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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallThe 18 million figure was real, but it was temporary and narrower than the headline suggests. In January 2025, Honey’s Chrome Web Store listing rose to an “18,000,000+” installation range after falling from more than 20 million following a viral investigation. That label was not an audited count of active users, and later reports put the listing at roughly 15 million in May 2025 and 12 million by December 31, 2025.
The controversy involved allegations that Honey could take affiliate credit from creators at checkout, including in some situations where it did not provide a usable discount. Those claims remain disputed litigation allegations—not a final legal finding that Honey was a “scam.”
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The short version
Honey was marketed as a browser extension that searched for coupon codes and helped shoppers save money. On December 21, 2024, investigator MegaLag alleged that Honey’s checkout behavior could replace a creator’s affiliate tracking information with Honey’s, allowing Honey to receive the commission on a purchase the creator had helped generate.
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The investigation also alleged that Honey could claim affiliate credit after showing a checkout prompt even when it did not produce a working discount. PayPal disputed the characterization, saying Honey’s conduct followed industry practices such as last-click attribution.
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After the exposé, Honey’s Chrome Web Store installation range reportedly dropped from more than 20 million to more than 17 million, then briefly rose above 18 million in January 2025. The later decline is important: the January number showed continued demand for coupon automation, not that users had forgiven Honey or that the allegations had been resolved.
By August 2026, the available evidence did not establish a reliable current Honey user count across Chrome, other browsers, mobile products, or PayPal’s wider ecosystem.
What Honey was accused of doing
The controversy concerns several different practices that are often collapsed into the word “scam.” They should be separated.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors- Coupon discovery: searching for codes that may reduce the final price.
- Cash-back or rewards tracking: recording a purchase so a service can award points or cash back.
- Affiliate attribution: identifying which publisher, creator, or marketing partner should receive a commission for referring a shopper.
- Last-click attribution: awarding credit to the most recent qualifying affiliate interaction before a purchase.
- Affiliate overwriting or cookie stuffing: replacing or adding tracking identifiers without a sufficiently clear, related user action.
MegaLag’s original investigation alleged that Honey could take over attribution when shoppers interacted with its checkout pop-up. The allegation was that Honey could replace a creator’s affiliate identifier with its own, even though the creator had directed the shopper to the merchant.
Advertising researcher Ben Edelman’s technical and merchant-focused analysis described scenarios in which Honey allegedly claimed affiliate credit after coupon searches that produced no deal. That analysis is expert commentary, not a court finding.
Why creators objected
Consider a simplified purchase path:
- A creator publishes a merchant link with an affiliate identifier.
- A viewer clicks the link and visits the merchant.
- At checkout, Honey appears and invites the shopper to search for coupons or activate rewards.
- Honey allegedly changes the tracking information associated with the visit.
- The merchant’s affiliate network records Honey as the qualifying referrer instead of the creator.
If that happened, the creator could lose the commission even when the creator generated the shopping visit. Plaintiffs in class-action litigation alleged that interacting with Honey’s checkout prompt could delete or replace creator attribution.
The legal dispute is not simply whether Honey saved money for shoppers. It is also about whether a coupon or rewards tool should receive the marketing commission when its final checkout interaction provides little or no additional benefit.
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Why shoppers cared
Shoppers had a separate concern: whether Honey actually searched broadly enough to find the best available deal. The investigation alleged that Honey’s merchant arrangements could influence which coupons it surfaced and that its marketing could create the impression that it had found the best code when it had not.
Honey may still find legitimate discounts or provide rewards at participating merchants. But coupon usefulness and affiliate fairness are different questions. A tool can save a shopper money while still raising concerns about attribution, disclosures, data access, or the range of codes it tests.
What “18 million users” meant
The January 17, 2025 report from 9to5Google referred to the Chrome Web Store’s broad installation-range label. “18,000,000+” should not be read as 18 million monthly active people.
The figure did not establish:
- how many people used Honey during a particular month;
- how many installations belonged to the same person;
- how many users were active rather than merely installed;
- Honey’s total audience across other browsers, mobile products, and PayPal;
- whether users had knowingly decided to continue using the extension after the controversy.
Changes in the displayed range could reflect new installations, delayed reporting, reinstallations, browser changes, or ordinary fluctuations. The public Chrome label is useful for tracking direction, but it is not an independently audited user census.
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The user-count timeline
| Date | Reported Chrome Web Store range or event | What it does—and does not—show |
|---|---|---|
| Before December 2024 | More than 20 million | A public installation-range milestone, not an active-user total. |
| December 2024–early January 2025 | More than 17 million | A reported decline after the investigation and backlash. |
| January 17, 2025 | More than 18 million | A temporary rebound in the Chrome listing. |
| May 23, 2025 | Approximately 15 million | Evidence that the January rebound had not held. |
| December 31, 2025 | Approximately 12 million | A further reported decline, still limited to Chrome figures. |
The later numbers were reported by 9to5Google in May 2025 and December 2025. They undercut the idea that Honey permanently “grew back” to 18 million.
Key dates in the controversy
- November 20, 2019: PayPal announced its agreement to acquire Honey and said Honey had approximately 17 million monthly active users at the time. PayPal announcement.
- January 6, 2020: PayPal completed the acquisition, according to later industry commentary.
- December 21, 2024: MegaLag published the investigation.
- January 2025: Influencers filed class-action litigation alleging affiliate-commission diversion and related conduct.
- March 11, 2025: Google announced stricter Chrome extension affiliate rules.
- Early March 2025: 9to5Google tested Honey version 17.0.4 and reported a change in one previously criticized scenario.
- June 10, 2025: Google said enforcement of the updated affiliate policy would begin.
- January 2026: A second amended consolidated complaint expanded plaintiffs’ allegations, including claims involving affiliate-network “stand-down” rules.
- June 2026: PayPal’s counsel announced another litigation victory in a separate UK-related class action. That should not be treated as a universal resolution of every Honey-related case.
What Google changed
Google’s March 11, 2025 policy announcement and its Chrome Web Store affiliate policy require affiliate links, codes, or cookies to provide a direct and transparent user benefit.
The rules require extensions to:
- prominently disclose affiliate programs on the store listing, in the interface, and before installation;
- obtain a related user action before applying an affiliate link, code, or cookie;
- avoid replacing or appending affiliate identifiers without the user’s knowledge and a related action;
- avoid affiliate injection when the extension provides no discount, cash back, donation, or comparable benefit.
Google’s clarification does not, by itself, prove that Honey violated the rules before March 2025. Nor does it mean Google banned Honey. It establishes the platform’s stated standard and enforcement timetable.
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What Honey reportedly changed
In March 2025, 9to5Google reported testing Honey version 17.0.4, released earlier that month. In the tested scenario, Honey reportedly no longer took affiliate credit when it offered neither a coupon nor a cash-back benefit.
That is narrower than saying Honey fixed every disputed behavior. The report described a test of one scenario, and the exact timing and scope of the change were unclear. A product change can also be relevant evidence without settling the separate legal questions.
What the lawsuits allege
Influencers and other plaintiffs alleged that Honey diverted commissions from creators who referred shoppers through affiliate links. A complaint described a process in which interaction with Honey’s checkout prompt allegedly deleted or replaced the creator’s affiliate information.
Later filings added allegations involving affiliate-network “stand-down” rules. The claims and PayPal’s responses remain disputed. Court complaints are advocacy documents: they present plaintiffs’ version of events, not final findings of fact.
Relevant filings include the January 2025 complaint, the January 2026 amended complaint, and a court document discussing the allegations. PayPal has disputed the characterization and defended Honey’s use of industry-standard attribution practices, including last-click attribution, as reported by The Washington Post.
A dismissal or litigation victory in one case does not establish that every allegation in every Honey-related case was false or resolved.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Should shoppers use Honey?
There is no evidence-based reason to treat the temporary 18 million figure as proof that Honey is trustworthy—or as proof that every use of the product is harmful. The practical decision depends on the trade-off between convenience, savings, transparency, privacy, and creator attribution.
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Questions to ask before installing or keeping it
- Does it reduce your final price? Compare the checkout total with a manual search for merchant-direct offers and codes.
- Is affiliate behavior clear? Look for disclosures explaining when Honey applies tracking or activates rewards.
- Do you control activation? Check whether automatic coupon testing or rewards tracking can be disabled.
- What information does the extension access? Review permissions and consider whether the convenience justifies monitoring shopping activity.
- Are rewards practical? Check redemption rules, expiration terms, exclusions, and any required linked account.
- Does it work at your merchants? Coverage and coupon quality vary by retailer.
PayPal’s current help page describes Honey as part of PayPal’s shopping tools and discusses rewards and cash-back functions. That is the company’s product description, not independent validation of its savings claims.
Practical alternatives
Manual comparison: Search the merchant’s own promotions, loyalty offers, newsletter discounts, and publicly listed codes. This takes longer but avoids installing another shopping extension and gives shoppers more visibility into attribution.
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Cash-back services: Services such as Rakuten are more explicitly centered on activating offers and receiving cash back than on automatically testing every code. Review current payout terms and exclusions.
Price-comparison tools: Capital One Shopping offers price comparisons, coupons, and rewards. Its tools are also shopping-related software, so users should review permissions and attribution disclosures rather than assume any alternative is automatically more transparent.
Browser-native shopping tools: Microsoft Edge shopping features may reduce the need for a separate extension, although availability varies by region, account, and browser version. See Microsoft’s Edge support pages.
What creators should do
- Monitor affiliate-network reports for unusual changes in conversion or attribution.
- Test links in a clean browser profile with shopping extensions disabled and enabled.
- Review network rules covering toolbars, coupon extensions, last-click attribution, and stand-down behavior.
- Preserve screenshots, timestamps, referral IDs, and transaction records before changing links.
- Do not claim that Honey diverted a particular commission without transaction-level evidence.
What merchants should examine
- Audit coupon and affiliate-network rules.
- Determine whether shopping extensions can overwrite existing referral identifiers.
- Check whether commissions are paid when no discount or cash-back benefit is delivered.
- Review contractual controls over coupon visibility and attribution.
- Compare incremental sales with the commissions paid to shopping extensions.
Bottom line
Honey did briefly reach the Chrome Web Store’s 18-million-plus installation range in January 2025, but that was a historical installation milestone—not a current active-user count and not proof that the controversy had faded. Later Chrome figures reportedly fell to about 15 million and then 12 million.
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