Don’t pay for your phone.
Let your phone pay you.
Your plan already includes gigabytes you never touch. Meerkly routes other people's traffic through the ones you do not use and pays you for them — quietly, in the background, on a device you already own.
Work out what your plan is really worth.
You are already paying for the gigabytes. The only question is whether they expire at the end of the month or come back to you.
What is your plan actually worth?
Most people pay every month for gigabytes they never touch. Here is what one device’s worth of them comes to at $0.10 per GB.
That is 61% of this device’s bill, back.
$5.00 is the minimum cash-out. At this rate you would clear it in about 11 days.
Measured on your connection. You are paid for what your connection actually carries: we measure the traffic between your device and us, and add the same traffic on its way to the site with a small allowance for packet headers. A gigabyte off your plan is, near enough, a gigabyte paid.
One device, one plan. A second phone, a laptop on home broadband, a machine that is on anyway — each one earns on top of this, under the same account.
An estimate, not an offer. This is what your unused allowance is worth — how much of it is actually used depends on demand for your location. Meerkly does not watch your data allowance for you, so on a capped plan, share from Wi-Fi or leave yourself room.
Same earnings. Three ways to start.
One account and one publisher id cover all of them, and every device settles into the same balance. The install is the only thing that differs.
iPhone & Android
The plan you already pay for, earning in your pocket. Install the app, scan your code, put the phone down.
Set up a phoneWindows, Linux & macOS
A laptop or desktop that is on anyway, on home broadband nobody is using at 3am. Runs in the background from a single install.
Set up a desktopUbuntu, Debian, Fedora & more
A VPS with bandwidth you are paying for and not using. One command over SSH, runs as a service, covers its own bill.
Set up a serverBefore anything else: what is actually happening on your device.
Not what you browse, not your files, not anything you type. Meerkly shares a slice of your connection; it does not watch what you do with it.
The exit refuses anything that is not a routable public address — no localhost, no 192.168.*, no router admin page — so nothing reaches inside your home.
Bytes are counted as they move, by us, not reported by your device. That is why the number you see is the number you are paid.
The things worth asking.
What can people actually do with my connection?
Ordinary web traffic — HTTPS and HTTP requests to public sites. The gateway checks each destination before a request ever reaches your device, refuses mail submission ports outright, and your device refuses anything that is not a routable public address.
Every request is logged with the account behind it, the destination and the decision taken, so abuse is traceable rather than anonymous.
Can Meerkly see what I browse?
No. The software shares a slice of your connection; it has no access to your files or anything you type, and it never reports on your own browsing.
It does describe the machine it is running on: the operating system, the processor, the hostname and the SDK version, plus the network and city it connects from — that is how a device gets a name in your dashboard and how traffic is routed out somewhere near you. What is recorded is what the device is, never what you do with it.
Will it slow down my internet?
It uses spare capacity, and you can stop it at any moment. It holds one connection out to the gateway and opens no inbound ports, so it does not change how your own traffic is routed.
I am on a capped mobile plan — what happens?
Meerkly does not currently watch your data allowance for you. There is no built-in monthly cap and no Wi-Fi-only mode yet, so shared traffic counts against your plan like any other traffic. On a capped plan, run it on Wi-Fi, or leave yourself room and stop it when you get close.
The calculator on this page is about what an unused allowance is worth — not a promise that we will stop at the line for you.
Can I run it on more than one device?
Yes, and most people should. One account, one publisher id, as many devices as you like — a phone, a laptop, a machine in a cupboard. Each one is listed separately in the dashboard so you can name them and see what each is earning, and it all settles into one balance.
How and when do I get paid?
You are paid for what your connection carried: the traffic on the tunnel between your device and our gateway, measured by us as it moves, plus the same traffic on its way to the site with a 4% allowance for packet headers, at $0.10 per GB. Nothing is reported by your device. Earnings settle into an immutable ledger that freezes the rate they were priced at, so a rate change never moves money you have already earned. Once your balance passes $5.00 you can request a payout, and the payout page shows exactly which hours it paid for and at which rates.
What is a publisher id?
The string that says which account earns the bandwidth shared through a device — pub_ followed by 24 characters. It is a public identifier, not a secret: it ships inside apps and is handed out as a QR code, and it grants access to nothing. Committing one to a repository is not a credential leak.
Can I stop?
At any time, from the app or by uninstalling it. There is no contract, no card on file and no notice period. Earnings you have already settled stay yours.
Your phone is on anyway. It may as well be earning.
Create an account, point a device at it, and leave it running. No card, no contract, and you can stop whenever you like.