Microsoft Rewards started as a modest Bing search bonus program. It let you rack up a few points for clicking around on Microsoft products. Half a dozen years ago, you were lucky to redeem enough for a $5 gift card every couple of months.

Lately, the program has shifted gears hard. In one sweep of changes, Microsoft expanded Rewards to more than 230 countries, launched a streak protection system that saves you from losing progress when you're on vacation, and cut a deal with Duolingo that gives you a free 3-month Super subscription just for searching on Bing. These aren't tiny tweaks. They change who can use Microsoft Rewards, how it feels to maintain your streak, and what you can actually get out of it.

We've ranked the five biggest Microsoft Rewards changes by how much they shift the program's value for everyday users. If you only have time for two, scroll straight to the global expansion and streak protection sections. Those are the ones that actually change what it's like to use the loyalty rewards program day to day.

Global Expansion to 230+ Countries

This is the biggest single change Microsoft Rewards has ever made. Before the expansion, the points program was available in a few dozen markets, mostly concentrated in North America, Western Europe, and parts of Asia-Pacific. If you lived in Morocco, Israel, or dozens of other countries, you couldn't earn a single point no matter how much you searched on Bing or bought from the Microsoft Store.

Now the program operates in more than 230 countries and regions worldwide. The recent additions of Morocco and Israel pushed the Microsoft Rewards program into territory it had never touched before, and Microsoft framed the milestone directly in its announcement. The service is now "global" for the first time.

What this means for you depends on where you live, but the structural shift is the same everywhere: millions of new users can now earn points for things they were already doing. Searching on Bing, shopping on Xbox, and browsing with Edge all generate Microsoft Rewards points regardless of which country you're in, as long as you're in one of the 230+ supported regions.

The catch? Redemption catalogs still vary by country. What you can get with your points in the United States won't match what's available in, say, Vietnam or Bangladesh. Microsoft's own support page confirms that "offers and redemption catalogs vary across regions." So the global expansion is real, but it's not a single unified rewards store. The earning side is global. The spending side is still a patchwork.

Still, getting millions of new users into the Microsoft Rewards program makes this the clear #1 change on our list. It moves the program from "a bonus for people in rich countries" to "a loyalty program for pretty much everyone with a Microsoft account."

Streak Protection: 14 Free Days to Save Your Progress

Nobody likes losing a streak because they went camping for the weekend or got the flu and forgot to do their daily set. Before streak protection, one missed day meant resetting your counter to zero, and all those bonus point milestones you were chasing vanished.

Streak protection fixes this entirely. Every Microsoft Rewards account gets 14 streak protection days per calendar year. You toggle it on from the Rewards dashboard at rewards.bing.com, and if you miss a daily task while it's active, the system uses one of your protection days instead of resetting your streak. Your progress stays exactly where it was.

Here's the vacation mode detail that makes it useful: the 14 days don't have to be consecutive. You could burn one in March when you're traveling, skip July's Fourth of July weekend, and still have a dozen left for the holidays. The protection days reset at the start of each new year, so you get a fresh batch every January 1.

A few things to know: you can't earn extra protection days beyond the initial 14. There's no way to add more during the year. And the toggle must be turned on before the day you miss. It won't retroactively save a streak you already lost. Microsoft treats streak protection as an insurance policy, not a rewind button.

For anyone who's maintained a multi-month streak and watched it vanish because of one forgotten daily set, this is the quality-of-life improvement that makes the entire Microsoft Rewards program feel less punishing. It ranks #2 because while it doesn't add new earning opportunities, it protects the ones you've already built.

Duolingo Partnership: Free 3-Month Super Subscription

This is the flashiest new reward on the Microsoft Rewards redemption page, and it's also the easiest one to claim. Microsoft partnered with Duolingo to offer a free 3-month Duolingo Super subscription as a Microsoft Rewards redemption option. The trigger? Search on Bing with Microsoft Edge for three days.

That's the entire requirement. Three days of Bing searches through Edge, and you unlock three months of Duolingo Super, which normally runs around $6.99 to $12.99 per month depending on your plan. Super removes ads, gives you unlimited hearts (no more waiting to regenerate after mistakes), and adds personalized practice sessions.

Why this matters: most Microsoft Rewards redemptions take weeks or months of accumulated points. A $5 Xbox gift card in the US costs roughly 4,650 points. If you earn about 150-200 points per day, that's nearly a month of daily effort. The Duolingo offer bypasses the points system entirely. Three days of browsing, and you've got something worth $20-40 in subscription value.

The partnership also signals where Microsoft seems to be heading with Rewards. Fewer generic gift cards, more high-value digital subscriptions that tie into the broader Microsoft and partner platform. Duolingo is the first big test of this model. If it works, expect more subscription partnerships to follow.

Streak Restore: A Second Chance Every 60 Days

Streak protection stops you from losing a streak in the first place. Streak Restore gives you a way to fix it after you've already broken it. The two features work together, but they solve different problems.

With Streak Restore, you get one restore credit every 60 days as long as your account stays in good standing. If you're on a 100+ day streak, the frequency bumps up to one restore per month. When your streak breaks (whether you forgot to turn on protection or already burned through your 14 protection days), you can use a Restore to pick up where you left off.

It's less generous than streak protection because you don't control when you earn restore credits. You just get one every 60 days, and you can't bank extras. But it's the safety net that catches what streak protection misses: the moment when you've exhausted your 14 protection days and still need one more day of coverage.

For the practical Microsoft Rewards user, the combo works like this: leave streak protection on as your first line of defense, and save your restore credits for when protection runs out. Together, they mean you can miss up to 14 days per year without losing your streak, plus get one more rescue every 60 days if something else goes wrong.

Expanded Xbox and Microsoft Store Earning

This isn't one flashy announcement. It's a series of quieter integrations that collectively make earning Microsoft Rewards points feel more natural across Microsoft's whole product line.

On Xbox, the Rewards program now surfaces on the console dashboard directly. You earn points for playing Game Pass titles, completing Xbox-specific punch cards, and buying games and add-ons from the Microsoft Store on Xbox. A dedicated Xbox Rewards hub makes it easy to see what's available without digging through the Bing dashboard.

The Microsoft Store integration is similarly straightforward: shopping for games, hardware, and eligible digital items earns points automatically when you're signed into your Microsoft account. It's the kind of passive earning that makes the points program feel less like a chore and more like a built-in loyalty perk.

This lands at #5 because it doesn't change the core value proposition of Microsoft Rewards the way global expansion or streak protection does. It mostly makes existing features easier to find and use. If you're already an Xbox Game Pass subscriber, you were probably earning points before. Now you can see exactly how many, and there are more earning opportunities on the console itself.

Quick Verdict

Microsoft Rewards went from a niche search bonus to a genuinely global loyalty rewards program in the span of a single update wave. The 230-country expansion opens the program to millions of new users. Streak protection and Streak Restore remove the anxiety that made daily streaks feel like a hostage situation. And the Duolingo partnership hints at a future where Microsoft Rewards is less about grinding for gift cards and more about unlocking premium subscriptions across partner services.

If you've been ignoring Rewards because it wasn't available where you live, check again. If you stopped because you lost a long streak and couldn't bring yourself to start over, the protection system has you covered. And if you're learning a language on Duolingo, that 3-month Super subscription is three days of Bing searches away.

You can get started with Microsoft Rewards by signing into your Microsoft account at rewards.bing.com or through the Bing and Edge mobile apps.