If there’s one thing that a rideshare driver can’t get enough of, it’s gas savings. It’s an expense we all have; for some, it is a daily expense that adds up to hundreds of dollars a month. This is why we found the best gas apps for you to start saving money today.
Would you do it if you could save when you fill up your tank by taking a few simple steps? The best part is that you can use many of these apps together to double or even triple your savings.
9 Best Gas Apps of 2024
These are the best gas apps for drivers to start using today:
1. Upside
Best For: Gas, Restaurant, and Grocery Savings
Upside is a U.S.-based company that partners with some of the nation’s biggest gas, grocery, and restaurant brands, making it easy to earn cash back. You can earn up to $0.25 off per gallon directly at the pump.
The basic premise is to download the app and search nearby participating stations. The app will show you a map of the gas stations, their current prices, and how much of a discount you’ll earn.
You have to “claim” which gas station you’re going to, fill up at that station within 4 hours, and submit your receipt to earn cash back or ‘check in’ in the app.
A great thing about Upside is that there is no expiration date on the cash back you earn. Your cashback balance will never expire, and you can choose to receive them via PayPal or gift cards to popular stores.
⭐️ Use promo code RSG25 to earn at least 25¢/gal on your first fill-up.
2. GasBuddy
Best For: Automatic Savings at the Pump
GasBuddy is another gas app that gives you more immediate savings. You don’t have to upload your receipt to receive the savings, and you don’t have to wait until you have enough built up to cash out.
According to GasBuddy, they work with 95% of the gas stations within the U.S., which is very appealing to me.
I know which gas stations work best for my commute, so I love that I can use whichever one I want instead of hunting down a participating location.
With GasBuddy, you get a card from them and attach your bank account to it for those instant savings at the pump. The nice thing is that users can update the app’s prices for the most up-to-date information.
Since it uses a card, it’s easy to double this up with other apps like Upside. All you need to do is try out as many as you have the patience for, and you’ll see the savings start to pile up.
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3. Fetch Rewards
Best For: Shopping and Gas Rewards
Fetch Rewards is another popular cash-back app. This app is great because you can combine the points you earn from shopping and gas purchases. Every purchase gives you a minimum of 25 points, which you can save until you want to redeem them.
All you have to do is upload your gas receipt into the Fetch Rewards app, and you’ll earn points you can redeem for gift cards. Unlike Upside, points earned can expire if the account has been inactive for 90 days or more.
Also, unlike Upside, you cannot transfer the points to your bank account or PayPal. Instead, you can redeem your points for gift cards, with $3 being the minimum amount to redeem.
4. Trunow
Best For: Gas From Anywhere
Trunow is another app that will help you find the cheapest gas prices in your area and earn cash back with every gas station receipt you upload.
In some areas of the country, you can spend your rewards at local stores and restaurants. Otherwise, you must wait until you have enough to cash out to your PayPal account.
In the app store, they boast, “Put cash back in your pocket at every gas station, every time.” I’ve put this to the test. I was recently on a road trip in South Dakota and stopped by an unknown gas station not associated with any big national chain, and they accepted my receipt.
One benefit of this app is that you can combine points earned from gas purchases with points earned from grocery stores and restaurants as well, just like Fetch Rewards.
The downside of Trunow is the savings take a while to add up. You need 100 points to earn $1, and from what I can tell, each dollar you spend is worth half a point. So, I uploaded receipts totaling $128 and received 63 points for it, which is equivalent to $0.63 in cash back.
5. Checkout 51
Best For: Easy Cashback on Gas
Checkout 51 is great when you want to earn cashback on the two things you likely spend the most on monthly: groceries and gas. Checkout 51 currently works with 5,000 gas stations to pay customers cash back, and it’s easy to earn!
All you have to do is buy gas at participating gas stations and upload your receipt. Just like that you’ll earn cashback. The app is available on iOS and Google Play. There’s also a desktop version if you prefer not to add it to your phone.
As soon as you hit $20, you can cash out and enjoy your earnings!
Get Indirect Savings With the Help of These Apps
Not all the best gas apps will give you cash back or discounts, but several will help you find the cheapest gas prices, which helps you save in that respect.
If you go to a gas station just because it’s close, you could spend $0.20 or more per gallon for convenience. Use these apps below to help find out if there’s a gas station within a mile or two of you that will be cheaper overall.
6. Waze
Best For: Finding the Best Routes with the Cheapest Gas
Many rideshare drivers already use Waze as their main navigation app, so why not let it work for you even more?
Within Waze, you can search for nearby gas stations, and Waze will show you how much you’d be spending per gallon. It also tells you when the price was last updated in the app, so you have a better idea of if it’s up-to-date or not.
If you click on the gas station you’re interested in, you can also see the cost of other gas options. The number you see up front is for regular.
7. AAA TripTik Travel Planner
Best For: AAA Members
In much the same way as Waze, you can use the AAA mobile app to find nearby gas stations and the cost per gallon. However, you do need a AAA account to utilize this. It also allows you to plan long road trips with up to 25 stops, which allows you to fully plan a trip without needing to plug in address after address.
I would recommend this if you already have a AAA account and plan to travel outside of your rideshare services. Otherwise, I’m not sure the $64.99+ fee to sign up is worth it. Granted, this does include roadside assistance, so if your current insurance company doesn’t provide roadside assistance, this might be beneficial for you anyway.
However, if you just want to use their website, it looks like you can use the trip planning and gas-finding features without having a subscription to their services.
8. Gas Guru
Best For: Finding Cheap Gas Fast
Gas Guru, much like the others, shows you nearby gas stations and their prices. One thing that makes this app stand out is that they have a “Best Nearby” featureFree, so you don’t have to scroll through the whole list to find the absolute best price around you.
All you do is click on the “Best Nearby” star in the bottom corner, and it’ll automatically jump to the best deal near you.
It also shows when it was last updated, so you know the price is accurate.
This is an excellent app if you’re not interested in earning cash back from apps like Upside and Fetch Rewards.
This is a great app if you just want information on the cheapest gas prices or you can use this app to find the best deals on gas stations and use the cash back apps to get points for purchases.
9. Fuelio
Best For: Tracking Gas Prices
Fuelio is a great app for rideshare drivers. Not only does it help you find the cheapest gas around, thanks to crowdsourced information, it helps you keep track of all your car expenses. Since your car is your office as a rideshare driver, this can help you maximize your deductions at tax time.
With Fuelio, you can track your mileage, gas costs, and other vehicle expenses. You can categorize your expenses and get reminders for important vehicle repairs so you don’t miss them and put too much wear and tear on your car.
Other Ways to Save Money on Gas
Besides using the best gas apps to get the best gas prices, here are some other ways to reduce your gas costs:
- Properly inflate your tires: Underinflated tires decrease your gas mileage, costing you more money and putting more wear and tear on your car. Keep your tires properly inflated, especially in cold weather.
- Join a membership club: Warehouse clubs, like Sam’s Club or Costco, often have great gas prices. If you live near one or pass one often, it may make sense to pay for the membership.
- Use a gas rewards credit card: If you have good credit, you may qualify for a gas rewards credit card that pays cash back for your gas and other purchases. Use the cashback for gas and you save yourself even more money.
- Don’t pay for premium: Unless your car manufacturer says premium is the only gas that should go in your car, stick with regular to keep costs down.
- Pay cash: Some gas stations have one price per gallon for cash customers and another for credit card customers. You could often save a few cents a gallon just for paying cash.
Our Methodology
When looking for the best gas apps, we use the following criteria:
- User-friendly: Gas apps are supposed to help you save money or earn cashback, not be another hassle in your rideshare driving business. We looked for apps that were easy to use and didn’t require a lot of input to earn the cashback.
- Updated in real-time: Gas prices change often, so it’s important that the apps we choose to update in real-time, mostly through crowdsourcing. No one likes chasing a deal that doesn’t exist anymore.
- Free: Rideshare drivers have enough expenses. It doesn’t make sense to pay for an app to help you save money.
- Other offers: Most of the best gas apps on our list also help you save money in other areas, such as groceries. Anywhere you can save helps your bottom line!
Which Are the Best Gas Apps for Drivers?
The best advice I can give is to try all of these gas apps out. See which ones you can use together to earn double, triple, or more.
For the ones you’re not the most satisfied with, simply uninstall them and leave them behind.
The worst that can happen is you won’t save quite as much as you were hoping for based on the effort needed to gain the rewards.
Personally, when I’m traveling a long distance, I’m going to use as many as I can just to see how much I can rack up and see if it’s worth keeping all of them around for more cashback in the future.
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