Need cash before payday and don't want to deal with a credit check or a payday loan? Apps like EarnIn and Grant let you tap money you've already earned (or borrow a small amount against your next deposit) without the interest and fees that come with a payday loan.
Grant is one of the newer names in this space, built by the same company behind the credit-building app Kikoff. It offers small-dollar cash advances of $25 to $500, no credit check, and no interest. We dug into Grant's own terms and pricing pages to see exactly what it costs, how fast the money actually shows up, and where the catches are.
Here's our full Grant review, including fees, delivery speed, the optional Grant Plus subscription, and how it stacks up against other cash advance apps.
For comparison, a typical storefront payday loan charges around $15 per $100 borrowed, which works out to an APR near 400%. Grant charges no interest at all on the advance itself. The only cost you'll ever see is the optional express delivery fee if you don't want to wait a few days, or the optional Grant Plus subscription if you want whatever extra features it unlocks. That structure alone puts Grant in a different category than a payday lender, even though both exist to bridge the same gap before your next paycheck.
What Is Grant and How Does It Work
Grant is a cash advance app, not a lender. You link a bank account, and Grant looks at your account activity to decide how much it will front you, up to $500. There's no credit check involved, and the advance doesn't charge interest the way a loan would.
Once you're approved, you pick standard or express delivery, spend the money however you need to, and Grant automatically debits your linked account to collect the advance once your next deposit lands. That's the entire loop: link an account, request an advance, get repaid automatically.
- Advances from $25 to $500 with no credit check
- Standard delivery is free, typically three business days
- No late fees and no interest on the advance itself
Eligibility
Grant doesn't publish a detailed eligibility checklist the way some competitors do. What we can confirm from Grant's own site: there's no credit check to sign up, and how much you're offered depends on “financial risk factors” tied to your linked bank account rather than a fixed income or employment test.
In practice, that means you'll need a bank account you can link and some track record of deposits for Grant to evaluate. Grant Money (the company behind the app) makes the final call on your advance amount at its own discretion.
Is Grant Legit?
Grant is built by Kikoff, a company that started out helping people build credit history through a small credit-line product, according to Kikoff's own “About” page. That's a different pedigree than a lot of cash advance apps that showed up purely to chase the buy-now-pay-later boom, and it's worth knowing who is actually behind the app before you link a bank account to it.
Grant publishes its terms and a pricing page that spell out fees, delivery timelines, and what happens if you don't repay, which is more transparency than some smaller cash advance apps offer. That doesn't guarantee a perfect experience, but it does mean the numbers in this review come straight from Grant's own published policies rather than marketing copy.
That kind of transparency is rare in this corner of fintech, and it is a decent sign before you link a bank account to anything. If you want to see what Grant would actually offer you, you can check your Grant advance without a credit check or any commitment.
Grant Features
Cash Advance Amounts
Grant advances run from $25 to $500. Don't expect to walk in and get the full $500 on day one, though. Grant says the average first-time advance is about $66, and it builds your limit up from there as you repay on time.
Even among repeat users who keep paying back on schedule, Grant's own numbers show only a small share actually reach the top end: about 3.6% qualify for the full $500, while roughly 16% get to $350 or higher. If you're expecting $500 right away, set that expectation aside. Grant is built for small, short gaps, not a $500 safety net on demand.
- Advances from $25 to $500 with no credit check
- Standard delivery is free, typically three business days
- No late fees and no interest on the advance itself
Delivery Speed and Fees
Standard delivery has no fee and typically takes about three business days to land in your account. If you can't wait that long, Grant's express option gets the money to you in about an hour, and it costs $2 to $25 depending on how much you're advancing.
That sliding fee scale means a small $25 advance costs a lot less to rush than a $400 one. Do the math on your specific advance amount before you pick express, because on a small advance the fee can eat a real chunk of what you're borrowing.
Grant Plus
Grant Plus is an optional subscription that costs $9.99 a month, charged to your linked bank account or debit card, and you can cancel it any time from the Account section of the app. It unlocks “additional features,” according to Grant's pricing page, but grantcash.com does not list a bigger or faster advance among what Plus actually gets you.
In other words: don't sign up for Grant Plus assuming it'll raise your $500 ceiling or speed up delivery. Grant explicitly lets you request advances without a Grant Plus subscription, so treat it as optional rather than a requirement to use the core cash advance feature.
Repayment and Credit Impact
Grant collects what you owe by auto-debiting your linked account, either on the due date shown in the app or as soon as it detects enough positive cash flow, whichever comes first. If that debit fails or triggers an overdraft on your end, Grant says it takes no responsibility for the resulting bank fees, so keep an eye on your balance around the repayment date.
The upside: Grant says it will not send your account to collections, will not sell your unpaid balance to a debt collector, and will not report missed repayment to the credit bureaus. It may send you reminder emails or texts, but it's explicit that those aren't demands for payment. That's a meaningfully lower-stakes structure than a payday loan or a credit card past due.
Extra Features
- Bill tracking to help you see recurring charges and monitor spending in one place.
- Earn Cash, a section of the app with games and surveys you can complete for extra money. Grant says the median payout through this feature was $43 as of July 2025.
- Marketplace, which surfaces personalized loan and card offers based on your profile.
- Rent Assist, a separate product Grant mentions in its site footer. Grant's public pages don't spell out the mechanics of it beyond the name, so treat it as something to check inside the app rather than a confirmed feature we can detail here.
None of these extras are why most people download Grant. They're worth knowing about, but the cash advance is the core product.
How to Sign Up for Grant
Getting started with Grant follows the same basic flow as most cash advance apps:
- Download the Grant app and create an account.
- Link the bank account you want your advance deposited into and repaid from.
- Let Grant evaluate your account activity. This is what determines your initial advance offer, not a credit check.
- Choose an advance amount up to your approved limit, and pick standard (free) or express ($2 to $25) delivery.
- Repay automatically. Grant debits your linked account by the due date shown in the app or once it detects incoming funds, whichever happens first.
There's no separate application to fill out beyond linking your account, and no waiting on a manual underwriting decision the way you would with a personal loan.
Grant Pros and Cons
Pros:
- No credit check to sign up
- No interest and no late fees on the advance
- Standard delivery is completely free
- No collections, no debt sales, and no credit bureau reporting if you fall behind
- Grant Plus is optional, not required to get an advance
Cons:
- First advances average around $66, well below the $500 headline number
- Only a small share of repeat users ever reach the $500 max
- Express delivery costs $2 to $25 on top of the advance
- No published eligibility checklist, so approval amounts can feel unpredictable
- An auto-debit that fails can trigger an overdraft Grant won't cover
- Advances from $25 to $500 with no credit check
- Standard delivery is free, typically three business days
- No late fees and no interest on the advance itself
Grant Alternatives
Grant isn't the only cash advance app worth a look. If you only need a small amount, our roundup of $100 loan instant apps covers Grant alongside other apps built for smaller advances. Here's how a few other popular options compare:
- EarnIn: No subscription fee and free standard transfers, but you'll need to verify your hours worked to qualify. Read our full EarnIn review for the details.
- Brigit: Requires the $9.99 per month Plus plan to unlock advances up to $250. See our Brigit review for how it stacks up.
- MoneyLion: Offers cash advances alongside a broader lineup of banking and investing tools. Our MoneyLion review breaks down the fees and how the advance feature works.
- Cleo: An AI-driven budgeting app that also offers small cash advances. Our Cleo review covers what it costs and who it fits.
Each of these apps has different eligibility rules and fee structures, so it's worth comparing more than one before you commit to a subscription you don't need.
FAQs
No. Grant is a cash advance app, not a lender. It advances $25 to $500 from money it expects you'll have coming in, with no interest and no credit check, and collects it back automatically from your linked account.
Grant advances range from $25 to $500. Most first-time users get around $66, and Grant says only about 3.6% of repeat, on-time users ever qualify for the full $500.
No. Grant does not run a credit check to sign up, and it says it will not report your advance or a missed repayment to the credit bureaus.
Standard delivery is free and typically takes about three business days. Express delivery usually arrives within an hour and costs $2 to $25 depending on the size of your advance.
No. Grant Plus is an optional $9.99 per month subscription you can cancel anytime. Grant's own pricing page does not list a bigger or faster advance as something Plus unlocks.
Grant auto-debits your linked account once your next deposit lands or by the due date shown in the app, whichever comes first. It says it will not send you to collections, sell your debt, or report you to a credit bureau, though a failed debit could still trigger an overdraft on your end.
The Bottom Line on Grant
Use Grant if
You need a small amount, likely under $100 on your first try, want to skip a credit check entirely, and would rather not pay a mandatory monthly subscription just to access a cash advance. Skip express delivery unless the fee is genuinely worth it for your timeline, since standard delivery is free and arrives within a few days.
- Advances from $25 to $500 with no credit check
- Standard delivery is free, typically three business days
- No late fees and no interest on the advance itself
Skip Grant if
You need close to $500 on your very first advance, since Grant builds your limit up gradually and most new users see closer to $66. If a fixed, larger advance matters more than avoiding a subscription, an app like Brigit that unlocks a set amount through its Plus plan may fit better.
