Fun fact: You can actually get free Amazon gift cards from dozens of different companies.
And since I know I’ll eventually spend the money on Amazon, an Amazon gift card is pretty much as good as cash these days.
In this post, I’ll share some of the real ways I get free stuff on Amazon — mostly on autopilot.
So what are the best ways to earn free Amazon gift cards?
Let’s take a look!
1. User Interviews
User Interviews is a great resource for connecting with online and in-person consumer research studies. Most studies pay out in Amazon gift cards at a rate between $50-200 an hour!
So far, I’ve made $105 in Amazon gift cards in about an hour and a half — here’s my full User Interviews review.
2. Fetch Rewards
Want to make money off your grocery purchases without all of the limitations most programs have?
Fetch Rewards works differently. Just snap a photo of your grocery receipt and earn points for every item you purchase from the 250+ popular brands in the app.
You can then redeem points for gift cards to retailers like Amazon and other stores.
3. FocusGroup.com
FocusGroup.com offers nationwide paid research opportunities. (The site is powered by Sago, a leading market research company.)
Be on the lookout for the “National” studies that pay between $75 and $200. These are scheduled over the phone or webcam so you can take the calls from anywhere at times that are convenient to you.
It took a while, but I eventually earned $115 for an online study related to a well-known Seattle-area company. Other studies I saw were related to cars, technology, and banking.
I receive a few email notifications every month with studies. Those range from around $2 for 20-minute surveys, up to $150 for 90-minute in-person or online focus groups.
Check out my full FocusGroup.com review to learn more.
4. The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
The Capital One Venture card offers “double miles” on all purchases. You can then trade in your miles for statement credits, gift cards, or travel purchases.
When you redeem your miles for a statement credit, it takes 2000 miles to knock $10 off your statement. But when you redeem them for a $10 Amazon gift card, it only takes 1250 miles—a 60% better value.
Capital One is currently offering a 75,000 mile sign-up bonus (worth $600 in free Amazon gift cards) after you spend $4000 in the first 3 months. That’s the equivalent of 15% cash back on your spending!
The card carries a $95 annual fee, but the flexibility of the rewards and benefits on non-Amazon spending may be worth a look.
Click here to learn more about this card and others.
Over the years, our Venture card has earned us hundreds of dollars worth of free Amazon purchases.
Related: Credit Card Rewards 101: How to Earn Free Cash and Travel by Spending Smarter
5. Survey Apps
On an hourly basis, these don’t pay very well, but if you have some downtime while watching TV or waiting in line, it can add up.
Here are some of our top picks.
Swagbucks – Earn up to $35 a survey with this mega-popular app, and get a $10 bonus just for signing up!
Branded Surveys – One of the best-rated survey sites with millions paid out.
Survey Junkie – Take 3 surveys a day and earn up to $100 a month.
KashKick – Get paid to answer surveys, test games, and try new products.
InboxDollars – Get a $5 bonus just for signing up!
American Consumer Opinion – Join millions of free members and earn up to $50 per survey.
Pinecone Research – Earn $3 for each 15-20 minute survey. They’ll send you a $3 check after your first one.
6. Nielsen Computer and Mobile Panel
Nielsen will reward you — up to $60 a year — for sharing Internet usage behavior. (Yes, this is the same Nielsen that’s been reporting TV ratings data for decades.)
After you download their app to all of your devices and they track your usage in the background, you earn points. Those points are redeemable to cash out for gift cards or via PayPal.
7. Amazon Rewards Credit Card
At press time, you could get a $100 Amazon gift card instantly upon approval for the Amazon Prime Visa Card.
These card carries no annual fee and earns 3-5% cash back on all your Amazon purchases. If you’re a heavy Amazon shopper, this is probably worth having in your wallet.
8. MobileXpression
MobileXpression is a market research panel that pays you for data from your mobile phone.
Download their app and allow it to work in the background recording your browsing habits while on your phone. By participating with MobileXpression, you’ll earn weekly credits redeemable for Amazon gift cards.
Get a free $5 Amazon gift card after your first week (if you’re in the US).
9. Ibotta
I use Ibotta every week to check for extra cash back on our grocery purchases.
The drawback is you still have to scroll through each store’s listing and choose the products you bought. Then, you snap a picture of your receipt and watch the cash back hit your account.
Ibotta Savers who use the app every month earn over $130 a year! I’ll take it. (You can cash out via gift cards to Amazon and other stores, or PayPal.)
10. Chase Ultimate Rewards
An interesting new way to pay for your Amazon purchases is to apply your Chase Ultimate Rewards points balance. This means you can use your existing bank of rewards points to seamlessly pay for your Amazon purchases:
Done this way, your points are worth approximately 0.8 cents each, or $80 for 10,000 points. While this is certainly an easy way to redeem points and make your Amazon purchases free, it’s actually not the best use of Chase Ultimate Rewards.
For example, if you were to redeem those 10,000 points for an Amazon gift card through the Ultimate Rewards portal, they’d be worth $100 instead — not $80:
Still, Ultimate Rewards points are even more valuable when you redeem them for travel purchased through the Chase rewards portal.
And beyond that, they’re even more valuable when you transfer them to one of Chase’s travel partners, which include United and Southwest.
Bottom line: if you want to use Chase Ultimate Rewards to make your Amazon purchases free, I’d go the gift card route — not the easy-peasy checkout integration route.
Plus, Chase cards often come with attractive sign-up bonuses for new cardholders — worth $200-$1,000. Check our partner CreditCards.com for the latest offers.
Credit cards like the Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card offer a $200 sign-up bonus after you spend $500 in your first 3 months — with no annual fee. That’s up to 40% cash back!
Learn more and compare this card to other cash back cards here.
If you know you’re gonna spend $500 in the next 3 months, that’s #freemoney. This card also gives you one of the highest cash back rates, with unlimited 1.5% back on every dollar you spend.
11. Amazon’s Trade-In Program
Do you you have old cell phones, video games, books, etc. to sell? This program doesn’t get a lot of publicity, but you can use Amazon’s trade-in program to earn credit on Amazon.
I should note that you can get more money selling them yourself, but Amazon offers a simple, painless process. You don’t even have to pay for shipping.
12. Review Software
G2 and Capterra are a massive software review platforms that occasionally pay Amazon gift cards for honest product reviews. I’ve received several of these—worth over $100 in total—for writing reviews of software I use for work.
The best way to get started is to leave your first review for free. During that process, they’ll ask what other tools you use.
Don’t review those yet — wait for an email to come through offering a gift card incentive.
All in all, it’s a pretty easy way to earn free gift cards.
13. CashWalk
CashWalk uses the pedometer function on your phone to track your steps throughout the day.
Those steps convert into CashWalk coins — up to 100 a day — which can then be redeemed for gift cards to Amazon and other stores. For power users and serious walkers, that translates into $5 every 4-5 weeks.
(I earned $40 in my first 6 months.)
The only drawback is you have to open the app every day to claim your coins. (That’s how they get you to look at the ads that pay for your gift cards!)
Get 100 coins as a sign-up bonus w/ referral code MR9W5.
Check out our full CashWalk review to learn more.
14. Miles App
The new Miles app gives you “frequent flyer miles” for all the travel you do, whether walking, biking, driving, riding, or flying.
By letting the app track your location, you’ll earn free points that can be redeemed for gift cards. This one may be best for heavy commuters though — it takes 2,000 miles to earn a $1 Amazon gift card.
Still, every dollar counts and the app just runs in the background. After you install it, you don’t have to do anything to rack up your miles.
15. RebateKey
With RebateKey, you skip the gift card entirely and just get Amazon purchases for free or deeply discounted.
(I was skeptical too, but I’ve gotten several products up to 100% off through this site.)
After you join the site, you can browse the full list of active offers. My recommendation is to keep this in your back pocket before you make any purchase on Amazon.
Once you find a product you like, claim it through RebateKey and proceed to checkout. You’ll make a full-price order, and paste your order ID back into RebateKey for verification.
After 35 days, you’ll have the option to get your rebate as a check in the mail, a PayPal deposit, or a gift card you can apply directly to your Amazon account.
What’s in it for the sellers of these products?
Well, they’re building sales proof on Amazon, gathering user feedback, and collecting emails. I’ve used it several times and never had an issue getting my refund.
Pretty crazy, but definitely worth checking out to see if they have any products you’re in the market for.
A friend of mine noted he does a lot of his gift shopping here!
Free Amazon Gift Card Alternatives
Wait a minute, you might be saying. Are these gift cards really free?
Yes and no.
You and I have been around long enough to know that few things in life are truly 100% free—and earning Amazon gift cards is no exception.
These won’t cost you any money, but you’ll have to take some action, whether it’s signing up for an account, filling out a survey, or completing some other task.
I LOVE getting free money to spend on Amazon — especially if it’s relatively passive.
But if what you’re really after is extra money — and you’re spending a ton of time to make very little — there are probably more effective ways to earn it.
Here are some alternative side hustle ideas with low barriers-to-entry and low startup costs.
Respondent
Similar to User Interviews above, Respondent facilitates one-on-one consumer research studies and focus groups. And with an average payout of over $100 an hour, it’s one of the best paying online survey outfits I’ve found.
Building an Online Business
The payoff in starting a blog or online business is longer, but over time can be far greater than many of the ways to earn a few free bucks on Amazon listed above.
Instead of toiling away doing surveys or watching videos, what if instead you invested that time into building an asset of your own?
Write content on a topic you care about and build an audience in your niche. As you build out your library of helpful articles, you’ll pick up more traffic and revenue.
Content sites earn money from affiliate partnerships, ad revenue, and your own products and services.
Here are some inspiring examples from The Side Hustle Show archives:
Andrew earns 6-figures a year curating gift ideas
Scott earns 6-figures a year from his bird-watching website
Jodi earns $5k+ per month from her part-time blog for girl scout troop leaders
Katie earns $6k a month from her gray hair blog
Want to start a website of your own? Check out my free 6-part video course on how to start your own site.
Pros:
Low startup costs
Great long-term earning power
Can sell the business down the road
Cons:
Slow to see results
Lots of skills to learn
Flipping Products for Profit
Buy low, sell high. That’s the name of the game, and surprisingly, there’s profit to be had all over the place!
For example, Stacy Gallego was able to scale back her nursing job to focus on her flipping business, earning as much as $7,000 a month.
Pros:
Low startup costs
Simple business model
Can multiply money quickly
Cons:
Can be time-consuming to source inventory
Difficult to store and ship bulky items
Mobile Notary Loan Signing Agent
Notary certification is granted by your state and generally costs less than $100.
Once you’re certified, you can charge your own fee to notarize documents, or become a loan signing agent like Brian did and make $1500-2000 a month overseeing mortgage signings in your spare time.
Become a Virtual Assistant or Freelancer
Virtual assistants provide administrative support to clients from their home office. If that sounds like a fun side hustle you can set up shop on your own or jump on board with an established VA company.
To learn more about starting your own virtual assistant company, check out the free video training from my friend Abbey Ashley, who started her VA business on the side and shares:
Where to find thousands of potential clients.
How to make a full-time living working from home.
What clients are really looking for in a VA. (hint: it’s not prior VA experience)
Abbey started out at $20-30 an hour, and ultimately grew her business to $75 an hour and up for specialized services.
Your Turn
Take time to analyze your situation.
Does it make sense to pursue rewards programs to earn free Amazon gift cards? Or does it make more sense to invest in yourself to earn some money on the side doing something you already know?
Other fun fact: I actually interviewed at Amazon back in 2005 for a position in gift card marketing. I didn’t get the job, and looking at how things turned out, I’m pretty happy about that. (But those stock options…!?)
But whoever did get that job went crazy with it. Today, Amazon gift cards are everywhere!
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Stock photos by Dean Drobot and 9dream studio via Shutterstock
