Many online stock brokers offer free trades and advanced research tools, making it easier than ever to start investing. And most have no minimum deposit amount, which means you can get started with as little as a few dollars.
Several investing platforms will even give you free stock or investment capital just for creating an account, making them among the best get paid to sign-up websites you’ll find.
In most cases, the value of the stock you’ll receive is random and falls within a fairly wide range. You’ll probably get something worth $5 to $10, but you usually have a small chance of hitting the jackpot with shares worth hundreds of dollars.
The specific offers change all the time, but by acting on all the offers below, you’ll earn a minimum of around $50. If you were to get lucky with each offer, that figure would climb to as high as around $3,000.
And most of the time, opening a new account is cost-free, risk-free, and only takes a few minutes — which makes this one of the quickest and most legit ways to get free money.
Keep in mind that some free stock offers have requirements that you need to follow, so it’s important to make sure you read the fine print and follow the instructions to get your free shares.
The Best Free Stock Offers
Each one of the platforms below differs in features. Some offer a simple interface for beginners, while others cater to advanced investors who want to go deeper.
There’s nothing wrong with signing up for these services just for the free stock. If that’s the case, feel free to sell your shares and transfer the funds to your bank account.
But if you’re investing for the long-term, take some time to evaluate how each platform’s features fit with your financial goals.
#1. Webull
Webull has a variety of investment products and advanced research tools that you’d typically find at paid brokers. It offers commission-free trades and is completely free to join and use.
- Offer value: Two free shares worth up to $1,650 in total value.
- Requirements: Join using our referral link and make a single deposit of at least $100 into your Webull account within 30 days of account creation.
- Cashing out: You can sell your free stocks immediately, but you must wait 30 days to withdraw the proceeds from Webull.
On Webull, you can open an IRA or a taxable investment account and trade stocks, ETFs, options, and even cryptocurrency commission-free. It also allows for margin trading (borrowing from the broker to invest) and short selling (borrowing stocks to sell them and buy them back later for less).
Webull provides advanced charting tools, technical analysis features, and real-time stock market data — all of which you can access via PC, the web or a mobile device.
Click here to join Webull and get your two free shares of stock.
#2. Robinhood
Robinhood is the original and most well-known zero-commission online brokerage. It offers a simple interface that makes it easy for beginners to get started.
- Offer value: One share of stock worth between $2.50 and $200.
- Requirements: You’ll get your free stock upon approval of your Robinhood account application, which takes from a few minutes to a few days. No account minimum or minimum deposit is required.
- Cashing out: You can sell your free stock after two trading days.
Robinhood is a commission-free platform tailored to beginners who want to learn to invest. It has an intuitive interface that’s much easier to navigate than Webull’s, though it lacks the bevy of research, educational and analytics resources offered by the latter.
The platform allows you to trade options and cryptocurrency, and you can also open a Robinhood Gold account ($5 per month) for access to Morningstar’s stock research reports. As with Webull, Robinhood offers an optional margin account.
Users also have access to a cash management account, which is essentially a cross between a savings account that pays a decent interest rate and a checking account.
Since there’s no minimum deposit required, this is one of the easiest and fastest free stock offers on this list.
Learn more and get started with Robinhood.
#3. Acorns
Acorns is best-known as a micro-investing app that allows you to round up your debit card purchases and invest the spare change in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), but it also offers ways to get free ETF shares by shopping through its online portal and signing up for free offers.
- Offer value: Flat dollar amount of $2 to $100, or 2% to 20% cash-back.
- Requirements: Shopping through partner retailers via the Acorns Found Money portal.
- Cashing out: Found Money takes 60 to 120 days (on average) to credit to your account. Once it’s been added to your balance, you can sell your ETF shares and withdraw the funds to your bank account.
Acorns is not a stock trading platform, but rather a passive investing app that takes on as much of the investing work for you as possible.
Shopping online through Acorns’ partner retailers earns cash-back that gets automatically invested into your portfolio. The platform has hundreds of partners, including major retailers like Apple and Nike, so it’s possible to get a significant amount of free money via this method if you regularly shop online.
Additionally, the site also offers flat-rate bonuses for acting on special offers. For example, users were recently offered $10 cash for signing up for a free trial of the Wall Street Journal and $5 cash for getting a free life insurance quote.
However, Acorns does charge a monthly fee, which starts at $1. That means it may not be the best choice if you only use it occasionally, as the fee could overwhelm your returns.
On the other hand, if you’re the kind of person who struggles to set aside funds for investing, the Round Ups feature (which invests your spare change on your behalf), can be well worth that small fee.
As for available investments, you can choose from three different portfolios of ETFs based on your risk tolerance.
Get to know Acorns and sign up here.
#4. Bumped
Bumped rewards you with free stock for being loyal to your favorite brands.
- Offer value: 1% to 5% of purchase price, awarded in fractional shares of stock.
- Requirements: Bumped is currently an invite-only app, and you have to sign up for the waitlist. Once granted an account, you must shop at partner stores to earn free stock.
- Cashing out: You can sell your fractional shares as soon as Bumped credits them to your account.
With Bumped, you can earn free stock by shopping at your favorite brands in several categories, such as coffee shops, apparel and drugstores. You can select one brand per category and earn stock with each purchase.
Your free stock is awarded in fractional shares. As the name suggests, fractional shares are portions of whole shares that have been divided up. They have the same proportional value as whole shares, as well as proportional voting rights. In other words, they’re real stocks — just with much smaller monetary values.
You even earn dividends on your fractional shares, which Bumped automatically reinvests back into your holdings.
#5. Dough
Dough is a simple, low-cost investment app supplemented by news and educational resources.
- Offer value: One share of stock worth between $2 and $200.
- Requirements: Link an approved financial account and deposit $25.
- Cashing out: Your free stock appears in your account within seven days of account opening. Cash out once your account has $25 (in other words, immediately).
Dough offers commission-free trading on a variety of stocks, ETFs and closed-end funds.
You can also expand your investing knowledge in-app with trading ideas and analysis tools.
Their Dough Select feature helps you invest in what you understand and are passionate about. You can tell Dough your interests, then the app sends you news updates and other materials to keep you informed.
Claim your free share of stock from Dough.
#6. Stash
Stash makes investing easy to break into with low investment minimums, clever investment names and learning resources.
- Offer value: $20 cash to invest.
- Requirements: Sign up and deposit $20 into your account.
- Cashing out: You can sell immediately, but Stash holds the proceeds for two days before depositing them into your account.
Stash is designed with beginners in mind. All trades are free, and Stash renames its ETFs and group investments into themed categories to help you understand what you’re investing in.
Stash also offers personalized investing guidance and a library of helpful articles, and they’re constantly rolling out new features related to other areas of your finances.
Depending on which subscription you upgrade to, you gain access to Stash’s retirement accounts, as well as custodial accounts for kids.
Stash users can earn free stock-back (it’s like cash-back) by opening a Stash bank account and using the accompanying debit card to shop through Stash’s platform at partner retailers.
Sign up for Stash and get $20 cash to invest.
#7. Firstrade
Firstrade provides the resources and investment options you’d expect from a full-service investment brokerage without the usual costs.
- Offer value: One share of stock worth $3 to $200.
- Requirements: Sign up and complete your account within 30 days.
- Cashing out: You can sell your free stock share immediately upon receiving it.
You can open taxable investment accounts, various types of IRAs, education savings accounts and more. Trades are free for stocks, options, ETFs, and mutual funds.
Firstrade also has a full suite of market research and investing tools and a library of educational articles for each type of account and investment product it offers.
Join Firstrade and claim your free stock.
#8. Public
Public aims to simplify the investing world and make it a more social experience through news updates, community features and fractional investing.
- Offer value: One free share of stock worth up to $20.
- Requirements: Deposit $10 and leave it in your account for 30 days.
- Cashing out: You can sell your stock immediately upon receiving it.
Public gives beginners a way to learn fast with social features. You can exchange ideas with friends and experts, and the app keeps you informed by sending you news updates about the companies you hold and follow.
Getting started is inexpensive, as trades are commission-free and you can buy fractional shares of stocks and ETFs.
#9. Nvstr
Nvstr helps its users discover investment ideas through collective wisdom and lets you optimize your portfolio with advanced tools.
- Offer value: $10 to $1,000 in free cash to invest.
- Requirements: Sign up for an account. Must place a trade within one year to keep the cash.
- Cashing out: Cannot withdraw free cash for one year.
Nvstr combines social media features with an investment platform to encourage idea-sharing, resulting in the discovery of new investment insights. Users can enhance their learning by seeing what big investors are saying.
Additionally, Nvstr offers simulated trading, helping you learn the basics and implement new ideas without risking your money.
Sign up and get started with Nvstr.
#10. Stockpile
Stockpile is a fractional share trading app that also lets you send people shares of stock as gifts.
- Offer value: $5 in free stock.
- Requirements: Buy your first stock on Stockpile, or give an e-gift of $10 or more.
- Cashing out: You can cash out instantly. You’ll receive today’s closing market price if selling before 3 p.m., or tomorrow’s closing price if selling after 3 p.m.
Stockpile lets you buy stock “gift cards,” from $1 to $2,000 in value, and send them to family and friends. It offers over 1,000 stocks, ETFs, and American Depository Receipts (ADRs).
Stockpile can also help you get your kids into investing early. You can open an account for kids and let them pick investments that you pre-approve of. They also have mini investing lessons on their mobile app.
The app is focused on fractional shares, with the slogan “You favorite stocks by the dollar.” However, each trade costs 99 cents, which makes buying stocks “by the dollar” a very expensive proposition.
Platforms like Robinhood and Cash App allow you to buy fractional shares with zero fees. And that’s a great idea if you’re a beginning or small-scale investor, because it gives you a chance to get into the stock market in a diversified manner even when you only have a few bucks to invest.
But if you’re investing such small amounts of money that buying fractional shares makes sense (for example, putting $1 at a time into 10 different stocks), paying a 99 cent fee for each trade will obliterate your potential returns.
Stockpile offers a $5 bonus when you make your first investment on the site.
Brokerage Account Cash Bonuses
The list above highlights offers from online-only brokers and trading platforms, which are fairly new to the investing landscape. By all accounts, these companies are safe, reliable and regulated places to invest your money.
But if you’d prefer to invest with a more traditional brokerage — the kind that’s been around for decades, gives you access to a more fully-developed trading platform, and (sometimes) even gives you a real person to talk to about your investments — you may still be able to get a sign-up bonus.
With that said, traditional brokerage account opening bonuses typically require a significant initial deposit in order to qualify. The list below highlights the smallest bonuses offered by popular brokers at the time of writing. In most cases, you can earn more if you have more to invest.
- Ally Invest: $50 when you deposit $10,000 and leave it in your account for 60 days.
- Charles Schwab: $100 when you deposit $1,000 and leave it in your account for 45 days.
- Chase You Invest: $200 when you deposit $25,000 and leave it in your account for 90 days.
- E-Trade: $100 when you deposit $5,000 and leave it in your account for 60 days.
- M1 Finance: $10 signup bonus when you fund your account with $100.
- Merrill: $150 when you deposit $20,000 and leave it in your account for 90 days.
- SoFi Invest: $75 when you deposit $1,000.
- TD Ameritrade: $100 when you deposit $25,000 and leave it in your account for 60 days.
Keep in mind that these offers change all the time. While we update this page on a regular basis, you’ll need to visit each broker’s website to see their current promotions.
Frequently Asked Questions About Free Stocks
Here are a few common questions we get asked about free stocks. If you’re wondering about something that wasn’t covered in this article and isn’t listed below, let us know by leaving a comment — we’ll research the answer and add it to this FAQ section.
These promotions are a form of marketing and a way to get new investors (and their funds) onto the platform. Simply put, companies like Webull and Robinhood give away free shares in order to encourage users to sign up. This is not uncommon, as many different types of websites offer sign-up bonuses as an incentive for joining.
When you receive a free share of stock, it does count as taxable income — just as if you were given a cash gift. You’ll be required to report the value of the shares (at the time you receive them) to the IRS, and you’ll be taxed on that value.
The phrase “DRIP” stands for dividend reinvestment plan. With a DRIP, your broker or investment platform reinvests any dividend earnings you receive from your shares back into your holdings. Since you aren’t pulling more money from your wallet, you’re essentially getting free stock with each dividend payment.
Free Stocks – Summary
The earlier you start to invest, the better off you’ll be in the future, as making smart investments is one of the keys to building wealth.
And while I don’t recommend investing a big portion of your funds in individual stocks — 5% to 10% is a reasonable target if you’re interested in the market — many of these platforms offer easy and cheap (or free) ways to put your money in relatively safe products like exchange-traded index funds.
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