Cash for Steps has one of the most straightforward names in the App Store and 38,000 ratings behind it, so it is fair to ask whether it does what it says. The answer needs one distinction. The app does hand out real money, through PayPal, and has done for years. What it does not do is pay you for your steps in the way the name suggests. Your steps buy you a place on a leaderboard, and the leaderboard is the entry list for a small daily draw. We went through the listing, the rules and the reviews to work out what that is worth.
Disclosure: Fitcoin is our own fitness-rewards app, so we are a competitor of sorts. We have no relationship with the developer and earn nothing from your choice. Everything here comes from the App Store listing and its reviews, and from independent write-ups by people who used the app, all checked on November 10, 2026. We have not reached a payout ourselves.
The short version
Cash for Steps, which people often search for as Cash Steps, is a real iPhone app that has been on the App Store since at least 2018 and does pay some users through PayPal and Amazon gift cards. But it is not paying you per step. Its main reward is a daily draw: 50 users picked at random from the previous day's top 500 walkers get $1 each. That is $50 a day shared across the whole user base. One-off achievements pay $1 each, and the rest comes from surveys and offers. Legit, in the narrow sense. A lottery ticket, in the practical one.
How the money actually works
The listing is unusually direct about this, which is to its credit. Each day the app ranks everyone by steps. From the top 500 on yesterday's leaderboard it draws 50 at random, and each of those 50 receives $1. Separately, there are achievements, such as distance milestones, and reaching five stars on one pays 1,000 points, which is $1. Most achievements can be earned once. The survey achievement can be repeated, and an offers tab lists the usual sign-ups and installs.
So the best case, for someone who out-walks nearly everyone on the app every single day, is an average of 10 cents a day, or about $3 a month, arriving as an occasional dollar. The app has 38,000 ratings on the US store alone, so the top 500 is a small club. For an ordinary 8,000-step day you should expect the leaderboard to pay nothing and the achievements to pay a few dollars in total, once.
Cashing out
Rewards are paid by PayPal or Amazon gift card, and the latest update added more payout methods by country along with a screen showing the status of each cash-out request. The listing does not state a minimum. Independent reviewers have put it at $10, which at these rates is a long wait if you rely on walking alone. A reviewer in 2020 reported cashing out $30 over a couple of months with payments landing within hours, and that is the most concrete evidence of payment we found. We found no recent dated payout report, which is a gap, not an accusation.
What it asks of you
| What the listing says | |
|---|---|
| Platform | iPhone only. There is no official Android version. |
| Age rating | 18+, in the Entertainment category |
| Step source | Apple Health, including Apple Watch; open it once a day to sync |
| Data used to track you | Financial info, location, identifiers, usage data, sensitive info, diagnostics |
| Adverts | Yes, including watching adverts for points |
| Accounts | One per person; the developer can close accounts it judges fraudulent |
The tracking list is longer than most step apps declare, and reviewers note that it asks for location access set to Always. For a product whose typical payout is nothing, that is a lot to hand over.
Not the same as CashWalk or Cash Walk
Several apps have nearly the same name. CashWalk is the Korean-built gift-card app we cover in our CashWalk review, and it pays a fixed number of coins per step up to a daily cap. There is also an Android app called CashWalk: Walk Work Earn Cash from an unrelated publisher. Cash for Steps is neither of these, and it does not exist on Android, so anything with that name on Google Play is somebody else's app.
Should you install it
If you are already one of the heaviest walkers you know and like a leaderboard, it costs nothing to see where you rank for a week. For everyone else there are apps that pay a small fixed amount for every day you walk, which is a better deal than a draw: WeWard and Macadam for cash, CashWalk and Winwalk for gift cards, and Evidation for PayPal in the US. Our list of apps that pay you to walk through PayPal ranks the cash ones, and are walking apps that pay you legit sets out the checks we used here.
Method: Checked November 10, 2026 against the US App Store listing for Cash for Steps: Make Money by Oleh Stakhovych (id 1325595138: 4.5 from 38K ratings, 18+, Entertainment, 103 MB, version 5.1.3 dated 25 September with added payout methods and a payout history screen), its description of the daily draw and achievements, its privacy labels and the reviews Apple displays (2018 to 2023); and independent reviews by This Online World, The Budget Diet, MoneyPantry and PaidFromSurveys for the $10 minimum, the 1,000 points per dollar rate and the location permission. The odds and monthly figures are our arithmetic. We have not reached a payout.
Frequently asked questions
Is Cash for Steps legit?
It is a real app that has been on the App Store since at least 2018 and pays some users by PayPal or Amazon gift card. But the main reward is a daily draw in which 50 of the previous day's top 500 walkers win $1 each, so most users earn nothing from walking on most days.
How much does Cash for Steps pay?
$1 to each of 50 random winners a day, and $1 for each achievement completed to five stars. If you are in the top 500 every day your expected return is about 10 cents a day. Surveys and offers pay separately.
What is the minimum payout on Cash for Steps?
The App Store listing does not state one. Independent reviewers have reported a $10 minimum for both PayPal and Amazon gift cards.
Is Cash for Steps available on Android?
No. It is an iPhone app that reads steps from Apple Health. Apps with similar names on Google Play are from other publishers.
Is Cash for Steps the same as CashWalk?
No. CashWalk is a separate gift-card app that pays coins per step up to a daily cap. Cash for Steps is an unrelated iPhone app from an individual developer.
Method: Checked November 10, 2026 against manufacturer product pages, published help documentation and independent reviews. Prices are US list at publication unless noted. Fitcoin has no commercial relationship with the hardware brands named here. Wellness estimates only, not medical advice.
Related reading: Are walking apps that pay you legit?, Apps that pay you to walk through PayPal, CashWalk review, Apps that pay you to walk in the USA, Apps that pay you to walk
About the author: Harris Khan is the co-founder and CTO of Fitcoin, a UK fitness-rewards and health-insights app that reads Apple Health and Health Connect.