Challenge rules

Eight challenges are available across paid tiers:

What counts as a qualifying drink. A qualifying check-in requires purchase of a drink prepared or served by staff at a cafe, coffee shop, tea house, boba shop, or any location with a staffed or branded coffee counter. Qualifying beverages include coffee (any style), tea, matcha, chai, hot chocolate, boba, and bubble tea. Smoothies, juice, pressed beverages, fountain drinks, bottled or canned drinks from a fridge, and self-serve cold beverages do not qualify. The rule in one sentence: if someone at a cafe, tea house, or staffed coffee counter made it or poured it for you, it counts.

Open challenges (First 15, Explorer 30, and Daily 50). Any location where a person makes or pours a qualifying drink for you. This includes chains (Starbucks, Dunkin', Peet's, Dutch Bros, Costa, Tim Hortons), independent shops, tea houses, boba shops, gas stations with a staffed or branded coffee counter (Wawa, Sheetz, Buc-ee's, 7-Eleven, RaceTrac), diners, bakeries, restaurants with a coffee bar, and hotel lobbies with a staffed coffee counter. Generic gas stations without a dedicated coffee program (Shell, Chevron, BP, Exxon) do not qualify. Self-serve coffee pots and vending machines do not qualify.

Exploration challenges (Pulled 50, 100, 200, 300). Independent specialty shops only. No chains. No Starbucks, Dunkin', Peet's, Dutch Bros, or national or regional chains of any kind. The shop must be a standalone independent cafe, roaster, tea house, or specialty beverage shop. Each visit must be at a different shop. Repeat visits to the same location do not count toward the total. Recognized third-wave specialty chains with fewer than 50 locations (Blue Bottle, Intelligentsia, Verve, Stumptown, and similar) are eligible. Specialty status is determined by Google Places category data and may be manually adjusted by our moderation team. If you believe a shop is incorrectly classified, you can submit a reclassification request through the app.

Locations that never count. Grocery stores, home addresses (except for Origin Home Brew challenge), office break rooms, vending machines, or any location without a staffed counter serving prepared beverages. Generic gas stations without a branded coffee program (Shell, Chevron, BP, Exxon).

Daily pull limits are tier-based. Ritual and Explorer members may pull up to 2 times per day. Devoted and Origin members may pull up to 4 times per day. This is a daily total across all challenges combined, including home pulls. After reaching your daily limit, the check-in button is unavailable until midnight in your local timezone.

All challenge progress is subject to the daily pull limit associated with your subscription tier. Pulls beyond the daily limit will not count toward challenge completion until the limit resets at midnight in your local timezone. A single challenge can be completed over multiple days and will not be invalidated by hitting the daily cap.

60-day cooldown after each challenge completion for all challenges except Pulled 300. After completing any challenge, you cannot re-enroll in that same challenge for 60 days from the date of completion.

Pulled 300 has a 365-day cooldown.

The cooldown begins on the date your challenge is marked complete, not the date your payout is processed.

Pulled 100 requires completion of Pulled 50 before enrollment. Pulled 200 requires completion of Pulled 100. Pulled 300 requires completion of Pulled 200. Each gate requires a 30-day waiting period after the prerequisite challenge is completed.

First 15, Explorer 30, Daily 50, and Pulled 50 are available immediately upon subscribing to the qualifying tier.

Pulled 100, Pulled 200, and Pulled 300 require 30 days of account age before enrollment. Explorer 30, Daily 50, and Pulled 50 are available from day one.

All check-ins from day one count toward any enrolled challenge, your Pull Map, streaks, badges, and leaderboards. The 30-day gate only prevents enrollment in the three highest-reward challenges.

First 15, Explorer 30, and Daily 50. One check-in per shop per calendar day. You may check in at the same shop on consecutive days. A second check-in at the same shop on the same calendar day does not count toward your challenge total. You may visit as many different shops as you want on the same day, subject to your tier's daily pull cap (2 per day for Ritual and Explorer, 4 per day for Devoted and Origin).

Pulled 50, 100, 200, and 300. Each shop counts once. Repeat visits to a shop you have already counted do not increment your challenge counter. Visiting the same shop 50 times counts as 1 unique shop. The check-in itself still registers on your Pull Map, your streak, and any active Daily 50 challenge. It simply does not advance your Pulled challenge counter.

Every check-in passes through multiple verification layers:

Layer 1: Automated (every check-in). GPS coordinates must place you within approximately 100 meters of the claimed shop. Photo hashing detects duplicate submissions. Accelerometer data confirms natural device movement during capture. Device fingerprinting flags multi-account activity.

Layer 2: AI verification (challenge check-ins). Photos are analyzed for a real coffee shop environment, visible branding, absence of manipulation artifacts, and consistent lighting. Review intensity scales with reward size.

Layer 3: Manual review (before payout). Before any challenge reward is approved, our team reviews a random sample of at least 10 check-ins from the challenge. For rewards of $1,000 or more, all check-ins may be reviewed.

Layer 4: Pattern analysis (ongoing). We monitor for multi-account activity, collusion patterns, and suspicious signup anomalies.

Layer 5: Post-payout audit (quarterly). A random sample of completed challenges are audited after payout. If fraud is discovered post-payout, we reserve the right to recover the funds.

No receipt required. A photo of your drink is the only verification needed. In rare cases involving a specific account under fraud investigation, we may request additional documentation.

Pulled 50 requires a minimum of 30 days between the first and last qualifying check-in. This prevents artificially compressed completion through travel blitzes.

All other challenges have no minimum elapsed time beyond what the check-in requirements naturally impose.

Pulled 50 and above require giving at least 10 props to other users' check-ins during the challenge period. Props given before the challenge start date do not count.

You may run up to 3 challenges simultaneously. A single check-in can count toward all active challenges it qualifies for. For example, a specialty shop check-in can count toward Daily 50, Pulled 50, and Pulled 100 at the same time.

Challenges are user-initiated. You start when you are ready. Once started, the clock runs continuously. There is no pause or restart. If you do not complete the challenge within the time limit, the challenge expires and progress is lost. You may start the same challenge type again after any applicable cooldown period.

Each challenge type has a target number of earners per calendar year. These targets are published as guidance and reflect our capacity planning. Pulled Coffee reserves the right to honor payouts beyond these targets at its sole discretion. Challenges already in progress when a target is reached are always honored.

Published annual targets: Daily 50: 800. Pulled 50: 400. Pulled 100: 160. Pulled 200: 80. Pulled 300: 40.

Method. All payouts are sent via PayPal in USD. You must maintain a valid PayPal account linked to your Pulled profile. We do not support alternative payout methods at launch.

Minimum withdrawal. $25 minimum balance required to initiate a withdrawal.

New account hold. All new accounts are subject to a 30-day hold before the first payout is eligible. Rewards earned during this period are held until the 30-day mark, then released after verification.

Manual approval. For the first 90 days after launch, all payouts require manual approval by the Pulled Coffee team. This is a temporary measure to ensure system integrity during early operations.

Verification timeline. After challenge completion, verification typically takes 5 to 7 business days. Complex cases or high-value rewards ($1,000+) may take up to 14 business days.

Payout timing. Once verified and approved, payouts are initiated within 3 business days. PayPal processing adds 1 to 2 business days. Total time from challenge completion to funds in your PayPal account: approximately 7 to 14 business days.

Forfeiture. Payouts are permanently forfeited if fraud is detected at any point, including after a payout has been made.

Taxes. Reward earnings may be taxable income depending on your jurisdiction. Pulled does not withhold taxes. You are responsible for reporting and paying applicable taxes.

Household cap. Accounts sharing a residential address or payment method are subject to a combined annual payout cap of $20,000 per calendar year. Only one account per household may be enrolled in Pulled 300 at any given time.

Three-strike system for human-reviewable offenses:

• First offense: Warning issued. Check-in flagged for review.
• Second offense: Account restricted. All active challenges paused pending review.
• Third offense or confirmed fraud: Permanent ban. All pending and future payouts forfeited. Account terminated.

Automated triggers (impossible travel speed, duplicate photo hash, no device movement) result in immediate check-in rejection without a strike.

If you complete 90% or more of a challenge and miss the deadline by a narrow margin, you may request a review. Extensions of 7 to 14 days may be granted at our discretion. Extensions are not guaranteed.

Device changes mid-challenge do not invalidate your progress. Contact hello@pulled.coffee if you change devices during an active challenge.

Seasonal challenges and monthly mini-challenges follow the same verification and payout rules as main challenges but with smaller rewards and shorter timeframes. Details are published when offered.

You must be at least 18 years old to use Pulled and to enroll in any challenge. You must hold a valid PayPal account. You must maintain an active paid subscription at the qualifying tier throughout the challenge period and at the time of payout.

Maximum reward disclosure. The maximum reward of $10,000 requires completion of Pulled 300 at Origin tier ($129.99/month, or $67.99/month billed annually for Founding Origin). Devoted tier reward for Pulled 300 is $5,000.

We may update challenge rules, reward amounts, earner caps, and verification requirements. Changes apply to challenges started after the effective date. Challenges already in progress are governed by the rules in effect when they were started. Material changes will be communicated at least 30 days in advance.

Questions about challenge rules, verification, or payouts: hello@pulled.coffee