The 10 Best Trivia Games That Pay Real Money
A few weeks ago I grabbed a drink with a friend at some local bar.
Unbeknownst to the two of us, the bar was actually having its weekly trivia night that evening. As we sat and enjoyed some drinks, we watched (and even participated to the best of our abilities) in 4 riveting rounds of questions.
We weren't any good, but the experience actually reminded me how much fun Trivia is and spurred the idea for this post.
So, if you are looking for the best trivia apps that you can play to potentially earn some free money or prizes, this is the post for you.
Looking for other fun & easy ways to make money? Checkout:
- Branded Surveys – Share your opinion to earn free PayPal cash and gift cards!
- Freecash – Another fun way to earn gift cards and cash!
The Best Apps To Play Trivia For Money
If you want to earn some free money in your spare time by putting your trivia knowledge to the test, these are the right apps to use.
1. Swagbucks Trivia For Money
Swagbucks Trivia For Money is a trivia app that's a branch of Swagbucks, a very popular passive income app and GPT platform.
With Swagbucks Live, players compete through 10 rounds of trivia for a chance at splitting the final pool of SB (Swagbucks), which are redeemable for dozens of gift cards or PayPal cash.
What's nice about Swagbucks Trivia For Money is that you can still earn small amounts of bonus SB for making it through a few rounds, so you are incentivized to play daily.
Additionally, if you're eliminated early on, you can purchase your way back into the round with additional SB in your account…a bit of a fun twist for a trivia app.
If you already earn Swagbucks from things like phone farming or a passive income setup on your laptop, this could be a decent trivia game to add into the mix!
Signup for Swagbucks and start making money!
2. Trivia Crack
One new trivia app to win money you can try out is Trivia Crack. This head-to-head trivia game matches you with online opponents, and if you win rounds, you win points.
Points you earn are eventually redeemable for a variety of prizes like free PayPal money and direct deposit, so it's a pure quiz for cash type of game.
There are six different trivia categories you can get questions from, including art, entertainment, geography, history, science, and sports.
You have to watch ads between rounds and games, which is a downside. The game is also part of the Skillz platform, which has a bunch of other similar cash gaming apps like Blackout Bingo and Solitaire Cash.
The ads can be a bit much, but this is still one of the leading ways to play trivia games for money.
3. Kashkick
If you live in the United States and want a fun way to make money online, you should check out Kashkick.
This platform pays you to complete fun surveys in your spare time. It also has a lucrative section that pays you to install apps, play games, and complete various short and easy tasks.
The platform also has a $1 sign up bonus to help you get started. You cash out via PayPal after earning just $10, and millions of members use Kashkick to earn rewards.
It's not a standalone trivia app, but if you want to get paid for answering questions, it's worth trying.
4. Givling
Givling is probably my favorite trivia app on this list because of the premise.
On Givling, trivia players are automatically assigned to a 3 person team and have to answer true/false statements until they either strike out or reach the time limit.
As your team answers questions you gain points. The highest scoring team at the end of the time limit ultimately splits a cash prize pool. Givling hosts two games per day, and to date, the trivia app has paid out more than 3.3 million dollars.
However, Givling isn't just cool because you can win money by playing trivia. It's awesome because it also works to alleviate student loan and mortgage debt.
As Givling players play the game, they can earn Queue Points from the trivia rounds or sponsored offers that moves them towards the top of the Queue.
If you make it to the top of the Queue, you get up to $50,000 of your loan paid off by Givling, who crowdfunds this money from advertisers, sponsors, and people who pay to play.
5. Dabbl
While Dabbl is one of the newer apps in town, this rewards app is growing in popularity and has a 4.5 star average on both the Google Play store and iOS app store.
Now, Dabble doesn't have live trivia games for cash. In fact, there's a number of ways to earn free gift cards with this app, including:
- Answering surveys for cash
- Watching videos
- Playing short trivia games
- Telling brands about yourself
- Downloading apps
- Complete offerwall tasks
Overall, this app is really a mix of trivia apps and get-paid-to platforms that let you complete micro tasks for money.
To date, Dabbl has paid out nearly $3 million. You can redeem a range of free gift cards, including Walmart, Target, Amazon, Starbucks, and more!
Plus, you only need $5 to cash out, making Dabbl one of the more realistic apps for earning rewards. If you want another quiz game that pays money and don't mind other features like surveys and videos, Dabbl is worth trying.
Extra Reading – The Best Android Apps That Pay You.
6. BigBrain Games
If you're still looking for a money quiz app, one newer app you can try out is BigBrain Games.
This trivia app is available for Android and iOS. It has four different game modes and over 200,000 trivia questions to answer across a wide range of categories.
There's a free game mode if you just want to hone your skills. But you can take quizzes for money in BigBrain Games' competitive mode.
This mode requires a small buy-in fee that varies by game. But if you're one of the top players, you split the prize pool and walk away with the cash.
BigBrain Games lets you cash out directly to your bank account. However, you lose your entry-fee if you place poorly in trivia games, so know that this money-making app has some risk.
7. InboxDollars
Another U.S. rewards website you can use to earn money with trivia, surveys, and other tasks is InboxDollars.
This website is similar to Swagbucks and lets anyone earn a bit of side cash by completing short online tasks. This includes a daily poll, short surveys, and brand questionnaires that are like trivia questions.
I like InboxDollars since members also receive a $5 sign up bonus. So, you can hit the ground running and cash out in a day or two of using the site. As for rewards, InboxDollars offers a range of gift card prizes as well as PayPal payments.
Extra Reading – The Best Apps That Pay You To Play Games.
8. Ready Games
As another new entrant to the industry, Ready Games isn't exactly your normal trivia app. Rather, Ready Games allows players to compete in mini games against other real players for a chance to win quick cash.
On Ready Games, mini games occur every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 3pm EST. Players have a chance to practice the game but only one shot at the live event, and the pot is split among the top 20% of players who make it.
Games can include target practice games, side scrollers, and other popular mobile app games, so be sure to try this one out if you have a mix of knowledge and skill. You can also try apps like Playbite if you like this style of arcade games.
9. P&W Trivia
P&W Trivia, which stands for Play and Win Trivia, is one of the newest real money games in the trivia category.
It's available on both Android and iOS devices. And like HQ Trivia, the app that started it all, it hosts trivia games every single day that you compete in to win cash.
Trivia categories include pop culture, art, sports, entertainment, history, and other classic categories you'd expect. The app is also free to use, although you can watch short ads to unlock power-ups and additional playtime.
Extra Reading – The Best Beermoney Apps & Websites.
10. Lucktastic & Lucky Trivia Live
Lucktastic is a new scratch and win app for Android that has daily contests to win cash prizes, grocery money, paid vacations, and free gift cards.
The concept behind Lucktastic is fairly simple. Users unlock free scratch tickets by watching ads, and they have a chance to win prizes. It's a fairly common monetization model, and you're basically exchanging some free time for a chance to win prizes.
Now, Lucktastic also has a live trivia app known as Lucky Trivia Live. If you want to play trivia games for money, this is an app worth considering.
Lucky Trivia Live hosts live trivia games through their app, and asks players questions you'd expect. Entertainment, history, sports, and random facts are some common question categories.
Players earn stars for correct answers, and over time, you can exchange stars for sweepstake entries or free gift cards to companies like Amazon.
EDIT – After trying out the Lucktastic app for a longer period of time, I can no longer recommend downloading this app.
Extra Reading – The Best Ways To Make Money Online For Beginners.
What Are Some Good Alternatives To Trivia Games For Money?
If you're a trivia expert and want a way to earn money with your phone, playing trivia for money is up your alley.
However, in my experience, there are lots of high-paying apps and sites out there that are more lucrative. Some of my personal favorites include:
- Branded Surveys: An easy way to make money by answering questions and sharing your opinions.
- Ipsos iSay: A global survey panel with a low $5 cash out minimum.
- Cash Giraffe: A popular app like Mistplay that lets you earn free gift cards for gaming.
- AttaPoll: Another fun survey app with gift cards and cash rewards.
- Survey Junkie: Answer short surveys to get cash and gift cards!
You can also read my post on the best ways to play video games for money for even more ideas.
Extra Reading – The Best iOS Game Apps That Pay.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can You Really Make Money Playing Trivia?
Yes, you can make money with these trivia apps. These are reputable companies, and there's plenty of payment proof online of users who have won cash prizes or free gift cards for playing.
However, this isn't a very high-paying side hustle. You can potentially earn a few free gift cards or some cash in your spare time, but this isn't a full-time job
How Much Money Can You Make?
Many trivia apps that pay you generally let you earn a quick $10 to $20 for winning a match. Take Swagbucks Live for example. The platform gives away $1,000 per game all the time, but you're usually splitting the prize pool with a few dozen finalists.
So, while these apps can pay a lot of money, I think the earning potential is low because you usually split with other players.
Do You Have To Be A Trivia Pro?
You don't have to be amazing at trivia to use these apps, but it certainly helps your odds of making money.
Apps usually ask questions under popular trivia topics like entertainment, pop culture, history, sports, and movies. So, knowing a lot about common trivia categories will help your efforts.
Extra Reading – Game Apps That Pay PayPal Cash.
Is Playing Trivia For Cash Worth It?
In my opinion, this side hustle has very low earning potential. Gig jobs like driving apps that pay or working for DoorDash are going to pay you way more than any trivia app can.
Similarly, various online business ideas like starting a blog or even trying out various micro task websites have more long-term earning potential than using trivia apps.
In my opinion, I'd only play trivia games for cash if you enjoy trivia and want to pass the time while potentially earning some quick cash. But, if you aren't a huge trivia fan, there are way better side hustle ideas.
Extra Reading – Best Jobs That Pay $5,000 A Month.
Does Trivia Master Pay Real Money?
No, Trivia Master doesn't pay real money and offers no way to cash out in-game earnings. It's one of the most popular trivia apps in the world but isn't an effective way to earn money. The same goes for similar apps like Money Quiz.
Final Thoughts
I hope this list of the best trivia and money quiz apps helps you turn your trivia knowledge into some extra cash and gift cards.
Ultimately, trivia games that pay are just a fun side hustle. You shouldn't expect to earn a full-time income from trivia, or anything even close.
However, you can still earn some rewards if you're good at trivia. And new apps keep releasing, so there's usually something new and exciting to try.
I won't be quitting my day job anytime soon to pursue my mobile Ken Jennings daydreams, but I might download a few of these apps again and have some fun.
If you want even more fun gaming ideas, I also suggest reading my Mistplay review and Rewarded Play review for two cool gaming apps that let you earn free gift cards.
Looking for more legit money-making ideas? Checkout:
