The best cashback apps in the UK right now are Gains App for instant cashback on everyday shopping, TopCashback and Quidco for big online purchases, and Cheddar if you want a low £5 cash-out. Airtime, Everup, Shopmium and Sprive each do a narrower job well. All eight are free to join, and every figure below was checked on the provider’s own website or app listing on 29 October 2026.
One thing before you read on: I co-founded Gains App, so weigh my pick for it with that in mind. I’ve personally used every app on this list and earned hundreds of pounds in cashback just from taking an extra few seconds before doing my usual shopping. For most people the best setup isn’t one app: it’s one instant gift card app for the shops you visit in person, plus one cashback site for big online buys.
Cashback is just one way to boost your balance. For sign-up bonuses and welcome deals too, see our guide to the best free money offers in the UK.
The best cashback apps in the UK compared
Short on time? This is how all eight line up. TopCashback and Quidco usually pay the most on big online purchases, while the gift card apps pay smaller amounts straight away.
| App | How you earn | When you get it | Cash-out | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gains App | Gift cards at 160+ brands, offers matched to your spending | Usually within 60 seconds | £10 to your bank (small fee), or spend on gift cards any time | Free; Pro £5.99 a month or £39.99 a year | Everyday spending plus budgeting |
| TopCashback | Click through to 5,500+ retailers | Once the retailer confirms, often weeks or months | No minimum | Free; Plus £5 a year from your cashback | Big online purchases |
| Quidco | Click through to 5,000+ retailers, plus gift cards and card-linked in-store offers | Once the retailer confirms (gift cards faster) | Shown in your account | Free; Premium £1 in months you shop | High value offers |
| Cheddar | Gift cards at 100+ retailers | Instantly | £5, no fee | Free | Low cash-out |
| Airtime | Link your bank cards, earn automatically at 200+ brands | Paid off your mobile phone bill | Bill credit only | Free | Hands-off cashback |
| Everup | Gift cards at 300+ brands, plus coins for prize games | Instantly | Check the app | Free | Gamified rewards |
| Shopmium | Buy featured products, scan your receipt | Claims processed within 2 working days | £10 to bank or PayPal | Free | Grocery discounts |
| Sprive | Shopping rewards at 1,000+ brands | Paid towards your mortgage | Mortgage overpayment only | Free | Homeowners |
Retailer counts and payout rules come from each provider’s own site on 29 October 2026. Rates change weekly, so always check the live rate before you buy.
1. Gains App: best for everyday cashback and budgeting
Best for everyday cashback and budgeting
Gains App
Every account, bill and subscription in one clear picture, plus instant cashback
- Connects every account through Open Banking
- Sorts your spending and spots patterns and upcoming bills
- Shows you where to free up room in your budget
- Instant cashback on your everyday spending
- Cashback balance and gift cards are not FSCS protected
- Cashback expires after 12 months with no activity
- £10 minimum withdrawal, plus a small processing charge
- Free plan links 1 bank; Pro is £5.99 a month or £39.99 a year
- Free
- fee
- Gains Pro £5.99/mo or £39.99/yr
Affiliate link.
Gains App is the cashback app I use most, and I built it because I couldn’t find one that did what I wanted. Full disclosure again: I’m a co-founder, so read my Gains App review as the founder’s view, not an independent one.
It connects to your bank through open banking (the regulated way for an app to read your transactions with your permission, read-only) and uses your spending to put the offers you’re most likely to use at the top. So if you do a weekly shop at Tesco, you’ll see Tesco straight away instead of scrolling past dozens of shops you never visit.
You earn by buying a digital gift card for the shop you’re about to visit (it takes about 30 seconds, you can even do it in the queue), then paying with it. Cashback usually lands in your Gains balance within 60 seconds, rather than waiting weeks for a retailer to confirm. One catch worth knowing: Gains’ terms say cashback can show as “pending” until a retailer’s returns period has passed.
Rates on Gains’ own brand pages run from 1.35% to 16%. Supermarkets sit at the low end: 2% at Asda, Morrisons and Iceland, 2.25% at Sainsbury’s, 2.5% at M&S and 3% at Tesco. Higher rates are at places like Costa Coffee (8%), New Look (8%) and Starbucks (9%). If you spend £150 a week at Tesco, 3% back is £234 a year.
You can withdraw to your bank once you hit £10 (a small processing charge applies), or spend your balance on another gift card any time for free. You also get budgeting tools and an AI chat assistant. The free plan links one bank; Gains Pro (£5.99 a month or £39.99 a year) adds up to six and boosted rates at selected brands. You can hear why I built it on episode 186 of the podcast.
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2. TopCashback: best for big online purchases
Best for big online purchases
TopCashback
Cashback at 5,000+ online retailers
- Free to download
- cost
- Free
- fee
Affiliate link.
TopCashback is the cashback site I check before any big online purchase. It lists over 5,500 retailers, and on things like a new laptop, a car insurance renewal or a holiday booking it’s often where you’ll find the highest rate.
You click through to the shop from TopCashback and buy as normal. The retailer pays TopCashback a commission and it passes that on to you.
The catch is the wait. Cashback only becomes payable once the retailer confirms you didn’t return the item, and that can take months. One Currys purchase I made in June didn’t become available to withdraw until November. It can be frustrating, especially if a claim doesn’t track at all; our guide to cashback that has not tracked walks you through the claim process.
There’s no minimum payout, and you can be paid by bank transfer, PayPal or gift cards (some gift card payouts come with a bonus). The free Classic account has no charges. Plus membership costs £5 a year, taken from your cashback, and boosts some rates.
I’d use it in a browser on a laptop or desktop rather than the mobile app, as I’ve found tracking is more consistent that way.
3. Quidco: best for high value rewards
Best for high value rewards
Quidco
Cashback on online shopping
- FREE to download
- cost
- Free
- fee
Affiliate link.
Quidco is TopCashback’s main rival and works in almost exactly the same way: click through a link before buying online and cashback tracks to your account. It lists over 5,000 retailers.
Where it stands out is its limited-time bonus offers, which pop up regularly and can be genuinely valuable if you grab them quickly. Quidco now also sells digital gift cards (up to 18% cashback, used in store or online) and has card-linked in-store offers (up to 6.8%) where you connect a debit or credit card. In my experience the gift card rates are usually lower than the dedicated gift card apps.
The free account works fine for most people. Premium costs £1, taken from your cashback only in months you shop, and gives up to 25% higher rates at selected retailers. Run the numbers on whether that extra covers the £12 a year it could cost you.
If you already use TopCashback, it’s worth having Quidco too: check both before any big online purchase and use whichever pays more.
4. Cheddar: best for a low cash-out
Best for a low cash-out
Cheddar
Card-linked and gift card cashback
Offer: £3 bonus with code UPGAINS: £2 after your first £25 of gift cards, £1 more after £5 cashback (within 30 days)
- FREE to download
- cost
- Free
- fee
Affiliate link.
Cheddar is a gift card cashback app: pick a retailer (it lists 100+), pay for a gift card from your bank, get cashback in your balance straight away, then pay with the gift card in store or online.
Its big plus is the £5 minimum cash-out with no fees, half the £10 you need on most gift card apps. Where it falls short for me is personalisation: you’re browsing a list rather than seeing offers matched to your spending, and there are no budgeting tools.
New users who sign up with code UPGAINS can get a £3 bonus: £2 after your first £25 of gift cards and £1 more after £5 of cashback, within 30 days.
5. Airtime: best automatic cashback app
Best automatic cashback app
Airtime
Card-linked rewards off your phone bill
Affiliate link.
Airtime is the one to try if you know you’ll forget to open a cashback app before shopping. You link your debit or credit cards, and when you spend at one of its 200+ partner brands, the reward is added automatically. It’s super simple.
The trade-off is where the money goes. Rewards are paid off your mobile phone bill rather than to your bank account. If you’re on a monthly contract that effectively cuts your phone bill, but you can’t spend that cashback on anything else. Rates are also usually lower than gift card or click-through cashback, which is the price of not having to do anything.
Read nextLightyear Investing Review – Is The Trading App Any Good?6. Everup: best for gamified rewards
Best for gamified rewards
everup
Instant cashback at 200+ retailers
Affiliate link.
Everup adds a twist to the gift card model. Alongside instant cashback at 300+ brands (up to 25%, according to its App Store listing), each gift card purchase earns coins you can use on in-app games like prize wheels, scratchers and a daily raffle. You can spend your cashback on another gift card or cash it out to your bank.
The games are fun, but they can nudge you into buying gift cards you wouldn’t normally buy just to earn coins, which defeats the point of cashback. If you only buy for shops you’d visit anyway, it’s a fun option.
7. Shopmium: best for grocery discounts
Best for grocery discounts
Shopmium
Free and discounted supermarket products
Affiliate link.
Shopmium works differently from the rest of this list. Instead of cashback on your whole shop, it gives you money back on individual featured products, sometimes the full price, so you can try things for free.
You pick an offer in the app, buy the product in store or online, then snap your receipt. Shopmium says claims are processed within 2 working days, and you can withdraw to your bank or PayPal once you reach £10.
The catch is the selection: some weeks there’s something on your list, other weeks nothing. Where it shines is stacking: pay with a supermarket gift card from a cashback app, then scan the receipt in Shopmium too. That’s cashback twice on the same shop.
8. Sprive: best for homeowners
Best for homeowners
Sprive
Pay off your mortgage faster as you shop
Affiliate link.
Sprive is mainly a mortgage overpayment app that also pays shopping rewards. It says you can earn rewards at over 1,000 brands and pay them towards your mortgage in one tap.
The big limitation is flexibility: the rewards go to your mortgage, not to you as cash. If you don’t have a mortgage, this one isn’t for you. If you do and you’re focused on paying it off faster, it’s worth a look.
How to pick the right cashback app
Look at reliability (does cashback track and pay), ease of use, customer service and the rates at the shops you actually use. Personally, I use over four different cashback brands and check across them for the best deal. A simple rule that works for most people:
- Shopping in person, every week? A gift card app (Gains App, Cheddar or Everup).
- Big one-off online purchase? Check TopCashback and Quidco and use whichever pays more.
- Know you’ll forget? Add Airtime so you earn something automatically.
- Doing a weekly food shop? Scan your receipt in Shopmium for featured products.
- Paying off a mortgage? Sprive turns rewards into overpayments.
The four ways to earn cashback (and which suits you)
The best method depends on how you shop. For the full picture, see our complete UK cashback guide.
Gift card cashback
The one I use most. Buy a gift card for the shop you’re about to visit through Gains App, Cheddar or Everup, and the cashback usually lands within a minute. Supermarkets typically pay 2% to 3%, coffee shops, fashion and electricals more.
Click-through (affiliate) cashback
TopCashback and Quidco. Rates can be much higher on big purchases, but it mainly works online and you wait for the retailer to confirm.
Card-linked cashback
The hands-off option: Airtime spots purchases at partner shops on your linked cards. Lower rates and fewer retailers.
Cashback bank cards
Some bank accounts and credit cards pay cashback on everything, with zero effort. It’s the main way to earn on fuel, since gift cards mostly can’t be used at the pump (see cashback on fuel). On a credit card it only works if you clear the balance in full every month.
You can stack methods: pay for a gift card or online order with a cashback credit card you clear every month and you earn twice. If you use discount code extensions, check the cashback site’s terms first, as an unapproved code can cancel your cashback.
Best supermarket cashback apps for your weekly shop
Groceries are where cashback builds up fastest, because you repeat the spending every week. Click-through sites are mostly useless at the till, so for in-store food shopping gift card cashback is the way in. Buy a supermarket gift card in Gains App or Cheddar in the queue, pay with it at the till, and the cashback lands straight away. At 2% to 3%, a £400 a month food shop works out at roughly £96 to £144 a year.
Receipt-scanning apps work the other way round. Shopmium pays back up to the full price on featured branded products, and apps like CheckoutSmart and GreenJinn work in a similar way. Worth a scan before you write your shopping list. You can usually still collect loyalty points like Clubcard or Nectar on the same shop, as they come from a different pot, but check each scheme’s rules.
We’ve gone deeper on this in our guide to the supermarket cashback hack, and if you want to know what a typical UK household spends on groceries, see my breakdown of the average UK food shop.
How much cashback can you actually earn?
Most people think cashback is small change. It adds up. Here’s an example using Gains App’s published rates (checked 29 October 2026) on spending plenty of people already do:
| Spending | Rate | Cashback a year |
|---|---|---|
| £100 a week food shop at Asda or Morrisons | 2% | £104 |
| £100 a week food shop at Tesco | 3% | £156 |
| £20 a week of takeaways (Just Eat or Deliveroo) | 4% | £41.60 |
| £10 a week at Costa Coffee | 8% | £41.60 |
| One £700 laptop from Currys | 5% | £35 |
That’s roughly £220 to £275 a year for about 30 seconds of effort per shop. Gains has a free cashback calculator if you want to run your own spending through it.
I’ve covered every Christmas of the last three years from cashback alone. The trick isn’t picking the perfect app. It’s building the habit of opening one before you tap your card.
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Get your free money planGetting the most from your cashback
- Check more than one app before big purchases. Rates vary between apps and change regularly. Thirty seconds of comparing can mean an extra £20 or £30 back on a single purchase.
- Don’t spend more just for cashback. This is the biggest trap. If you’re buying things you wouldn’t normally buy, you’re spending more than you’re saving.
- Let it build up, but not forever. I stack my cashback for months and use it for big expenses like Christmas. Just don’t leave a big balance sitting in an app for years (see the safety section below), and check whether unused balances expire.
- Remember occasion spending. Birthdays are one of the most predictable costs there is. Check what’s typical to spend on a birthday present, then buy through whichever app pays best for that shop.
Money influencer and TV presenter Chloe Carmichael from Chloe’s Deal Club came on The Money Gains Podcast to share how she stacks deals and cashback on almost everything she buys. Listen to the episode.
Are cashback apps safe?
The established names are, but understand where your money sits. A cashback balance or an unspent gift card is not a bank deposit, so it isn’t covered by the FSCS (the UK scheme that protects bank savings up to £120,000 if a bank fails). If an app or a retailer went bust, you could lose that balance. So cash out or spend regularly rather than letting a big balance build for years.
Apps that read your transactions do it read-only through open banking, so they can’t move your money. Download apps only from the App Store or Google Play.
What is the best cashback app in the UK?
For everyday spending, my pick is Gains App, which pays instant cashback through gift cards at 160+ brands and matches offers to where you shop (I co-founded it, so weigh that). If your spending is mostly big one-off online purchases, TopCashback is the better single pick, with 5,500+ retailers and no minimum payout, though you wait for the retailer to confirm.
Honest answer: most people earn the most by pairing one instant gift card app with one cashback site, rather than hunting for a single winner.
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Want an app that saves for you, not just cashback? Plum, Chip, Snoop and Moneybox compared.
Compare the appsFrequently asked questions
Are cashback apps safe?
The well-known apps are safe to use, but a cashback balance or unused gift card isn’t FSCS protected, so don’t let a large balance sit for long. Download apps only from the official app stores.
How much can I actually earn from cashback?
It depends on how much of your spending goes through the apps. Using Gains App’s published rates, a £100 weekly food shop at 2% to 3% earns £104 to £156 a year, and adding takeaways, coffee and one big purchase can take it past £200.
Do I need more than one cashback app?
You’ll earn the most with two: a gift card app for everyday spending and a cashback site like TopCashback or Quidco for big online purchases. But one app used consistently beats five you never open.
Which cashback app pays real money?
TopCashback, Quidco, Gains App, Cheddar, Everup and Shopmium all pay cash you can withdraw to your bank (TopCashback, Quidco and Shopmium also pay to PayPal). Airtime pays off your mobile bill and Sprive pays towards your mortgage instead.
How long does TopCashback take to pay?
Cashback becomes payable once the retailer confirms your purchase, which can take weeks or a few months depending on the retailer. Once it’s payable there’s no minimum, and you can withdraw at any time.
What is instant cashback?
Instant cashback means you get your money back when you buy instead of waiting for a retailer to confirm. It works through gift cards: you buy a digital gift card for the exact amount through an app like Gains App, Cheddar or Everup, pay with it, and the cashback lands in your balance, usually within a minute.
Can I use cashback apps and loyalty cards together?
Usually, yes. Cashback and loyalty points come from different places, so you can buy a gift card through a cashback app, pay with it and still scan your loyalty card. Check each scheme’s rules, as a few exclude gift card payments.
Is cashback from apps taxable in the UK?
No for ordinary shopping. HMRC treats cashback on personal spending as money back on the price, not income (HMRC manual BIM100210). Cashback earned in the course of running a business counts as business income, and payments for introducing customers can be taxable.
