By Jacob Elsayed, re-verified against official sources each morning
In short: MyPanera switched from visit-based surprise rewards to points in August 2026: 10 points per $1, a free bagel or mini bakery treat at 250 points, a full entree at 2,000. How to earn in cafe (your phone number) and online, the free birthday bakery treat, the MyPanera+ tier at $300 a year, 180-day point expiry, and what the paid Sip Club is.
MyPanera is Panera's free loyalty program, and it changed in August 2026: instead of surprise rewards unlocked by counting visits, members now earn 10 points per $1 of food and beverage subtotal and spend them on menu items of their choice, from 250 points for a bagel or mini bakery treat up to 2,000 points for a full entree. In the cafe you earn by giving the cashier the phone number on your account; online, in the app or at a kiosk you earn by ordering while signed in. Every member with a birthday on file gets a free individual bakery treat for their birthday, and members who spend $300 in a calendar year reach MyPanera+, which upgrades that to a free You Pick Two. Points expire after 180 days without a purchase or redemption. The Unlimited Sip Club is a separate paid subscription for self-serve drinks and is not needed to earn or redeem points.
Panera's switch to points puts MyPanera in line with most chain programs and makes the math visible: at 10 points per $1, the 250-point bagel is about $25 of spending and the 2,000-point entree about $200. The phone-number habit matters more than it used to, because the terms say orders checked out without account information earn nothing and retroactive credit stops at 30 days. For today's verified Panera offers see the Panera page; for the everyday value menu see Panera's $4.99 Mix & Match.
Official sources checked (2026-10-20): panerabread.com/en-us/press · panerabread.com/en-us/legal/terms-of-use · panerabread.com/en-us/mypanera · panerabread.com/en-us/mypanera/subscription · panerabread.com/en-us/mypanera/subscription/terms-and-conditions · panerabread.com/en-us/mypanera/subscription/faqs · panerabread.com/en-us/catering · panerabread.com (older MyPanera FAQ).
No. Under the old program your receipt showed how many visits were left until the next reward, and Panera chose the surprise (a free bakery item, a preview, a tasting). The program Panera announced in August 2026 is points-based: 10 points per $1, redeemed on items you pick. Panera's release says rewards earned under the old system carried over to the new one.
Panera's own range is 250 points for a free bagel or mini bakery treat and 2,000 points for a full entree. At 10 points per $1, that is about $25 of pre-tax spending for the bagel and about $200 for the entree. The point cost of every item is shown in the app and on panerabread.com when you are signed in.
Tell the cashier the phone number on your MyPanera account before you pay. Panera's terms say points are not earned on orders checked out without your account information, and that credit added after the fact is discretionary and limited to the prior 30 days, so it is worth doing every time. At a kiosk, sign in to your account before ordering.
Orders placed on third-party sites and apps do not earn, and neither do catering orders, gift card purchases, Panera at Home grocery products, Panera Shop purchases or Sip Club fees. Delivery ordered on panerabread.com or in the Panera app, while signed in, does earn; MyPanera+ members get 2 extra points per $1 on those delivery orders. Panera runs a separate MyPanera Catering Rewards program for catering.
For every member with a birthday on file: one free individual bakery treat (a bagel, cookie, muffin, scone or pastry), no purchase required, valid for 7 days from when it loads. You must select it when ordering; it is not applied automatically. MyPanera+ and MyPanera+ Sip Club members instead get a free You Pick Two worth up to $18, also valid 7 days. The tier you hold the day before your birthday decides which one you get.
Yes, after 180 days without activity. Panera's terms define activity as a purchase linked to your account, a points redemption or a Sip Club beverage redemption; any one of those restarts the 180 days for the whole balance. Individual rewards, including the birthday reward, carry their own shorter expiration dates.
It is Panera's paid beverage subscription, $14.99 a month plus tax or $119.99 a year, for one self-serve drink (drip coffee, iced coffee, hot or iced tea, lemonade or fountain soda) every two hours with free refills at participating cafes. It is optional: MyPanera points, rewards and the birthday treat work the same without it, and the subscription fee itself earns no points.
Panera's terms describe a one-time 500-point welcome offer for new members who make a qualifying purchase within 14 days of joining; it is a welcome offer, not an ongoing deal.
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