You love Starbucks. We love Starbucks. You know what’s even better than a satisfying, freshly made Starbucks drink?
A free Starbucks drink!
Lots of people are starting to catch on to the buzz about Starbucks stores giving out a free birthday drink to customers who ask for one, so we want to go over the details of the famous Starbucks birthday reward.
Let’s dive in and get your questions answered so you can drop by your local Starbucks to pick up your free Starbucks drinks on your birthday ASAP!
- Free Starbucks Drinks on Your Birthday: Is it Real?
- The Easiest Way to Get Your Free Birthday Drink
- Do You Need The Starbucks App to Get Your Free Drink?
- What Else, Besides Coffee Drinks, Can You Get With Your Birthday Reward – Food Item?
- What Can't You Get As Your Free Birthday Starbucks Reward?
- Any Other Starbucks Limitations or Important Things to Know on Birthday Drink?
- Final Thoughts On the Starbucks Drink Rewards Program
What We’ll Cover
The truth and key facts about free Starbucks birthday rewards
How to get a free drink on your birthday
What the Starbucks rewards account is like to use
What other things you can get for your Starbucks birthday reward
What’s not available as a free birthday reward
A few other important points to consider about the Starbucks rewards program
Free Starbucks Drinks on Your Birthday: Is it Real?
Can you really get a free drink at Starbucks on your birthday? You bet you can!
The free drinks from barista at Starbucks is 100% a real thing!
The only catch is that you need to be a registered Starbucks Rewards Member in order to redeem your birthday reward.
But on the upside, the birthday reward is even better than just a free birthday drink, because it’s actually possible to get much more than a simple coffee or tea when you redeem your birthday reward.
Read on to find out exactly what you can and can’t get for free as a Starbucks birthday reward.
The Easiest Way to Get Your Free Birthday Drink
The easiest way to redeem your birthday reward for a free drink (or food item) at a participating Starbucks store is to register for the Starbucks rewards program using the Starbucks app.
The app is free to download, and becoming a Starbucks rewards participant is 100% free as well!
You simply provide a few basic details about yourself (like your name and date of birth—for obvious reasons), and you’re in!
From then on, with every purchase you make at Starbucks stores, you’ll earn points Stars—Starbucks’ term for rewards points—that you can redeem whenever you have enough for a free drink or food piece purchase (and more)!
As long as you’ve been a Starbucks rewards participant for at least seven days before your birthday, you’re eligible to redeem your birthday reward on your birthday!
In addition to that all you need is a single Star on your account to take advantage of the birthday reward perk.
Do You Need The Starbucks App to Get Your Free Drink?
Is the Starbucks mobile app the only way to get a free Starbucks drink on your birthday?
Nope, it absolutely isn’t.
If you prefer, you still have the option to sign up for the rewards program at any Starbucks location and receive a registered Starbucks gift card from a barista you can physically present as an alternative to the app.
What Else, Besides Coffee Drinks, Can You Get With Your Birthday Reward – Food Item?
What a lot of people still don’t know about birthday rewards at Starbucks is that you can get way more than just a free coffee.
In fact, you can use your reward birthday to get nearly anything Starbucks has on the menu.
This includes:
Any type of hot coffee or other hot beverage
Any cold or iced beverage
Up to 2 toppings or drink modifiers (like an espresso shot or caramel syrup) in addition to your free drink
Any food article on the menu
Any bottled drink item
So not only can you get a free Starbucks drink on your birthday, you can basically even get a full meal, like a hot breakfast item, from the deal.
Oh, and if you do choose a drink you can also choose any size that drink is available in, which means a Trenta iced brewed coffee with steamed milk and vanilla syrup is totally on the table.
What Can’t You Get As Your Free Birthday Starbucks Reward?
The only limitations Starbucks imposes on your birthday reward are to limit them to single-serving menu items—and those beverages that don’t contain any alcohol.
That means you can’t order a multi-cup coffee carrier as your birthday reward and essentially collect the dozen free cups of Starbucks coffee as your “complimentary drink on your birthday.”
It also means things like a full tray of baked goods will be right out.
You also aren’t allowed to choose any merchandise like thermoses and other physical, non-consumable items a participating store may have for sale.
Snagging a bag of Starbucks coffee beans (whether ground or whole for brewing) won’t be an option, either.
Any Other Starbucks Limitations or Important Things to Know on Birthday Drink?
Birthday rewards, a free birthday drink, are redeemable once per year, on your birthday (as it was registered when you signed up).
Changing your birthday after you’ve already redeem your birthday reward will not reset the clock and allow you to go back within the same calendar year for another free drink or food article.
Since you provide your name and date of birth when signing up, multiple Starbucks cards are also out of the question.
Overall the theme we’re touching on here is that the Starbucks birthday rewards program isn’t a system you can game to get limitless free drinks.
If you did happen to enter your birthday incorrectly when you signed up, you can change it pretty painlessly by contacting the Starbucks rewards customer service location.
However! You can go back to Starbucks on September 29th each year—National Coffee Day—to get a free Starbucks coffee, provided you also bring a clean empty cup or thermos with you.
This second annual free drink is limited to fresh brewed coffee up to 20 ounces max—still a pretty generous offer if you ask us!
Another small thing to note is that not all Starbucks stores actually participate in the birthday reward program.
While the vast majority do, it’s best to check that your local Starbucks is a participating store before heading in with full expectations of getting a yummy free birthday reward.
Final Thoughts On the Starbucks Drink Rewards Program
Overall, the birthday reward Starbucks offers rewards members is a pretty generous perk.
Combine that with free coffee on National Coffee Day, free anytime whipped cream “Puppuccinos”, and easy-to-earn Stars with most purchases at participating Starbucks stores, and it’s hard to argue that Starbucks doesn’t take pretty good care of its customers.
The Starbucks free birthday reward is just one more reason why we’re big fans of Starbucks.
What are you planning to get for your next free Starbucks drink on your birthday? Let us know so we can make up our minds for our own!