Yes. Macadam pays real money, by bank transfer in the UK and Europe and by PayPal outside Europe, and users do receive it. Walking alone, though, is worth roughly £1 to £1.50 a month at 10,000 steps a day on a Bronze account, and a first cash-out of around £15 takes most walkers close to a year unless they use the games, surveys and cashback that fill the rest of the app. This page is about the money. For the full product walkthrough, read our Macadam review; for the trust and ID-check question, read is Macadam legit.
The verdict
Macadam is one of the few walking apps with a genuine bank-transfer exit, and one of the slowest to reach it on steps alone. A 10,000-step day earns about 75 to 100 coins at Bronze, a coin is worth roughly 0.05p at the standard rate, and the commonly reported minimum cash-out is 30,000 coins for £15 or €15. Silver and Gold lift the conversion to 1.5x and 2x, offers open at set times in limited quantities, and processing can take up to 15 working days. Real money, small amounts, plenty of rules.
How Macadam turns steps into coins
Macadam pays coins when you validate your day's steps against a series of milestones, and only the highest milestone you reach counts. The help centre's own example: validate at 2,500 steps for 15 coins, validate again at 6,000 steps for another 15, and the day totals 30, not 45. Thresholds shift with your recent activity, and bonus packs unlock at certain milestones regardless of status.
Status caps the ceiling. Macadam's July 2026 benefits page puts the daily step reward at up to 205 coins for Bronze (validating up to 20,000 steps), 320 for Silver (30,000 steps) and 350 for Gold (40,000 steps). The full schedule is not published, so the 10,000-step figure used here, 75 to 100 coins at Bronze, comes from recent user reports and sits between the help centre's 30 coins at 6,000 steps and its 205-coin ceiling at 20,000. Your own milestone bar is the only number true for your account.
The midnight rule
Steps must be validated inside the app before midnight, device local time. After 00:00 a new step day starts and yesterday's unvalidated steps earn nothing, which generates most of the "Macadam does not pay" complaints in store reviews. Tracking itself (phone sensor, Apple Health or Google Fit, no GPS) is reliable; the failure mode is human. If you will not open an app every evening, a passive converter is a better fit (see Sweatcoin vs Macadam).
What a coin is worth
Macadam's terms define coins as virtual points with no legal currency value, and the app never publishes a fixed exchange rate. Value comes from the cash-out offers your account can see, which depend on country and Crown status. The most consistent user-reported Bronze figures in the UK and eurozone are around 10,000 coins for £5 or €5 and 30,000 coins for £15 or €15, with tiers up to 240,000 coins for €120 for high-status accounts. That is roughly 0.05p per coin, or 2,000 coins per pound. Macadam publishes no official threshold page, so treat these as prevailing 2026 examples, not a guarantee.
The Crown programme changes the rate. Macadam's cash-out guide lists Bronze at the standard conversion, Silver at up to 1.5x and Gold at up to 2x, alongside more offers, faster processing and no pop-up ads. Crowns come from consistent validation, challenges, cashback, surveys and limited ad views, and status can lapse. A Gold walker's 10,000-step day is worth up to double a Bronze walker's.
Worked example: 10,000 steps a day
A UK Bronze user who hits 10,000 steps and validates every day, at 75 to 100 coins per day and the commonly reported 2,000 coins per pound. Multiply by 1.15 for a rough euro figure.
| Scenario | Coins per day | Coins per 30 days | Value per month | Time to 30,000 coins (£15) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze, 10,000 steps, steps only | 75 to 100 | 2,250 to 3,000 | £1.13 to £1.50 | 10 to 13 months |
| Bronze, 20,000 steps, steps only | Up to 205 | Up to 6,150 | About £3.08 | About 5 months |
| Gold, 10,000 steps, 2x conversion | 75 to 100 | 2,250 to 3,000 | £2.25 to £3.00 | 5 to 7 months at Gold pricing |
| Bronze, 10,000 steps plus daily ads and surveys | Roughly 150 to 300 | 4,500 to 9,000 | £2.25 to £4.50 | 3 to 7 months |
Walking is the smallest lever in the app. One Hello Fresh subscription through Macadam's cashback pays 9,000 coins, three months of perfect walking. Our 10,000-steps pay comparison puts these figures alongside WeWard, Sweatcoin and the gift-card apps.
Cashback, surveys and games
Cashback is the part most walkers ignore and the part that moves balances fastest. You shop at a partner through a link in the app (or its Safari extension on iPhone), with cookies accepted and no outside promo code. The terms list rates such as Nike at 80 coins per euro spent, Samsung at 48 coins per euro and 5,000 coins for a new Sky Showtime subscription. Cashback shows as pending after 48 to 72 hours and is validated on the partner's timeline, typically 30 to 90 days and up to six months for long-return retailers such as Temu. Rejections cannot be appealed. Automatic cashback through a linked bank account exists only in France, Spain and Belgium.
Surveys and games come from third-party offer walls named in the terms (Tapjoy, Make Money Wall, Farly, AppsPrize, Adjoe Playtime), credited once the provider confirms completion. Lotteries are blocked in several supported countries, including Turkey, Brazil, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. All optional. None of it is exercise.
How you get paid, and how long it takes
Cash-outs live behind the gift icon. You pick an offer matching your country, status and balance, then claim it at the exact date and time it opens. Macadam's benefits page says Bronze offers have "restricted quantities" and "you may need multiple attempts"; Silver gets more offers and Gold gets priority. Failed claims refund the coins. This queue, not fraud, is behind most "I have the coins but cannot cash out" reviews.
In the UK and Europe, withdrawals go primarily by bank transfer to an account in your own name and require a valid IBAN and BIC, identity details and a photo of your ID. PayPal is explicitly not available in the UK or the European Economic Area; outside Europe, Macadam offers PayPal instead. Prepaid gift cards and charity donations are alternatives. Requests can take up to 15 working days to finalise, faster for Silver and Gold.
Your currency and offers are locked to the country where you installed the app. Move abroad and you either keep the old currency or start again at zero; coins cannot be transferred.
Where Macadam operates
Macadam launched in France, still lists a Paris contact address, and is operated by Macadam Technologies S.L., registered in Barcelona. Its help centre lists 55 countries where the app is available: the UK, Ireland and most of Europe, plus the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia, the Philippines, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The UK app pays in pounds and cash-out offers are filtered to your market. For wider coverage with a marketplace instead of cash, see our apps that pay you to walk guide.
How Macadam makes money
Walking generates no revenue, so everything Macadam pays out is funded elsewhere. Bronze users see pop-up and rewarded video ads; removing them is a Silver and Gold benefit. Offer walls pay Macadam a commission when you install a game or finish a survey, and partner cashback pays an affiliate fee on your purchase; Macadam passes a share of each back as coins. Sponsored map spots, branded challenges and referrals grow the audience those partners pay to reach. The Play Store listing says Macadam does not use GPS and will never sell your information.
Steps are the hook; ads, offers and cashback are the margin. The same structure sits under WeWard, which is why both apps insist on a nightly open: an unopened app cannot show you an advert.
Is the money worth chasing?
For a UK walker who already does 10,000 steps, Macadam is a slow route to about £15 a year in real bank money, more at Silver or Gold or with cashback on shopping you were doing anyway. That beats gift-card-only apps such as Winwalk or CashWalk, provided you will upload ID and wait for an offer slot. It is not income, and it rewards nothing you do in a gym, on a bike or in a pool.
If most of your training is not walking, Fitcoin (our app, disclosed) reads recorded workouts from Apple Health or Health Connect, scores the week as FitScore, runs weekly Leagues and unlocks partner rewards, with no midnight validation. Those are partner rewards, not cash; Fitcoin vs Macadam sets the two side by side, and our highest paying walking apps ranking covers the field.
Frequently asked questions
How much money does Macadam pay for 10,000 steps?
Macadam does not publish a fixed coin-per-step rate. Its help centre example pays 15 coins at 2,500 steps and 30 coins at 6,000 steps, and Bronze users can earn up to 205 coins a day at 20,000 steps. Users typically report 75 to 100 coins for a 10,000-step day. At the commonly reported Bronze value of about 2,000 coins per £1 or €1, that is roughly 4p to 5p a day, or £1 to £1.50 a month.
Does Macadam pay through PayPal in the UK?
No. Macadam's help centre states that PayPal is not available to users in the UK or the European Economic Area. UK and European users are paid primarily by bank transfer, which needs a valid IBAN and BIC and a photo of your ID. PayPal is offered to users outside Europe instead of bank transfer.
How long does a Macadam cash-out take?
Macadam says a request can take up to 15 working days to finalise, and that Silver and Gold accounts are processed faster. Before that, you need an eligible cash-out offer to be live for your country and status, and you must claim it at its designated date and time. Bronze offers have limited quantities, so it can take more than one attempt.
How does Macadam make money?
From advertising shown to Bronze users, commissions from offer walls such as Tapjoy, Adjoe Playtime, Farly and AppsPrize when you install games or complete surveys, affiliate commissions from partner cashback purchases (for example Nike pays coins per euro spent and Hello Fresh pays 9,000 coins per new subscription), and sponsored map spots and challenges. Walking itself earns Macadam nothing, which is why step rewards are small and validation is gated behind the app.
Method: Checked September 8, 2026 using Macadam's UK App Store and Google Play listings, its published terms and conditions, and its help centre pages on step validation, cash-outs, Crown status benefits (dated July 6, 2026), cashback and supported countries, plus App Store and Google Play reviews from the past six months. Coin-to-cash thresholds are not published officially; the 10,000 coins for £5 or €5 and 30,000 coins for £15 or €15 figures are the most commonly reported Bronze examples and the 75 to 100 coins per 10,000 steps figure is user-reported. All rates change by country, status and date. Fitcoin has no commercial relationship with Macadam. Fitcoin rewards are partner rewards, not cash.
About the author: Harris Khan is the co-founder and CTO of Fitcoin, a UK fitness-rewards app.