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Fetch Rewards Review: Low Effort, OK Earnings (Our Test)

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Fetch Rewards markets itself as “the easiest and quickest way to save,” and millions of users have rated the popular receipt-scanning app five stars on the iOS App Store and Google Play.

In this Fetch Rewards review, I’ll walk you through my test of the app, showing you exactly how much money I earned and how much work was involved.

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Fetch Rewards pays users points for uploading receipts from almost any retailer. Each receipt earns a base of 25 points, or $0.025, meaning it would take 120 receipts to reach the $3 minimum cash-out threshold if relying on receipts alone.

In our tests, we earned 2,502 points ($2.50) over two weeks, with 2,000 points coming from a bonus for returning users.

Over an 11-month period, another test showed 252 receipts uploaded, $10,661 in spending, and 14,445 points earned — equal to just $14.45, or 0.136% of spending.

To get the most out of the app, users should shop at Fetch’s partner brands or take advantage of bonus offers, which can earn significantly more points per receipt.

FETCH PROS:
  • Has a clean interface and uploading receipts only takes a few seconds.
  • You earn reward points for all eligible receipts (you don’t have to activate offers or purchase specific items).
  • The payout structure is transparent (so there’s never any mystery about how much you can earn).
  • The minimum cash-out amount is just $3.
FETCH CONS:
  • Uploading receipts is easy, but the earning potential is low on a per-hour basis, and points accumulate slowly.
  • Most of the promotions in the “Special Offer” section — where you’ll find the best bonuses — are for rarely-purchased items (like magazine subscriptions).
  • Fetch doesn’t offer a cash-back shopping portal, so the only ways to earn are by uploading receipts and sharing your referral code.

Fetch Rewards Review: Key Facts

Before we dive into the Fetch Rewards app’s inner workings, let’s do a quick overview. 

  1. Fetch accepts paper receipts from all physical retailers. This includes all restaurants, gas stations, pet stores, clothing retailers, bodegas – everything
  2. Fetch also accepts e-receipts if they come from one of 200+ partnered online retailers.
  3. Receipts earn a base rate of 25 points, whether you spend $10 or $1,000. Typically, 1,000 Fetch Rewards points are worth $1 in value.
  4. You can earn bonus points for purchasing qualifying items, but you don’t need to activate offers before shopping. This feature is key to maximizing earnings, as bonus points from featured products will far exceed the base 25 points (around 2.5 cents) per receipt.
  5. Fetch lets you redeem your points for gift cards, prepaid Visa cards, charity donations and sweepstakes entries.

How Fetch Rewards Works

Essentially, you snap a picture of a receipt (any receipt) and earn Fetch rewards points. When you’ve collected enough points, you can redeem them for free gift cards. Simple enough, right?

Once you download the Fetch app, you can take pictures of any receipts you’ve collected over the previous 14 days.

Any receipt from any retailer counts. As long as the receipt has a merchant’s name, the total amount spent, and the date, Fetch will accept it and give you at least 25 reward points. The whole receipt scanning process took me about 10 seconds from start to finish.  

This simple, easy rebate app is CEO Wes Schroll’s brainchild from way back in 2012, when he was a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since then, he’s grown the company to a whopping $2.5+ billion valuation. 

Fetch makes money by partnering with companies and selling them the data it compiles. Personal info, shopping lists, and spending habits are all considered fair game for Fetch to share with these partners.

Since our initial review of Fetch in 2021, they have significantly improved their privacy policy, which suggested you do your own research on its hundreds of partnered brands to determine what other companies may or may not know about you.

As of 2025, while they still share information with partner brands, they’ve improved transparency and given you more options to opt-out, such as by asking for consent before collecting and sharing sensitive information like precise geolocation data.

You can begin the opt-out process here. To manage location data, you can revoke consent for sharing precise geolocation information by enabling “Do Not Track” on your phone through the app settings.

Fetch Rewards Partnered Brands

Fetch has partnered with hundreds of brands, including Pepsi and Cheerios, allowing you to earn extra points when you buy their products.

fetch rewards app screenshot

The number of extra points you earn can vary.

While many food purchases are often around 100-200 points, some offers and promotions can reward you in the thousands.

In some cases, you’ll need to purchase specific items from a brand to earn the bonus points, while in other cases, buying any product the brand sells will qualify.

Points are automatically added whenever a partner brand appears on your receipt.

Bonus Points

Some brands also run limited-time special offers, which you can find on the app’s main dashboard. These offers are unique to you and can earn you hundreds or thousands of points each. 

Here are some of the more valuable bonus offers I found, ranked based on total points awarded.

ProductCriteriaPoints
Hum electric toothbrushesExcludes children’s sizes and replacement heads.10,000
Magazines.comMust spend $35+.6,000
AleveX pain relieving lotionLimit one per user. Only valid on 2.7 ounce size.5,000
Ancient Nutrition collagen peptidesOnly available when purchased at Target.5,000
Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, and Better Homes & Garden magazinesMust buy three magazines.5,000
Subscribe to any two fall titles at Magazines.comMust use link provided to be valid.4,000
VetIQ supplementsCan’t be stacked with other offers.4,000
Aleve50+ count only, must purchase at Walmart.3,500
Pet Armor Plus Fleas and TicksCan’t be stacked with other offers.3,500
EVOLVE plant-based protein powderMaximum of two redemptions.3,500

As you can see, most of these aren’t things the average shopper buys regularly. 

If you scroll down to view the bonuses available at the 2,000-point level, you’ll find more commonly purchased items like diapers, snacks, and paper towels.

You can now find offers more efficiently through the “Discover” tab. By tapping “See more” next to “For You” and selecting “Most Recent,” you can quickly view the newest deals.

Additionally, the app now includes a search feature that allows users to filter offers by product, brand or category.

How Much We Earned Using Fetch Rewards

After exactly two weeks of use, I earned 2,502 points, which is the equivalent of $2.50.

1,000 Fetch Rewards points = approximately $1. 

2,000 of those points were for a “welcome back” bonus, as I had tested the app previously prior to writing this review. (It wasn’t specifically called that, but I’ve noticed that Fetch does offer more special bonuses when you’re a new or returning user.) 

I earned 202 points in bonuses for buying products from partnered merchants. The rest were from normal 25-point receipts. 

Here’s my Fetch Rewards earnings breakdown:

Paper receipts uploaded:14 
Digital receipts uploaded:1
Total points earned:2,502
Total time spent in the app:23 minutes
Earnings per hour:$6.52

So is Fetch worth the effort?

Well, like most things in life, little effort results in little reward. Without that 2,000-point bonus, my “earnings per hour” would actually be $1.30.

However, I buy mostly store-brand products, which lowers my earnings. Those who buy products from the partnered brands, or who shop more frequently, will have somewhat better luck. 

Overall, there are two types of people who use the Fetch app, and I’ll admit that I fall into the first category below:

  1. The Passive User. This person scans their receipts without worrying about specific brands. Earnings are lower, but every so often, they get a pleasant surprise when they happen to buy a partner brand. A realistic outcome is earning around $15 to $30 in annual gift cards (see below).
  2. The Strategic User. This person actively explores the app, planning their shopping trips around the best offers from Fetch’s partner brands. High earners fall into this category; many report earning enough for a $20+ monthly gift card. Of course, this approach takes more time and effort.

More Fetch Rewards Earnings Data

One of The Ways To Wealth’s editors tested Fetch Rewards over a 10-month period from January 2021 to October 2021, using the app for both personal and business purchases.

Here’s his data from that test period:

  • 252 receipts uploaded.
  • $10,661.10 in total spending.
  • 14,445 points earned (11,945 from receipts and 2,500 from promotional offers).

As we noted above, 1,000 fetch points equates to about $1. So this 10-month test produced a total return of $14.45, or approximately 0.13% of his total spending.

Getting Paid

With Fetch rewards, you’ll need to collect at least 3,000 points to cash out. Remember: 1,000 points = $1, so the minimum cash-out is $3.

Redemption Options

Fetch offers six-point redemption options:

  • Prepaid Visa cards.
  • Gift cards (for restaurants, shops, online stores, hotels, flights and more).
  • Magazine subscriptions.
  • Charity donations.
  • Sweepstakes entries (i.e., you can spend points for the chance to win a $100 or $500 Visa gift card).
  • Fetch merchandise (such as branded t-shirts and other items).
  • Note: There is no option to receive PayPal cash, Venmo or a bank transfer.

The final option has the lowest barrier to entry, as you can play the sweepstakes with only 100 points.

Next, at 3,000 points, you can cash out the lowest level gift card ($3). However, as shown in the screenshot below, not all gift cards are available is $3 allocations.

Some of the Fetch Rewards gift card redemption options.
Fetch shows you the different options available based on your current points level, as well as your progress to the next level for each gift card.

At 5,000 points you can redeem points for a magazine subscription.

Finally, the lowest level Visa card requires 6,000 points, but only gives you a $5 digital card (if you want a physical card, they take out $3 for shipping and handling). 

Time Required to Earn Rewards

Let’s assume you buy at least one name-brand item each time you go to the store. Let’s also assume you got that 2,000-point bonus at the beginning, but not afterwards (since you’re now a loyal user).

Here’s how long it would take you to earn…

  • The lowest value, $3 gift card: 20 days (uploading one receipt every day).
  • A $10 gift card: 11 weeks (uploading two receipts every day).
  • A $25 gift card: 15 weeks (uploading four receipts every day).

Based on the data collected in our 10-month test, you can expect a total rate of return of around 0.13%. CNBC reports that the average American household spends approximately $22,665 per year, so that same average family could expect to earn points worth around $32.80 of gift cards (assuming they uploaded every receipt).

Our Cash-Out Process

If I only had the 2,502 points I earned over the course of this two-week test, I’d only be able to play the sweepstakes because the minimum points for a gift card is 3,000.

However, because I had some points left over on my account from a few months ago, I was able to test the current cash-out process. 

I opted for a $5 Dunkin gift card, which the company says can take up to three days to process; I received mine via email about an hour after requesting it. 

Fetch Rewards: Additional Features

Like all companies trying to keep a competitive edge, Fetch tries out new features every so often. Here are some of their additional features they’re showcasing. 

Fetch Pay

Fetch Pay is a physical debit card you can use at any location for any purchase.

In exchange, you earn one point per $1 spent. (Meaning you’d need to spend $3,000 to earn a $3 gift card). You can also snap pictures of receipts you received when paying with Fetch Pay, thus double-dipping on rewards.

Given Fetch’s points-to-dollars exchange rate, 1 point per dollar amounts to a cash-back rate of 0.1% — well below what you can earn with other cash-back debit and credit cards.

Related: These cash-back apps often pay 5-10% on online purchases with minimal effort.

Activity Dashboard

Fetch keeps track of your spending with neat graphs and monthly breakdowns. It can show you how much you’ve spent at a particular store in a particular week, month or year, and exactly what you spent each trip. 

A graphic showing the Fetch Activity tracker.
Fetch gives you quick access to a breakdown of your overall spending.

This is great for people using budgeting apps like Rocket Money, which only track spending for two budget categories with their free plan. Fetch basically does some of the budget tracking for you, as long as you snap a picture of every receipt.

Also, fetch keeps a record of every receipt you upload. This can be helpful for expense tracking, if you need to dispute a charge later, or if you want to make a return or price protection claim after you’ve discarded the paper receipt.

Here’s an example of what the receipt log looks like:

Fetch Rewards Referral Program

If you’d like to make some extra gift card cash and you have a large, untapped friend network, you might consider using the referral program.

Though the bonus point amount changes every few weeks, most people earn a referral bonus of somewhere between 2,000 to 4,000 points. You’ll get a bonus every time a friend signs up and snaps their first receipt. 

You can find your unique referral code by opening the Fetch app and navigating to Me > Refer a friend

Fetch Clubs

Currently, Fetch is piloting two club programs: one with Huggies and the other with Pepsi. 

Clubs are essentially loyalty programs, giving you access to extra reward points, special bonuses when you hit certain spending milestones (like $150), and bonus content like recipes, sweepstakes, and even a year’s subscription to a magazine.

Fetch Shop Web Extension

The Fetch Shop Web Extension is a straightforward cashback tool, similar to Rakuten, that allows you to earn points while shopping online. It’s easy to use: simply activate offers, shop as usual, and rack up rewards.

That said, the rewards aren’t particularly remarkable. For instance, earning 5 points per dollar spent translates to just 0.5% cashback, which may not measure up to other cashback platforms.

One standout feature is that Fetch includes certain stores not typically available on other cashback sites—for example, you can earn rewards on Target grocery purchases.

For loyal Fetch users, the extension is a helpful way to earn extra points. However, if your priority is maximizing cashback, this extension might not be the best option among cashback sites.

Fetch Games

Fetch now offers users the ability to play games for rewards, a feature similar to many other reward sites like Swagbucks. The concept is straightforward: you earn points by downloading a game, completing specific tasks within the game, and hitting milestones to unlock rewards.

While this feature could enhance your earnings, it comes with a potential downside. Some games may require in-app purchases—or heavily incentivize them—to reach the milestones needed to earn rewards. This means you could end up spending money just to qualify for points, potentially negating any financial benefit.

Fetch vs. Ibotta

Ibotta is another popular receipt-based rebates app. You snap a picture of your receipt (or link your Ibotta account to your store loyalty card) and earn rebates based on your purchases.

You can redeem that money in the form of gift cards or a cash deposit. However, you need to manually scroll through and select each desired Ibotta offer from the hundreds available at any given time (I counted almost 650 available at my local grocery store today). If you forget to “add” an offer, you get $0, even if you bought the item. 

Learn more in our in-depth Ibotta Review.

Another key difference between Fetch and Ibotta is that you can only use Ibotta when you shop at specific stores. When shopping in person, the majority of offers are found in major grocery stores. However, Ibotta also has a browser extension so you can earn cashback when you shop online at a ton of major retailers, (frequently 1% cashback, but some stores offer more).  

Unlike Fetch, Ibotta’s rebates are pretty high. They frequently offer large rewards like “$10 for redeeming 16 offers,” “buy one, get one free” offers, or even completely free items. They also have the “any brand” offer section, where you can get cashback for buying any brand of household staples like soda, diapers or laundry detergent. 

Ibotta takes more work but earns you more cash. Though I haven’t done a comparison as to how many hours I’ve spent with Ibotta, I’ve earned close to $200 in the year and a half I’ve used it. In a year with Fetch, I’ve earned about $13.

Fetch Rewards FAQ

Is there a limit to how many receipts you can upload?

Yes. There’s currently a limit of snapping no more than 35 receipts in a 7 day period. 

Can you upload the same receipt to multiple apps?

Yes! The same receipt can be uploaded to Ibotta, Receipt Hog and other rebate apps.

What is an eligible receipt? 

Fetch accepts receipts from all merchants, but only if they meet certain criteria. To be deemed an eligible receipt, it needs to be no older than 14 days, and it must include both the merchant’s name and the total amount you paid. 

Do Fetch points expire?

Yes. If you’ve done nothing on your account (no receipt scanning, no redeeming rewards, etc.) your points will expire in 90 days. You get an email after 60 days, and if you snap another receipt before the 90 day mark, your points will stay valid.

Can Fetch Rewards points be exchanged for an Amazon gift card?

Yes, you can redeem your Fetch Rewards point for free Amazon gift cards. Additionally, Fetch has one of the longest lists of gift card options we’ve seen in a rewards app, with options from dozens of popular retailers.

What is the “Social” tab within the Fetch app for?

In late 2021, Fetch added limited social networking functionality to the app which allows you to connect with friends. Once connected, users can see each other’s point totals and compete on a monthly leaderboard. The company says this is meant to gamify the app, encouraging users to compete to see who can earn the most points. Unfortunately, there’s no incentive to do so — there are no team challenges and you don’t win anything for ending a month atop the leaderboard.

Fetch Rewards App: Our Final Thoughts and Recommendation

The Fetch app can be a useful tool for certain people. If you shop frequently (even multiple times a day), you’ll get at least 25 points for every trip to the store, gas station or restaurant. If you already buy items from Fetch Rewards partners (or are willing to switch brands), you’ll get even more points. For this reason, we rank it as one the best cash back apps for groceries.

If you’re looking for a way to save money at the grocery store, we recommend signing up and using it for a month to see if it’s worth your while.

And any app that can buy me a Dunkin’ mocha with basically zero effort is a win in my book.

Hillary Swetz
Hillary Swetz reviews personal finance products, apps and services for The Ways To Wealth. Connect with her on Twitter @hillaryswetz and read more of her work on her frugal living website Homegrown Hillary.

    3 Comments

    1. I feel this was a very well written and structured report for those interested in the cashback programs mentioned. I am on a limited income, so I look for the best deals I can find.

      As I myself have used both Fetch and Ibotta this newer year of 2022 between the same time periods of January thru October mentioned in this article, I have cashed out just over $90 on Fetch Visa’s and just over $300 on Ibotta direct to my bank. This was off of a total spending of $2,850 after coupons and sales, as well as utilizing the $125 cashbacks given from my local store (only usable at their store).

      Fetch is a much easier app to work with and faster at fixing errors that you may encounter now and then. Fetch is also offering more 100% free items than in the past.

      Ibotta, I find has a much higher frequency of missing items that you did purchase and may take a bit more time and effort to resolve the problem. I would like to add Ibotta has fixed every error I have brought to their attention properly.

      I do take the time and effort to look to see what offers are available on both programs before shopping. I am often surprised with deals that were not there yesterday and may fill my cart more with items reaching the maximum allowed in the deals. I see the value in the cashback programs, as they have all worked well for my limited disability income.

      NIck

    2. Fetch has become garbage. They once paid out almost 100 points for receipts totaling over $100, and 200 points for over $200. Things changed during later updates, like scaling points down to a whopping 25 or 50, regardless of what you spend. I thought I’d scored one time after grocery shopping, spending over $150 only to scan the receipt and earn the ridiculous 25 points again. And when I scrolled through the list, they had diapers, Mountain Dew and Keebler crackers as the big point winners. Items I don’t buy. Plain ridiculous. And e-receipts weren’t connecting to Amazon half the time. (Which also only reward you about 25 points). It became pointless to continue using the app. Most of the users I knew didn’t buy any of the “bonus items” that supposedly earned you 1,000 points or more.

      Separately, Ibotta never worked for me. And come to find out, it wasn’t compatible with certain phones. Show me a rewards app that actually rewards consumers with a real point system, not specialty items they’ll never purchase.

    3. Love Fetch… I usually redeem points for iTunes gift cards and it pays for Apple Music subscription. I pick up receipts from the ground (crumbled, wet) or left behind on a self check out register and my mother gives my hers. (Not ashamed to admit I’ve even grabbed one that’s sitting on the top of the trash at the grocery store). You’d be amazed at how points can multiply. I don’t buy much brand named stuff… but other people do!

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