18 Best Money-Saving Apps Available in the U.S. (Some That I Have Personally Used)

Saving money does not always require a complicated budget or a complete lifestyle overhaul. If you’re new to this, money-saving apps for beginners are usually the easiest starting point, an app that helps you find a lower price, earn cash back, compare deals, track subscriptions, or avoid spending more than planned covers most of how to save money with apps in practice.

This guide covers 18 money-saving apps available in the United States, from cash back apps to full budgeting tools. They are divided into practical categories, including cash-back apps, receipt-reward apps, shopping tools, gas-saving apps, and budgeting apps. Some are most useful for planned purchases, while others can help with expenses you already have.

A quick honesty note: I have personally used some apps in this category, but not every app on this list. The personal-use angle should not be read as a claim that I have independently tested all 18 services. Rewards are not the same as income, and no app will make every purchase profitable. Exact offers, fees, participating retailers, availability, and reward values can change, so check the current terms before relying on any specific deal.

U.S. audience note: This article is written for readers in the United States and uses U.S. dollars. Availability and eligibility may vary by state, device, retailer, account type, or current provider policy.

How Money-Saving Apps Actually Work

Most money-saving apps use one or more of these models:

• Cash back: Activate an offer, shop through the app or a linked retailer, and receive a percentage or fixed amount back.
• Digital coupons: Select a discount before shopping and redeem it according to the offer rules.
• Receipt rewards: Photograph or connect an eligible receipt and receive points or cash.
• Price comparison: Compare prices, find coupons, or monitor a product before buying.
• Expense management: Identify recurring charges, track spending, or help cancel services you no longer need.
• Survey and activity rewards: Earn small rewards for surveys, questions, shopping activity, or other approved tasks.

Rewards programs usually have limitations. Some offers require a minimum purchase, a specific size or brand, a particular payment method, or submission before a deadline. Read the details rather than assuming that every purchase at a participating store will qualify.

Quick Comparison of the 18 Apps

18 Best Money-Saving Apps Available in the U.S.

1. Ibotta

Ibotta is a cash-back app focused heavily on groceries and everyday shopping. Users browse available offers, add qualifying deals, shop at the listed retailer, and complete the required verification process. Depending on the retailer, that may involve linking a loyalty account, submitting a receipt, or shopping through an in-app connection.

• Best for: Grocery shoppers who compare offers before making a shopping list.
• Potential savings: Often a few dollars per shopping trip, depending on available offers and purchase size.
• Watch out for: Expiration dates, product-size requirements, withdrawal thresholds, and buying items you did not need.

Check Ibotta after creating your grocery list, not before. That keeps your shopping decisions based on your needs rather than the reward feed.

2. Fetch

Fetch rewards users for scanning receipts from eligible grocery stores, restaurants, convenience stores, and other retailers. It emphasizes simplicity, although points, promotions, qualifying receipts, and redemption values can change.

• Best for: People who want a straightforward receipt-scanning routine.
• Potential savings: Usually modest; many individual receipts produce rewards worth less than a dollar.
• Watch out for: Submission deadlines, duplicate-receipt rules, and unreadable receipts.

3. Rakuten

Rakuten offers cash back when users begin an online shopping session through its website, browser extension, or app and complete an eligible purchase. Percentage rates vary by retailer and promotion, and exclusions may apply.

• Best for: Online shoppers who remember to activate cash back before checking out.
• Potential savings: A small percentage to higher promotional rates, depending on the retailer and category.
• Watch out for: Returns, canceled orders, excluded products, coupon restrictions, and delayed payouts.

Compare the final price rather than focusing only on the cash-back percentage. A 10% reward is not a good deal if another retailer sells the same item for 20% less.

4. Upside

Upside provides cash-back offers at participating gas stations, restaurants, and grocery stores. Users typically claim an offer before a qualifying purchase and follow the redemption instructions.

• Best for: Drivers who already compare fuel prices and visit participating businesses.
• Potential savings: Often a few cents per gallon or a fixed cash-back amount.
• Watch out for: Location restrictions, receipt requirements, minimum purchases, and extra driving.

Calculate the full trip cost. Saving $0.15 per gallon on a 15-gallon fill-up is $2.25, which may disappear if the detour adds substantial mileage.

5. Shopkick

Shopkick rewards certain activities such as entering participating stores, scanning products, viewing offers, or making qualifying purchases. Rewards are generally points that can be exchanged for available gift cards.

• Best for: In-store shoppers who already visit participating retailers.
• Potential savings: Usually small amounts per activity.
• Watch out for: Store availability, location permissions, product requirements, and spending too much time chasing points.

6. Checkout 51

Checkout 51 provides grocery and household-product offers. Users claim an offer, purchase the qualifying item, and submit a receipt. Brand, size, quantity, purchase dates, and cash-out rules matter.

• Best for: Shoppers who check grocery offers and photograph receipts.
• Potential savings: Usually a fixed amount per qualifying product.
• Watch out for: Offer limits, deadlines, product variations, and minimum cash-out rules.

7. Receipt Hog

Receipt Hog rewards users for submitting receipts from participating purchases. Current programs may include points, sweepstakes entries, or other rewards depending on eligibility and terms.

• Best for: People who want to turn ordinary receipts into occasional small rewards.
• Potential savings: Usually modest and gradual.
• Watch out for: Receipt limits, deadlines, data-sharing settings, and the time needed to reach redemption.

8. RetailMeNot

RetailMeNot helps users find coupons, promotional codes, sales, and selected cash-back offers from online and local retailers. Codes can have exclusions, minimum orders, expiration dates, or customer restrictions.

• Best for: Shoppers who check for a coupon before placing an online order.
• Potential savings: From a few dollars to a meaningful percentage, depending on the promotion.
• Watch out for: Minimum spending, excluded brands, subscription offers, and codes that fail at checkout.

9. Honey

Honey is a browser extension and shopping tool that can test available coupon codes at participating online stores. It may also provide price-history or shopping information depending on the retailer and current features.

• Best for: Online shoppers who often forget to search for coupon codes.
• Potential savings: Highly variable; some orders receive a discount while others do not.
• Watch out for: Coupon exclusions, shipping costs, and browser-extension permissions.

10. Capital One Shopping

Capital One Shopping is a shopping comparison and rewards service that can help locate coupons, compare prices, and earn rewards at participating retailers. Merchant availability and reward terms vary.

• Best for: Online shoppers who want price comparisons and deal alerts.
• Potential savings: Varies widely by merchant and purchase.
• Watch out for: Reward redemption rules, retailer restrictions, browser permissions, and changing prices.

11. Flipp

Flipp collects weekly ads and circulars from many retailers so users can compare local sales. It can help with grocery planning, household purchases, seasonal shopping, and price matching where supported.

• Best for: People who plan shopping around weekly sales.
• Potential savings: Potentially meaningful over a month if you compare prices and plan purchases.
• Watch out for: Regional availability, limited quantities, sale dates, and buying unnecessary items because they are discounted.

12. GasBuddy

GasBuddy helps drivers locate and compare fuel prices. Depending on current features, it may also provide station information, trip-planning tools, or payment-related savings.

• Best for: Drivers comparing local fuel prices before filling up.
• Potential savings: Often a few cents per gallon compared with a more expensive nearby station.
• Watch out for: Outdated reports, extra driving, station quality, membership terms, and payment conditions.

13. Pogo

Pogo is a rewards platform that may provide points for connected transactions, surveys, and other approved activities. Because programs in this category may rely on transaction data, read the privacy policy before linking accounts.

• Best for: People comfortable reviewing privacy settings in exchange for small rewards.
• Potential savings: Usually small and gradual.
• Watch out for: Account-linking permissions, data practices, redemption thresholds, and the value of your time.

14. Swagbucks

Swagbucks offers points for activities such as surveys, online searches, shopping, videos, and selected offers. Available activities change, and not every user qualifies for every survey.

• Best for: People looking for occasional small rewards during spare time.
• Potential savings: Often a few dollars at a time, depending on qualifying activities.
• Watch out for: Low effective hourly rates, survey disqualifications, and time-consuming offers.

15. Google Opinion Rewards

Google Opinion Rewards sends short surveys to eligible users. Frequency, survey value, platform, and reward type vary by location, profile, and current program terms.

• Best for: People who want very short surveys and occasional small rewards.
• Potential savings: Usually modest and inconsistent.
• Watch out for: Survey availability, expiration dates, privacy settings, and platform-specific reward restrictions.

16. Rocket Money

Rocket Money helps users monitor subscriptions, identify recurring expenses, manage budgets, and review spending. Some features may require payment or have free-plan limitations.

• Best for: People with recurring charges spread across accounts or forgotten subscriptions.
• Potential savings: Potentially tens or hundreds of dollars per year if it identifies services you no longer use.
• Watch out for: Premium-plan costs, account permissions, cancellation timing, and assumed bill savings.

Cancel important services carefully and review security information before linking financial accounts.

17. EveryDollar

EveryDollar is a budgeting app based on assigning income to planned spending categories. It can help you see what is available for groceries, housing, transportation, debt payments, savings, and discretionary spending.

• Best for: People who want a category-based monthly spending plan.
• Potential savings: Depends on the spending changes you make; identifying one recurring overspend can be valuable.
• Watch out for: Premium features, manual effort, irregular expenses, and budgets that are too restrictive to maintain.

18. YNAB

YNAB, short for You Need A Budget, helps users assign available money to spending categories and prepare for upcoming expenses. It can suit people who want an active system for irregular bills, goals, and spending decisions.

• Best for: People willing to learn a structured budgeting method.
• Potential savings: Potentially meaningful if it reduces overspending, late fees, and unplanned expenses.
• Watch out for: Subscription cost, learning curve, account security, and the need to use it consistently.

Include the subscription in your calculation. If an app costs $100 per year but helps you avoid only $40 in unnecessary spending, it has not saved you money overall.

How to Use Money-Saving Apps Without Overspending

The biggest mistake is treating a reward as permission to buy something unnecessary. Cash back, points, and coupons reduce the price of a purchase; they do not make an unwanted purchase free.

1. Make the purchase decision first. Decide whether you need the item or service.
2. Compare the full price. Include shipping, taxes, fees, travel costs, and the return policy.
3. Check one or two relevant apps. Do not spend 30 minutes seeking a $1 discount.
4. Read the conditions. Confirm products, retailers, dates, payment methods, receipt rules, and deadlines.
5. Save proof. Keep receipts, confirmation emails, or offer details until the reward appears.
6. Track the result. Note whether the reward was approved and whether your time was worthwhile.

Set a reasonable limit on notifications. A steady stream of deals can create the feeling that you are missing out, even when the offers are for products you never planned to buy.

Are Money-Saving Apps Safe?

Many apps request personal information, location access, shopping history, email access, loyalty-account connections, or financial-account data. Before signing up, read the privacy policy and review phone permissions. The FTC’s guide to protecting your privacy online is a solid, free starting point for the basics.

• Download apps from official app stores and check the developer name.
• Use a unique password and enable two-factor authentication where available.
• Do not provide bank login information to a service you have not researched.
• Be cautious of unusually large guaranteed-earnings claims.
• Never pay to unlock a reward that you have supposedly already earned.
• Review linked accounts and remove access when you stop using the service.
• Keep receipts and reward emails until the transaction is complete.

Which Money-Saving App Should You Try First?

Not sure where to start among the best budgeting and saving apps on this list? Choose based on the expense you are trying to reduce:

• Groceries: Try a grocery cash-back or receipt app, then compare weekly ads.
• Online purchases: Check a coupon and price-comparison tool before checkout.
• Gas: Compare nearby prices, including mileage and travel time.
• Subscriptions: Use a tracker and review every recurring charge yourself.
• General spending: Use a budget app consistently enough to identify patterns.
• Occasional rewards: Try a receipt or survey app, but measure the value of your time.

You do not need 18 apps on your phone. For many people, one budgeting app, one shopping tool, and one receipt or cash-back app are enough. For a closer comparison of the budgeting-specific options, see 7 Best Budgeting Apps for Beginners in the U.S., and for how cash back stacks up against coupons and budgeting more broadly, read Cash Back vs. Coupons vs. Budgeting: Which Saves the Most Money?

Money-Saving Apps FAQ

Final Thoughts

The best money-saving apps are the ones that help you spend less on purchases you were already planning to make or reveal expenses you can realistically eliminate. Ibotta, Fetch, Rakuten, Upside, Flipp, GasBuddy, RetailMeNot, Rocket Money, EveryDollar, and similar services can each be useful in the right situation.

However, savings are not automatic. You still need to compare prices, read offer terms, submit receipts on time, account for fees, and avoid buying things simply because a reward is available. A $2 reward is not a saving if it caused you to spend $25 on something you did not need.

Start with one spending category, test one or two apps, and track the actual result for a month. Keep the services that save you more time and money than they cost. Delete the rest. The goal is not to collect the most points, it is to keep more of your money without making your shopping routine unnecessarily complicated. Once you’ve freed up some real money, 15 Practical Ways to Start Investing With Money You Already Have covers where it could go next, and How to Automate Saving, Spending, and Investing covers how to make the whole system run without constant manual effort.

About Lee Warren-Blake

Hi, I'm Lee Warren-Blake. A serious health scare a few years back made me rethink spending my life at a desk for someone else, and The Side Hustler is what I built instead. I run this blog largely off Pinterest traffic, and I write about the same things I actually use every week: email marketing, affiliate marketing, and building an income that doesn't chain you to a desk. Before this, I ran my own online shop for the better part of a decade, so building something from scratch isn't new to me. Everything here comes from what's actually worked for me, not theory.