 in free Amazon gift cards per year by using the service.
Fetch Rewards doesn’t pay a lot per receipt, and it will take consistent use to hit that $30 mark. But we like the app because it’s very easy to use, operated by a trustworthy and well-known company, and lets you upload any receipt — not just grocery receipts.
Plus, you don’t have to activate offers before shopping or purchasing specific items.
Other Good Options
- Ibotta: A reader favorite as well as a personal favorite. Like Fetch Rewards, Ibotta pays you for uploading receipts. Over the years, I’ve earned nearly $500 in gift cards by using the app. In general, Ibotta is the best-paying receipt scanning app; the big downside is that you have to browse and activate offers before you go shopping, then buy specific items to earn credit. That means using this app takes more effort than Fetch and other similar options. At the same time, offers aren’t always brand specific — often, you can often get credit just for buying any brand of eggs, bread or milk — so you don’t have to change your shopping habits. Learn more in our Ibotta review.
- Receipt Hog: As with Fetch Rewards, you don’t have to activate offers or buy specific products — you’ll earn points for every receipt you upload, up to a limit of 20 per week. Receipt Hog pays considerably less per receipt than Fetch, but you can use both apps at the same time, uploading receipts to each in order to stack rewards.
- Upside: This app is primarily for gas receipts, giving you a set amount of cash-back per gallon when you fill up your tank. Your account balance can be cashed-our for an Amazon gift card starting at $10. Upside does also feature a limited number of offers at select grocery stores, but most big names like Safeway, Walmart and Whole Foods are not available. Learn more in our Upside app review.
#5. Complete Small In-Store Tasks
If you enjoy getting out of the house and visiting new stores, the companies listed below will reward you for carrying out simple research and quality-assurance tasks, like making sure items are properly displayed on shelves.
Best Option: Shopkick
Shopkick is a bit of a cross between Ibotta and mystery shopping jobs. While there are a number of in-app offers (such as cash-back opportunities that require receipt-scanning), more than half of the ways to earn points (which are called Kicks) don’t require making a purchase.
This includes tasks like entering a brick-and-mortar store (with location sharing enabled), scanning items on store shelves, and watching videos about those products.
The app incentivizes in-person shopping trips and steers you to items you may not usually buy. So if you’re an impulse shopper, a different app may be a better fit.
Learn more about how it works in our Shopkick review.
Another Good Option: Mobee
If you’ve done mystery shopping before, you know that it can be tough to remember every little detail of your shopping trip so you can fill out the survey afterward. The Mobee app streamlines the processes of finding, signing up for, and completing shops.
Mobee uses GPS to ensure you’re at the right location. Once you select your mission in the app, you have to complete it within the given timeframe.
Most of the missions aren’t too lengthy, and your points will post to your account within 48 hours.
This app is great for those who live in metropolitan areas with a lot of stores nearby. For those in rural areas, this app will not be as useful.
#6. Sell Your Internet Usage Data
Another easy option is to straight-up sell your (anonymized) internet data.
Best Option: Nielsen Computer and Mobile Panel
Nielsen Computer and Mobile Panel is owned and operated by Nielsen, the company you know as the publisher of TV popularity ratings. When the news talks about “ratings season” or the fact that a show got canceled because of low ratings, they’re talking about Nielsen.
This is perhaps the easiest and most passive earning opportunity on this list. All you do is sign up and download the app to your smartphone or mobile device. After that, the app collects information in the background — things like what websites you visit and how long you spend online.
The data collected is anonymized, so it can’t be traced back to you. And the app doesn’t monitor or collect any personal information, such as your emails or text messages.
You’ll earn around $50 per year for each connected device.
You can learn more in our Nielsen Computer and Mobile Panel review.
#7. Play Games On Your Phone
Best Option: Mistplay
Mistplay is an Android-only mobile app that rewards you for playing games on your phone. The app functions as both a beta platform for developers to test and fine-tune their new games, as well as a game discovery engine that tries to match up users with games they might be interested in.
It’s a legit platform with millions of players, but it does take time to earn enough reward points to cash out for an Amazon gift card. Often, you have to meet certain in-game requirements to earn points, like reaching a particular stage or level, so the app rewards consistent usage rather than casual play. As such, this option is best-suited for people who already enjoy playing mobile games and wouldn’t mind getting rewarded for trying out new titles.
See also: How to get paid to play games.
#8. Win Amazon Gift Cards In Giveaways
Your odds of winning a big national sweepstakes are very low, but there are a surprising number of smaller giveaways where your chances are much better. And many of those smaller giveaways offer Amazon gift cards as prizes.
Small businesses often use giveaways to promote their social media accounts, and companies sometimes partner with bloggers and influencers to provide gift cards as part of their promotional campaigns. In many cases, these contests only have a few dozen entries.
One of the best places to find these giveaways is Instagram. For example, there are over 132,000 posts with the hashtag #AmazonGiftCard.
You can also find Amazon gift card giveaways under these hashtags:
To enter these contests, you’ll usually have to follow an account and then like, share or comment on a post.
Most of these giveaways are legit, but there are some spam and scam posts mixed in. Before entering a giveaway, check the account’s number of followers and post history to make sure they’re a legit, real and active user. And of course, never provide any personal information beyond what is required to collect your prize if you win.
#9. Get Free Gift Cards Directly From Amazon
Amazon offers a handful of easy ways to get gift cards directly from the company, though two of the methods listed below don’t technically qualify as “free” since they require significant work on your end.
Amazon Trade In Program
If you have used items sitting around your house that you no longer want, you can send them to Amazon in exchange for a gift card. Check out the different categories available for trade in, including Amazon devices, smartphones and video game systems.
Be aware that the Amazon trade in rates aren’t always great, so you might be better off selling your items on sites like Craigslist.
Get Approved For the Amazon Prime Rewards Credit Card
If you’re a frequent Amazon shopper with good credit, you can score a free gift card (along with a number of valuable perks) by getting approved for the Amazon Prime Rewards Signature credit card.
The specific approval bonus changes from time to time, but is usually $100 or $150.
You learn more about the benefits, check the current promotion and apply for the card here.
Amazon Gift Card Reload Bonus
If you have a gift card associated with your Amazon Prime account, the company will give you a $10 bonus when you reload it with $100 or more. You can only take advantage of this promotion once, and it’s not always available; the company runs it off and on for 30 days at a time.
That said, if you plan on shopping on Amazon anyway, this amounts to $10 of totally free money.
You can check the promotion’s status on Amazon’s offer page here.
Amazon Mechanical Turk
Amazon’s Mechanical Turk is a micro-tasking job site where you can get paid in gift cards to complete easy (often menial) jobs like data entry and transcription.
While you won’t get rich from this work — in fact, the average per-hour pay of around $6.50 is actually below the federal minimum wage — it’s still a legit and straightforward way to earn Amazon gift cards in your spare time.
Amazon Associates
Amazon Associates is the company’s affiliate marketing program. It allows you to earn money for referring customers to the site, typically via links to products that you place on your website.
While the commission rate (which varies by product category) is low, what’s great about the program is that you earn a commission on the customer’s entire shopping cart — not just the product you initially linked to.
Commissions are paid on a monthly basis as either a cash transfer or an Amazon gift card.
One of the best ways to leverage this program is by starting a blog — especially a niche blog that focuses on a single topic that people search for.
For example, if you’re into baking, you could start a blog that reviews baking products offered for sale on the site, providing links to the products you mention in your articles.
Starting a blog does take time and work, but it’s easier than most people think. And it can generate anything from a trickle of extra spending money to a full-time, six-figure income.
Ways That Don’t Work
Here are a few commonly-recommended options that either aren’t legit, don’t work, or have been discontinued.
- No-Rush Shipping: When you make an Amazon purchase, you’ll sometimes have the option to choose “no-rush shipping,” which has a longer delivery window than standard Prime shipping. Amazon saves money by using a slower shipping method and rewards you with a $1 credit, but that credit can only be used for digital services like Amazon Music and Prime Video purchases — it’s not a regular Amazon gift card code.
- Microsoft Rewards: This program allows you to take surveys and complete offers to earn points that are redeemable for Microsoft products. While it still appears on many other lists, new users cannot redeem their points for Amazon gift cards. That option was phased out a few years ago. Users who were part of the program prior to the phaseout still have the option, however.
- Empower: This online investment platform and portfolio tracker used to offer a $20 Amazon gift card code to new users who signed up with a valid referral link, but that promotion ended in 2021. (We’ll update this section if the promotion becomes available again in the future.)
- SurveySpot: Once a minor player in the paid-survey game, this site was recently shut down.
- Xoom: This PayPal-owned money transfer service (think of it as being a Western Union competitor) used to offer a $10 referral fee, paid via gift card. But the program was discontinued in early 2020, with the company saying that a new referral program will be introduced sometime in the future.
FAQs About How to Earn Amazon Gift Cards
In short, the answer is “no.” InstaGC and i-Say are the only two sites we’re aware of that offer instant delivery of gift cards, and in each case you need to meet their respective minimum withdrawal threshold.
Swagbucks and PrizeRebel provide members who have reached elevated account status with limited instant-cash-out options, though getting to those account tiers usually requires years of consistent use.
No, your Amazon gift card balance never expires. However, with some survey and offer sites, you are required to claim your gift card after your redemption is approved. And often, you only have a limited period of time to do so (such as 30 days).
In general, no. Amazon Pay is a product that competes with PayPal, and thus the company currently does not accept PayPal cash as a form of payment for merchandise or gift cards. You may be able to find a workaround, such as using PayPal cash to purchase a gift card on eBay, but this carries some degree of risk as these purchases are not typically protected by buyer protection policies.
No. Amazon vouchers can only be used for purchases on Amazon itself — their value cannot be loaded onto your Amazon Pay balance.
The best way we know of to get a discounted Amazon gift card is by earning and redeeming points on Swagbucks, as the site allows you to claim one gift card per month at a 12% discount. You may also be interested in learning about other ways to save money on Amazon (of which there is a surprisingly large variety).
All things considered, the easiest way to get free Amazon gift cards is by using a passive rewards platform like Nielsen Computer and Mobile Panel. Once you install the app, it collects your internet usage data in the background, so there’s nothing else you need to do to earn. However, while this is the easiest method, it’s not the fastest or the most lucrative — your earnings are capped at $50 per year, and it’ll take a full 12 months of usage to hit that mark.
The fastest way to get a free Amazon gift card is by participating in a study on User Interviews. It’s realistically possible to sign up and earn a gift card worth $50-$100 with one hour of total time input. If that option doesn’t interest you, the fastest way is by using a cash-back portal like Swagbucks when shopping online. These portals often pay as much as 10% back on your purchases.
You cannot sell digital Amazon gift cards, because they don’t have a serial number or pin number; the value of the card gets added directly to your account balance. If you’re planning on exchanging your Amazon gift cards for cash, you’ll need to get physical cards. But we found that most gift card selling platforms do not accept any type of Amazon gift card.
Free Amazon Gift Cards: Final Thoughts
Can you really get free Amazon gift cards? The short answer is yes — there are safe and legit ways to earn free Amazon gift cards.
At the same time, understand that there’s a limit to how much you’ll earn with these methods. You can make a little bit of extra spending money, but it will never be a major stream of side income.
Our view is that the best and most sustainable way to earn free Amazon gift card codes is to always start your online shopping at a cash-back portal like Swagbucks or TopCashback. These sites often pay 2% to 10% of your total purchase price, and sometimes even more if a partner merchant happens to be running a promotion. If you frequently shop online, book travel for business, or plan on making a big purchase, this can realistically generate as much as hundreds of dollars per year.
You can also check out our general guide on how to get free gift cards for a list of options that offer ways to earn gift cards to merchants other than Amazon.
If you’re a seasoned veteran who came here looking for up-to-date info, we hope this list was helpful — and we’d love to hear about your experiences (positive and negative) with these and other sites in the comments section below.
What to read next: How to save money on every Amazon purchase.
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