What the Loot Box will actually let you spend credits on

Referral credits do not arrive as money. They arrive as a balance redeemable through the Loot Box in the Tesla app, and the difference matters because the redemption rules are stricter than a cash balance's would be.

The rule to internalise before opening it

Redemptions are final. There is no return path on a redeemed item. That single rule should change how the Loot Box is used: it is a place to spend a decision you have already made, not a place to browse and experiment.

What is documented as excluded

• Cash. Credits cannot be redeemed for money, in any form.
• Transfers. Credits cannot be moved to another account or person.
• Reissues. An expired or spent balance cannot be restored — there is no support path back.
• Gift cards. Explicitly not redeemable.
• Alcohol. Also explicitly excluded, which tells you the catalogue has at some point included things broad enough to need the carve-out.

The disputed category

Tesla Shop merchandise. Otherwise-reliable sources disagree on whether Shop items are redeemable with referral credits, and this site is not going to resolve a disagreement it cannot source. The resolution available to you is better than any article: open the Loot Box in your own app and read the categories it offers your account today. That answer is current, specific, and authoritative in a way no third-party page can be.

What credits are reliably good for

The consistent use is things Tesla sells you as an owner — Supercharging being the obvious one, since it is an ongoing cost rather than a one-off purchase, and applying a balance to it needs no decision about taste. That also makes it the safest way to spend a balance under deadline pressure when the 30-day expiry email has arrived.

Deciding under deadline, without regret

Because redemption is final, the useful discipline is to decide what a balance is for before opening the Loot Box, not while browsing it. Two rules that survive most situations: prefer things you would have bought anyway over things that look like a treat, and prefer recurring costs over one-off objects — Supercharging spends itself without a taste judgement, while an accessory you chose under time pressure is the redemption people regret. Neither rule is exciting. Both beat letting a balance expire because nothing felt worth a final decision.

Charging distance is a different balance

Worth separating clearly, because both are called rewards. A Supercharging distance allowance — the European referral benefit, roughly 2,000 km since April 2026 — is not in the Loot Box at all. It is consumed automatically at the stall, before any payment method is charged, and it expires in 6 months rather than 12. There is nothing to choose and nothing to redeem; there is only whether you drive far enough in time.

The referrer amount, and why it is absent here

You will find the referrer's credit stated as $250 and as $500 in equally confident places. Since the Loot Box prices what you can actually get, the amount matters less than the catalogue — but if you want your own figure, it is in your account, and the method is here.

Related: the 30-day expiry email and the three dates.