Description
What is Brave Rewards?
Brave Rewards is a built-in feature of the Brave Browser that rewards users for their attention. Instead of Big Tech companies profiting from your personal data, you earn Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) for viewing privacy-preserving Brave Ads.
Key Features
- Earn BAT: Opt in to see curated, privacy-respecting ads (new tab page images, push notifications, and more) and earn BAT tokens in return.
- Support Creators: Directly contribute BAT to your favorite websites and content creators registered with the Brave Creators program — no middlemen.
- Full Privacy by Design: Brave Ads never collect or transmit your personal data. Ad matching happens entirely on your device; your browsing history never leaves it.
- Spend Your BAT: Exchange BAT for fiat or other cryptocurrencies, book flights and hotels, purchase NFTs, make Web3 in-app purchases, or store and swap tokens in the Brave Wallet.
How It Works
- Install the Brave Browser on desktop (Linux, macOS, Windows) or Android.
- Enable Brave Rewards from the BAT icon in the address bar.
- Connect a custodial or self-custody payout account to receive earnings.
- Start earning by viewing optional Brave Ads at your chosen frequency.
Platform Availability
Available on all desktop platforms and Android. On iOS, Brave Rewards is limited to supporting creators only.
Highlights
Pros
- Users earn 70% of ad revenue in BAT tokens that can be used to support content creators, swapped for other crypto, or exchanged for fiat currency.
- Privacy-preserving ad matching happens entirely on-device using zero-knowledge proofs, with no personal data ever sent to Brave's servers.
- Users choose how many ads to see per hour (1-5) and which ad formats to view, giving full opt-in control over the experience.
- The auto-contribute system distributes BAT to creators based on browsing time, replacing separate subscriptions with a single automated donation flow.
- Creators can receive BAT donations across websites, YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, and GitHub without needing their own website or payment processor.
Cons
- Creators must go through Uphold's KYC process and pay combined fees (Brave's 5% plus Uphold's 1.95% conversion fee) to cash out BAT to fiat.
- Brave Ads appear as OS-level push notifications that some users find more intrusive than traditional in-page ads, as they interrupt the desktop experience.
- Rewards are limited to supporting creators only on iOS, leaving iOS users unable to earn BAT or view Brave Ads at all.
- BAT earnings have been reported to vanish after Uphold wallet verification, with users citing poor support response from Brave when balances disappear.
- Earnings are very low — roughly 0.07 BAT per hour of browsing, equating to about one US cent per hour at current valuations.