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Free Stocks: 8 Legit Ways to Get Free Shares

Free Shares of Stock
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Several investing platforms give you free stock or cash for creating an account or making an initial deposit, making them among the best get paid to sign-up websites you’ll find.

Here’s a list of the top offers available today, ranked according to a combination of offer value and ease of earning.

CompanyFree Stock Offer
MoomooUp to 15 free shares worth at least $2 each.
WebullDeposit any amount to receive 6 shares. Deposit $500 for 14 shares, or $25,000 for 70 shares. Shares are valued between $3 and $3,000 each.
RobinhoodUp to $200 in free shares with no deposit required.
Stash$20 in free stock for a 1 cent deposit.
SoFi$25 in free stock with a $10 deposit
Tornado$9 to $1,000 in cash to invest on the platform.
Stockpile$10 in free stock.
TradeUPUp to $1,570 in free stock with a minimum 1 cent deposit.

In most cases, the value of the stock you’ll receive is random and falls within a fairly wide range. When testing the below offers, the values we received ranged from $7.77 to $48.12. However, there is a small chance of hitting the jackpot with shares worth hundreds of dollars.

Most of the time, opening a new account is cost-free, risk-free, and only takes a few minutes.

However, keep in mind that some free stock offers have requirements you need to follow. Therefore, it’s important to read the fine print and follow the instructions to obtain your free shares.

Editor’s Note: We update this post regularly to ensure the information is accurate, but free stock promotions change frequently, so be sure to read the details when signing up.

The Best Free Stock Offers

Each one of the platforms below differs in features. Some offer a simple interface for beginners, while others cater to advanced investors who want to go deeper.

There’s nothing wrong with signing up for these services for free stock. If so, sell your shares and transfer the funds to your bank account.

But if you’re investing for the long term, take some time to evaluate how each platform’s features fit with your financial goals.

#1. Moomoo

Moomoo is a fee-free stock trading app for experienced, active investors who are seeking advanced analytical and filtering tools on their mobile devices. It also offers desktop and tablet versions.

Offer value: Up to 15 free shares of stock, each valued between $2 and $2,000, depending on your initial deposit amount.

Requirements: Join using our referral link and complete the entire registration process. Once you complete the account verification steps and deposit $100, you’ll receive five free stocks. If you make a $1,000 deposit, you’ll get 15 free stocks.

Cashing out: Stocks will be credited to your account within five trading days after you’ve claimed them. However, these stocks will appear as “pending” for 60 days. During this period, you must maintain the minimum deposit requirement in your account.

What we got: In a now-expired promotion, we received one share of ContextLogic, two shares of GoPro, and two shares of Palantir Technologies, for a total value of $61.53.

Get more details about the Moomoo free stock offer, and read our in-depth Moomoo review to learn how the platform works.

Join Moomoo.

#2. Webull

Webull is a free stock trading platform with various investment products and advanced research tools you’d typically find at paid brokers.

  • Offer value: To receive six free fractional shares of stock, you just need to make an initial deposit of any amount. If you want to earn 14 fractional shares, you need to deposit a minimum of $500. And if you deposit $25,000, you will receive a total of 70 shares. The stocks will be randomly selected from Webull’s inventory of NYSE or NASDAQ-listed companies, with share prices between $3 and $3,000 each.
  • Requirements: Join using our referral link to activate this offer. This offer is open to individuals who have yet to make an initial deposit in a Webull account.
  • Cashing out: You can sell your free stock immediately, but you must wait 30 days to withdraw the proceeds from Webull.
  • What we got: In a now-expired promotion that awarded four free stocks for signing up, we received four shares of Investors Bancorp Inc., valued at $12.03 at the time (for a total of $48.12).
Webull Free Shares
Our Webull account, showing the four free shares we received.

On Webull, you can open an IRA or a taxable investment account and trade stocks, ETFs, options, and even cryptocurrency commission-free. It also allows you to open a margin account (borrowing from the broker to invest) and engage in short selling (borrowing stocks to sell them and buy them back later for less).

Webull provides advanced charting tools, technical analysis features, and real-time stock market data — all of which you can access via PC, the web or a mobile device. 

Get more details about the Webull free stock offer, and read our in-depth Webull review to learn about how the platform works.

Join Webull.

#3. Robinhood

With Robinhood, you can get two free shares of stock worth between $3 and $100. No deposit is required. To take advantage of this opportunity, you must sign up through a referral link.

  • Offer value: Fractional shares of stock valued between $3 and $100, with 99% of rewards valued at $3.
  • Requirements: Link a bank account.
  • Cashing out: Must wait three trading days to sell your stock, and 30 days from the sale to withdraw the funds to an external account.

Robinhood is one of the original commission-free trading platforms. It offers easy access to individual stocks, ETFs and cryptocurrency trading, and even has an optional checking account and free IRA accounts.

After linking a bank account, you’ll choose from a list of America’s top 22 companies based on market cap — making this one of the few free stock offers that lets you pick the shares you want.

Sign up for Robinhood or get more details on our Robinhood referral code page.

#4. Stash

Stash Invest is a beginner-friendly investment app that offers a variety of automated investment options, $5 minimums and a user-friendly experience.

When you sign up for a new account through our Stash referral link, you’ll get a $20 cash bonus when you do the following:

  • Link an external bank account.
  • Add at least 1 cent to your Stash Personal Portfolio.

The $20 bonus must be used to invest on Stash, but you can choose any individual stock or ETF you would like to invest in.

The bonus cannot be withdrawn for 90 days. 

Stash does have monthly fees, ranging from $3 to $9. You can cancel any time, and there are no penalties or fees for doing so.

Download Stash Invest.

#5. SoFi

SoFi offers a range of financial products, including SoFi Invest Active Investing, a brokerage account for hands-on investors who want to trade stocks and ETFs.

For new users, SoFi is offering $25 worth of stock from your choice of over 100 popular companies, such as Amazon, Tesla, Disney, Apple, and Nike, when you open an Active Investing account and fund it with at least $10.

The free stock will be credited to your account within 10 days of making the initial deposit, and the shares can be sold immediately.

This “Stock Bit” promotion is only available to new SoFi Active Investing users. It does not apply to existing Active Investing users or those who sign up for SoFi’s Automated Investing product.

Visit SoFi.

#6. Tornado

Tornado (formerly called Nvstr) is an online brokerage that helps users discover investment ideas through collective wisdom and lets you optimize your portfolio with advanced tools.

  • Offer value: $9 to $1,000 in free cash to invest.
  • Requirements: Sign up for an account. Must place a trade within three months to keep the cash.
  • Cashing out: 7 days after opening and funding the account

Tornado combines social media features with an investment platform to encourage idea-sharing, resulting in the discovery of new investment insights. Users can enhance their learning by seeing what big investors are saying.

Additionally, Tornado offers simulated trading, helping you learn the basics and implement new ideas without risking your money.

Learn more in our Tornado review.

Sign up to take advantage of Tornado’s free stock offer.

#7. Stockpile

Stockpile is a fractional share trading mobile app that lets you send people shares of stock as gifts.

  • Offer value: $10 in free stock.
  • Requirements: Buy your first stock on Stockpile, or give an e-gift of $10 or more.
  • Cashing out: You can cash out instantly. You’ll receive today’s closing market price if selling before 3 p.m., or tomorrow’s closing price if selling after 3 p.m.

Stockpile lets you buy stock “gift cards,” from $1 to $2,000 in value, and send them to family and friends. It offers over 1,000 stocks, ETFs, and American Depository Receipts (ADRs).

Stockpile can also help you get your kids into investing early. You can open an account for kids and let them pick investments that you pre-approve of. They also have mini investing lessons on their mobile app.

The app is focused on fractional shares, with the slogan “You favorite stocks by the dollar.” However, each trade costs 99 cents, which makes buying stocks “by the dollar” a very expensive proposition. 

Platforms like Cash App allow you to buy fractional shares with zero fees. And that’s a great idea if you’re a beginning or small-scale investor, because it gives you a chance to get into the stock market in a diversified manner even when you only have a few bucks to invest.

But if you’re investing such small amounts of money that buying fractional shares makes sense (for example, putting $1 at a time into 10 different stocks), paying a 99 cent fee for each trade will obliterate your potential returns. 

Stockpile offers a $10 bonus when you make your first investment on the site.

#8. TradeUP

TradeUp is a stock app for active traders that allows you to draw free shares valued up to $1,800

Here’s a breakdown of how the rewards work based on your initial deposit:

Initial DepositNumber of Draws
$0.01 to $1001
$100.01 to $2,5002
$2,500.01 to $10,0003
$10,000.01 – $100,0004
$100,000.01 and more5
  • Offer value: Opportunity to draw free stocks valued up to $1,800.
  • Requirements: Open and fund a live account.
  • Cashing out: You must retain the free share(s) for at least 90 days from issuance, or your account must have completed 10 or more trades since it was opened.

The probability of the value of each free share is as follows:

ValueProbability
$10 to $2095%
$20 to $303%
$30 to $501%
$50 to $1000.8%
$1,5700.2%

TradeUP distinguishes itself as a cost-effective, mobile-friendly platform offering commission-free trading on U.S. stocks, ETFs and options. It’s noteworthy for its 1.99% flat annual margin interest rate. 

Sign up here. If prompted for a referral code, you can enter PAPKSV to activate this offer. 

Brokerage Account Cash Bonuses

The list above highlights offers from online-only brokers and trading platforms, which are fairly new to the investing landscape. By all accounts, these companies are safe, reliable and regulated places to invest your money.

But if you’d prefer to invest with a more traditional brokerage — the kind that’s been around for decades, gives you access to a more fully-developed trading platform, and (sometimes) even gives you a real person to talk to about your investments — you may still be able to get a signup bonus. 

That said, traditional brokerage account opening bonuses typically require a significant initial minimum deposit to qualify. The list below highlights the smallest bonuses popular brokers offer at the time of writing. In most cases, you can earn more if you have more to invest.

TradeStation$500 deposit for a $150 bonus.
Public$5,000 deposit for a $150 bonus.
M1 Finance$10,000 deposit for a $75 bonus.

Keep in mind that these offers change all the time. While we update this page on a regular basis, you’ll need to visit each broker’s website to see their current promotions.

You can see more options in our list of the best brokerage sign-up bonuses.

Frequently Asked Questions About Free Stocks

Here are a few common questions we get asked about how to get free stocks. If you’re wondering about something that wasn’t covered in this article and isn’t listed below, let us know by leaving a comment — we’ll research the answer and add it to this FAQ section.

Why do companies give away free stock?

These promotions are a form of marketing and a way to get a new investor (and their funds) onto a particular stock trading platform. This is not uncommon, as many different types of websites offer sign-up bonuses as an incentive for joining.

Do you have to pay taxes on free stocks? 

When you receive a free share of stock, it does count as taxable income — just as if you were given a cash gift.

You’ll be required to report the value of the shares (at the time you receive them) to the IRS, and you’ll be taxed on that value.

Note that this income will be taxed at your standard rate, as the gift of a share is not considered a capital gain.

If you decide to sell your free share, and it has increased in value since you received it, you’ll be taxed on that increase — this time at the short-term capital gain rate.

What are DRIPs?

The phrase “DRIP” stands for dividend reinvestment plan. With a DRIP, your broker or investment platform reinvests any dividend earnings you receive from your shares back into your holdings. Since you aren’t pulling more money from your wallet, you’re essentially getting free stock with each dividend payment.

Do you have to provide credit card information to take advantage of these free bonus offers?

We have never encountered a free stock offer that requires you to provide a credit card number.

In most cases, you’ll be asked to link a bank account in order to fund your new brokerage account and claim your free stock shares.

This is usually done through Plaid, a third-party service that keeps your account information secret during the linking process.

How to Get Free Stocks: Final Thoughts

The earlier you start to invest, the better off you’ll be in the future, as making smart investments is one of the keys to building wealth.

And while I don’t recommend investing a big portion of your funds in individual stocks — 5% to 10% is a reasonable target if you’re interested in the market — many of these platforms offer easy and cheap (or free) ways to put your money in relatively safe products like exchange traded funds. 

If you’re wondering why my limit for investing in individual stocks is so low… it’s because picking stocks is very, very hard. I wrote about why in this post that explains what happened when I bought Tesla shares for $26

But aside from the above considerations, these offers can be a great way to bolster your bank account if you need to make some extra money quickly — even if you’ve already got your investment portfolio on track.

R.J. Weiss
R.J. Weiss, founder of The Ways To Wealth, has been a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ since 2010. Holding a B.A. in finance and having completed the CFP® certification curriculum at The American College, R.J. combines formal education with a deep commitment to providing unbiased financial insights. Recognized as a trusted authority in the financial realm, his expertise is highlighted in major publications like Business Insider, New York Times, and Forbes.

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    1. Bumped has shut down as of 12/22/2022.

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