20 Best Ways To Get Paid To Workout (2024 Guide!)
If you know anything about me or WebMonkey, 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 workout and exercise.
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.
Looking for active, high-paying side hustles? Checkout:
- DoorDash – Start making money by delivering with DoorDash!
- Freecash– A fun way to earn gift cards and PayPal cash!
The Best Ways To Get Paid To Workout
There are plenty of apps that pay you to workout, walk, and run that you can use to make extra money in your spare time.
I've tested out plenty of these apps over the years. Here are some of my favorite ones that you can use to start exercising for money.
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 $100 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.
Some HealthyWage bets can pay thousands of dollars, and the company also runs $10,000 team challenges as well.
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!
2. Gig Economy Apps
Another lucrative way to get paid to workout is to use various gig economy apps that pay you to complete other tasks for people.
I like the gig economy since it offers flexible side hustles. And a lot of gig work involves being on your feet, biking for money, or walking around your city.
Several leading gig jobs you can use to get paid to workout include:
- DoorDash: The leading food delivery app that lets you deliver via bike, car, scooter, and foot.
- Instacart: This app pays you to shop for groceries, so you're on your feet for a lot of this gig.
- Shipt: Another leading grocery delivery job like Instacart.
- Rover: Get paid to walk dogs and to take care of people's animals.
- Amazon Flex: Another popular package delivery gig that involves a decent amount of walking around.
My friend Grant actually made money biking with Uber Eats and DoorDash. And he could earn about $15 to $20 per hour with both these gigs.
Overall, I think gig apps are some of the highest-paying apps and best apps that pay you to workout. And you can always shuffle between apps to get as much work as possible.
3. Offer Guided Tours
One creative way to get paid to exercise is to offer guided tours of your city if you live in a popular tourist destination.
A lot of people do this on platforms like Airbnb. In fact, I've been on several biking and walking tours, and the guide is probably making a few hundred bucks at a time if enough people sign up for a tour.
Just take a look at the bike tour above, where the host charges $29 per person. This could be an easy, quick $200 bucks or even more with enough guests.
The only downside of this method to make money working out is that it takes time to get reviews. But if you stick with it, you could get fit and make a lot of cash with a tour side hustle.
4. CashWalk
If you want to get paid for walking, then CashWalk is another must-try app that pays you to workout.
This free app for Android and iOS pays you with free gift cards for your daily steps. In fact, you can earn about $5 to $10 per month in gift cards if you consistently reach 10,000 steps per day.
All you have to do is download CashWalk and then walk to earn coins. You can also earn coins by answering surveys for cash or by downloading apps for money.
Overall, CashWalk is a fun and easy way to make money for getting active. And I like that it doesn't take too long to cash out.
5. Oppizi
If you don't mind walking, then Oppizi is another effective app that pays real money and way to get paid to workout.
This free gig app pays you for distributing flyers to people in your city. You earn $23 per hour in the United States, plus referral bonuses, and there's even a travel allowance!
Oppizi is also available in 70+ cities and 10 countries. And I like that the app lets you set your own schedule, so you work as much or as little as you want.
Shifts, known as missions, are three hours long. So, you can earn a quick $50 or more and make money while exercising; not a bad deal! Oppizi also lets you sign up at 16 in some countries, so it's a nice teen side hustle. And you get paid weekly for the missions you complete.
6. Sweatcoin
When it comes to fitness apps that pay you to workout, 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 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! 😉
7. Evidation (Formerly Achievement)
Evidation, formerly known as 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 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 Evidation.
You need 10,000 points to cash out, which is pretty grim considering I earn 6 points a day.
Evidation 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.
Ultimately, I think Evidation is probably a $10 per year side hustle for most people, but serious athletes can definitely earn more!
If you like this app, you can also check out Cash For Steps for even more ways to get paid for exercising.
8. 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 can 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.
Extra Reading – 10 Ways To Get Paid To Lose Weight.
9. 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.
On average, StepBet players earn around $5 to $20 for winning a game, so this is a decent side hustle to try that encourages you to get your steps in!
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 StepBet review!
10. MyWalgreens (Formerly Walgreens Balance Rewards)
With the Walgreens app, users used to earn points known as Balance Rewards points whenever they are active.
Recently, Walgreens has upgraded their Walgreens Balance Rewards into a new program: myWalgreens.
Joining the program is free, and notable perks include:
- Earning 1% cashback on everyday Walgreens purchases
- Earning 5% cashback on Walgreens-branded products
- Faster curbside and in-store pickups at your local store
Cashback comes in the form of Walgreens Cash, which you can redeem on future online and in-store purchases to save more money.
Plus, you can also sign up for four week health and lifestyle challenges as a myWalgreens member to earn extra Walgreens Cash.
Balance Rewards points can be redeemed for Redemption Dollars, which can be used when shopping at Walgreens to save money.
So, what kind of health-based challenges are there?
- Health Goals: Includes challenges like running everyday, walking 10,000 daily steps, and cycling once a week.
- Lifestyle Goals: Includes challenges like eating more vegetables, meditating, or drinking more water.
You earn $0.25 for every success week of challenges. This means you can earn $2 per month for getting more active with myWalgreens.
You'll need a myWalgreens 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.
Again, not the highest earner, but if you want to get paid to exercise, Walgreens Balance Rewards isn't a bad place to start!
11. 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 workout.
Edit: I'm updating this post to inform everyone that Lympo has been aquired and the platform is different now…we'll have to wait an see if this is a viable workout app that pays moving forwards.
12. Mystery Shopping Apps
Another way to exercise and earn is to use various mystery shopping apps and reward apps that pay you for exploring your city.
For example, mystery shopping apps like Field Agent and GigWalk pay you for completing short tasks in your city, like verifying a store has a certain type of product or inspecting an apartment building and recording how many floors it has.
Premise is another popular app that pays you for completing short tasks in your city, so you're basically getting paid to exercise and for exploring more of your town.
If shopping is your thing, you can use apps like Fetch Rewards that pay you for shopping or apps like Shopkick that pay you to walk to stores and to scan specific items with the mobile app (you don't have to even purchase them).
13. 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.
It takes $50 worth of LifeCoins to redeem a gift card reward, so this is a bit of a slower earner than many other fitness apps.
But, if you're looking for another passive source of crypto fun and some encouragement to workout, the app is worth trying!
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!
14. 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!
15. WinWalk
If you're looking for more apps that reward you for exercising but want an app that's truly passive, WinWalk is worth downloading.
WinWalk is a free pedometer app for Android. Once you download the app, it begins tracking your daily steps.
The earning system is also very simple.
With WinWalk, you earn 1 coin for every 100 steps you take. You can only earn up to 100 coins per day, which requires 10,000 steps.
Coins are redeemable for free gift cards to companies like:
- Amazon
- Domino's
- Google Play
- Sephora
- Starbucks
- Target
- Walmart
Gift card rewards start at $10, and you need 16,000 coins to redeem a gift card. This means that WinWalk earns around $10 to $20 per year if you just walk a lot.
But, you can also earn coins in other ways, like answering surveys, watching ads, and downloading new mobile apps.
Ultimately, WinWalk is a mix between a beermoney app and an app that pays you for working out. I like that it's incredibly passive, and the gift card reward selection is also quite decent!
Extra Reading – Apps That Pay You To Play Games.
16. Carrot Rewards
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!)
Overall, this app is a fun way to get paid to workout and exercise. But don't expect to make a full-time income or anything like that.
17. 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 free 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.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. 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!
Extra Reading – How To Make Quick Money In A Day.
Even More Ways To Get Paid To Workout
The above list includes some of my favorite fitness rewards apps. But there are plenty of other creative ways to exercise and earn like:
- Becoming a personal trainer
- Making money on YouTube with a workout channel
- Becoming a sports coach or referee
- Teaching yoga classes to individuals or groups
- Leading fitness bootcamps
- Working at summer sports camps
- Working warehouse jobs
- Giving snowboarding and skiing lessons
- Doing landscaping and other odd jobs for cash
- Teaching ski and snowboard lessons
- Leading guided hikes or outdoor adventures
- Using sites like TaskRabbit to find errand-running gigs, cleaning jobs, and similar labor gigs
I also made a video on some of the best apps that pay you to exercise if you want even more ideas to workout for money.
But you get the idea. It's possible to make quick money through fitness-related services, so don't be afraid to get creative!
Final Thoughts
I hope this guide on how to get paid to workout helps you start a new, healthy habit while making some extra cash.
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.
Plus, you can always try higher-paying ideas gig jobs to get paid to workout, like becoming a bike courier or grocery shopping for people.
The entire point is to stay motivated and active; if you can make some extra cash on the side, it's a bonus! Besides, perhaps tracking your steps and watching your progress grow can be an empowering way to become more active!
Best of luck in your fitness endeavors!
Looking for other money-making ideas? Checkout:
