Sweatcoin Review: Now You Can Get Paid to Walk
Have you heard the saying, “there’s an app for that?” These days, there’s not much that you can’t do on a mobile phone. In fact, recent trends have developers creating apps that help people stay active and achieve their fitness goals.
In this Sweatcoin review, find out how one app is paying users in more than 60 countries, including Canada and the US, to stay in shape. That’s right, people around the world are getting paid to walk. I’ll explain how to use the app, and let you know if Sweatcoin is legit.
What Is Sweatcoin?
Sweatcoin is a health and fitness app that rewards you with points, called “Sweatcoins”, as you achieve physical activity benchmarks on a daily basis. The Sweatcoins you earn can be redeemed for rewards in the Sweatcoin store, PayPal cash, or donated to charity.
How Does Sweatcoin Work?
To get started with Sweatcoin, download the app for your iOS or Android device. Sweatcoin will start tracking your physical activity as soon as your account is activated. The Sweatcoin app tracks the steps you take, both indoors and outdoors.
For every 1,000 steps you take each day, you’ll earn .95 Sweatcoins. So, if you average 10,000 steps, you’re looking at roughly 10 Sweatcoins per day. The problem is that in order to earn more than 5 Sweatcoins per day, you’ll need to upgrade your Sweatcoin Plan.
Sweatcoin Membership Levels
There are four Sweatcoin plans: Mover, Shaker, Quaker, and Breaker. The basic membership tier (Mover) is free, but limits your daily Sweatcoin earnings to 5, regardless of how many steps you take. You can upgrade your plan to one that matches your anticipated activity level. Here’s how they breakdown:
Mover
- Cost: Free
- Max Sweatcoin earnings/day: 5
- Max Sweatcoin earnings/mth: 150
Shaker
- Price: 4.75 Sweatcoins per month
- Max Sweatcoin earnings/day: 10
- Max Sweatcoin earnings/mth: 300
Quaker:
- Price: 20 Sweatcoins per month
- Max Sweatcoin earnings/day: 15
- Max Sweatcoin earnings/mth: 450
Breaker:
- Price: 30 Sweatcoins per month
- Max Sweatcoin earnings/day: 20
- Max Sweatcoin earnings/mth: 600
What Is the Value of a Sweatcoin?
In looking at the above calculations, you may be wondering how much a Sweatcoin is worth. Is there a payoff for doing that much walking, aside from the apparent health benefits?
From what I can see, the maximum value of one Sweatcoin is $.05, and the minimum value is closer to $.015. That’s because the value ranges depending upon what you redeem for, and how long you wait before redeeming your coins. For example, you’ll earn $1,000 in PayPal cash if you wait until you have 20,000 Sweatcoins before cashing out. That’s where the $.05 comes from ($1,000/20,000 = .05).
Sweatcoin App
Sweatcoin works by tracking your steps via their iPhone or Android app. You can also use an apple watch. To date, it is not available on a Fitbit device, which is unfortunate as that may be the most popular way people track their steps here in Canada. One thing to be mindful of is your device’s battery life because you have to have the app running for the entire day if you want it to capture all of your activity.
How Can I Earn Sweatcoin?
The primary way to earn Sweatcoin is by walking. Sweatcoin tracks your daily steps, approximately 1 Sweatcoin (.95) for every 1,000 steps.
While the offers vary, Sweatcoin has offered coins for other types of exercise, such as pushups, planks, and jumping jacks.
When you refer your friends to Sweatcoin, you’ll earn bonus coins. Each referral is worth 5 Sweatcoin, and more than 30 will grant you influencer status.
Look out for bonus offers to earn more Sweatcoin. This usually involves watching video ads, and they are available at random.
Sweatcoin Rewards
You may have an opportunity to redeem your Sweatcoins for PayPal cash, but it’s not a consistent offer. Instead, Sweatcoin encourages users to redeem Sweatcoins for products offered by brand partners. Rewards include various tech and fitness products, yoga classes, gift cards, home gyms, etc.
How Does Sweatcoin Make Money?
Sweatcoin is a free app, but make no mistake, they’re making plenty of money. While Sweatcoin doesn’t disclose much about their revenue model on their website, we can make some assumptions based on how apps like Sweatcoin make money, in general.
Brands pay Sweatcoin to display ads inside the app. They also pay to have their products featured as Sweatcoin rewards. Other partners include government agencies and health insurers – organizations with a vested interest in people’s health and fitness.
Sweatcoin Pros and Cons
Sweatcoin won’t be for everyone. But it does have its benefits, along with a few drawbacks. Here’s my list of pros and cons:
Pros
- The app is extremely easy-to-use
- Get paid to stay active
- Free to use, no monthly fees
- Available on Apple Watch
Cons
- Limited earnings
- Must upgrade plan to increase earnings
- Lack of transparency with how Sweatcoin uses your data
- Have to watch the battery life of your mobile device
Is Sweatcoin Legit?
Some people believe that Sweatcoin is a scam. Not because the rewards aren’t legit, or because Sweatcoin will sell your data – they clearly state that they do not – instead, Sweatcoin is likely profiting disproportionately off of its users. Consider how long it would take to earn $1,000 by redeeming 20,000 Sweatcoins when the most you can make is 600 per month in the top tier plan. The answer? It’s 20,000 steps per day, every month for close to three years.
Final Thoughts on Sweatcoin
I’m not ready to call Sweatcoin a scam. But, if your primary goal is to find an app that lets you make extra money, there are better options. Instead, I would check out paid survey apps, like Swagbucks or PrizeRebel. Another option would be to get paid to shop through a site such as Rakuten. On the other hand, if the priority is to stay in shape, Sweatcoin will pay you money for walking, which may be all the incentive you need.
