If you didn’t already know, Microsoft has a program known as Microsoft Rewards. Through the program, for running daily searches on Bing, earning achievements on Xbox, you earn “points” which you can eventually redeem for gift cards for Microsoft products (or for other products from Target, Amazon, etc) and even sweepstakes. too.
On any given day, it usually is a maximum of 100 points for searching on mobile with Bing, and 150 points for searching on the desktop (5 points a search.) There are also “Daily Set” activities, too, which you can complete to earn more, and activities on Xbox and with Xbox Game Pass. In total, since using the Microsoft Rewards program I’ve acquired about 575,636 points and (after various redemptions) 53,936 points to date.
A few years ago, I wrote about how you can earn points in Microsoft Rewards and feel good about it, but the program has changed since then. Here’s Microsoft Rewards revisited, and a look at how I’m still making money to buy Microsoft Microsoft products, and how you can too!
The daily set and the streaks
One of the easiest ways to earn points (and money) in Microsoft Rewards is to visit the Rewards page each day and check for new daily sets. Each day, these daily sets average around 30-70 points with three clickable activities (sometimes worth even more points, too) You can just click each activity on the set, and be taken to Bing for a quick search for 10-20 points. Sometimes, there’s a quiz or activity hunt, where if you answer or find all the right answers, you can get up to 50 points.
Plus, if you keep it going each day, and finish the daily streaks (this is the mandatory combination with finishing searches on Bing and Mobile and the 100-point and 150 point max search each day) you’ll earn a 150 point bonus every 10 or so days. Other streaks can be seen below, so it’s always good to keep searching on Bing every day and doing these daily sets!
- Streak 1: Day 3 (3 days) 45 points
- Streak 2: Day 8 (5 days) 75 points
- Streak 3: Day 12 (5 days) 75 points
- Streak 4: Day 20 (7 days) 105 points
- Streak 5: Day 27 (7 days) 105 Points
- Streak 6: Day 34 (7 days) 105 points
- Streak 7: Day 44 (10 Days) 150 points
- Streak 8: Day 54 — every 10 days moving forward: 150 points
If you add this up, that’s 210 points bonus in 30 days, just for completing the daily sets. And, if you account for the streaks, an additional 405 points. We’re still not including Bing searches in this figure, just the daily set and the streaks. That’s a total of 615 points in 30 days for just daily sets, and streaks! Easy money, considering that the points total bonus will only increase if you continue your streak past 8 days (I have a 212-day streak.)
Searching on Bing
Next up in the key to being successful in Microsoft Rewards are the searches on Bing. On the desktop, you can get up to 150 points for searching on Bing (it’s 5 points a search). Meanwhile, on mobile, you get up to 100 points (also 5 points a search.) If you’re using the new Microsoft Edge, you also get a 20 point daily bonus, too.
Now, for a tip. Personally, I find that the best way to earn points searching on the desktop with Bing is to visit the Bing home page and bring up the “slider” on the bottom. I click through the slides in the slider, which takes me to the day’s trending stories. From start to finish, clicking through these, I usually end up with 100 points. For the balance of searches, I use Bing for my searches throughout my workday. If I’m not working, I’ll just go back to the Bing home page and click down on the search box, and auto-complete the trending searches.
The same thing applies to mobile, too. When I visit Bing on Edge on my mobile phone, I end up clicking the search box and auto-completing the suggested searches. Do this 20 times, and it’s an easy 100 points!
Adding all this up, you can get a total of 1,890 points per week, or 7,560 points per month searching for Bing. If you include the daily streaks, then a grand total for one month of searching is 8,155 points. A $5 Microsoft Giftcard comes in at the cost of 5,000 points, so it’s essentially earning $5 a month through searching on just Bing.
If you keep this routine going strong for 12 months, and you end up with a total of 97,860 points (For this number, I am not accounting for any additional past the 27 days bonus streak, it could be higher), for just searching on Bing. A $100 Microsoft Giftcard is 91,000 points (with a level 2 discount,) so you can earn $100 a year through the program, and even more, with other activities I am about to discuss.
The Level 2 bonus
Now, for a little secret. Microsoft Rewards has a thing known as a “Level 2 Bonus.” If you run enough searches each month and earn 500 points a month, gift cards and other rewards get a small 10% discount. For instance, the $100 Microsoft Giftcard I talked about will come in at 91,000 points with a level 2 discount, instead of 100,000. Basically, the more you use Microsoft Rewards, the cheaper the points get. It’s a great way to save your precious points.
The Xbox Game Pass, and Xbox Microsoft Rewards points
Again, time for another tip. To make even more money with Microsoft Rewards, I suggest checking out the Rewards app on Xbox One. Available through the Microsoft Store, this app unlocks a new load of points for you. It has its own weekly set punch card of 3 tasks, where you earn points each week (usually it’s 100 points a week) for activities like earning achievements, checking out new games, and completing searches on Bing, or opening the Rewards app itself.
The Weekly Set also has a bonus of its own, which can be seen below. If you manage to keep it going for one month with the Weekly Set and the bonus, you can get up to 650 points a month (I’m being generic and I am not including if you go past the 4 weeks bonus.)
- 2 Week bonus: 100 points
- 4 Week bonus: 250 points
- 7 Week bonus: 500 points
Additionally, there’s also a ” hidden treasure” where you get 100 free points, randomly. You also get up to 50 points max a day for earning any achievement in any Xbox One game you own. And, usually two 5-point activities per week for checking out a game trailer. Considering this, if you earn an achievement each day, you can earn up to 1,400 points in a single month for your Xbox Achievements. Just be aware, I’m not including the other game-specific punch cards and quests on the app, which range in the value of points.
But that’s not all! If you’re subscribed to Xbox Game Pass, you also have access to a new tier of points, too, via the Xbox Game Pass app on Xbox. There’s a combination of “Quests” you can earn for various points. There are weekly, monthly, and daily quests, all of which range in points value. Some are linked to specific games, and others are linked to specific activities, like playing a certain number of Game Pass titles or earning achievements. Generally, I’ve gotten from 10 points a week to around 10 points a day with these, , depending on how much Xbox I play.
The emails, and the community
Finally, I do want to note that occasionally, you might get an email from Microsoft Rewards. In this email, there are usually bonus quizzes and quests you can take, worth about 30-50 points. In addition, there’s a very active Microsoft Rewards community on Reddit. Here, people like myself, post about their quests to make points, and tips for maximizing the output across Xbox, Desktop, and mobile.
What I’ve spent on
From when I’ve joined the Microsoft Rewards program, to today, I’ve committed myself and redeemed my points for a lot of great things. In 2016, it included a $10 Xbox Gift Card (9,300 points.) In 2017, I redeemed a 3-month Groove Pass for 200 points, and a 1-month pass for 100 points, followed up by 12 months of Xbox Live Gold for 29,000 points.
Later, in 2018, I redeemed a $100 Microsoft Giftcard for purchase to put towards Surface Headphones, followed up by another 12 months of Xbox Live Gold for 29,000 points. Come 2019, there were a lot more redemptions again, this time for buying my Surface Laptop 3. The list includes a $100 Gift card for 91,000 points, a $10 Gift Card for 9,300 points, and a $5 Gift card for 4,650 points, and a $1.25 gift card for 1,600 points.
Most recently in 2020, I cashed out points again for Surface Duo (eventually returned in favor of Surface Go 2). That list included a $100 gift card for 91,000 points, a $50 gift card for 46,000 points, a $25 gift card for 23,000 points, and a $5 gift card for 4,650 points.
In total, in five years, I value my total savings on buying Microsoft and Xbox stuff with Microsoft Rewards at around $526. It takes a lot of dedication to do it right, but once you do, it feels great!
