What Is the Macadam App?
Macadam is a free walk-to-earn mobile app available in dozens of countries, including the UK, Canada, the United States, Australia, and much of Europe. The more steps you take, the more coins you earn.
The app syncs with your phone’s built-in fitness tracker through Apple Health or Google Fit. As long as your phone tracks movement, Macadam converts those steps into in-app currency. Those coins can later be exchanged for rewards like PayPal transfers, gift cards, discounts, or fitness-related offers.
How Macadam’s Walk-to-Earn System Works
The basic earning system revolves around daily step milestones. For example If you walk 2,500 steps, you get 25 Coins while walking 5,000 steps make you 50 Coins.
Once you hit a step milestone, you need to manually validate your steps inside the app by sliding a confirmation bar. This sounds harmless until you forget to do it. And trust me, you probably will.
If midnight passes before validation, those steps disappear forever and you earn absolutely nothing for that day. This is easily the biggest complaint users have with Macadam.
Where the App Is Available
Macadam works in many Western countries and is surprisingly global-friendly compared to some reward apps. Availability includes United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Australia, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.
The main limitation is that support for many Asian and African countries is still weak or unavailable entirely.
That’s frustrating because fitness apps are universal by nature. Walking isn’t location-specific, yet many users still can’t access the platform.
Setting Up Macadam and Getting Started
Getting started with Macadam takes maybe two minutes. Download the app, create an account with your email, and allow fitness permissions. That’s it.
Macadam relies heavily on your phone’s built-in health tracking systems. On iPhone, it connects through Apple Health. On Android, it uses Google Fit.
This creates one annoying issue: step discrepancies. A lot of users notice Macadam tracks fewer steps than devices like Fitbit, Garmin, or Apple Watch. In many cases, the difference ranges between 5% and 10%.
Why does this happen?
Because Macadam prioritizes phone-based movement tracking rather than dedicated fitness hardware. If your phone stays on your desk while you walk around, those steps often don’t count.
For people who constantly carry their phone, this isn’t a huge issue. But if you rely more on smartwatches or fitness trackers, your numbers may feel artificially low.
How Much Money Can You Actually Make Walking?
The short answer to how much money you can make is not very much. 30,000 Coins can be exchanged for £15. That means each coin is worth approximately 0.05p.
At maximum walking capacity, users can earn around 225 coins per day purely from steps (that’s around 22,000 steps).
That works out to roughly 10p to 15p per day (about $0.12 to $0.18 USD daily). That’s assuming you hit the daily cap, you remember validation, your phone tracks correctly and you walk consistently every single day.
Realistic Daily Earnings
Honestly, most users realistically earn much less. The average person probably lands somewhere around 5,000–10,000 daily steps which are converted to 50–75 coins daily (roughly 4p–8p per day).
That’s why many users eventually stop caring about the walking rewards entirely and focus on games or surveys instead. As walking becomes more of a bonus feature rather than the main earning method for them.
How Long It Takes to Cash Out
This is where the reality check hits hardest. If you rely purely on walking to collect 30,000 Coins, reaching £15 (minimum threshold) takes around 129 to 140 days which is over four months of daily activity.
And that’s under ideal conditions. Miss validations? Add extra weeks. Forget your phone? Add more time. Walk less? Even slower.
Ways to Earn More Than Just Walking
This is the part where Macadam starts looking less like a fitness app and more like a classic get-paid-to platform.
If you only use the app for walking, the earnings are honestly tiny. But once you start exploring the extra features, the earning potential improves quite a bit. The problem is that most of these features have almost nothing to do with fitness.
That’s why so many users end up confused after downloading the app. The marketing pushes the idea of earning from healthy habits, but the real money comes from activities that involve staring at your phone longer.
Offerwalls and Mobile Games
The biggest earning section inside Macadam is the offerwall. This area pays users to download sponsored apps, reach certain levels in mobile games, sign up for free trials and create accounts on partner platforms.
Compared to walking rewards, the payouts are dramatically higher. Some gaming offers pay thousands of coins for completing milestones. A single mobile game campaign can sometimes generate more coins in two days than several weeks of walking.
That’s why experienced users often treat walking as background income while focusing heavily on offers.
Surveys and Bonus Rewards
Surveys work exactly like they do on most GPT (Get Paid To) apps. You answer demographic questions, complete short questionnaires, and receive coins afterward. Survey payouts vary depending on your location, age group, occupation and availability of advertisers.
Some users report decent returns from surveys, while others complain about getting screened out after several minutes of answering questions.
That inconsistency is pretty common across the entire survey industry though, so Macadam isn’t unique there.
The app also includes daily streak bonuses, promotional events, special missions and temporary reward boosts.
If you stay active consistently, your earnings improve slightly over time. There’s also a Gold Status tier that reduces cashout thresholds and improves coin value a little.
Still, even with bonuses, nobody is getting rich here. The app works best when viewed as passive extra money layered on top of habits you already have.
Referrals and Map Spins
Referrals are one of the fastest ways to build a balance early on. When you invite friends you receive bonus coins and your friend often receives a signup bonus too. Many users say referrals helped them reach their first cashout much faster than walking ever did.
Macadam also includes a map feature somewhat similar to Pokémon GO. Certain physical locations contain bonus spins or rewards users can collect by visiting them.
It’s actually one of the more creative parts of the app because it encourages exploration and movement in a genuinely interactive way.
That said, availability depends heavily on your city. Urban users generally have more opportunities than rural users.
Is Macadam Legit or a Waste of Time?
Macadam is definitely legit in the sense that users really do receive payouts. The real question is whether the time and effort feel worthwhile.
Macadam makes sense for people already walking daily, fitness enthusiasts wanting extra motivation and people stacking multiple passive earning apps.
If you enjoy gamifying exercise, the app can actually be pretty fun.
On the other hand, Macadam probably isn’t worth it for anyone expecting meaningful income. Users who hate surveys and gaming offers won’t enjoy the app much and think it’s a scam.
Overall, if your main goal is making money online, there are far better options available. Walking apps simply don’t generate enough value per user to support high payouts. The economics just aren’t there.
Pros and Cons
✔ Rewards you for steps you’re already taking every day.
✔ Available in many countries compared to similar walking apps.
✔ Includes extra earning options like games, surveys, and referrals.
✔ Simple setup and easy-to-use interface.
✔ Can help motivate users to stay active consistently.
✗ Walking rewards alone are extremely low.
✗ You must manually validate steps daily before midnight.
✗ Games and surveys pay far more than actual walking.
✗ Step tracking can be less accurate than fitness watches.
✗ Reaching the minimum cashout takes several months for most users.
