13 Best Passive Income Apps for 2025

Looking to grow your income with minimal effort? Discover the 13 best passive income apps for 2025, from cashback and crypto to renting space.

Technology has created more opportunities to earn income without full-time commitment and by using only smartphones. Whether it’s earning cash back on everyday purchases, renting out unused space, or investing spare change, many user-friendly apps and platforms, such as Rakuten, Spacer, and Acorns, offer accessible ways to make extra money.

However, the growing popularity of passive income opportunities has also attracted scammers who lure people with fake apps that promise huge earnings with little effort – only to steal your time, data, or even money. So, before you install or sign up for apps or online platforms that promise hundreds or thousands of dollars quickly without doing much, stop and review them first because if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

What Makes an App Good for Passive Income?

Not all passive income apps are created equal, especially since it involves financial rewards. A good passive income app should allow you to earn money consistently with minimal daily effort. That means after initial setup—like linking accounts, creating a profile, or allowing certain permissions—the app should be able to generate income in the background, with occasional check-ins, or through app usage.

This means that the usage, tasks, and activities required to earn points or cash using the app should fit seamlessly in your daily routine. Likewise, the app should be trustworthy, easy to use, have a clear and transparent model for income generation, and use reliable payout options should you decide to cash out your earnings.

Passive Income App Red flags to Watch Out For

Scammers usually prey on people who don’t know where to find legitimate apps and those who are eager to get huge payouts with very little to no effort. Unfortunately, scam apps have flooded the market – with some even copying legitimate apps to confuse users into signing up in the scam platform instead. Here are some common red flags you need to be aware of before you install or sign up for a passive income app or platform:

• Promises unrealistic earnings: If an app claims you can make hundreds or thousands of dollars quickly with zero work, that’s a major warning sign.
• Shady developer: Do a quick search on the app and the company or people who developed it. If you can’t find a website or information about the developers from a trusted source, that’s a red flag. Likewise, if the app isn’t found in legitimate marketplaces, such as Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and Huawei App Gallery, make sure to do your research before installing anything.
• Charges upfront fees: Most real passive income apps are free to use and cash or points are earned according to usage. If the app or platform demands an upfront fee before you can get started, be very wary and quickly do your research. Chances are, you’ll find a scam victim story or two in online forums.
  
• Suspicious permissions: If the app asks for unnecessary access to your contacts, messages, or full device control, it might be trying to harvest personal data or hijack your device using malware, or use the linked accounts in your device to scam the people in your contacts.
• Pushy referral schemes: If the app pressures you to invite others before you can cash out your earnings, there’s a high probability that it’s a pyramid scheme.

Top Passive Income Apps (Organized by Category)

Below are some passive income apps and platforms that have been proven legitimate and have a track record for paying out user earnings. These are organized by category, so you can either go over all of them or skip to your preferred category.

Cashback Apps

1. Rakuten (formerly Ebates): A cashback shopping platform that gives users a percentage of their money back when shopping at any of its over 3,500 partner retailers, including Walmart, Macy’s, Best Buy, and Expedia, through the Rakuten website or app. Rakuten pays out quarterly via Paypal or physical check for a minimum quarterly cashback earnings of $5.01.

2. Swagbucks: Allows you to earn points (SB) by completing various online activities such as surveys, watching videos, and shopping. Points can be redeemed for gift cards or PayPal cash. It’s widely used in the U.S. and offers a variety of earning opportunities.

3. Upside (formerly GetUpside): Provides cashback on gas, groceries, and dining at participating partner retailers all over the U.S. It offers a straightforward way to earn passive income while making everyday purchases.

Rent-Out-Your-Stuff Apps

4. Honeygain: Lets you share your unused internet bandwidth to help businesses with data collection. In return, you earn credits that can be redeemed for cash via PayPal or gift cards. It’s a fully passive income source once set up.

5. Tapestri: Rewards users for sharing anonymized data, such as location and app usage, to help companies with market research. Users can earn passive income by participating in this data-sharing program.

6. Spacer: A platform that allows you to earn rental income for renting out your unused parking spaces or storage areas. It’s available in various cities and offers a way to earn passive income by utilizing unused space.

Investing & Automated Finance Apps

7. Acorns: Rounds up your everyday purchases to the nearest dollar and invests the spare change into a diversified portfolio. It’s a convenient way to start investing passively without much effort – but don’t expect too much because market conditions tend to move fast and the value of investments may be affected by market demand.

8. LendingClub: A peer-to-peer lending platform that allows you to invest in personal loans. It offers a way to earn passive income through interest payments on loans you’ve invested in.

9. Arrived: A platform that allows you to invest in rental properties with as little as $100. It provides a passive income stream through rental yields and property appreciation.

Gaming & Check-In Apps

10. Mistplay: Rewards users for playing mobile games by offering points that can be redeemed for gift cards. Users can earn passive income by playing games they enjoy.

11. Earn App (formerly Current Rewards): Offers users multiple ways to earn passive income, primarily through listening to music, completing tasks, and engaging with content.

12. Sweatcoin: Tracks your steps and rewards you with Sweatcoins, a digital currency that can be redeemed for goods, services, or even converted to cryptocurrency. Think of it as a pedometer that pays you to stay active.

13. Play-to-earn (P2E) games: Blockchain-based video games that let you make real money or valuable digital items just by playing. You can earn things like cryptocurrency, unique digital assets, or in-game items that can be sold or traded outside the game ecosystem. P2E games have great passive income potential for gamers, with some even earning close to full-time income from selling items and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) in blockchain games like Axie Infinity, Illuvium, Decentraland, and The Sandbox.
    
    

    

    Note, however, that older and more popular games like Axie Infinity may already be saturated with players and it’s likely more difficult for new players to earn significant rewards because of this. Likewise, it’s important to learn more about cryptocurrency before playing P2E games to be aware of requirements, such as crypto wallets and the correct tokens to use in-game, and manage expectations due to the volatile price movements of cryptocurrencies.

How to Choose the Right App

When choosing a passive income app, it’s important to consider your personal interests, how much effort you can spare, available capital, and financial goals. Some apps are truly passive and generate small amounts slowly while others offer faster payouts or higher earnings but require more frequent user engagement. Find an app that matches your comfort and effort level, as well as your risk tolerance.

Matching an app to your lifestyle and available resources is key. For instance, if you’re a homeowner with extra space in your garage, you can benefit from passive platforms like Spacer. A casual shopper might prefer set-it-and-forget-it apps like Rakuten for automatic cashbacks for purchases. But if you’re comfortable with some financial risk for long-term growth, investing apps like Acorns may be a good match for you.

Tips for Staying Safe

Passive income apps can be a great, effortless way to earn extra cash, it’s important to protect yourself from scams and other unnecessary risks.

Always do your due diligence before installing or signing up for passive income apps and platforms. Check user reviews on the app store, search online forums for independent user feedback, and verify that the company or developer behind the app is real and reputable. Legitimate apps will have clear privacy policies, secure websites, and professional-looking platforms, and users usually provide feedback for improvement or request additional features both in the app store or the company’s social media platforms.

Protect your personal information. Avoid granting apps access to sensitive data like your contacts, messages, or banking credentials unless it’s truly necessary and the app is well-established.

Final Thoughts

Remember that passive income apps are good for earning some extra income in your spare time – they are not get-rich-quick schemes. While some of these apps have high earning potential, most of them still cannot replace earnings from full-time income, so it’s best to approach them with realistic expectations.

Think of it like investing: if it offers high rewards, it surely presents high risks as well, so think carefully before getting on board. Choose apps that suit your lifestyle, start slow, and never put in more time or money than you’re comfortable losing. With the right approach, passive income apps can be a consistent, low-effort source of income over time.