Win up to $1,000,000 USD from Microsoft by Simply Searching! — Enter Before 10/17 🤫🤫

Yes, the Microsoft Rewards million-dollar sweepstake is real — Microsoft has named grand-prize winners in multiple rounds since 2024, and the 2026 "Total Prize Drop" round offered a genuine $1,000,000 grand prize. But here is what most pages won't tell you: that 2026 round closed on May 21, 2026, winners were drawn June 4 — and the sweepstake pages are region-locked, so from India they show "not available in your country." What everyone can use, everywhere the program operates, is the Microsoft Rewards points system itself. This guide covers both honestly: how the big draws work when they run, and what your daily searches are realistically worth.

Transparency first: this page originally announced the 2025 "Ultimate Giveaway" round, which ended in October 2025. Rather than leave a dead contest page up, we've rewritten it as the maintained guide to the whole Rewards program — see the revision note at the foot.

Jake had the banner open on his shop computer when I walked in. "Win $1,000,000 by searching. Ethan, I sell phones. I know what 'too good to be true' smells like. This smells."

Fair instinct — half of Jake's customers have been burned by a "you've won!" message at some point, and a few have paid real money to "claim" prizes that never existed. So let's treat this the way Jake treats a suspicious trade-in: check what it is, check what it costs, check what it actually pays.

What "free" actually costs you here

Nothing about Microsoft Rewards costs money — there is no purchase, no fee, no card on file. But "free" isn't "costless", and being clear-eyed about the real price is how you decide if it's worth it:

• Your default search engine. The program's whole reason to exist is moving you from Google to Bing. Search points come from Bing searches; promotions and instant-win mechanics have historically leaned on Bing-as-default and the Edge browser. That is the trade: your search habit for their points.
• A few minutes a day. The daily set — a quiz, a poll, a click-through — takes two or three minutes. The search cap fills itself if Bing is your default; deliberately grinding searches takes longer than it's worth.
• Your attention data. You're signed into a Microsoft account while searching. If that bothers you more than a gift card comforts you, this program isn't for you — that's a legitimate answer.

Ethan's summary for Jake: "You're not being paid to search. You're being paid to switch. Decide if the switch bothers you, then the rest is arithmetic."

The million-dollar draws: how the rounds actually work

Microsoft doesn't run one continuous lottery. It runs rounds, each with its own name, rules, entry window and draw date. The pattern since late 2024:

Read that table again and the pattern is obvious: a new round has opened roughly every five to seven months. As of this rewrite (August 2026), the spring round is finished and we are between rounds — which is precisely when the forwarded WhatsApp messages claiming "Microsoft is giving ₹85 lakh to everyone who searches today!!" do the most damage, because there's no live official page to check them against.

How entry worked in the recent rounds

Mechanics have been consistent across rounds: free entry through the Rewards dashboard, plus daily instant-win chances tied to searching — in the 2026 Prize Drop, setting Bing as the default and completing at least one search a day gave one instant-win reveal per day, alongside sweepstake entries you could claim or buy with points. Expect the next round, if one opens, to rhyme with that. And that's the honest way to say it: if one opens. We'll update this page when it does — that's what the revision note at the bottom is for.

The India question, answered from India

We didn't take anyone's word for this — we opened the sweepstake page from an Indian connection while writing this rewrite. The result, verbatim: "The Microsoft Rewards Ultimate Giveaway Sweepstakes isn't available in your country or region."

So, plainly:

• The million-dollar draws: region-restricted. The recent rounds have been aimed at the US (some rounds have included other markets — the October 2025 winner was from Singapore — but each round's official rules define its own eligible countries). From India, the page above is what you get.
• The points program: available in India, and genuinely usable. Searches earn points, the daily set works, and the Indian redemption catalogue offers shopping vouchers and other options.

The points program: what everyone actually gets

Strip away the sweepstake glamour and Microsoft Rewards is a straightforward loyalty program with four earning taps:

1. Bing searches

Search while signed into your Microsoft account and points accrue automatically, up to a daily cap that depends on your account level. If Bing is your default engine, this happens without thinking about it — which is the entire design. Deliberately typing junk searches to hit the cap is joyless and, if automated, against the rules.

2. The daily set

Three small activities on the Rewards dashboard each day — typically a quiz, a poll, and a click-through. Two or three minutes. Doing it every day builds a streak that pays bonus points, which is where consistent users quietly out-earn sporadic ones.

3. Bonus activities and promotions

Punch-cards, seasonal promotions, extra-point offers — they rotate. Worth taking when they appear on your dashboard; not worth hunting for.

4. Xbox and Game Pass

If you're a console person, Game Pass quests pay points for playing things you were playing anyway. For a gaming household this can outpace the search earnings entirely.

The honest math: what is this worth per month?

Here's the paragraph the hype pages won't write. Exact earn rates, daily caps and redemption prices vary by region and account level, and Microsoft adjusts them — so any page quoting precise universal numbers is either US-only or already stale. But the honest order of magnitude is stable:

A person who searches normally with Bing as default and completes the daily set most days accumulates enough for a small gift card — the ₹250–500 voucher class — every month or two. Call it a few hundred rupees a month for a habit that costs a few minutes a day. Over a year, that's a genuine but modest sum — a budget phone case business expense, in Jake's terms, not a salary.

"So it's real money," Jake said, "but it's tea money."

"Tea money for switching search engines," Ethan agreed. "Which is why the sweepstakes exist — tea money alone wouldn't move anyone off Google. The lottery ticket is the marketing. The tea money is the product. Decide based on the tea money; treat any sweepstake entry as a free extra, never the reason."

That framing answers the "is it worth it" question for every reader: if effectively-free vouchers for minutes of routine clicks sounds good, enroll. If you'd resent every Bing result page, your time is worth more than the points. Both are correct answers for different people.

The scam layer: what preys on this program

Because "Microsoft is giving away a million dollars" is a true sentence, scammers get to borrow its credibility. Jake has personally seen customers hit by two of these; all three are active:

• The winner notification scam. A call, email or DM says you've won a Microsoft prize — you just need to pay a "processing fee", share an OTP, buy gift cards, or install remote-access software so they can "deposit the prize". Every single one of these is fake. Real sweepstake winners are contacted through Microsoft's official channels tied to the entering account, and no legitimate prize ever requires payment to receive.
• The fake entry page. Look-alike sites harvest Microsoft passwords behind a "claim your entry" button. Only enter anything at rewards.bing.com, reached by typing it — not through links in messages.
• The points-buying/selling grey market. Accounts and points offered for sale are stolen, botted, or bait. Buying them funds the theft and the accounts get banned.

FAQ — Microsoft Rewards

Is the Microsoft Rewards $1,000,000 sweepstake real?

Yes — Microsoft has named real grand-prize winners across multiple rounds, including winners announced in December 2024, May 2025 and October 2025, and ran a Total Prize Drop round in 2026 with a $1,000,000 grand prize. But each round has an end date. The spring 2026 round closed on May 21, 2026. Check rewards.bing.com for whether a round is currently open in your region.

Is the Microsoft $1M giveaway still running in 2026?

The 2026 Total Prize Drop round ended: entries closed May 21, 2026 and winners were drawn on June 4, 2026. Microsoft has repeatedly launched new rounds every several months, so a new one may open. The only reliable way to check is the official page at rewards.bing.com — not social media posts or forwarded messages.

Is Microsoft Rewards available in India?

The Microsoft Rewards points program is available in India — you can earn points for Bing searches and activities and redeem them from the Indian catalogue. However, the big US sweepstakes rounds are region-restricted: opening the sweepstake page from India shows that it is not available in your country or region. Points are for everyone; the million-dollar draws mostly are not.

How do you earn Microsoft Rewards points?

Search with Bing while signed into your Microsoft account, complete the daily set of quizzes and polls on the Rewards dashboard, and finish occasional bonus activities. Searches on desktop and mobile earn points up to a daily cap, and daily-set items take a couple of minutes. Xbox users can also earn through Game Pass quests.

How much is Microsoft Rewards actually worth per month?

For a person who searches daily and completes the daily set, points typically add up to the equivalent of a small gift card every month or two — think of it as a few hundred rupees a month, not an income. Exact earn rates, caps and redemption prices vary by region and account level, so check your own dashboard's redeem catalogue for real numbers.

What can I redeem Microsoft Rewards points for?

The catalogue varies by country, but typically includes shopping gift cards and vouchers, Microsoft and Xbox store credit, Game Pass time, sweepstakes entries where available, and charity donations. Open Redeem in your Rewards dashboard to see your country's actual catalogue and prices.

Do Microsoft Rewards points expire?

Points expire after a long period of complete account inactivity — staying active with even one search now and then keeps them alive. The bigger practical risk is not expiry but violating the rules: automated searching or multiple accounts can get an account suspended with its points lost.

Is Microsoft Rewards a scam?

The program itself is genuinely run by Microsoft and has paid out real prizes for years. What IS a scam: anyone who messages, emails or calls you claiming you have won and asking for a fee, a gift card, remote access to your PC, or your password. Microsoft notifies sweepstakes winners through official channels and never asks winners to pay to receive a prize.

Do I have to use Edge or make Bing my default to earn?

You earn search points for Bing searches from any browser while signed in, but Microsoft's promotions frequently attach bonus points to using Edge or setting Bing as default, and some sweepstake instant-win mechanics have required Bing as the default search engine. The core points program does not force it; the bonuses nudge it.

What is the fastest way to earn Microsoft Rewards points?

Consistency beats tricks: hit the daily search cap, do the daily set every day for the streak bonuses, and take the punctual bonus activities when they appear. Xbox players should add Game Pass quests. Anything faster than that — scripts, bots, VPN tricks, account farms — is against the rules and gets accounts banned.

Can I use a VPN to enter the US sweepstakes from another country?

No. Sweepstakes eligibility is defined by the official rules for each round, and entering from an ineligible country through a VPN violates them. Even if an entry slipped through, prize verification checks identity and residency — an ineligible winner does not get paid. You would be risking your whole Rewards account for a prize you cannot legally claim.

How do winners actually get notified?

Through Microsoft's official channels tied to the account that entered — not through random social media DMs, WhatsApp forwards or phone calls. If someone contacts you first and asks for money, banking details or remote access to claim a prize, it is a scam, full stop.

Related Guides

Revision note. Originally published October 2025 announcing the Microsoft Rewards Ultimate Giveaway round, which closed that month and named its winner. Rewritten August 2026 as the maintained guide to the whole Rewards program after the 2026 Total Prize Drop round also closed (entries ended May 21, 2026). Region availability re-checked from India on the day of the rewrite. We'll update this note when a new sweepstake round opens.Sorry