26 Best Passive Income Apps To Make Money (2022)

Passive income is one of the best ways to grow wealth for the future without having to do much on a day-to-day basis. However, there is always an investment cost to consider. This investment cost could be framed in terms of your time, money, energy, passion, or lost opportunities.

Today we’ll look at passive income apps for which you can earn some really amazing rewards. Remember that everyone has different goals and lifestyles, so make sure you pick the apps that best fit your specific needs.

How do passive income apps work?

Passive income generation is an investment strategy where you work to set up multiple income streams which require limited ongoing effort. Passive income apps help here since they bring to bear cutting-edge technology such as machine learning algorithms to optimize investments, or surprise and delight you with rewards for every day purchases.

26 Passive Income Apps To Try

1. Survey Junkie – BEST OVERALL

One of the easiest and fastest ways to start generating extra income without much effort is to start taking paid surveys. And Survey Junkie is one of the best apps for finding paid surveys. Survey Junkie has a great mobile app and an excellent track-record with their users.

Passive income apps like Survey Junkie help connect users with the companies out there that need a lot of data researched from the efficient and previous customers. You can learn more about Survey Junkie in our in-depth review.

2. Google Opinion Rewards

Another good way to earn passive income is to sign up for Google Opinion Rewards. Their payment comes in the form of Google Play Store credits, where you’ll be able to buy books, movies, apps, and more.

What’s interesting about Google Opinion Rewards is that the surveys are related to places you’ve visited, mobile apps you’ve downloaded, and videos you’ve watched on Youtube.

While data collection apps try to focus on their target demographics, this might put some folks off as a little too invasive.

3. Creative Market

If you have artistic talents, you can put them to work for you by creating and selling assets such as fonts, themes, or graphic design templates on Creative Market. From there, other artists can build upon your creations by using them in new, and inspiring ways.

You can create themes and templates for Instagram, Canva, Illustrator, or PhotoShop. You can create themes and templates for customized emails, presentations, resumes, or websites. Literally, your imagination is the limit.

And the best part is you get paid every-time someone buys your work.

4. Society 6

This is a marketplace for the creatively gifted to showcase their talents and earn some extra income. Society 6 operates very much like Etsy, where vendors can set up their own profiles and sell their crafts to people across the world.

Additionally, if you license your work, your payout will increase over the years. While the licensing fees aren’t usually very high, they’ll add up over time.

5. Whatusersdo

Whatusersdo is a user-testing platform that allows products to collect insights about their website’s user experience. The platform offers different payouts depending on the time and effort you put in.

Whatusersdo offers a range of features appeal to design-minded professionals. Moreover, it also provides people with the chance to earn a little cash while testing websites for others.

6. Fluz

Fluz is cash back app that rewards you with rebates and coupons for purchasing things on your mobile device. What makes makes this app pretty cool is its network effect.

If you refer new users to Fluz, you’ll receive a small percentage of their rebates. Additionally, if they invite friends, you get a small share of that as well.

It’s a great idea for earning passive income while buying things you already need. And if you have a network of like-minded friends, Fluz is a perfect app to share with them.

7. Swagbucks

Swagbucks pays you for doing a lot of stuff online that you might already do in your free time. From watching YouTube videos, shopping on Amazon, playing mobile games, or taking polls, Swagbucks offers various ways of earning small amounts of easy money.

We’ve written an in-depth review on Swagbucks, and highly recommend you check them out.

8. Branded Surveys

Branded Surveys is a leading marketing research community that pays users for their opinions. To get started you’ll need to answer some questions about yourself so they can send you the right surveys.

After getting started, it’s just a matter of taking the surveys as they’re offered to you. Branded Surveys also offers other opportunities to earn free money with little effort. For example, you can complete polls and other simple tasks on a daily basis. You can also do product testing in case you’re looking for variety.

Once you reach their minimum payout threshold, you can redeem your earnings via Paypal, Amazon, or various gift cards.

9. Ibotta

Another cash back app to check out is Ibotta. In fact, Ibotta is one of the more well-known cashback apps out there.

With passive income apps like Ibotta, you’re able to search consumer offers and coupons before you shop. That way you can take advantage of deals as they are offered.

A really great feature of the Ibotta app is how quickly you can start earning. You get a signup bonus just to download their free app from either Google Play or the App Store. From there, you sign up and can receive rebates from online retailers on a wide variety of purchases.

10. YouTube

Did you know that YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine? You can make a killing on YouTube if you find the right niche and audience. There are many YouTubers who are millionaires from online videos they made and posted years ago.

With that said, it’s super competitive now. It does take a long time to build a following and you really do need to have quality content in order to earn a lot of money on YouTube.

11. Fiverr

If you’re willing to try to do small tasks regularly, Fiverr is a great passive income site to check out. It’s not exactly passive income, but Fiverr can be a great way to earn extra money in your spare time by doing fairly simple work.

Sites like Fiverr create a marketplace for users to share their talents and services around the world. Many small businesses use Fiverr to hire out tasks to freelancers without having to pay the overhead for a full-time employee.

The trick to succeed on Fiverr is to sell services you can repeat without having to put too much work or much effort into getting your name out there. If you’re able to establish a reputation for meeting deadlines, delivering quality work, and establishing reasonable pricing, then Fiverr is a great option for you to earn a lot of money.

12. Instacart

With the Instacart App’s help, users can request the grocery to get delivered from the local stores. Instacart splits the cash with you once the products are provided—a win-win for both you and your neighbour.

13. Robinhood

Robinhood is an investment app that provides an excellent way for beginners to learn about building a long-term investment portfolio. Though Robinhood has taken a hit in recent years with some investors, it’s still great app for folks who want to start doing passive investing without much money.

The thing that makes Robinhood great is that there are no transaction fees, so your money doesn’t get eaten up over time. Also, there are no account minimums, so you can get started with a very small initial investment or by investing on a monthly basis.

14. Honeygain

Honeygain is a really creative-concept for earning passive income. They are a distributed proxy network. This means that Honeygain sells a little bit of their users’ internet bandwidth and processing power to trusted sources, like businesses.

In return their users get paid in real cash, via PayPal or Bitcoin. So your phone or computer is earning real money for you while sitting idle. Which is a great thing.

15. Fetch Rewards

With Fetch Rewards, you’ll earn rewards for purchasing the food on your shopping list. Just download the app, buy some groceries, scan the receipt, and immediately receive the rewards from your purchase. Super easy.

16. Neighbour

With Neighbor, you’ll offer storage solutions to people in your neighborhood. This is great for residents with extra space in their garage available to rent out. This could also be a good idea for folks with a rental property or a spare room that isn’t being utilized.

Basically, people would pay you to store their stuff. This can be done on a long-term basis or for the short-term. The appeal to customers is that the going rate is about half that of standard storage units. Conversely, the property owner literally does nothing in exchange for this passive income stream.

17. Nielsen App

Nielsen Research is one of the leading media research companies in the world. The Nielsen Computer & Mobile Panel enables you to earn rewards for allowing Nielsen to collect marketing data and product usage information.

Once you download this passive income app, you can completely forget that it’s running in the background. The Nielsen mobile panel software automatically enters each household into a monthly sweepstakes for a $10,000 grand prize. Additionally, you can unlock rewards that allow you to redeem gift cards or PayPal cash prizes.

18. Native

Native sends you tasks based on your current physical location. For example, you might receive a task when you enter a store, movie theater or restaurant.

Then you just complete the provided tasks on your mobile phone, provide them feedback, and receive your cash prizes.

19. SavvyConnect

SavvyConnect is an online survey app that delivers you surveys based on your search trends, entertainment choices, and online shopping with major retailers. 

What’s great about SavvyConnect that you automatically receive $5 a month for every device you have connected. One downside is it appears the only way you can get paid is by check. No electronic payments allowed.

20. Sweatcoin

Sweatcoin is an app that pays you for walking. It’s that simple.

You’ll receive Sweatpoints for each step you take. When you accumulate enough Sweatpoints, you can redeem them for a variety of goods and services through Daily Offers or Marathon Offers.

Daily offers is an offering in which you might be eligible to purchase something through one of Sweatcoin’s 300 corporate partners. This changes every day.

Conversely, marathon offers are a little more rare. They also are more difficult to earn, but are also more lucrative.

Additionally, Sweatcoin offers its users the chance to donate their Sweatpoints to charity, or to convert their points into a cryptocurrency, known as SWEAT.

There are downsides. People complain about not being credited for the appropriate amount of exercise, limited interaction with fitness devices, and lack of cashout opportunities, since you can’t get money sent to your checking account or savings account.

But the best thing about Sweatcoin is the gamification effect on fitness. By giving users a financial incentive to reach walking milestones, Sweatcoin motivates them to a higher level of fitness than before.

21. MobileXpression

MobileXpression is a great passive income app that’s easy to join. According to their website, you receive a $5 Amazon gift card simply for downloading the app and using it for a week. As long as you use their app, you’ll continue to earn credits that can be redeemed for gift cards. You can download MobileXpression’s app for either iOS or Android phones.

22. InboxDollars

InboxDollars offers many different ways to make money. This includes shopping online, playing video games, reading emails, and answering surveys. According to the InboxDollars website, they’ve paid out over $80 million to their users.

In order to receive a payout, you need a PayPal account and have earned $30 or more. As a bonus, new members receive $5 for signing up.

23. Turo

If you have a car that sitting idle in your driveway or in your garage, Turo can help turn that car into extra cash. Turo operates within the U.S. and Canada.They supply comprehensive insurance, damage protection also as 24/7 roadside assistance. 

24. Airbnb

Airbnb offers a ton of potential for earning passive income. Whether you reside in the suburbs, the big city, or the country, you can find people looking for a rental.

Airbnb makes this easy with their calculators so you know what your rental could be worth. Keep in mind it’s very competitive so you need to make sure your place is kept in really great shape.

25. Dosh

The Dosh app is a passive app that helps you find automatic cash back deals at thousands of retailers, restaurants, and hotels. You don’t need to use coupons or scan receipts.

You simply download the Dosh app on your Apple or Android phone, then go about your normal spending habits. Every time you qualify for cash back, the Dosh app will automatically credit your account. After you’ve accumulated $25, you can transfer the money to your bank account, PayPal, or Venmo account.

26. Acorns

The Acorns app isn’t a traditional passive income app, like the others you’ve seen in this article.

Instead, users establish an Acorns account for investment purposes, then deposit small amounts of money into their accounts. This could be several dollars at a time, regular deposits, or ‘Round-Ups.’ Round-Ups allow users to participate in fractional investing, where they make a financial investment with spare change from every day purchases.

So if you’re looking to start investing, give the Acorns app a try!

Frequently asked questions about passive income apps

Generating passive income from apps

Whatever your background or ability, there is app that can earn you passive income. You might want to start with something simple like watching videos on Swagbucks. Or depending on your creative background, you could use a marketplace like Society 6 to earn some cash. If you have more money then time, you could invest some of it using apps like Robinhood.

No passive income app works for everyone, so spend some time and do your research. Remember that your time is worth money, so don’t throw it away on apps that don’t properly reward your time.