If you like the concept behind “get paid to” websites and apps, but don’t like to waste your time – Sweatcoin may be something to consider. This app will actually “pay” you to walk in their own currency of SWC (sweatcoins). It does take quite a bit of walking to add up much, but if you’re willing to refer a couple friends you can pretty easily make a couple bucks.
You can download the Sweatcoin app from this link.
However, this app will NOT pay you any kind of real income, and has pretty annoying quirks that make it difficult to use.
If you’re interested in how to make REAL money without apps – check this out
How does the Sweatcoin App work?
You simply download the app on your phone, fill out some brief information and then you are all signed up and ready to go. It’s entirely free.
All you have to do is let it run in the background on your phone, and Sweatcoin keeps track of your outdoor steps and automatically converts them to their unique Sweatcoin currency every 2,000 steps you take.
Why does it only track outdoor steps?
I was a totally bummed when I heard it was only outdoor steps considering I do walk inside a lot as well! Unfortunately though, in order to make sure people aren’t cheating the system they programmed the steps to work with the GPS on your phone – so you need to be walking outside for the steps to register towards your sweatcoins. (What I’ve noticed is it does seem to track some of my indoor steps, but only the steps I am taking outside are the ones that get converted to sweatcoins).
This also means you need to have you GPS turned on, and a phone that has a reliable GPS. Another thing is you need to actually have the app turned on and running on your phone for it to register your steps. You can’t force stop the app or it won’t continue to work.
Sweatcoin Currency
Unfortunately, sweatcoins are not equivalent to cash (I wish). This is how the currency works:
1,000 steps = 1 Sweatcoin (well, technically .95 considering they take a 5% commission)
You also earn 1 per day as a daily reward, but you need to go into the app to claim it and watch an ad.
For every person you refer to the app, you also get 5 sweatcoins.
When you have earned enough currency, you can cash out for prizes. It depends what the prize is as to how many sweatcoins you need, but some take A LOT more than others.
What can you buy with your sweatcoins?
You can’t directly exchange your coins for cash which kind of sucks. Instead you are given different prizes or offers to choose from on a daily basis. Here’s a screenshot of my current daily offers:
Barbell Apparel (15 SWC) – $75 gift card toward Barbell Apparel Jeans – it sounds really awesome but the only thing they have for sale on their website is $150 jeans – so you’d still need to spend $75 on a pair of jeans if you used this.
Sips by (200 SWC) – you can get a special tea pack sent to your house for $5, which is normally $15.
Yoga Vibes (15 SWC) – 30 day subscription to Yoga Vibes for special online Yoga classes
Neptune and Co (10 SWC) – $5 gift card for high fashion dog apparel
You can see these offers don’t take very many coins, but personally those are nothing I would want. If it’s a free trial offer (like Yoga Vibes) you’ll have to put down credit card information, so make sure you cancel if you don’t want to continue the service.
These will change and you aren’t offered exactly the same things every day.
They also have better offers – electronic gadgets, gift cards or PayPal cash – but it takes A LOT more of your coins (so many that it’d probably take you a year or several to earn enough).
Here are some current offers on my account:
A Fitbit Flex
$50 Amazon gift card
$50 PayPal Cash
The PayPal and Amazon cards are good prizes but you need to earn A LOT to redeem – 3,650 SWC! Even if you earned the max of 20 per day, you would still have to walk 20,000 steps a day for 6 months to earn a $50 Amazon card or PayPal cash, or 10,000 per day for a year. In reality it’d probably take a few years for most people.
While the Fitbit Flex seems easy enough to earn, I wonder if it’d still be offered to me when I actually have 550 sweatcoins…
The offers do change so you can keep saving up your coins until the right one comes along for you.
UPDATE 10/2019
Sweatcoin now has a few more easily attainable offers if you’re willing to refer friends, if you invite 6 friends and earn 30 Sweatcoins (which isn’t super hard) you can get $6 PayPal cash.
If you invite 20 friends and earn 100 Sweatcoins, you can earn $20 from Paypal.
They have higher cash out prizes from PayPal, but they require referring A LOT of friends and earning A LOT more Sweatcoins, which would be extremely difficult for most people to do.
I was actually able to earn to $6 PayPal cash, but you can only redeeom it once!
Sweatcoin Membership Levels
The membership you choose will depend on how many steps you plan to take each day. They are all technically free, but with each increasing membership you are charged with some of the sweatcoins you earn per month. So for example, if you typically walk 5,000 steps a day you can just use the Mover (free) membership. If you walk 10,000 or more you will want to choose a higher membership so you area able to earn more sweatcoins per day.
Mover – Free
Earn up to 5 per day, 150 per month (5,000 steps a day)
Shaker – 4.75 Sweatcoins per month
Earn up to 10 per day, 300 per month (10,000 steps a day)
Quaker – 20 Sweatcoins per month
Earn up to 15 per day or 450 per month (15,000 steps a day)
Breaker – 30 Sweatcoins per month
Earn up to 20 per day or 600 per month (20,000 steps a day)
Troublemaker – ?
This is currently not available yet
Referrals
You can refer your friends and earn 5 sweatcoins for everyone that signs up. This is in addition to the daily limit you can earn, so you have the potential to earn a lot more coins if you start referring people.
Inviting at least 30 people gets you $20 PayPal cash and access to the Sweatcoin influencer marketplace.
New offers –
Invite 6 friends + earn 30 SC – earn $6 PayPal cash
Invite 20 friends + earn 100 SC – earn $20 PayPal cash
… plus more that require much higher levels of referrals and Sweatcoins.
Sweatcoin Complaints
- Because you have to have your phone’s GPS turned on and always have the app running in the background, it definitely will drain the battery faster if you typically don’t have that feature enabled or use very many apps. I’ve definitely noticed this after using the app!
- Another thing is you need to be outside for the steps to count towards your sweatcoins, so if you do a lot of indoor walking like around a building or on a treadmill, it won’t count. Some people complain the app doesn’t log their steps accurately when comparing to a fitness tracker, or even so much so that they’ll walk for miles and it’ll only log 100 steps! If that is the case, it may be an issue with your phone’s GPS (not turned on or not working properly) or if not, the app may not work very well on certain phones.
- It takes a lot of walking to earn any type of significant reward. You would have to walk A LONG, LONG time to earn any amount of money with Sweatcoin. In order to earn money, you need to refer friends in addition to earning Sweatcoins.
- I have noticed a lot of the lower sweatcoint cashout trial offers aren’t that enticing, and you have to make sure you cancel those if you put down your credit card.
My Final Thoughts on the Sweatcoin app – is it really worth it?
This app is definitely worth it if you are a walker. It isn’t going to replace a job or make you rich, so if that is what you’re thinking this probably isn’t for you. If you are looking for a way to actually make consistent income that can replace a job, learn more about how I make a full-time income online.
I already take near daily walks around my neighborhood so having this app running on my phone and counting my steps isn’t hurting! I am not typically a fan of get paid to apps that just end up making you waste countless hours, but this is completely different. Getting paid $50 for doing something I am already doing isn’t bad, even if it does take me a year to get the prize. Download the Sweatcoin App
Looking for part-time, easy money without the constraints of traditional employment? Check out Appjobs! It’s entirely free to sign up and apply for jobs, they just streamline the process so you can easily see all the gigs available in your area. It’ll connect you to jobs you can work freely in your own time!
How can I get my money paid via Paypal?
It should let you pick it as an option after you have enough Sweatcoins to get PayPal cash, but I’m not sure how many Sweatcoins you’d need for that…I think it takes a lot though. I actually got a new phone and didn’t redownload this app so I haven’t used it in awhile so I apologize if it’s changed.
Why do they take a 5% “commision”? What’s the point? It’s hard enough to make sweatcoins as it is, why would thry need to take some away?
Hey Wendy,
I have been using SweatCoin for a few weeks now and have found no major faults with the rewarding system. I was fortunate enough to get a £5 amazon gift voucher in my shop which I could immediately cash out.
I have successfully received my gift voucher.
The main problem I have with it is the large amount of mobile data it takes up. You have to be really sure that you make enough “money” in order for it to be worth your mobile data.
I have found many friends complained about this and have stopped using the app. However due to an extremely useful feature they were able to “donate” their SWC to me before they stopped.
Anyway,
Thanks for another GREAT article,
Rob
Thanks for stopping by Rob! Wow yeah I guess I didn’t even think about that! I have unlimited data on my phone so it wasn’t an issue for me, however I realize that is a major issue for probably the majority of people with data caps on their phone plans! If Sweatcoin uses so much data that you are running out and have to purchase more, then no, in that case it is definitely not worth it!