Searching for coupons before checking out online can be a hassle. Signing up for email lists, following brands on social media and scouring random websites in hopes that a coupon code will help you score a discount can help, but you have to check back consistently. But thanks to technology, there’s an easier way.
Coupon browser extensions can save you hundreds of dollars when you shop online — and in some cases even in-store. You can download most extensions for free and add them to your web browser, like Chrome, Safari or Firefox, or use the mobile app. Some even have a mobile app, allowing you to shop however you want and save.
To help you out, CNBC Select narrowed down the best browser extensions. Our top picks must be free, create a positive user experience and provide users with money-saving features. (See our methodology for more information on how we chose the best browser extensions.)
Best coupon browser extensions
Best for earning gift cards
Capital One Shopping
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Cost
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Cash back
Yes, in the form of Capital One Shopping Rewards.
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Coupon codes
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Price comparison
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Mobile app
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Works with in-store purchases
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Welcome bonus
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How to redeem your savings
Capital One Shopping Rewards can be used to purchase e-gift cards.
Pros
- Offers at over 30,000 online retailers
- You can build a watchlist of favorite products, and Capital One Shopping will alert you to price changes
- No purchase is required for the referral bonus
Cons
- Reward redemptions are limited to gift cards
- You can’t use the app to save in-store
Who’s this for? Capital One Shopping is great if you’re looking to redeem your rewards for gift cards. While this site only offers cash back in the form of gift cards, it has dozens of retailers to choose from.
Standout benefits: You don’t need a Capital One credit card to use Capital One Shopping. The extension also offers a unique referral program that doesn’t require a purchase. If you refer a friend and they have regularly used the app for 90 days you will both earn a bonus even if no purchases were made.
Best for groceries
Ibotta
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Cost
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Cash back
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Coupon codes
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Price comparison
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Mobile app
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Works with in-store purchases
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Welcome bonus
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How to redeem your savings
Redeem cash back once you reach $20 as a deposit into your bank account, PayPal account or for gift cards.
Pros
- New users can earn a $50 welcome bonus
- Offers at over 300 participating retailers
- You can activate savings, then shop and save on in-store purchases
Cons
- You can only redeem cash back after you reach $20
- The browser extension is only available on Google Chrome
- After 180 days without redeeming an offer, your account is charged $3.99 for every 30 days of inactivity
Who’s this for? Ibotta allows you to earn cash back when you shop and is especially helpful if you’re trying to save on groceries. With the app, you can add offers for products you intend to buy at the store, do your shopping and then submit a photo of your receipt to earn your credits.
Standout benefits: Ibotta offers bonuses that allow users to earn extra cashback by completing specific redemption offers. Bonuses are sorted into 5 different categories and often have expiration dates.
Best for American Express cardholders
Rakuten
Information about Rakuten has been collected independently by Select and has not been reviewed or provided by the company prior to publication.
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Cost
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Cash back
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Coupon codes
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Price comparison
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Mobile app
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Works with in-store purchases
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Welcome bonus
New users can earn 10% Cash Back on purchases made in your first 7 days, up to $50.
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How to redeem your savings
Cash back is awarded every 3 months by check, PayPal payment or donation.
Pros
- You can earn American Express Membership Rewards Points instead of cash back
- New users can earn a $10 welcome bonus
- Offers at over 3,500 online stores
- You can activate savings, then shop and save on in-store purchases
Cons
- Cash back is awarded every 3 months
- Not valid with Amazon purchases
Best for price tracking
PayPal Honey
Information about Honey has been collected independently by Select and has not been reviewed or provided by the company prior to publication.
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Cost
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Cash back
Yes, in the form of PayPal Rewards
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Coupon codes
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Price comparison
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Mobile app
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Works with in-store purchases
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Welcome bonus
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How to redeem your savings
Redeem for e-gift cards, shopping credits, cash back or donations.
Pros
- Offers at over 30,000 participating merchants
- In-depth Droplist for price tracking and notifications
- Has Honey Tips which provide insights like price changes, coupon success rates and other helpful info
Cons
- Cash back redemption requires a valid PayPal account
- You can’t use the app to save in-store
- Rewards expire if you don’t earn 10 points within each consecutive 365-day period
Who’s this for? PayPal Honey offers some advanced price-tracking features, ideal if you prefer to wait for the best deal possible. The Droplist feature tracks products at select stores and has some in-depth customization that other sites don’t.
Standout benefits: Honey’s Droplist is the most in-depth price-tracking tool on this list and works on major retailers like Amazon and Walmart. You can add specific items to your list down to the color and size and even the percentage of the price drop before you receive notifications.
Best for redemption options
CouponCabin
Information about CouponCabin has been collected independently by Select and has not been reviewed or provided by the company prior to publication.
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Cost
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Cash back
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Coupon codes
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Price comparison
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Mobile app
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Works with in-store purchases
Yes, through printable coupons.
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Welcome bonus
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How to redeem your savings
Redeem cash back once you reach $10 by check, PayPal, Venmo, e-gift card, donations or Chase payments.
Pros
- Offers at over 6,000 stores
- You can print coupons out online, then save on in-store purchases
- Provides a coupon guarantee backed by a free $25 gift card
Cons
- You can only redeem cash back after you reach $10
Who’s this for? CouponCabin is the best option if you want the most flexibility when redeeming your rewards. This app offers the most ways to redeem your savings on this list totaling 6 different methods.
Standout benefits: With the CouponCabin Guarantee, you can earn a $25 credit for Restaurant.com if you find a coupon that doesn’t work.
More on our top coupon browser extensions
Capital One Shopping
Capital One Shopping doesn’t require you to be a Capital One cardholder and you can access it on both desktop and mobile. Both versions will auto-apply coupons and search for a product’s lowest price across other retailers.
While Capital One Shopping is a bit limited with gift cards as the only reward option, the extension works at over 30,000 online retailers giving you a wide range of options for earning rewards.
Redemption methods
Gift cards
Browser availability
Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari
Ibotta
Ibotta may be best known for its utility in grocery stores but it can also work online as well, including many grocery pickup and delivery services. Having earned its users over $1.8 billion since 2012, Ibotta offers you extra opportunities to earn additional cash back through its bonuses feature by completing specific timely offers.
Its browser extension is only computable with Google Chrome and you’ll want to ensure you don’t leave your account inactive for more than 180 days or you’ll get hit with a maintenance fee. You can withdraw your rewards once you reach a minimum of $20 in rewards.
Redemption methods
Withdraw to a bank account, PayPal or gift card
Browser availability
Chrome
Rakuten
Rakuten is a popular shopping rewards program boasting over 20 million users who have earned over $3.2B in cash back since its inception. Available on mobile and desktop, it also has a browser extension, sometimes referred to as the Cash Back Button, allowing you to earn cash back on more than 3,500 stores. Rakuten pays out slightly differently than its competitors with four set dates each year, 1 per quarter, provided you have a minimum confirmed earnings of $5.01.
For in-store offers, link your desired credit card to your Rakuten account and then add the offers to your card. From there you can shop normally as long as you are paying with your linked card which earns you your selected cashback deals. Unfortunately, Rakuten is not available on Amazon.
Redemption methods
Receive a check in the mail, a PayPal payment, a gift card, or you can donate your change to a nonprofit
Browser availability
Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari
PayPal Honey
PayPal Honey is available on five different browsers and can compare prices between Amazon sellers even down to the shipping and handling costs. Since this program is through PayPal, you can earn rewards on items even if there isn’t a direct coupon through Honey. You can also earn Exclusive Offers through the app which is another way to earn more PayPal Rewards points for items that may go on sale less often.
PayPal Honey can automatically apply coupons for you during checkout to help you earn the most rewards possible, but it’s important to note that your rewards will expire if you don’t earn at least 10 points within a consecutive 365-day period. If you’re looking to redeem your rewards for a gift card, you’ll need at least 1,000 points, typically worth $10.
Redemption methods
PayPal, gift card, PayPal shopping credit or a charitable donation
Browser availability
Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari and Opera
CouponCabin
CouponCabin provides you with the most redemption offers of extensions on this list and also allows you to redeem your rewards anytime as you meet the $10 minimum to withdraw. CouponCabin also offers valuable limited-time member-only deals.
For those with expired manufacturers’ coupons, you can donate them to CouponCabin which will send them to overseas military bases where they can be used for up to 6 months after their expiration date.
Redemption methods
Check, PayPal, Venmo, Chase Payments, gift card or a charitable donation
Browser availability
Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari
What coupon browser extensions do
The best coupon browser extensions can save you money and allow you to compare prices across multiple websites. Here’s more detail on what they can do:
- Scan the web for promo codes, then automatically apply any found when you checkout to see if you qualify for discounts.
- Award you cash back for eligible purchases.
- Tell you if an item you want to buy can be found for less on another site.
- Aggregate product reviews and weed out those that seem fake so you can make an educated purchase.
- Provide you with a combination of coupons, cash back, price comparisons and reviews to make you a more savvy shopper.
FAQs
How do coupon browser extensions work?
Coupon browser extensions gather various coupon codes and automatically apply the ones that provide the greatest savings to your online orders. Some browser extensions take things a step further by offering users cashback or other rewards for their purchases. Some even offer printable coupons for users to bring into stores.
What is the easiest way to get coupons?
While coupons can often be found in the mail or through signing up for newsletters, installing a shopping browser extension allows you to test dozens of coupons at once and apply the eligible ones that provide you with the best deal.
How much can you save using these extensions?
While the exact amount you save using a coupon browser extension will depend on the service and your spending habits, according to Honey, users save an average of $126 per year.
How much do coupon browser extensions cost?
All of the coupon browser extensions on our list are free to use.
Why trust CNBC Select?
At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every browser extension review is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of financial products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics. See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best browser extensions that automatically find coupons at checkout.
Our methodology
To determine which coupon browser extensions offer the best discounts, CNBC Select analyzed 10 programs. We compared each program on a range of features, including:
- Cost
- User experience
- Money-saving features
- Customer reviews, when available
Cost was the first feature we reviewed. The coupon browser extension had to be free to make it on our best-of list.
All of the coupon browser extensions offer digital or physical coupons or a form of cashback, but those with even more money-saving features, link price comparisons, ranked higher.
Next, the extensions had to be user-friendly and require minimal work from consumers. After all, a coupon browser extension should save you both time and money.
Customer reviews were also taken into consideration.
Editorial Note: Opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Select editorial staff’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any third party.