3 Best Apps That Pay You to Walk

One of the best incentives to walk and stay active is being paid to do it. Walking is an easy healthy activity that we do every day. You can easily track it with the pedometer on your smartphone or with fun tech such as smartwatches. To help you live a healthy lifestyle there are the 3 best apps that pay you to walk.

Please note this post contains affiliate links. There is no difference in price if you decide to purchase, but note that I will receive a commission.

Smart Watches to help you earn rewards

For all of these apps, having a mobile phone with a built-in pedometer (step counter) is all you need to start earning rewards. However, having a smartwatch can make these challenges a lot easier and more fun. Smartwatches can keep you motivated and help make sure you are staying on track for your goals for the day. Some of the top smartwatches include:

• Apple Watch Series 5
• Samsung Galaxy Watch
• Garmin Vivoactive Watch
• Fitbit Versa

Achievement: Get paid real cash to walk

Achievement is an app that helps use your activity data to contribute to medical research and pays you cash for it ($10 for every 10,000 points) or it can be donated. You can earn points for walking, logging meals, answering survey questions, and more. It’s very easy to link Achievement to other apps. Some of the most popular apps it links to includes:

• Apple Health
• Samsung Health
• Fitbit
• Garmin
• MyFitnessPal
• RunKeeper
• Strava
• Twitter

Depending on the app you can earn points for different tasks, including the number of steps you take each day. Some apps will reward you for other activities. For example, with MyFitnessPal you can earn points by weighing in, recording food, or doing other fitness activities.

For every 10,000 points you earn you can redeem it for $10. This is real cash that can go straight to your bank account or Paypal, or you can choose to donate it to charity. How often you get paid will depend on your activity level and engagement in the app. It’s likely to take you at least 3-6 months if you are active to earn $10, or if you are doing about 10,000 steps a day and nothing else it could be closer to a year.

Walgreen Balance Rewards: Earn dollars off by being healthy

Did you know Walgreens has their own activity rewards program called Balance Rewards for healthy choices?

Download the Walgreens App and click on “Balance Rewards for healthy choices” (under Balance Rewards). Here, you can link your health apps and devices. Popular ones include:

• Apple Health Kit
• Google Fit
• Lifesum
• Fitbit (select models)
• Blood pressure monitors (select brands)
• Smart scales (select brands)

There are challenges listed where you can earn 100 points for every challenge week you complete (and if you complete all 4 weeks, you get a bonus prize wheel spin). Challenges begin on Monday each week and you can do a walk challenge as well as a lifestyle challenge.

For every 1,000 points you earn you receive a $1 off reward at Walgreens. If you maximize two challenges a week and get the bonus spin you could get $1 reward in as little as a month.

Feeling motivated to walk? Amp up your fitness by trying to jog or run for a bit with these tips to help motivate you to run.

Sweatcoin: Walk for rewards such as health products or experiences

Sweatcoin is another app that turns your steps into in-app currency called Sweatcoin which can then be redeemed towards real rewards. Technically Sweatcoin is not a cryptocurrency because it is not on a blockchain although they hope in the future it’ll be listed on exchanges, similar to bitcoin. The app has a fun, techy, interface that would likely appeal to the younger crowd.

Unlike the other apps, Sweatcoin uses your phone’s GPS to track your steps and claims it can only track you outside. Small bonus: some of your inside steps might also be counted if it can’t tell if you are outside or not. According to their FAQ, Sweatcoin can also link to your Apple Watch to help track your steps if you don’t want to leave the Sweatcoin app on with the GPS tracking you (note I am still testing this).

For about every 1,000 steps you’ll earn 1 Sweatcoin. There are different membership levels that limit how many Sweatcoins you can earn in a day. You start as a Mover, limited to earning a maximum of 5 Sweatcoins per day. Interestingly, in order to move up levels, you use Sweatcoin to pay for it. For example, the next level up, Shaker, is 4.75 Sweatcoins and allows you to earn 10 Sweatcoins a day. Although Sweatcoin can be used as real money for rewards, it’s refreshing that you don’t have to pay cash to move up levels.

The rewards you can buy with Sweatcoin vary. Some examples available to me include an online boxing class for 20 Sweatcoins, a foldable bike helmet for 9,800 Sweatcoins, and an action camera for 8,000 Sweatcoins. You can also donate your Sweatcoins to certain charities. As a new user there are also many free offers like 60 days free of Daily Burn.

Feeling motivated to walk? Let me know if you are currently using any of these apps or plan to try something new.