All offers / Investing / Public
Examined Jul 27, 2026 You pick the stock $1,000 deposit $20 you get to choose, and then a year of not touching it.
This is the rare brokerage offer with no lottery in it. The terms say the reward is $20, you pick the asset from a pool Public designates, and the only wobble is that the share moves with the market after it lands. What you are actually paying for it is a $1,000 deposit and twelve months of leaving the reward alone.
- What you have to move in, in a single transfer$1,000
- What the referral pays you for it$20
A one-time 2% on the deposit, and the reward is frozen for twelve months after you claim it.
What pays what
| New customer, one deposit of $1,000 or more | $20 in a stock or ETF you pick |
|---|---|
| The friend whose link you used, on the same conditions | $20 |
| You, across every Public promotion, for life | $500 total |
| Reaching $1,000 through several smaller transfers | Does not qualify |
| Leaving the reward unclaimed for 30 days | $0, and it cannot be revived |
| Withdrawing the reward's cash value inside 12 months | Fee of up to $20 |
| Anyone who already has a Public account | $0 |
That $500 is a lifetime cap across all promotions and offers on the Public app, not a per-year referral cap, which works out to roughly 25 friends. A fractional share, for anyone new to the word, is a slice of a single share rather than a whole one, so $20 of a $400 stock buys you a twentieth of it. Public's own terms note that fractional shares carry limited or no voting rights and are not transferable, meaning you cannot move them in one piece to another broker later.
Do this, in this order
- Get a friend's link, and be genuinely new. The terms want a direct, personal relationship between the two of you, and the person joining must not already have a Public account. The program is open to US residents living in the United States. Employees and contractors of Public, people in their households, and employees of any securities firm, exchange, or regulatory body are excluded.
- Move the $1,000 in one transfer. The wording is an "initial one-time deposit" of at least $1,000 into the brokerage account. A brokerage account, plainly, is an investment account you use to buy and sell stocks and funds. Building up to $1,000 with three $350 transfers is not what that clause describes.
- Claim the reward inside 30 days. You have 30 days to claim it and pick your asset. After that it expires, and Public states that expired rewards cannot be revived.
- Then do nothing for twelve months. The reward's cash value is locked for a year from the day you claim it, and pulling it out early can trigger an early withdrawal fee of up to $20. If you might want that money back inside a year, the offer is not worth starting.
- Do not let a transfer bounce. Any account that incurs an ACH reversal fee or a debit card chargeback is disqualified from the program. An ACH reversal is simply a bank transfer that gets sent back, usually because the money was not in the account when it settled. Make sure the $1,000 is genuinely there before you hit send.
The fine print that can still cost you the reward
It is not guaranteed, and Public says so out loud. The terms reserve the right to decline requests for the program and to revoke or rescind any reward at Public's discretion, and state plainly that there is no guarantee the offer will be paid.
Closing badly claws it back. If an account is closed for violating Public's community guidelines or terms of service, Public revokes the face value of the offer, the offer itself, or both, in order to close the account.
One promotion per new signup, and no stacking. A member may enroll in a maximum of one promotion as a new signup, and this offer cannot be combined with other offers. If Public is running a bigger transfer bonus the week you join, you are choosing between them, not collecting both.
There is no stated deadline for the deposit itself. Public's terms do not publish a funding window, which cuts in your favor but also means there is nothing in writing to hold them to. The 30-day clock applies to claiming the reward, not to funding.
The $20 is a share, so it drifts. Public's own wording is that the value of the reward will be $20 and may change from time to time based on market movements.
Today's terms are dated, and we did not price the account. The program began January 20, 2026 with no published end date, and the terms document was last updated February 4, 2026. We did not verify Public's current subscription pricing on this pass, so check what the account costs before you assume the $20 is pure profit.
Is it worth your time?
Ten minutes of setup, $1,000 of your own money, and a reward you cannot cash for a year. If the $1,000 was headed into a brokerage account anyway, take it: $20 you get to point at a company you actually like is a clean little bonus with no lottery attached. If you would be moving the money purely to collect the $20, do not. That is a 2% one-time return for twelve months of standing still, and the same $1,000 at tastytrade currently pays $100 for a six-month wait. If you want a bonus with no deposit at all, Robinhood's gift stock asks for nothing but a linked bank.
