Looking to save on your next caffeine fix? This guide has everything you need to know about how and where you can get free and cheap coffee.
Whether you’re a student looking for ways to stretch your weekly budget or a commuter finding your bank statements are overrun with cappuccinos, we’re here to help.
We’ve got the lowdown on all the major coffee loyalty schemes, including Starbucks, Costa and Caffè Nero. Find out how to maximise your savings, not only at your favourite coffee shops but also on coffee subscriptions, gift cards and more.
Treat yourself to a takeaway coffee on us this autumn
We secured this exclusive offer, but our content stays unbiased.
Fancy earning £5 cashback on a £3+coffee spend?
It's really simple: it takes as little as 30 seconds to sign up for your TopCashback account.
Buy your drink and upload a photo of your receipt. We'll track your purchase, and then you'll get cashback in your account to withdraw to your bank or as a gift card.
Here's how to get your £5 offer;
- Click: Click the green button
- Join: Create an account
- Shop: Purchase your £3+ hot drink in store or in-app
- Snap: Take a photo of your receipt, showing the date, time, item and price
- Enjoy: We'll add £5 to your account once we track your purchase
How does TopCashback benefit? We make money when you buy from supported brands, which allows us to offer cashback with no hidden fees.
Coffee loyalty schemes
Many of the biggest coffee chains in the UK reward loyal customers with free drinks after they’ve bought a certain number of drinks.
We’ve outlined the most popular coffee schemes below, including a breakdown of how many coffees you’ll need to buy before you earn a reward.
To get the average price of a coffee at each of the following chains, we calculated the average cost of a regular Americano, across branches in London, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow.
Which schemes you decide to sign up for will depend on what coffee chains you have in your local area. But seeing as they’re all free, there’s no harm in signing up for a few different schemes, or all of them if you want.
Costa Club
How many coffees for a free one? 10
Average cost of a coffee: £3.16
Costa Club rewards members with a free coffee after they’ve collected 10 Costa Beans.
You’ll earn one Bean for every hot drink you buy when you scan your Costa app or card at the checkout.
Costa Club members also get extra rewards, including money off, bonus Beans and other treats. You’ll even get a free cake on your birthday.
Here are a few easy ways you can maximise your Costa rewards.
Bring a reusable cup
Every time you bring a reusable cup for your coffee and scan your Costa Card, you’ll earn two Beans instead of one. This means it’ll take you half the time to earn your free coffee, as you’ll only need to buy five coffees instead of 10.
Refer a friend
If you refer someone else to join the Costa Club, you’ll both receive five bonus Beans when they download the Costa app, sign up and start using their card. Refer two friends, and you’ve earned 10 Beans… enough for a free Costa coffee.
Scan your loyalty app for someone else if they don’t have a card
If you’re visiting your nearest Costa with someone who isn’t interested in joining the Costa Club or can’t access their card, why not ask if they’d mind if you scanned your card for their drink?
You’ll get a bonus Bean for the drink they’re buying, as well as the Bean you’ll earn for your own.
Get a gift card bonus
Costa often run promotions featuring cash bonuses when you buy a gift card at selected times.
One recent promotion in March 2024 gave customers an extra £5 credit when they bought a £20 gift card. That’ll get you a free coffee, or at least a decent chunk towards the cost if you tend to go for drinks with all the bells and whistles.
Starbucks Rewards
How many coffees for a free one? Approx 15
Average cost of a coffee: £3.36
With the Starbucks Rewards app, you’ll earn three stars for every £1 you spend each time you scan your Starbucks app at the checkout.
You can bag yourself a free hot drink when you earn 150 Stars. If an average Starbucks coffee costs £3.36, this means you’ll need to buy an average of 15 coffees before you earn a free one.
The Starbucks Rewards scheme has tiered levels, so the more you spend, the more you’ll be rewarded.
Members who progress to 450 Stars will become Gold Members.
Once you’ve reached Gold level, you can enjoy free extra shots of espresso, selected syrups and whipped cream, and also get a free birthday drink.
Some Starbucks coffee shops require you to load the app with money and use Scan & Pay in order to collect points.
You also can’t redeem your free coffee at all Starbucks locations, so make sure you ask at your local branch.
Make your Starbucks membership work harder with these handy tips:
Bring a reusable cup
Rather than bonus points, Starbucks reduce the price of your drink if you bring your own cup. You can get a 25p discount on your coffee each time you bring a reusable cup.
In fact, Starbucks even add a 5p extra charge for paper cups, so you’re actually saving 30p per drink. Do this 10 or more times and you’ll have made back the cost of an average coffee.
Get unlimited cups of coffee
If you’re sitting in to drink your coffee, you can get unlimited free refills when you buy just one cup of filter coffee at Starbucks. This is ideal for anyone who likes to work in coffee shops for hours at a time or loves to catch up with chatty friends over a brew.
Caffè Nero
How many coffees for a free one? 9
Average cost of a coffee: £3.05
Caffè Nero’s loyalty scheme rewards you with a free coffee (or other barista-prepared drink) after you’ve collected nine stamps on your app.
New members are often treated to a bonus stamp with their first purchase.
Bonus stamps are shown as gold stamps on your digital card and will appear from time to time if you trigger any promotional offers.
It doesn’t matter what colour your loyalty stamps are, as long as your digital card is full when you go to collect your free drink.
You can also link your debit or credit card to the app to make paying for your coffee easier.
To get more bang for your buck, try some of these Caffè Nero hacks:
Bring a reusable cup
Get double stamps just for bringing your own cup next time you buy a hot drink at Caffè Nero. If you do this five times, that’s 10 stamps you’ll earn, and you only need nine stamps to get yourself a free coffee.
Refer a friend
Refer a friend to the Caffè Nero app and you’ll both earn a free barista-prepared drink when they download the app.
Other loyalty schemes and in-store tricks for free coffee
It’s not just coffee companies that offer free drinks to their loyal customers…
M&S
Get a free hot drink after you’ve bought six hot drinks and scanned your Sparks Card.
myWaitrose
Get a free cup of Caffè Nero coffee or tea when you make a purchase in store and bring your own cup.
My John Lewis
Get a free hot drink and a cake when you sign up to My John Lewis.
Krispy Kreme
Subway
IKEA Family Card
Get a free hot drink when you collect 150 Smiles points (earn 10 Smiles for every £1 spent). You’ll also get a free doughnut when you sign up.
Get a free hot drink when you collect 100 points (earn 10 points for every £1 spent).
Get a free tea or coffee every time you visit IKEA restaurants between Monday and Friday.
M&S
Get a free hot drink after you’ve bought six hot drinks and scanned your Sparks Card.
myWaitrose
Get a free cup of Caffè Nero coffee or tea when you make a purchase in store and bring your own cup.
My John Lewis
Get a free hot drink and a cake when you sign up to My John Lewis.
Krispy Kreme
Get a free hot drink when you collect 150 Smiles points (earn 10 Smiles for every £1 spent). You’ll also get a free doughnut when you sign up.
Subway
Get a free hot drink when you collect 100 points (earn 10 points for every £1 spent).
IKEA Family Card
Get a free tea or coffee every time you visit IKEA restaurants between Monday and Friday.
There are other in-store tricks allowing coffee drinkers to save money on their favourite drinks, aside from loyalty schemes.
Pret a Manger
While Pret don’t have a traditional loyalty scheme for earning free coffee, their baristas are actually allowed to simply give away free coffee to customers. There are no set rules that we know of as to who gets a freebie and why, so our advice would be just to be polite and friendly, and see if you get lucky.
Even if you’re not the chosen one during your next visit, you can still save 50p when you bring a reusable cup.
If Pret is your coffee shop of choice, there may be some value in signing up for the Club Pret scheme. This scheme was updated in September 2024, so make sure you're clued up on the latest changes:
For £10 a month, you’ll get 50% off up to five barista-made drinks a day. Say a Pret coffee costs an average of £3. If you were to sit and have five half-price coffees at Pret over the course of one day, you’d break even on your monthly subscription in under two days.
If you only have one coffee per visit, you’ll need to make 7 trips to Pret over the month to break even.
Greggs
Greggs offer new app users a free coffee just for downloading the app. You can also save 20p per coffee on future visits when you bring your reusable cup along.
Looking for more ways to save at Greggs? Find out where your nearest discount Greggs store is with our Greggs Outlets guide.
Wetherspoons
Whether it’s a Saturday morning fry-up or an after-work catch-up with a friend, get unlimited refills on your hot drinks when you visit Wetherspoons. Just pay for one Lavazza coffee, tea or hot chocolate and then enjoy as many refills as you like.
Other schemes offering members free coffee
Are you a member of any of the following schemes? You may already be entitled to free and discount coffee without even realising it…
Vitality x Caffè Nero
Vitality members can earn themselves a free Caffè Nero coffee every single week, just for exercising.
Reach 12 Vitality Points on the app throughout the week and you’ll earn a voucher for a free hot or cold drink.
Once you’ve claimed your voucher at Caffè Nero, you’ll also be entitled to 25% off food.
Customers used to be able to cash in their voucher for a packet of ground coffee or coffee beans instead, but this was sadly brought to an end this year.
We'll let you know if we hear any updates on this in the coming months.
Three Mobile x Caffè Nero
With Three Mobile? Did you know you can get a discount coffee from Caffè Nero each week? Enjoy a hot or cold barista-made drink for £1 – that’s about two-thirds off each drink!
O2 Priority x Greggs
If you’re an O2 or Virgin Media Broadband customer, you can unlock weekly Greggs discounts.
Get a hot drink and your choice from a range of savoury treats, for £1 each, once a month. These can be snapped up on any day of the week, although your £1 hot drink must be picked up between 7am and 11.30am, and your £1 savoury snack must be picked up between 11.30am and 7pm.
Check the O2 Priority app regularly to see any upcoming changes to this offer.
Winwalk x Costa
Android users can download the Winwalk app and get rewarded for exercising. Hit your walking goals and you can earn free Costa vouchers to spend on your next caffeine fix.
More ways to save on coffee
We’ve still not exhausted all of our money-saving tips for getting a bargain hot drink. Check out these bonus tricks.
Earn cashback
At TopCashback, our members earn cashback just for shopping online through us. Every time you click through to one of our retailers and shop with them, that retailer gives us a commission for sending you their way. We give 100% of that commission to you, as cashback.
Treat yourself to a takeaway coffee on us this autumn
We secured this exclusive offer, but our content stays unbiased.
Fancy earning £5 cashback on a £3+coffee spend?
It's really simple: it takes as little as 30 seconds to sign up for your TopCashback account.
Buy your drink and upload a photo of your receipt. We'll track your purchase, and then you'll get cashback in your account to withdraw to your bank or as a gift card.
Here's how to get your £5 offer;
- Click: Click the green button
- Join: Create an account
- Shop: Purchase your £3+ hot drink in store or in-app
- Snap: Take a photo of your receipt, showing the date, time, item and price
- Enjoy: We'll add £5 to your account once we track your purchase
How does TopCashback benefit? We make money when you buy from supported brands, which allows us to offer cashback with no hidden fees.
We know what you’re thinking… we’re an online money-saving site, but most of these coffee deals are for in-store purchases. Well, even if you’re not buying coffee online, we still have some handy money-saving tricks you can use.
If you’re already a TopCashback member and have some payable cashback ready to spend, why not cash your balance out using Reward Wallet?
Cash out your cashback as a Costa or Caffè Nero gift card and you can earn a bonus on your balance.
So, if you’ve got £20 to cash out and we’re offering a 10% gift card bonus, that could become £22 to spend at Costa or Caffè Nero.
You can also buy gift cards directly from us and earn cashback. TopGiftCards make great gifts for loved ones but also a nice treat for yourself.
Take out a coffee subscription
If you’re looking to enjoy top-quality coffee at home, a coffee subscription might be perfect for you.
For those on the hunt for sustainable coffee pods, you can enjoy ethically sourced coffee from Grind or Pact Coffee, as both have a range of ground coffee, beans and pods to choose from.
Buying ‘wonky pods’ is another great way to save money on your coffee. Companies like Wonky Pods collect imperfect pods from coffee suppliers and sell them on to you at a big discount. You can save as much as 50% on your coffee pods and rest assured that they’re all 100% recyclable or compostable.
Many coffee subscription services (including Grind, Origin and RiSE) are listed on TopCashback too, so you can make an extra saving when you subscribe.
Amy at TopCashback has tried a few different ethical coffee brands:
"I love ethical brands, so I've tried both Grind and Pact from the Green Cashback range.
I loved the branding of Grind and how you get a free coffee tin and the refill bags are compostable. I preferred the taste of Pact and also loved being able to choose and rate the coffees you get.
Both were priced pretty well for ethical coffee and I got deals with my cashback rates and new member discounts."
Get free and cheap coffee if you’re a student
If you’re a student, we’re sure you’re in the habit of checking for discount codes and offers every time you shop already, and your caffeine fix should be no exception!
Black Sheep Coffee offer 20% off for students with UNiDAYS and Grind give new subscribers £5 off their first three coffee deliveries. Whether it’s an in-store coffee or an online subscription, make sure you check if you can get a discount.
Blue Light Card discounts
If you’re a Blue Light Card holder, you may be entitled to a discount on your coffee at selected retailers. At the time of writing, Starbucks offer 10% off for emergency service workers, NHS staff and teachers with a valid Blue Light Card.
Not sure if you qualify for this scheme? We’ve got a handy Blue Light Card guide that explains how they work and who’s entitled to one.
Don’t be bitter about missed savings…
From iced coffee in the summer to iconic festive lattes in December, it’s fair to say we’re a little obsessed with coffee in the UK.
So, whether you’re all about pumpkin spice lattes or prefer to keep things classic with an espresso, why pay full price on your next coffee break?
Hopefully you're now primed with all the knowledge you need to grab yourself a handy deal on your next caffeine fix.
When it comes to our favourite loyalty card schemes, we think Caffè Nero's app offers the best value. Not only is coffee at this chain generally a little cheaper than Costa and Starbucks, but you also only need to collect nine stamps before you earn your free drink.
This means you'll be spending less and earning more rewards – it's a no-brainer for us.
Have you got any of your own discount coffee hacks? Let us know in the comments how you save on your favourite drinks.