Apps like Upside

Upside still works. What changed is how it pays: PayPal was removed from the last accounts on 14 August 2026, and a bank cash-out under $10 costs a $1 fee. Add offers that Upside itself calls personalized, and most people who go looking for an alternative want PayPal back or a gas discount they can read in advance. The useful way to sort the replacements is by what each one pays you in, and what it asks for in return.

What Upside pays now

Upside's App Store listing says frequent users earn an average of $255 in their first year, that you can earn up to 25¢ a gallon on your first fill-up, and that it has offers at more than 30,000 gas locations. It holds a 4.8 average from 687,777 App Store ratings. Its help center adds the parts that decide what reaches you. A bank transfer needs at least $1.01, and the $1 fee is waived from $10. Gift cards carry no Upside fee, but most brands require $10 and a couple require $15. Bank transfers take up to 5 to 7 business days.

On offers, Upside's own article is short: “This is by design. The offers you see in Upside are personalized.” It lists your spending habits among the inputs. Our Upside review covers why that tends to mean smaller offers for regulars, and the payouts page works through the fee at each cash-out amount.

If you want a gas discount you can read in advance

• GasBuddy is the best-known name here after Upside, with 448,015 App Store ratings. The free app finds prices. The savings come from the Pay with GasBuddy+ card: with Auto Pay on, at least 3¢ a gallon off everywhere Mastercard is accepted, 5¢ at select stations, and 3¢ a gallon more for every $25 spent inside the store. The catch is the account behind it. The card is issued by Fifth Third Bank and paid by ACH from your checking account, with Auto Pay limits of $150 a day and $125 a pump transaction. GasBuddy+ Premium costs $9.99 a month or $99 a year and raises the discount to 20¢ a gallon on the first 50 gallons a month, then 5¢ after that.
• Shell Fuel Rewards lives inside the Shell app. Shell's App Store listing says new members save 10¢ a gallon on the first fill, 20¢ on the second and 30¢ on the third, and that Platinum Status members save 10¢ a gallon. It only works at Shell, and it pays as a lower pump price rather than money you can withdraw. The full terms on Shell's site did not load for us, so the gallon limits and how Platinum is earned are not checked here.
• Exxon Mobil Rewards+ pays in points worth 100 to the dollar, according to Exxon's program page: 3¢ a gallon on regular, mid-grade and diesel, 6¢ on premium, and 2¢ for each dollar in the store. Points expire on 31 December each year, and the terms say “Points have no monetary value.” Linking a bank account through Direct Debit+ takes 10¢ a gallon off regular and 12¢ off premium. It only works at Exxon and Mobil stations.

If you want cash back, or PayPal

• Ibotta is the closest thing to Upside's grocery side, and the one app here whose help center still lists PayPal, alongside a bank transfer and gift cards. The bar is higher than Upside's: at least $20, at least one redeemed offer, and a seven-day wait after your first offer. After 180 days with no redemption, Ibotta deducts $3.99 from your balance for every 30 days you stay inactive. It has 1,973,855 App Store ratings and its listing does not single out gas.
• Checkout 51 is the smallest app here, with 6,484 App Store ratings and a 4.0 average, and the one closest to Upside's gas model. Its listing says members can earn up to 25¢ a gallon at participating stations. You have four hours from adding the offer to fill up, must pay by debit or credit card, and must upload the receipt within 24 hours. You can cash out at $20. How the money is paid was not checked.
• Fetch pays points for receipts from any store, including gas stations, and its listing promises it will never ask for card or bank details. Points go to gift cards or Visa Cash Cards. Most rewards need 3,000 points, the first redemption is limited to $10, $25 or $50 rewards, paper receipts must be snapped within 14 days, and points expire after 90 days without activity. Fetch does not publish what a point is worth.
• Ours, for completeness and not as a replacement. Our four reward apps pay PayPal cash for walking, reading, playing or finishing tasks, with a first payout at 2,000 coins ($2.00), $5.00 after that, and no withdrawal fee. They pay nothing for buying gas or food, and our own page says the realistic figure is pocket money.

All of them side by side

Every figure is the publisher's own, read on 20 October 2026 and linked at the foot of the page.

The columns are not a ranking. A fixed 3¢ a gallon beats a large offer you never see, and a large offer beats a fixed discount at a station you never visit. Upside's other figures, the $255 first-year average and up to 13% back on groceries in select markets, have no matching number on most of these listings, so they are left out of the comparison.

What these apps do better than ours

Every one of them pays more for ordinary spending than our apps can, because ours pay nothing for spending at all. Beyond that:

• Upside and the cash-back apps are funded by the sale. Upside says businesses pay it part of the money they make from extra sales and it passes some of that to you. Ours are funded by advertising, which is a worse arrangement for you in principle even when the sums are small.
• GasBuddy's price map is useful whether or not you take the card. Finding the cheaper station across the road saves more than any of our apps pays in a week.
• Shell and Exxon pay at the moment of purchase. There is no threshold to reach and no withdrawal to wait 5 to 7 business days for.
• Fetch takes any receipt. It asks for no card, no bank and no planning before you shop, which is less than any other app on this page asks.

How to check any of these yourself

Look for two pages before you install: the one that says how you get paid, and the one that lists the fees and minimums. Upside's PayPal change is the reason. It was announced in a help article with a date, and many pages about Upside written before August 2026 still list PayPal. Then cash out at the first amount that carries no fee. A balance in any of these apps is a record in a company's database, which is the lesson from the last big reward app to close without notice.