7 Best Gift Card APIs for Fintech and Rewards Platforms in 2026

Most fintech platforms and rewards programs already have a payout problem by the time they go looking for a gift card API. Users want a way to cash out points, cashback or a wallet balance, and a $25 Amazon or Starbucks card is often the payout they’ll actually use. Signing deals with hundreds of brands yourself isn’t realistic, so most teams plug into a gift card API instead.

Picking one is harder than it looks. Every provider claims thousands of brands and global reach, but they differ a lot on what you pay, which countries are really covered, whether you can earn a margin and how quickly your developers get to production. I went through the public docs, pricing pages and developer portals of each provider below to find where those differences actually sit.

The 7 best gift card APIs at a glance:

Phaze: best for fintechs and neobanks that want a free, white-label payout API
Runa: best for high-volume global payouts
Tremendous: best for US incentive programs with no platform fees
Tango: best for enterprise rewards programs that need a deep catalog
Reloadly: best for emerging markets and mobile top-ups
Giftbit: best for North American teams that want to launch fast
Xoxoday Plum: best for a white-label rewards storefront

Key Takeaways

Phaze, Tremendous and Giftbit are all free to integrate, but the money flows differently. Phaze lets you earn up to 3 to 5% margin, while Tremendous charges 4 to 6% on cash-style payouts like PayPal and Venmo.
Country counts aren’t comparable at face value. Runa reaches 190+ countries, but that includes bank and card payouts; its gift cards cover 45.
If you need mobile top-ups alongside gift cards, Phaze (500+ carriers) and Reloadly (800+ operators) cover both through one API.
Runa, Tango and Xoxoday Plum don’t publish their fees, so budget time for a sales call before you can compare costs.
For a regulated product, check compliance early. Phaze builds KYC/AML into its API, and Runa holds ISO 27001 certification.

How I Evaluated These Gift Card APIs

I kept the comparison to things a fintech or rewards team can check before signing anything, using each provider’s own website, pricing page and developer docs as of October 2026. Five questions mattered most:

Catalog depth where your users live. 3,000 brands means little if only a handful work in your markets, so I looked at brand count and country coverage separately.
Payouts beyond gift cards. Prepaid cards, mobile top-ups, and bank or wallet payouts through the same API save a second integration later.
Who pays and who earns. Some providers charge you, some charge recipients, one shares margin with you. That changes the unit economics of every payout.
Developer experience. Free sandbox, clean auth, webhooks for delivery status, and realistic integration timelines.
Compliance and reliability. Your payout partner’s KYC/AML setup and licensing become your problem too if you’re regulated.

Gift Card APIs Compared: Quick Overview

API	Best for	Catalog	Countries	Pricing model	Free sandbox
Phaze	Fintechs and neobanks adding payouts	2,500+ brands, plus cash cards and 500+ mobile carriers	150+	Free to integrate; you earn up to 3 to 5% margin	Yes
Runa	High-volume global payouts	5,000+ payout options	190+ (gift cards in 45)	Not published	Yes (Playground)
Tremendous	US incentive programs	2,500+ options	200+	Free; gift cards at face value, 4 to 6% on cash-style payouts	Yes
Tango	Enterprise rewards programs	3,100+ gift cards, prepaid cards and donations	200+ via Global Choice Link	No sign-up fees or minimums; rates not published	Yes
Reloadly	Emerging markets and mobile top-ups	3,000+ brands (14,000+ products), 800+ mobile operators	5 global regions	Usage-based, no contracts; rates not published	Not stated
Giftbit	Fast launches in North America	1,500+ brands	40+ for gift cards, 150+ for prepaid	$0 platform fee; 2.9% if you fund by credit card	Yes (Testbed)
Xoxoday Plum	White-label rewards storefronts	30+ reward categories	150+	Custom: wallet discounts, or platform plus per-transaction fees	Not stated

1. Phaze: Best for Fintechs and Neobanks That Want a Free, White-Label Payout API

What it does: Phaze is a payout API that issues digital gift cards, cash cards (virtual and physical) and prepaid mobile top-ups through one integration. It’s aimed at fintech platforms, neobanks, payment service providers and rewards apps that want withdrawals or redemptions to happen inside their own product, under their own brand.

Key features:

2,500+ gift card brands and 500+ mobile carriers across 150+ countries
Cash cards and top-ups through the same API as gift cards, so you don’t need a second vendor
REST API with 50+ endpoints, webhooks for real-time status updates and a ready-made Postman collection
Fully white-label, so your users see your branding and flows rather than Phaze’s
Built-in KYC/AML checks; Phaze lists its MSB registration (C100000266) on its site

Pros:

Free to implement, with no setup, customization, transaction or monthly fees
You earn up to 3 to 5% margin on transactions, which turns payouts into a revenue line instead of a cost
Quick start: sandbox credentials arrive within 24 hours, and Phaze puts technical integration at 2 to 4 hours
No fees for your end users

Cons:

Production access requires a compliance review that takes 3 to 5 business days
At 2,500+ brands, the catalog is smaller than Runa’s or Tango’s if sheer breadth is the priority
It’s built for platforms embedding payouts. If you just want to email a few hundred survey incentives from a dashboard, Tremendous or Giftbit is simpler

Pricing: Free to integrate, and Phaze says platforms can earn up to 3 to 5% margin on end-user transactions.

2. Runa: Best for High-Volume Global Payouts

What it does: Runa, formerly WeGift, is a London-based payout network. Through one API, one contract and one dashboard, you can send gift cards, push-to-card payments over Visa Direct and Mastercard Send, and reloadable prepaid cards. It also offers Runa Shop, a white-labeled gift card store. Its customer list includes Dynata, Prizeout, ShopBack, TopCashback and, interestingly, Tremendous.

Key features:

5,000+ payout options, with instant gift card delivery in 45 countries and push-to-card in 190+
30+ origination currencies and 160+ payout currencies
99.999% uptime guarantee, ISO 27001 certification and 24/7 human support
Developer docs and a Playground for testing at developer.runa.io
More than 40 million payouts a year, according to Runa’s company boilerplate

Pros:

The broadest payout mix in this list, all under one contract
Reliability and security commitments that suit high-volume, regulated apps
Already used by large cashback platforms

Cons:

Pricing isn’t published anywhere on the site
Gift card coverage (45 countries) is much narrower than the 190+ headline figure
Onboarding is sales-led, which can feel heavy for a small program

Pricing: Quote only; book a demo to see rates.

3. Tremendous: Best for US Incentive Programs With No Platform Fees

What it does: Tremendous is a rewards and payouts platform used heavily by research, HR, sales and marketing teams. You can send gift cards, prepaid Visa cards, PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, bank transfers or charity donations from its dashboard or through the API, and recipients pick the option they want.

Key features:

2,500+ payout options in 200+ countries
API endpoints for orders, rewards and products, with webhooks, a sandbox and optional admin approval before orders go out
Tremendous Connect, an embedded flow (with OAuth 2.0) that lets your platform’s customers link their own Tremendous accounts
Integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Qualtrics and Zapier, plus a Postman collection

Pros:

No platform or subscription fees, and gift cards and prepaid Visa cards go out at face value
Funding from a bank account is free
Non-technical teams can run campaigns from the dashboard without touching the API

Cons:

PayPal, Venmo, Cash App and bank payouts carry a 4 to 6% fee
Funding by credit card adds a 3% processing fee
No published revenue share, since it’s built for sending rewards rather than earning on them

Pricing: Free platform. Volume discounts may apply above $200,000 a year in sends.

4. Tango: Best for Enterprise Rewards Programs That Need a Deep Catalog

What it does: Tango (the company behind Tango Card) sells gift cards, prepaid cards and donations through its Rewards as a Service (RaaS) API. Beyond digital codes, it covers prepaid Visa, Mastercard and Discover cards, ACH transfers, debit card deposits, PayPal and bulk orders of physical gift cards.

Key features:

3,100+ physical and digital gift cards, prepaid cards and charitable donations
Global Choice Link, which lets recipients pick a digital gift card or prepaid card from 200+ countries and territories in 50+ currencies
Sandbox environment and a test console with demo credentials
OAuth 2.0 (recommended) or Basic Auth

Pros:

A deep catalog that mixes gift cards, prepaid cards and donations in one place
Physical gift cards in bulk, which few API-first providers handle
No minimums and no sign-up fees

Cons:

Fees aren’t published
Tango’s quick-start guide asks developers to call endpoints at 1 transaction per second or less, so bursty programs will need a queue
Built mainly for corporate rewards (HR, sales, research) rather than embedded fintech payouts

Pricing: No sign-up fees or minimums; contact sales for rates.

5. Reloadly: Best for Emerging Markets and Mobile Top-Ups

What it does: Reloadly, founded in 2018 with offices in Barcelona and Miami, offers APIs for digital gift cards, airtime top-ups and mobile data bundles, plus payout links through its Perq product. It says more than 10,000 companies use it, including TikTok, Rebtel, Rippling, UNICEF and Indonesia’s LinkAja.

Key features:

3,000+ brands and 14,000+ gift card products across five global regions
800+ mobile operators for airtime and data
Code samples in cURL, C#, Go, Java, Node, PHP and Python, plus plugins for WordPress, Shopify and WooCommerce
Wallets funded in USD, EUR, CAD or GBP

Pros:

Airtime and data sit next to gift cards, which matters in markets where mobile credit is the payout people value most
Self-serve: account signup takes under two minutes, with no contracts or monthly minimums
The widest spread of language samples in this list

Cons:

Fees aren’t listed on the product pages beyond “usage-based billing”
Coverage is described by region rather than country, so you’ll need to check the catalog for each market you serve

Pricing: Usage-based with no contracts; rates on request.

6. Giftbit: Best for North American Teams That Want to Launch Fast

What it does: Giftbit sends digital gift cards and prepaid cards by email, through branded shortlink pages, as direct links you drop into your own messages, or inside your app. Accounts are open to businesses formed in, or with a presence in, the US or Canada.

Key features:

1,500+ brands, with gift cards in 40+ countries and prepaid cards in 150+
A free sandbox called Testbed, where API tokens work as soon as you sign up
Simple bearer-token API with endpoints for brands, campaigns, direct links and gift status
Free currency conversion on multi-currency accounts

Pros:

$0 platform fee, free API access and no minimums
Free funding by wire, ACH/EFT or direct debit
Giftbit says teams can often build a program in days, or even hours

Cons:

The smallest published brand count in this comparison
Only available to businesses with a US or Canadian presence
Funding by credit card costs 2.9%

Pricing: No platform fee. Physical prepaid cards cost $2.95 to $4.95 USD each.

7. Xoxoday Plum: Best for a White-Label Rewards Storefront

What it does: Plum is Xoxoday’s rewards platform, and it comes in three forms: a no-code Rewards Hub dashboard, REST Rewards APIs, and Plum Storefront, a white-labeled rewards marketplace you can put in front of your users. It runs on a pre-funded wallet, and its customer list includes Adobe, HSBC, H&M, Capgemini and Freshworks.

Key features:

30+ reward categories in 150+ countries, covering gift cards, travel, swag, dining, streaming subscriptions and charity
An Amazon B2B catalog add-on for the US, UK, India, Spain and Germany
Delivery by email, SMS or WhatsApp
Role-based access, approval workflows and reporting on every plan

Pros:

Rewards that go beyond gift cards, such as experiences and subscriptions
A ready-made branded storefront, so you don’t have to build a redemption UI
WhatsApp delivery, which helps in markets where that’s how people actually read messages

Cons:

No standard pricing; Plum models the commercials around each program
Built for enterprise programs, so smaller teams may find the demo-first process slow

Pricing: Two models: pay when you send (wallet top-ups come with discounts) or pay when redeemed (a platform fee plus a per-transaction fee).

Which Gift Card API Should You Choose?

There’s no single winner here, because these providers were built for different jobs. Here’s how I’d narrow it down:

You’re a neobank, wallet or payments app adding a cash-out option: Start with Phaze. It’s white-label, covers cash cards and top-ups as well as gift cards, and pays you a margin rather than charging fees. Look at Runa too if you need push-to-card in 190+ countries.
You run a cashback or loyalty app with large, spiky volume: Runa, for its uptime guarantee and payout range. Phaze if earning on each redemption matters more to your model.
You’re a US company sending survey, sales or employee incentives: Tremendous or Giftbit for speed and zero platform fees, or Tango if you need physical cards or a deeper catalog.
Most of your users are in emerging markets: Reloadly, since airtime and data often beat gift cards there. Phaze also covers 500+ mobile carriers.
You want a branded rewards store without building one: Xoxoday Plum.

Whichever you shortlist, ask each provider the same four questions on the demo call:

Which brands are live today in my top five countries?
Who absorbs the fees, me or my users, and do I earn anything on each payout?
What happens when a code fails or a brand goes out of stock?
Which compliance checks do you run, and which stay with me?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a gift card API?

A gift card API lets your platform buy and deliver digital gift cards automatically. Send a brand, an amount, and a recipient; the provider returns a code or redemption link and debits your prefunded balance. Most also expose a catalog endpoint for country-level brand availability and webhooks to confirm delivery. In a fintech or rewards context, it’s what turns points, cashback, or wallet balances into something users can actually spend.

How do gift card API providers make money?

Providers typically buy codes from brands below face value and earn on the gap, sometimes adding fees on top for credit card funding or cash payouts. Tremendous, for example, charges 4 to 6% on PayPal and Venmo and 3% on credit card funding. A few share the brand discount with you; Phaze says platforms can earn up to 3 to 5% per transaction.

Do I need KYC to send gift cards through an API?

It depends on your use case and geography. When gift cards serve as a cash-out route for wallet balances, they can fall under AML rules, so the provider’s compliance checks need to fit your own program. Phaze builds KYC/AML into its API and reviews each platform before granting production access. Whichever provider you pick, confirm which checks sit with them and which stay with you.

How long does a gift card API integration take?

The coding is usually quick; approvals take longer. Phaze puts technical integration at 2 to 4 hours, with full onboarding (including the compliance review) at 3 to 5 business days. Giftbit says teams often build a program in days or even hours, and Runa describes integration as “hours, not days.” Budget extra time for your own UI, testing in the sandbox and any internal security review.

Which gift card APIs offer a free sandbox?

Phaze (credentials within 24 hours), Tremendous, Tango (sandbox plus a test console), Giftbit (Testbed, with instant tokens) and Runa (Playground) all offer test environments. Reloadly and Xoxoday Plum didn’t mention one on the pages I reviewed, so ask during your demo.

Can one API handle gift cards and mobile top-ups?

Yes. Phaze covers 2,500+ gift card brands, cash cards and 500+ mobile carriers in one API, and Reloadly pairs 3,000+ brands with 800+ mobile operators for airtime and data. Runa combines gift cards with push-to-card and prepaid payouts, but not mobile top-ups.