Grass
PAYINGThe largest bandwidth-sharing network — earn Grass points and tokens for unused internet, now with live token payouts.
Sign up to Grass (referral link) →
Grass is the project that turned 'sell your idle bandwidth' from a coupon-site side hustle into a crypto-native asset class. The idea is unchanged since launch: your connection joins a distributed proxy pool that AI companies and web scrapers pay to use, and you get paid for every gigabyte routed through it. What changed is scale — Grass grew into the largest network of its kind, with over a million nodes at peak and a live token on Solana.
In our two-month test across a residential line and two budget VPS instances, the residential node consistently out-earned both VPS nodes combined by roughly five to one. That ratio matters: if your only spare hardware is datacenter VPS space, temper expectations accordingly. The desktop app and Docker node were both stable, sipped resources, and survived router reboots without babysitting.
Payouts arrive as GRASS tokens, which converts the classic bandwidth-app weakness — slow, threshold-gated fiat withdrawals — into a non-issue. Claim, swap, done. The trade-off is price exposure: your effective USD earnings float with the token. Long-term operators tend to claim regularly rather than accumulate. The referral program remains the standout: a cut of referred users' bandwidth accrues indefinitely, which is why Grass anchors most serious bandwidth-farm setups.
Verdict
At a glance
| Payout method | GRASS token (Solana), bank transfer/PayPal via dashboard options |
|---|---|
| Minimum payout | Varies by region; token withdrawals have no hard minimum |
| Payout frequency | Epoch-based rewards, claimable continuously |
| Typical monthly earnings | $5–30/mo on a residential IP; VPS IPs earn far less |
| Hardware needed | Any always-on device: PC, Pi, N100, VPS |
| Effort level | Very low — install once, check monthly |
What you need
- Always-on internet connection
- Windows/macOS/Linux desktop app, or node in Docker
- Residential IP earns meaningfully more than datacenter
Pros
- Largest buyer network in the category — demand is real, not theoretical
- Token liquidity means payouts are instant once claimed
- Referral program pays a percentage of referred bandwidth forever
- Lightweight node: under 200MB RAM in our testing
Cons
- Earnings collapsed from 2024 highs as more supply came online
- Datacenter/VPS IPs are heavily discounted
- Some ISPs flag sustained proxy traffic — read our playbook for safe setup
Frequently asked questions
Is Grass safe to run on my home network?
The node only routes outbound web traffic from verified buyers — no inbound access to your devices. The realistic risks are ISP terms-of-service friction and slight bandwidth usage. Keep it under control with the traffic caps in our setup playbook.
How much can I realistically earn?
On a single residential IP in 2026, expect roughly $5–30/month depending on region and uptime. Multiple apps stacked on the same connection multiply this; multiple accounts do not — that's a ban.
Do VPS deployments work?
Yes, and our Docker playbook covers them, but datacenter IPs earn a fraction of residential rates. Treat VPS nodes as volume plays, not primary earners.
Sign up to Grass (referral link) →
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