A cashback app pays you back part of what you spend at partner stores. In Canada they come in two main kinds: shopping portals, where you click through to an online store and earn a percentage of the purchase, and receipt apps, where you claim offers on specific grocery and household products and upload a photo of the receipt. Both sit on top of what you already earn from a card and a store loyalty program, which is why people combine them. This page compares the apps that serve Canadian shoppers, explains how each one pays out, and notes the apps that have closed. It is part of the consumer guides on shopping, deals and everyday bills.
Cashback apps that work in Canada
| App | Type | How you earn | Suited to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rakuten (formerly Ebates) | Shopping portal and browser extension | A percentage of online purchases at partner stores, set store by store | Online shopping |
| Great Canadian Rebates | Shopping portal | A percentage of online purchases, plus rebates for applying for some financial products | Online shopping, as a second portal to compare against Rakuten |
| Checkout 51 | Receipt app | Weekly offers on groceries and everyday items, claimed by photographing the receipt | Groceries |
| Caddle | Receipt app plus surveys | Cashback offers on products, plus paid surveys | Groceries, and people who also want survey income |
Rates on the portals change constantly and are shown on each store’s page, so the useful comparison is the same store on two portals on the day you buy, not a headline “up to” figure.
Rakuten: online shopping
Rakuten Canada is the Canadian site that used to be called Ebates. It covers hundreds of Canadian online stores, and each store’s page shows its current cashback rate. The cashback is tied to clicking through from the site, the app or the browser extension before you check out, so a purchase started directly on the store’s site may not track.
Rakuten pays out every three months by Interac, PayPal or cheque.
Grocery receipt apps: Checkout 51 and Caddle
Receipt apps work on specific products rather than whole stores. You add an offer in the app before shopping (a particular brand of cereal, for example), buy the product, then photograph the receipt. Checkout 51 posts new offers every week. Caddle mixes product offers with paid surveys, so part of its earnings comes from answering questions rather than buying anything.
Because the offers are brand-specific, these apps pay most when the offer is for something already on your list. The wider question of cutting the grocery bill (store choice, flyers, store brands) is covered in ways to save on groceries, and store-by-store value in the best-value grocery stores.
Store loyalty programs
Loyalty programs aren’t cashback apps, but they are the third layer most shoppers combine with them. PC Optimum is Loblaw’s program, used at Loblaw grocery banners and Shoppers Drug Mart. Scene+ is the program shared by Scotiabank and Empire’s grocery stores, such as Sobeys and FreshCo. Scanning a loyalty card and claiming a receipt-app offer can both be done on the same purchase.
Apps that have closed or changed
- Drop, a card-linked rewards app that started in Canada, no longer works: its earnwithdrop.com address no longer belongs to the app, and linked cards no longer connect.
- Ampli, RBC’s cashback app, was discontinued and folded into RBC Avion Rewards.
- TopCashback: its Canadian address, topcashback.ca, now opens the company’s US site.
Older lists that still recommend these apps are out of date.
How stacking works
Each layer pays on the same purchase:
| Layer | What it is | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Promo code | A discount at checkout | Coupon sites and apps |
| 2. Cashback portal | A percentage back from Rakuten or Great Canadian Rebates | Click through before buying |
| 3. Credit card | Cash back or points from the card you pay with | Cashback credit cards |
| 4. Loyalty program | Store points (PC Optimum, Scene+) | Scan the card or app at checkout |
| 5. Sale timing | Buying during a seasonal sale | Black Friday in Canada |
Paying through a phone wallet doesn’t change layer 3: the purchase is charged to the card behind it and earns that card’s rewards, as the guide to Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Wallet explains.
Example: one online order, three layers
A $100 order with a 10% promo code, a 5% portal rate and a 2% cashback card, with the portal and card both paying on the discounted price.
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Price after the promo code | $90.00 |
| Portal cashback (5% of the discounted price) | $4.50 |
| Card cashback (2% of the discounted price) | $1.80 |
| Net cost | $83.70 |
Whether a portal pays on a purchase made with a code it doesn’t list, or on a gift card, is set in each portal’s terms for that store, so the store page is the place to check before relying on both layers.