15 Must-Grab Fast Food Freebies in 2025

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, fast-food chains have continued to suffer from sloping sales; even industry heavyweights such as McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Starbucks found themselves reporting poor quarterly earnings over the past year and, aside from Taco Bell, fast food sales overall appear to be in the midst of a slump. No matter the cause behind the downturn – poor service, a growing concern over health consciousness, and rising prices – quick-service restaurants are scrambling to recover.

Celebrity collaborations, a dizzying influx of new menu items, and giveaways are among the strategies fast food chains have turned to in hopes of bumping up revenue with a handful of the industry’s key players even offering free items for those in the know. But since the aphorism “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” remains true today, we took a fine tooth comb to fifteen fast-food, free deals untangle any rules, or stipulations lurking in the fine print. Now, you can make it past the drive-thru burden-free, with the knowledge you gamed the system the best you could during your next trip to indulge in a little greasy craving from your favorite fast food chains and drive away with (at least) one free item in hand. 

At only two months into 2025, McDonalds’ team must have found value in extending its free French fry Fridays to the completion of the calendar year. A fairly simple concept, the fast-food behemoth began extending a complimentary carton of the legendary deep-fried potatoes in 2023 and has largely kept the concept since.

The tempting, golden strands of potato (made from the potato varieties Russet Burbank, Ranger Russet, Umatilla Russet, and Shepody) undergo a typical multistep process before they land on your red plastic serving tray. According to the official website, every order of fries is peeled, cut, blanched, dried, partially fried, frozen, and then finally deep-fried onsite to achieve their signature crispy note. Cooked in canola oil, McDonald’s fries neglect true vegetarian status due to including beef flavoring in a lengthy ingredient list.

A staple of nearly every trip around the Golden Arches, and the natural wingman to the chain’s Big Mac, McDonald’s stands true to its free fry Fridays (at least until the end of the year) … as long as you follow a couple of simple rules. The complimentary crimson pouch of fries can be yours with a minimum purchase of $1 from the restaurant’s regular menu, as well as placing your order with the brand’s (also free) app.

Nostalgia rules the contemporary marketplace and for those looking to tap into their Generation-X alter ego, trips to a certain, well-known cafe chain will resemble the je ne sai quai of yesteryear more than the expense of current times. Relive the cafe’s heyday of never ending caffeine by cashing in on Starbucks’ freshly renewed free refill policy.

In hopes of winning back customers who pealed off in favor of the brand’s coffee competitors, at-home coffee enthusiasts, and those turned off by the company’s internal turmoil, Starbucks issued a reversal in both its in-store condiment stations and free refill policy. Now, guests willing to linger in the green-themed cafes and can ask for their hot brewed or iced coffee to be refilled, so long as it’s not in a take-away cup, and is requested on the same day. Specialty drinks, such as macchiatos, teas, and even cold brews remain ineligible for the perk, as do-to-go orders, including customers who wander away from the store’s dining room and later return. Though the on-the-house top-off never departed for those loyal enough to order via the brand’s app, the return of universal free refills aspires to restore Starbucks to its cultural prominence — if only the CEO could also revitalize the music of Jewel, and other prior all-stars of Starbucks’ former soundtracks. 

Wendy’s, another fast food giant willing to extend a deal through the end of 2025 began offering a gratis sleeve of chicken nuggets during humpday starting in May of last year. Like many of the “free” deals advertised by fast-food chains, Wendy’s only honors its “Showin’ our Nugg Love with Free Nuggets on Wednesdays” for guests dedicated enough to Dave Thomas’ brainchild to order via the brand’s app or online. 

Unsurprisingly, the offer also requires orderers to also purchase at least one item from Wendy’s expansive menu, but the free six-piece deal still saves paying customers $3.49 (excluding tax) on one of the restaurant’s most reliable items, along with its Jacked Potato (a baked potato), and cups of chilli. Now available in the classic crispy recipe we grew up munching on, along with a modernized spicy variation, as always, comes with the option of Buttermilk Ranch, BBQ, Sweet & Sour, Honey Mustard, or Ghost Pepper Ranch dipping sauces. 

Perhaps more of a convenient store than a full-fledged fast-food joint, 7/11’s Slurpees exist in our imagination alongside other signature eats from national chains like the Big Mag, the Frostee, and the Crunchwrap. Though we have issues with a handful of 7/11’s new-fangled Slurpee flavors (we’re side-eying you, Mountain Dew Pitch Black) the classic Slurpee lineup (Coca-Cola, cherry, and blue raspberry) still hold the key to the pleasure center of our summer cravings.

As of now, the mini-mart promises to extend its free Slurpee Friday through the end of February, due to popularity, however, the company regularly reintroduces a free small Slurpee throughout the year for in-the-know customers and, unlike most other free deals, 7/11 requires no other purchase or ordering app to cash in on its free frozen beverage. While we can’t promise which flavors your local 7/11 will have spinning, we have our fingers crossed for one of the classics to fill up the iconic domed-lidded vessel. If the wintertime special passes you by, the store (like every year) on July, 11th (7/11 Day) later on this year.

To usher in the first day of spring, Dairy Queen continues its free cone day on March 20th of this year at any participating locations. So, for any vanilla soft-serve fanatics, the “Hot Eats, Cool Treats” chain will hand you an airy goodie (while supplies last). Sadly, the celebratory offer neglects to include any dips or toppings (like the new, and startingly blue Cotton Candy Dip Cone), but (as far as we could discern) allows a chocolate, vanilla, or even swirl cone finished with the “famous curl” atop the cone’s peak.

No extraneous rules such as ordering through an app, or even purchasing any regularly priced item apply to the March 20th offer, though Dairy Queen stands by its one-cone-per-person protocol, and warns that demand might cause a shortage in its soft-serve ice cream. Either way, if the first day of spring deserves a mild jubilee, or if you find yourself passing by the Queen’s beckoning bright, red, petal-shaped signage there are many worse ways to spend a droll Wednesday than with an ice cream in hand.

In the most clever ploy to attract potential customers, Carl’s Jr. (or Hardee’s, in the East) assures hungry, partied-out consumers they can “secure the cure,” with the signature Hangover Burger. Seemingly seeking to recapture the magic of Paris Hilton’s 2005 ad appearance (it was later followed by Kim Kardashian, Kate Upton, and Hayden Panattierre’s), Carl’s Junior’s latest addition to its burger roster exists as a collaboration with the “Get Ready With Me” TikTok star Alix Earle. It’s a take on the AM-antidote from a night of overdoing it, which includes a charbroiled beef patty, four strips of bacon, a fried egg, Swiss cheese, and several Hash Rounds — the restaurant’s bite-sized hashbrown nuggets.

Essentially, a breakfast cheeseburger under another name, one of the stacked 1,030-calorie sandwiches can be collected by any guest willing to download the company’s order-interface app and set up a profile. Upon completion, the Carl’s Jr. app automatically awards your profile with a single free burger, redeemable when your hangover strikes.

For a somewhat novel addition to the fast-food cannon, Wingstop, which now proudly welcome guests in at over 2,000 locations, offers a menu full of breaded poultry items in various forms (wings, tenders, and sandwiches). Accompanying them is a painter’s palette’s worth of sauces (ranch, bleu cheese, honey mustard, and jalapeno cheese), all of which the restaurant will delivery to your doorstep sans the usual transport fees.

Though the chicken juggernaut refrains from featuring an entirely cost-free edible, the waived delivery fees save hungry Wingstop patrons an average of $1.99-$5.99 with its Wednesday promotion, while more common freebies (drinks and fries) run around $1-$2.50 at Wingstop’s burger-centric competitors. And with March’s deluge of college basketball games or March Madness, the costless doorstep service might come in handy during midweek gamedays where you want to enjoy your indulgence dinner in front of your big screen and the company of your housemates.

If you don’t have any big, birthday plans Baskin Robbins will celebrate you with a completely free 2.5-ounce scoop from its legendary catalog of flavors. Yes, like so many deals, you’ll have to sign up for the ice cream shop’s Birthday Club, but the chain demands no other prerequisite purchase before picking up your cone (or cup) of ice cream.

Similar to Dairy Queen’s Free Cone Day, Baskin Robbins also denies any toppings, sprinkles, or extras (including waffle cones) to your birthday treat, though even simply signing up for the Birthday Club will reward members a second free ice cream after completion. Famous for always boasting at least thirty-one flavors, Baskin Robbin’s current website shows a whopping forty ice cream flavors; so if an infant were to join the brand’s birthday program today, the ice cream shop contains enough flavors to take them into early-middle age if visited on solely on their birthday.

An incentive for academic success with a sugar dose of bribery, Krispy Kreme rewards star students with a donut for every A they earned on their report cards. A business also tossing a gratis ringed treat out if you sign up for the app or pass by during your birthday, Krispy Kreme’s report card policy is fairly loose, as employees are barred from inquiring which, what kind, or even if you attend school and are taught to trust the report-card armed customer no matter the circumstance.

As pointed out by well-known TikTok user (and former Krispy Kreme employee), @jordan_the_stallion8 in a viral post, though the uniformed worker manning the counter does check the guest report cards “the loophole is we are not allowed to ask you if you currently go to the school or not. So if you show us a report card of any kind with an A on it we have to give you a donut. Do with that information what you will.”

Even with the loophole, Krispy Kreme’s website fails to recognize or acknowledge the widely reported report-card reward and it seems to function similarly to a secret menu item or a piece of fandom adding to the lore behind the donut conglomerate and its holed-offerings

Another ploy to encourage consumers to fork over their information, Raising Cane’s is willing to trade one of its (admittedly delicious) Combo Meals (a nearly $12 value) for a guest’s registration into the Caniac Club. The Baton Rouge, Louisiana-founded chicken chain’s combo meal includes four chicken strips, crinkle-cut fries, coleslaw, a fountain drink, and (our favorite) a slice of Texas toast.

The quickly expanding Popeye’s competitor opened over 100 storefronts last year in over 38 states, as the once niche fast food chain set its sights on national brand recognition, as the hefty giveaway attempts to sway chicken-craving diners away from more established companies like Kentuck Fried Chicken and into the ranks of Raising Cane’s fanbase.

However, instead of an entirely virtual club experience, Raising Cane’s Caniac Club transforms members into literal card-carrying devotees of the up-and-coming quick service restaurants and participants are awarded a physical card upon entry to the Caniac Club, as opposed to an app-based interface. Ideal for a fast-food lover who also doesn’t want to dedicate space on their device for ordering a value meal, or anyone who practices hypervigilance regarding the number of access they allow companies to track and monitor their data, Raising Cane’s club card functions more like an old-school loyalty program.

Subway, another substantial freebee benefactor, is bringing back its BOGO (buy-one-get-one) Footlong sub-sandwich, at least until March 10th of this year. The once dominant sandwich shop has faced a downturn in popularity over the past decade and in 2023 reported its first positive growth since 2016. The chain, in hopes of capitalizing on the small momentum 2023 brought, has implemented menu changes, premiered minor makeovers, and rolled out various special offers and deals such as the Meal of the Day and temporal promos.

Like so many of its competitors, Subway only honors its BOGO footlong promotion for customers willing to download the branded app or order a two 12-inch sandwiches online, using code FLBOGO at checkout. The sandwich empire also handed out a second sandwich for lovebirds who wanted to celebrate Valentine’s Day in a low-key fashion with the exact same promo code, so we’re guessing the burger-alternative restaurant will continue to roll out FLBOGO throughout 2025 and plan on plugging in the promo code every time we order, just in case we coil score a complimentary Elite Chicken and Bacon Ranch sando as a sweet surprise.

For high-brow fast-food fans,  Shake Shack has been a guiding light for those of us who grew up at McDonald’s and Burger King, but into adulthood crave a little more finesse than the greasy wax paper of our past. The Danny Meyer (of Gramercy Tavern) founded chain now serves burgers, chicken sandwiches, crinkle-cut fries, and shakes at over 300 stores worldwide, and as the premium fast-food chain gains customers, they also implemented a value program – albeit a little confusing.

From what we can gather, Shake Shack aims to draw in peckish guests during its dullest hours (between 2 pm to 5 pm) by incentivizing early birds and midday snackers with free items upon purchase.

When patrons make it into a Shake Shack location for the pre-happy hour special and spend a minimum of $10 (single burgers sit at around $5, fries $3, and sodas $2) they’ll be rewarded with one of the brand’s signature shakes. Unsurprisingly, Shake Shack asks its customers to order online or via the app to cash in on the cold prize but allows any flavor and any size of shake as a payoff.

Kentucky Fried Chicken and Colonel Sanders are also hungry for your personal information and loyalty and are willing to pay for access to your phone with its famous fried chicken. The chicken shack known widely by its acronym “KFC” began humbly in the Colonel’s gas station in 1930. In its nearly 100-year-old history, the company has gained notoriety for launching some of the most outlandish sandwiches on the fast food market; the no-bread Double Down, a frightening “sandwich” comprised only of two hunks of fried chicken on either side of bacon, and cheese comes to mind.

But when pure shock value or novelty wears off (like the bucked of chicken that doubled as a functional printer, or “finger-licking good” nail polish,” the chicken shop returns to the reliable method of tempting value-seekers into its red and white walls with free food. More specifically, two complimentary fried pieces with an order of $10 or more – however, white meat lovers be damned since KFC only awards a drumstick and a thigh with this limited-time promotion.

In what might be the most permanent promo run by a fast food chain, Jack in the Box continues to honor its Taco Tuesday special every Tuesday. In what began in 2023 to help support the toy-themed restaurant to legally trademark the ubiquitous phrase along with Taco Johns, Taco Bell, and Lebron James. Although the case has since been closed now anyone can loudly and proudly celebrate “Taco Tuesday” in all 50 states without the threat of any litigious result, Jack Box and Co. continue to hand out two of its crunchy shell, ground beef, iceberg lettuce, and American cheese filled tacos as a bonus for your loyalty by placing your order via the app.

The value of two Jack in the Box tacos ($1 for both) is shockingly low for the restaurant that sells everything from burgers to jalapeno poppers, and tiny tacos. Still, the dedication to the offer remains admirable.

If you find yourself in a shopping mall stricken with an episode of the noshes, hop over one of our beloved Auntie Anne’s pretzel stands and pick up a free piping hot, soft pretzel with only a required purchase of $1 – about the price of one of Anne’s noteworthy lemonades. Yes, like most freebies, Auntie Anne’s asks you to download, register, and order through its company app but while we find most of the app-based promos a little bit of a thorn in our side, our allegiance to Annie’s might prove to be the only restaurant app we would refrain from considering clutter on our phone’s interface.

Perhaps because we only upon an Annie’s while shopping at Sephora, or other distinctly mall-centric errands, we find ourselves with a twisted, pillowy, dough item from Auntie Anne’s nearly every time we enter the crestfallen gates of our once, great mall, so therefore would benefit from stacking up our pretzel points and cashing in on other pomo deals, as well as our free birthday pretzel.