How Much Are Your Receipts Worth?

The free Receipt Hog app pays you for taking pictures of your receipts.

Consistent Receipt Hog users can earn around $25 a year pretty easily. But is it worth it?

We based this Receipt Hog review on:

Our personal experience with the app
Feedback from our independent app testers and public App Store reviews
Comparing with other similar receipt-scanning apps

Ready? Let’s dive in.

How Does Receipt Hog Work?

You take pictures of your receipts from stores that sell groceries, health items, beauty products, and more.

The points you earn are based on the total amount of each receipt:

Less than $10 = 5 coins
$10-$49.99 = 10 coins
$50 – $99.99 = 15 coins
$100+ = 20 coins

How Much Are Receipt Hog Coins Worth?

It takes 1000 coins to earn $5, so every coin is worth $0.005 (half a cent). It might be easier to think about it like this:

10 coins = $0.05
100 coins = $0.50
1000 coins = $5.00

Let’s say your average receipt is worth 10 coins. At $0.05 each, Receipt Hog actually pays better than most other receipt scanning apps.

You can upload receipts 14 days from the date and time of purchase. 

You’ll also earn a spin at the “Hog Slots” for each receipt from other retailers like clothing and home improvement stores. A sweepstake entry is also earned with each receipt. Coins can also be won with sweepstakes entries.

Is Receipt Hog Legit?

Yes, Receipt Hog is legit. The app has been around since 2011 and has over 5 million downloads on Android.

At press time, the app was very well-rated on both major smartphone platforms:

4.5-stars on Google Play with over 220,000 reviews
4.7-stars on the Apple App Store with over 170,000 reviews

How Does Receipt Hog Make Money?

You might be thinking, “Well, what’s the catch?”

The catch is Receipt Hog selling your data.

From their website:

“We are part of a market research company that works with the leading consumer goods brands and retailers. Your receipt data along with the answers to any survey questions you answer may be used in market research reports for the brands that purchase this data.”

How Much Can You Make with Receipt Hog?

Our independent app tester shared, “I’ve been using the app for almost 10 years. I only enter paper receipts and haven’t been the best about saving receipts from all stores. I’ve cashed out $250 over the last 10 years.”

But you should do some estimation based on your own shopping habits. Let’s say your family is similar to ours and you have:

6 grocery shopping trips of $100 or more every month (120 coins in total)
12 other random shopping trips of less than $100 (let’s say 60 coins in total)
reservations about sharing your email and Amazon account information (0 coins)
some luck with Hog Slots — see below — and win another 200 coins a month

In that case, you’d earn enough for a $5 cash out every 2.5 months, or close to the $25 a year our tester reported. 

There are 5 main ways to make money with Receipt Hog:

Upload receipts
Hog Slots
Surveys
Bonus rewards and sweepstakes
Refer friends

1. Receipt Scanning

This is the bread and butter of the app, and you can earn up to $0.10 for every grocery and beauty receipt you upload.

The process is super simple: just tap the Receipts section from the bottom menu, and then tap the camera icon. 

There’s a limit of 100 coins per week from paper receipts, which seems like a reasonable amount of shopping.

2. Hog Slots

Hog Slots are additional opportunities to earn coins, cash, and other prizes.

The Hog Slots prizes in range from 2-1000 coins (up to $5), and there’s even a chance to win $100 cash and a “daily trip prize.”

This is pretty cool: every day, one Receipt Hog user wins enough coins to “erase” the cost of their last shopping trip. 

You earn Hog spins (to use on the Hog Slot Machine) when you upload non-grocery receipts from big name stores like:

Best Buy
Home Depot
Staples
Old Navy
GameStop
Dick’s Sporting Goods

Here’s how it might look in the app:

You can also earn spins by completing the weekly bonuses.

3. Surveys

Receipt Hog also has Surveys section of the app. In our testing, there were no surveys available. 

For more survey-focused apps, check out some of Side Hustle Nation’s top picks:

4. Bonus Rewards and Sweepstakes

Receipt Hog does a good job of gamifying their app. They have monthly prize drawings and you can earn more sweepstakes entries the more receipts you scan. 

5. Refer Your Friends

If you’re a fan of Receipt Hog or an influencer, you can earn 250 coins for every friend who signs up with your referral link and scans a receipt. That’s the equivalent of $1.25 per sign-up, which is decent for an in-app referral program.

Your friend will get free Hog Slot spins after they scan their first receipt.

You can find your referral link by clicking the pig (or is it a hog?) icon in the top left, and then scrolling down to “Invite Friends”.

How to Maximize Your Receipt Hog Earnings

Here are some tips to maximize your Receipt Hog cash back.

Make it a Habit

The best way to get the most out of Receipt Hog is to simply build a habit of scanning your receipts after every shopping trip. That way, you’ll get as close to the 100-coin weekly limit as possible. 

Link Your Email and Online Accounts

Receipt Hog will pay for your online receipts, too.

The easiest way to get those into the app is connecting your Amazon and email accounts. At press time, Receipt Hog was offering a:

36 coin bonus ($0.18) for giving them access to your email to scan for e-commerce receipts
75 coin bonus ($0.38) for linking your Amazon account

Given those low bonuses, that was a hard pass for both me and our app testers.

You can also link up your UberEats, Walmart, Target, and Instacart accounts so you never miss a receipt.

Stack with Credit Card Rewards

At most stores, the price you pay is the same whether you’re paying with cash, a debit card, or a credit card. So you might as well get some credit card rewards while you’re shopping. 

Here are some of the best current cash back card offers. 

Stack with Other Cash Back Apps

Receipt Hog is one of several cash back apps, and there’s nothing to stop you from scanning receipts into multiple apps. 

It still won’t make you rich, but can turn pennies into more pennies.

Among my favorites are:

Save Up Your Coins?

You might be tempted to save your Receipt Hog coins because rewards are slightly discounted the more coins you cash in.

For example:

1000 coins = $5
2900 coins = $15
4300 coins = $25
6500 coins = $40

But even at 6500 coins for $40, the coins are worth $0.006 cents instead of $0.005. It’s not worth it save them up.

Plus, these valuations are subject to change so I would recommend cashing out as soon as you can.

What are the Payout Options?

You can cash out your Receipt Hog coins for:

You must verify your phone number in order to cash out your coins.

Payouts may take up to 7 days to be received. If you order a gift card, that gift card code will be sent to you via email. If you selected PayPal, the amount should be in your PayPal account within 7 days.

Is There a Minimum Required to Cash Out?

The minimum payout is $5, which is the equivalent of 1000 coins.

Depending on your shopping habits, it will take most users 2-4 months to reach that level.

What We Like About Receipt Hog

Receipt Hog is really easy to use. Once you download the app, there are just a few questions to answer and you can start earning the same day. 

The Hog Slots are always fun too–hoping to win big someday!

What We Dislike About Receipt Hog

The biggest frustration is you have to remember to use it consistently, or else you won’t earn anything.

It’s also mildly annoying taking the time to upload a receipt, only being credited a Hog Slots spin for it, and then having that spin be worth nothing. But I suppose that’s just luck of the draw.

Receipt Hog Alternatives

As mentioned above, there are other apps that pay you real money for sharing your data, taking surveys, or even playing games.

Here are a few that might be worth a look.

Fetch Rewards

Just snap a photo of your grocery receipt with the Fetch Rewards app and earn points for every item you purchase from the 250+ popular brands in the app.

I’ve been cashing in my points for free Amazon gift cards, but lots of other options are available as well.

Ibotta

Download the free Ibotta grocery savings app and start earning cash back on the shopping you’re already doing. Use the app to find offers and claim them by snapping a picture of your receipt.

Inside my actual account:

You can cash out your savings to PayPal, your bank account, or a gift card once you hit the $20 minimum.

Ibotta Savers who use the app every month earn over $130 a year! I’ll take it.

CoinOut

CoinOut won’t replace your day job, but could pay you up to $36 a year for uploading your shopping receipts.

It’s easy to use and you can cash out for an Amazon gift card as soon as you earn your first $3 worth of coins.

Check out our full CoinOut review to learn more.

The Bottom Line

Receipt Hog is an easy way to make some pocket money with low effort. While you are exchanging your shopping data for small amounts of cash or prizes–those retailers are likely analyzing your data already, so why not make a little money for yourself?

The Hog Spins are a fun bonus that just add to the gamification aspect.

You’re not going to be making hundreds of dollars a month uploading your receipts, but you can earn a little free money for coffee runs or other luxuries.

And obviously, it’s not a fit if you have any qualms about sharing or selling your family’s shopping history.