I love Game Pass, it allows me to play more games than I could ever afford to buy, and I want to help you get it too. But before we start, a quick warning: Do not try buying cheap Game Pass gift card codes via VPN.
This trick worked a few years ago, and you will still see instructions online for it, but Microsoft have been cracking down massively on Game Pass subscriptions redeemed through VPN. You are likely to lose money trying this, and as it is against the Terms of Service, so you will not get the money back.
Thankfully, there are other options to get Xbox Game Pass very cheaply. And if you want to get Game Pass entirely for free, you can earn Xbox gift cards online from a task site.
Earn Xbox gift cards online
The fastest way to get Game Pass, without spending any money, is by completing paid tasks online in exchange for Xbox gift cards. There are hundreds of platforms that will pay you to complete tasks, from market research companies who need survey respondents, to game devs looking for player testers.
You could earn enough from a higher-paying task site like Freecash to afford a Game Pass subscription in an afternoon:
- Join Freecash, or log in with Google or Facebook.
- Pick tasks to complete, for instance, reaching a certain level in a game that needs player-testers.
- Withdraw your funds, as gift cards or via bank transfer or PayPal.
And you should be able to afford your Game Pass subscription in one afternoon.
If you really want to spend time on a task site like Freecash, you could join race to make $5,000.00. Every month, the first user to make $5,000.00 earns an additional $500.00 bonus.
If you think it sounds too good to be true, and you wonder whether Freecash is legit, check out our excellent Trustpilot score and reviews to hear what users say.
Use the 14-day $1 trial
Sadly, they do not offer a completely free trial of Xbox Game Pass, but you can get two weeks for a dollar. You will need to be a new customer, so this only works once, but it might be appropriate for your needs if there's just one game you want to play (and it's short).
Consider buying your Game Pass from a 3rd-party seller
This is a very simple "trick" but instead of buying your Game Pass as a subscription directly from Xbox, buy codes that can be redeemed for Game Pass from a 3rd-party seller.
Simply search for "Xbox Game Pass buy code" and you will find hundreds of sites where you can buy a month or a year of Game Pass at 50% the standard price ($20/month). These 3rd-party sites will simply email you a code that you need to redeem with Xbox, but the whole process takes a few minutes at most.
The Xbox Game Pass Core to Ultimate conversion
If you have a few months or years of Xbox Game Pass Core left, you can use this trick to upgrade it all to Ultimate at a 3:2 conversion rate (so with a year left of Core, you would get eight months of Ultimate). All you need to do is separately buy at least one month of Ultimate, and any remaining months of Core will be converted.
Here is a step-by-step:
- Log into your Microsoft Account – Go to Xbox.com or use your Xbox console to sign in.
- Check Your Subscription – Navigate to Settings > Account > Subscriptions to confirm your Xbox Game Pass Core is active.
- Upgrade to Game Pass Ultimate – Visit the Game Pass Ultimate page, find the upgrade offer, and click "Join Ultimate."
- Confirm & Verify Upgrade – Complete the payment, wait for the conversion. Restart your Xbox if needed.
The conversion rate used to be more favorable, but this will still allow you to save some cash if you insist on getting Ultimate.
