PayPal Honey Review [2026]: The Cash Back and Coupon App for Price Trackers and Opportunists

What is the Honey app?

Honey's free mobile app and online browser extension work with over 30,000 retail sites to uncover coupon codes, follow price changes, and even provide cashback rewards through PayPal. The mobile app is available on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

Honey launched in 2012 and today has over 17 million members worldwide. It claims the average user saves $126 annually, with an average discount of 17.92%. PayPal acquired Honey for $4 billion in 2020. The platform is now called PayPal Honey.

Users can earn PayPal Rewards on eligible purchases that can be redeemed for cash, gift cards, or PayPal shopping credits. This flexibility means you can use your rewards for different financial goals, such as building up your savings or covering everyday expenses.

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How does Honey work?

The platform is free and easy to use. As you browse online, Honey looks for available coupon codes and automatically tries them at checkout. However, you're not guaranteed to find coupons for all your favorite stores, and even when you do, they won't always work. So, using it requires patience and flexibility.

The Honey app and browser extension work a little differently, but they both operate in the background to hunt down coupons from participating merchants that might apply to your purchases. You can shop directly through the Honey platform or visit retail sites with the extension installed. I tried both on my computer using Google Chrome.

Honey works with thousands of retailers to find and apply coupon codes, including major merchants you're likely familiar with. This includes (but is far, far from limited to):

• Amazon
• Target
• eBay
• Etsy
• The Home Depot
• Walmart
• Apple
• Samsung
• DoorDash

The list also features many travel brands (like Hilton, TripAdvisor, and American Airlines), streaming services (like Disney+ and Max), clothing stores, drugstores, and even payment platforms (like Shopify). Overall, Honey offers chances to save on everyday essentials, home projects, gifts, vacations, and more.

Find coupons and better deals

You can find coupons and deals using either the Honey browser extension or the mobile app, but I found that the user experience varies.

Honey browser extension

With the Honey browser extension, you can shop online as you usually would. You'll simply see the Honey icon in your browser, which indicates whether there are any coupons or promo codes available for that store.

Once you're in the checkout, a window will appear with the option to "Apply Coupons." If your purchase is eligible, Honey will automatically apply the best available coupon code. It will also let you know if you already have the best price for the items in your cart.

Here's what the Honey pop-up looked like when I shopped directly through the Etsy site (unfortunately, that code didn't work):

Next, I visited the Target site, where Honey found a better deal on a laptop at a store called Adorama:

When I clicked "Compare Prices at 2 Stores," Honey took me to a page that listed the two offers in more detail.

Then, I stayed within the Honey platform to find a store with more coupons to choose from, since I'd had no luck with the codes so far. This is how I ended up on the Wayfair page, where Honey promised me at least three coupon options.

I tried all three, and none worked. It wasn't clear to me what the offers were actually for, so I'm not sure whether the issue was that my purchase didn't qualify, the codes were expired, or something else. A quick Reddit detour confirmed I'm not alone in this experience. When I did find a discount at Old Navy, it required me to sign up for a credit card to qualify (which I did not do).

Honey mobile app

Using the Honey mobile app is slightly different and takes more time, as it lacks automatic pop-ups telling you how many coupons are available.

Instead, you must search for the store you want to shop with and see a list of available coupon codes. Next, you copy the discount codes and try them yourself at checkout, which can be frustrating if those codes don't work.

Due to the extra steps required, I'd likely stick with the Honey browser extension.

Earn PayPal Rewards

Besides helping you find coupons, PayPal Honey works with PayPal's free rewards program, PayPal Rewards. This lets you earn cashback rewards points when you shop at participating online stores.

If your purchase is eligible for cash back, you'll earn points for your account that you can redeem at $0.01 per point ($10 for 1,000 points). So rather than get a price cut, you'll essentially be reimbursed after you make qualifying purchases.

The main downside is that not all purchases made through Honey earn cash back, and offers change. To know whether a store participates in the PayPal Rewards program, look for the trophy symbol next to the store's name within the mobile app or browser extension.

Some stores that partner with Honey don't participate in PayPal Rewards at all.

Redeeming PayPal Rewards

You can redeem PayPal Rewards for:

• Cash
• Gift cards to participating stores (if you have at least 1,000 points)
• PayPal shopping credits
• Charitable donations

Redeeming PayPal Rewards is simple: Sign in to your Honey account, go to the Rewards page, and click the option to redeem your points to PayPal or as gift cards.

Activate Droplist

Another feature of Honey is the ability to activate Droplist price tracking, which is the main reason I recommend it to opportunists. If you're willing to wait for a better price or look around, the Honey Droplist feature can help you jump on the best deals.

With Droplist, you can have Honey monitor the price of a specific item for 30, 60, or 120 days. You'll then get a notification if the price is discounted by at least 5% or by the custom percentage you choose in your alert settings.

Here's an example with a KitchenAid mixer:

You can also follow stores for deal alerts with Droplist, and Smart Droplist (when enabled) automatically tracks items you look at often without you having to toggle it on and off. Unfortunately, not all stores or items are compatible with this useful Honey feature.

PayPal Honey referrals

Along with coupon codes, PayPal Rewards, and price alerts, PayPal Honey offers referral bonuses. Here's how it works:

1. Refer friends with your unique link.
2. Get 500 PayPal Rewards points when they sign up using your link and make their first qualifying purchase.
3. Redeem a $10 gift card once you collect 1,000 points.

You can send your link to individual email addresses or share it via X (formerly Twitter). Since PayPal Rewards points are worth $0.01 each when redeemed for cash, you'll get about $5 when you successfully refer someone.

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What to know about PayPal Honey's safety and security

It's important to know what you're signing up for whenever you consider using an app or browser extension that tracks your activity to curate offers, like Honey. To use the browser extension, you have to give Honey permission to "read and change" your data. What this means is that Honey can see the pages you visit in order to scan for available coupons and test discount codes for you.

The platform collects several types of data:

• Payment: Honey uses PayPal's Braintree payment processor to securely store and collect payment information, such as credit card details you choose to save.
• Personal: The platform may collect personal details provided when setting up an account, such as your location and phone number.
• Commercial: It will track your shopping activity, including the online stores you visit and your purchase history.
• Technical: It will collect data on how you use the platform, including the device you use and how you interact with offers.

Honey does not sell users' sensitive personal information to third parties. With your consent, it may disclose details about your preferences and activity to merchants to inform decisions about which products and offers to market to you and to provide a personalized shopping experience. However, you can opt out.

Who can use Honey?

Anyone with a free account can use Honey.

The Honey app is available for both Apple and Android users, and the extension works with these browsers:

• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge
• Mozilla Firefox
• Opera
• Safari

Honey is available in the following countries:

• U.S.
• U.K.
• Canada
• Australia
• Germany
• France
• Italy
• Netherlands
• India
• Spain

However, note that certain functionalities — like the Droplist feature — are only available to U.S. members.

You can save money in multiple ways with Honey:

• Find coupons for your online purchases.
• Earn PayPal Rewards from your online purchases.
• Use Honey's Droplist feature to monitor price drops of items you want to purchase.

Other money-saving apps to consider

Honey is an all-around solid shopping app for people who want to save money and don't mind comparing a few options, but it has its fair share of limitations. You're likely to find that some coupon codes don't work or have caveats, and you won't be a fan of this option if you're not a fan of PayPal.

If Honey doesn't seem like the right fit for you and your shopping habits, consider looking at Capital One Shopping or Rakuten.

Capital One Shopping

Capital One Shopping¹ <p>Capital One Shopping compensates us when you get the browser extension using the links we provided.</p> is a free browser extension and app that could help you find lower prices on your purchases. As you browse through online shops and look at products, Capital One Shopping compares the prices of those products to prices on other websites. If Capital One Shopping finds potential savings, it will display them to you — all within 10 to 15 seconds.

Capital One Shopping and Honey function similarly, but you might prefer Capital One Shopping if you're most concerned with comparing prices between retailers and don't mind redeeming your earnings as gift cards. Learn more in our comparison of Capital One Shopping vs Honey or our Capital One Shopping review.

Rakuten

Rakuten is a free website, app, and browser extension that lets you find coupons, compare prices, and earn cash back at over 3,500 retailers, including some brick-and-mortar stores. Using Rakuten is quite simple: You can manually search for stores on the Rakuten app or website and review offers, or look for browser extension pop-ups while you're browsing online.

While Honey and Rakuten both help shoppers save money, you might prefer Rakuten if you prioritize earning cashback rewards over finding coupons for a large selection of retailers. You can redeem rewards for a paper check, PayPal deposit, Bilt points, or American Express Membership Rewards points. Learn more in our Rakuten review.

FAQs

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Automatically discovers coupon codes when available

Displays a pop-up with available rewards while shopping online

Compares prices between supported merchants