If you know anything about me or This Online World, you’ll know that I absolutely love free, passive income.

I’ve been using passive income apps to earn extra cash every month for a while now, and I think there’s a lot of value in creating additional income streams in your life whenever you can.

So, you can only imagine my excitement when I started researching the best apps that pay you to exercise. I mean, what could possibly beat getting paid to walk or get fit?

This is definitely one of the easiest side hustles I’ve come across, and if you want to earn free gift cards, awesome prizes, and stay fit, this is the post for you.

Time to break down some of the best apps that pay you to workout!

But first…Stuck on how to even begin working out, or lack the motivation?

1. HealthyWage

Healthywage is an app that allows you to make money by betting on your weight loss journey.

It’s not gambling, but there is risk since you’re betting your own money to back your weight loss journey. However, all responsibility falls on you so there isn’t any luck involved.

Getting started with Heathywage is also very simple. Users start by signing up and using the Healthywage calculator to see how much money they can win based on the weight loss goal and time-frame that’s set.

Users must put at least 10% of their body weight as a goal, and you can bet anywhere from $5 to $995 per month. Your time frame must also be between 6 and 18 months, and altering these variables impacts your total winning possibilities.

Healthywage has users verify their weight at a gym and by uploading a video to the Healthywage website at the start and end of the weight loss bet.

If you beat your goal, you get cash, making Healthywage a high stakes yet effective way to make money by getting fit.

This isn’t too good to be true either. Healthywage generates revenue from Government subsidies, corporate sponsors, and lost bets, so there is a functional model behind this (unlike Carrot Rewards, rest in peace).

Checkout my official HealthyWage review to learn more or signup and get started!

2. Sweatcoin

When it comes to fitness apps that pay you to work out, Sweatcoin is certainly one of the more interesting ones.

The app is a cryptocurrency based platform that rewards users with Sweatcoins – the currency native to the app. Users can use Sweatcoins to purchase gift cards and a variety of rewards.

Sweatcoin has been featured on Forbes, the Daily Mail, The Telegraph, and has exploded in popularity in the UK. Sweatcoin is also available in Ireland, Italy, Spain, France, the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Sweatcoin is really an easy way to get paid to walk. All you have to do is have the app on your phone and to start exercising outside.

According to the Sweatcoin website, 1,000 outdoor steps = 0.95 sweatcoins (there is a 5% fee on all credits you earn, hence the 0.95 value).

Alright, how much is a Sweatcoin worth?

Well, for a modest 20,000 Sweatcoins, you can redeem $1,000 of PayPal money. So, that’s roughly 21,000,000 steps in order to make that 20,000 Sweatcoins.

Sweatcoin does cap how many coins you can earn to 20 Sweatcoins per day, so you’ll either need to have years of patience or to approach Sweatcoins as a team and pool Sweatcoins together with some friends.

However, the app still offers discounts and freebies, and I’ve gotten some free razors from the app and just had to pay a tiny bit of shipping. I’ll take it!

If you are a fan of virtual currencies and want to checkout other apps like Sweatcoin, you’re going to love the Lympo app I mention later so keep on reading! 😉

Extra reading – Checkout my official Sweatcoin Review for more information.

3. Achievement

Achievement is a very popular fitness app. However, after testing Achievement for a week, I think it’s only a decent money maker for people who are immensely active.

I use the Google Fit app to track my movement. Here are some of my earnings after walking several miles each day with the Achievement app:

As you can see, no matter how much I walked in a given day, I was always rewarded with 6 points. I answered a quick survey, and you receive 50 points for signing up with Achievement.

You need 10,000 points to cash out with Achievement, which is pretty grim considering I earn 6 points a day.

Achievemint does reward up to 80 points a day for tracked activities such as biking, swimming, or running. However, this requires you to actively track these metrics through a variety of apps or systems.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but unless you are actively training and tracking your stats, you won’t earn anything. If you earned 80 points a day, you’d make about $30 a year.

4. Charity Miles

Charity Miles won’t earn you a dime, but it’s still a great exercise app that pays you through a charity of your choice.

With Charity Miles, users can select from dozens of charities and have donations be made to them based on how much they exercise. For every mile you run or walk, you can earn up to $0.25 for the charity of your choice.

Bikers cam also earn up to $0.10 per mile for that same charity.

Some of the charities supported by the Charity Mile platform include:

Feeding America.

Alzheimer’s Association.

Wounded Warriors.

Stand Up To Cancer.

Habitat for Humanity.

Autism Speaks.

WWF.

And dozens more.

Every time you commence a workout, the donation is brought to you by partnered brands. You don’t have to endure an advertisement or product pitch, just their logo.

The only problem I have with Charity Miles is that you have to actively start your workout tracking within the app instead of earning passively.

If you find motivating yourself to workout to be a problem, download Charity Miles today.

5. Lympo

Lympo is one of the newer entrants to the fitness app industry, and they have recently launched their app as a way to reward people for working out.

Like the other fitness apps on this list, Lympo is designed to reward users for living healthy lifestyles in exchange for collecting user data and marketing to them throughout the process.

Lympo also partners with businesses involved in the health and fitness space. Users will be able to earn LYM Tokens as they exercise, and they will also be able to spend their hard earned tokens at various online retailers in the health and fitness space.

Businesses are also able to set fitness challenges through the Lympo app, so users have the opportunity to earn additional coins by meeting certain requirements.

From a bigger picture, Lympo is really trying to create a platform where businesses and consumers can interact with one another under the common goal of improving global health.

Lympo is partnered with the Dallas Mavericks and owner Mark Cuban, so there’s hopefully some exciting plans for the future of this app. Plenty of Lympo reviews are positive, and this is definitely an app you should consider if you want to get paid to walk or workout.

Checkout Lympo.io to learn more.

6. Walgreens Balance Rewards

With the Walgreens app, users can earn points known as Balance Rewards points whenever they are active.

Balance Rewards points can be redeemed for Redemption Dollars, which can be used when shopping at Walgreens to save money.

You’ll need a Walgreens Balance Rewards account to start earning points, but once you have an account it is as simple as connecting it to a fitness tracker like Google Fit, FitBit, or an Apple Watch.

1,000 Balance Rewards points are equal to $1, and you can only earn a maximum of 1,000 points per month. However, there are a few ways to earn Balance Rewards points, including:

20 points per mile walked or a daily limit of 20 points for a logged exercise activity.

20 points for a daily weigh-in.

20 points for a blood glucose test or blood pressure test.

You can also earn 20 points for logging sleep.

Again, not the highest earner, but if you want to get paid to exercise, Walgreens Balance Rewards isn’t a bad place to start!

Learn more about the program here!

Extra Resource – Checkout my latest video on if apps that pay you to workout still work in 2020!

7. StepBet

StepBet is similar to Healthywage in that you can make money by betting on yourself.

WayBetter is actually the parent company of StepBet, and host other similar fitness apps such as DietBet, RunBet, and SweatBet.

All of their apps have a similar premise. Users pay their bet to enter a fitness challenge with other players (bets are generally around $40), and participate in games around 6 weeks in length.

Players are assigned goals based on their historical activity levels and weight loss targets, and you are required to meet your goals throughout consecutive weeks to remain in the pool.

If you make it to the end of a bet, you split the pool with the remaining players (minus a percentage StepBet takes for hosting the competition) and move on to the next fitness challenge.

Non StepBet members can only play one game at a time, whereas members who pay a $50 annual fee can play up to 3 games simultaneously and don’t have to give a cut to StepBet.

If you want some serious motivation and to make money by being active, this fitness reward app is definitely for you!

Extra Reading – Checkout our 2020 StepBet review!

8. LifeCoin

LifeCoin is an app like Sweatcoin that rewards users with the in-app currency, LifeCoins, for getting fit.

The app is basically a carbon copy of Sweatcoin. Earn coins for walking outdoors, and redeem your coins for prizes such as gift cards or discounted merchandise.

Prizes change all the time on LifeCoin, and while it might take a while to accumulate your coins, it’s nice being able to redeem your hard work for lower level prizes like gift cards (whereas Sweatcoin generally has massive prizes and no lower-tier options).

Checkout LifeCoin to learn more!

9. PK Rewards

PK Rewards is a simple yet effective way to get motivated to workout and to earn rewards in the process.

When you workout, you can connect the PK Rewards app to a Apple Watch or a list of supported Bluetooth trackers the app works with to start monitoring your exercise levels.

When your workout is complete, you’re awarded with an Effort Score based on the intensity of your workout and given coins based on your score.

Coins can be redeemed for a variety of prizes, Amazon gift cards, and more, so be sure to checkout PK Rewards and to download their IOS or Android app!

10. Carrot Rewards (No Longer Active)

Edit: 6/23/2019: Carrot Rewards has officially shutdown.

Edit 2/16/2020: Carrot Rewards is coming back!

Carrot Rewards rewards Canadians for being active. In fact, the app even received $1.5 million dollars in funding from the Ontario Government to help the app accomplish this mission.

Users can answer surveys, receive the latest fit and fresh deals, and also earn passive income for meeting daily step goals.

Your Carrot Reward Points are redeemed by connecting the app to another reward program. Personally, I use Drop, a passive earning app that rewards you for spending with your credit card at certain stores.

For passive earning, Carrot Rewards rewards points for meeting a daily step goal.

Every time you meet your daily step goal, you earn points.

Additionally, if you meet your step goal for consecutive days, your points will increase (i.e. 10 points on day one, then 20 points, then 30 points and so on…I’m not sure where the bonus ends to be honest!)

So, how much does Carrot Rewards pay?

Well, if you can keep your step streak alive, you can easily start earning 50+ carrot points a day just by walking.

Plus, if you invite friends to join you on Carrot Rewards, you can earn 400 point bonuses if the two of you successfully hit 10 daily step goals within the span of 7 days.

Ultimately, if you walk every day, you can probably earn more than $50 a year just by having Carrot Rewards installed.

11. Runtopia

Runtopia is one of the more serious fitness apps around, and allows users to set exercise goals for running, walking, or cycling and to listen to an audio coach during their workouts.

Completing daily challenges or working out will earn Sports Coins, which can be redeemed for upgraded membership, prizes, discounts, or PayPal rewards.

You won’t get rich by using Runtopia, but if you combine this app with other workout apps, you might be able to earn some decent pocket money every month.

Checkout Runtopia on the Google Playstore or App Store to learn more.

12. EarthMiles

Earth Miles is very similar to apps like Achievement in that you can make money by walking, running, or biking.

However, Earth Miles actually rewards users with ‘Earthmiles,’ the in-app point system, based on activity difficulty.

Here is how the Earthmile point system breaks down:

Walking 1KM = 1 Earthmile.

Biking 1KM = 3 Earthmiles.

Running 5KM = 5 Earthmiles.

Most of the rewards are just discounts to health products or supplements, but you can also unlock free trial periods to various health apps or services. You can checkout the list of Earthmile rewards to browse and learn more about the app.

13. FitPotato

If you’re looking for an app like StepBet, Fit Potato in an IOS-only option to consider.

FitPotato hosts weekly step contests that work the same way as StepBet except games only take $5 to enter and last for just one week.

If you finish at least 3 fitness sessions within a given FitPotato challenge week, you’re considered a winner. A fitness session requires users to make at take 10,000 steps within 24 hours, so this isn’t too unrealistic.

Like StepBet, winners split the prize pool at the end of the week. Since FitPotato is a smaller app, prize pools are generally small. However, this also means you split the pot with fewer winners!

Ultimately, you won’t get rich by using FitPotato. But, this fitness app does a great job at motivating users, and it’s another nifty way to get paid to workout and to be more active.

Learn more about FitPotato!

14. Step Younger App

Step Younger, or Step Young+, is a pedometer app that helps people track their step count while also working towards puzzle pieces and spin entries to try and win free prizes.

The Step Young app is available for Android and IOS, and has definitely gotten pretty popular in the past few months, and has a few million downloads between both app stores.

Free Amazon gift cards (up to $100, apparently) are the main attraction of Step Younger. However, you can also use the app to track your water intake, easily monitor activity levels, and apparently track blood pressure and heart rate (not sure this is too accurate).

A common complain based on app store reviews is that it takes a long time to accumulate puzzle pieces on Step Younger, which is how you actually unlock free gift cards.

In many ways, this app seems similar to Sweatcoin in that while there are some flashy prizes, it will probably take quite a few weeks to actually redeem anything. So, keep this in mind and have realistic expectations!

Step Younger isn’t the most lucrative app that pays you money for working out. But, at the very least, you can try it out to for that extra kick of motivation!

15. Various Gig Apps

While these aren’t exactly exercise apps, these gig economy apps still present ample opportunity to make money when you’re out and about.

For example, companies like DoorDash actually let you deliver food via foot in some markets, so this is perfect if you live in a busy city or downtown core.

Apps like Job Spotter pay users for taking pictures of help wanted/hiring signs and uploading them through the mobile app, so you can score some free gift cards for walking around your city and keeping your eyes peeled for open job opportunities.

If shopping is your thing, platforms such as Shopkick will pay you to walk to stores and to scan specific items with the mobile app (you don’t have to even purchase them).

Rover, a peer-to-peer dog walking platform, would also be a great way to make money by working out and staying active, especially if you’re a dog lover.

Finally, if you want to make some serious money, you could start delivering food as a bike courier to make extra money. If you live in a major city, this could be an immensely lucrative side hustle that also keeps you fit!

Extra reading – Checkout my Uber Eats vs. DoorDash review!

Final Thoughts

Apps that pay you to workout are a dime a dozen these days, but if you ask me, that’s a good thing.

None of these apps are ever going to make you rich. However, I don’t think there’s any harm in encouraging people to lead healthier lifestyle and to remain active with free gift cards and prizes.

Yes, you have to sell your user data to earn these rewards, but if you’re comfortable with this premise, there’s no reason to miss out on free money.

Besides, perhaps tracking your steps and watching your progress grow can be an empowering way to become more active!