Looking for ways to save money? Here’s how to save the most on Ibotta with cash back for your groceries and other household purchases

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission from new sign-ups to the app

I joined Ibotta back in June 2021 (2.5 years ago) and have made $422.72 to date. My use of the app has waxed and waned depending on how busy I am so I’m certain I could have gotten more if I was a more regular user! I’ve been able to easily withdraw the money I made. I’ve used it to purchase a new mattress as well as re-invested some on groceries for months when the budget was tight. Ready to sign up? Use my code: CKQELSP to get a $5-$10 sign up bonus!

Is Ibotta Legit?

Yes! Ibotta is a legitimate cash back app that provides you money back on groceries and other household products for specific purchases you make. It has had 10M+ downloads on the Google Play Story and has a 4.5 star rating. This app is not scam and I have personally used it to get hundreds of dollars back on groceries!

How does Ibotta make money?

How can they give away so much money? Ibotta makes their money from sale of data, affiliate commission, and affiliate advertising. For most of their income, Ibotta is getting a small commission from brands for each purchase you make. In return, they provide you with a portion of that commission to encourage you to continue to buy products through the app. This gives both you and Ibotta money in your pockets!

Ibotta also makes money through advertising campaigns and the sale of shopper data. This data is a collection of aggregated , anonymous data used to help companies learn spending habits to better plan for future marketing and advertising strategies. Ibotta does also recoup some of their money by way of charging accounts that are inactive for 6 months. This fee is deducted from their Ibotta account balance, not from their bank account.

How to use Ibotta to Save Money

New to cash back offers? Here’s how to save money with Ibotta

How to choose a Retailer

Begin by downloading the app. Ibotta partners with many well-known retailers like Walmart, Target, Aldi, etc. It can be overwhelming at first to look through all the offers. Make sure you’re only looking at offers that at places you already shop for groceries. I use Ibotta the most for my Walmart shopping.

Typically if a store has higher overall prices (like Target), you’ll get the best deals by shopping the weekly ads in correlation with Ibotta. Some weeks you can find a product both on sale in the store and offered on Ibotta! If you are really lucky, you can even these items for free! If you are a beginner or short on time, it’s easiest to start using Ibotta at Walmart only because they don’t run weekly sales to cross-check.

Understanding Offers

Once you choose your retailer, you’ll find tons of offers available on their page. Ibotta categorizes these to make them easier to sort through. Under the name of your retailer is a horizontal menu of options usually starting with “For you.” You can either scroll down on the page to view all of the offers or look at the horizontal menu to explore only the categories you are interested in. If you’re looking for a specific product, there is also a search button in the top right corner.

Once you find an interesting offer, you can click on in to see offer details. In offer details you can find out:

• Item limit: How many times you can claim this offer
• Item description: Usually only certain sizes or flavors are part of the offer. watch these carefully!
• Requirements: Some offers are a “must buy 2” or excludes the use of additional manufacturer coupons
• Offer Amount: Tells you how much you can expect to get back from this offer
• Barcode Checker: To ensure you get the right product, there is a “Check product barcode” button on the bottom of this screen. You can double check if the item will qualify while you’re at the store by scanning the barcode of the item you think will qualify for the offer.
• Other Availability: Scroll down to see what other stores are also honoring this offer
• Bonuses: At the very bottom, you can see if this offer has any other sister offers that make it part of a bonus.

Once you have found an offer you like and read through the description to make sure it’s actually going to save you money, click the “+” sign on the offer itself. This selects your offer and moves it to your List found on the bottom right corner of the screen. Click your blue List bottom to see all of the offers you’ve selected. It is very important that you mark an offer as selected before purchasing to ensure you actually get money back!

Understanding Bonuses

To save the most with Ibotta, you can also use bonuses for extra cash back. Ibotta offers 2 kinds of bonuses:

• Product Collection: This type of bonus is a collection of usually 2-4 offers from the same brand. If you complete all of the individual offers in the grouping, Ibotta will provide you additional money back on top of the money you will get back from the individual offers. This is to incentivize you to buy more from certain brands. To find these, you can either scroll down to the bottom of an individual offer details page to the very bottom, or you can see a full list of bonuses on the “bonuses” tab on the bottom right of the apps home screen.
• Featured Bonuses: These are timed bonuses with catchy names that are not brand specific. They usually update weekly. Typically these range from $1-$10 and require you to complete a certain number of offers (10-20) in a limited time. To find these, go to the “bonuses” tab on the bottom right of the apps home screen.

Personally I don’t often get the bonuses. The key to saving the most with Ibotta is to only buy products you were already going to buy. If I don’t need the other offers in the Product Collection or only a couple offers really fit my need within the Featured Bonus time limit then I’d be overspending to get the extra bonus money. However, I will sometimes find that one of the other offers in a Product Collection is a product I have been interested in so buying it for cash back would make the extra purchase feel more reasonable. All this to say, don’t buy what you don’t need just to get the bonus money.

How to Redeem Receipts on Ibotta

Before you try to redeem a receipt, it’s very important that you go through your list (bottom right circular button) to make sure that you’ve selected all the offers you’d like to redeem. If you haven’t selected all the offers you will not receive cash back for those purchases. Once you’ve ensured that all the offers you are interested in collecting are selected, you can click “submit receipt instead” at the top of your list. Once you’ve clicked this a barcode scanner will appear and you can scan your receipt. The app will beep if your sound is on. After a moment the app will read your receipt and let you know which offers it has found. Make sure that all offers match what you bought. Ibotta will then deposit the cash back amount into your Ibotta account.

How to withdraw money on Ibotta

To withdraw money from your Ibotta account, you must reach a threshhold of $20. To navigate to your earnings, click on the top right blue button at the top of the apps home screen. Once you’re there you can click the “withdraw” button and choose to withdraw your earnings to gift cards, Paypal, or directly to a bank account. I have withdrawn as a Walmart gift cards and through Paypal and found both to be quick and painless!

How to Save the Most with Ibotta

In short, the best way for you to save the most with Ibotta is to only buy products you were already going to buy. Make sure the offers on those products bring down the cost of the item after cash back to less than the price of the generic off brand items you would otherwise buy. This can get confusing, however, when the size of the name brand product is a different size from the generic product. To learn how to compare unit prices here.

It takes time to learn the Ibotta app. You will build cash back fast some weeks and slower other weeks but it all adds up in the long run! If you’re anything like me you’ll make mistakes along the way. Most I’ve made by not fully reading offer descriptions. If you find that you’ve made a mistake and accidentally overspent, don’t be afraid to return the item if it’s not worth the full price you paid. As long as the item is sealed I’ve never had a problem making a return!

Another way you can use Ibotta to save is online. By linking your Walmart or other retailer accounts with Ibotta you can get cash back on pickup orders! This has been a total game changer for me. Not only do I get cash back but I don’t have to spend time shopping at the store and I’m not tempted by impulse buys because I already made my order ahead! Ready to sign up? Use my code: CKQELSP to get a $5-$10 sign up bonus!

Do you already use Ibotta? Do you use have another cash back app you like? I’d love to hear how much you’ve made!