> Quick view: Grab Malaysia is running Cuba-cuba Lokal, Cuti-cuti Lokal from 17 August to 17 September 2026. Apply the zero-value promo code MERDEKA before checkout on GrabCar, GrabFood or GrabMart and every completed order becomes one contest entry — three if it comes from Oriental Kopi, ZUS, Beautea, Tealive, Marrybrown or Jaya Grocer. Twenty winners each get an RM5,000 Malaysia Airlines gift card, usable on domestic flights only. Running alongside are the actual discounts: 25% off a first Dine Out visit with no cap, RM12 off RM50 on GrabFood Hot Deals (Wed–Sun, twice per account for the whole campaign), up to 15% on Group Orders, RM69 off RM300 on GrabMart — down to its last date, 14 September — RM35 off RM200 on PayLater, and GrabUnlimited at RM1.50 a month. Pickup orders earn no entries, and an order without the code earns nothing at all. The code is zero-value, so it stacks freely on top of Grab's ordinary September promos.

Two campaigns wearing the same Merdeka jersey

It is worth separating these before you spend anything, because Grab presents them together and they work nothing alike.

The first is a contest. It costs you nothing extra and discounts nothing — you simply attach a zero-value promo code to orders you were placing anyway, and each one buys a lottery ticket. The second is an ordinary stack of discounts across Grab's services, with its own dates, caps and payment rules. You can use both at once, and most people should: the contest code does not consume your discount.

The contest is called Cuba-cuba Lokal, Cuti-cuti Lokal — roughly, try local, holiday local — and Grab has tied it to Visit Malaysia 2026, with Datuk Redzuawan Ismail (Chef Wan) fronting the campaign. It is organised by MyTeksi Sdn Bhd and runs from 17 August 2026, 12:00am to 17 September 2026, 11:59pm Malaysian time, a 32-day window that covers Merdeka Day on 31 August and closes the day after Malaysia Day.

How the contest works, step by step

  1. Have an eligible account. The contest is open to Malaysian citizens with an active Grab account who are 18 or above at the time of entry. Grab reserves the right to ask for proof of identity, age and account ownership. Grab employees, affiliates, related agencies and their immediate families are excluded.
  2. Apply the promo code MERDEKA before checkout and payment. This is the step everything hinges on. MERDEKA is described in the terms as a *zero-value promo code or offer* — it takes nothing off your bill; it exists purely to tag the transaction. A completed order that did not carry the code earns no entry at all, no matter when it was placed.
  3. Order on a qualifying service. Only GrabCar (any GrabCar type), GrabFood and GrabMart count.
  4. Take delivery, not pickup. GrabFood and GrabMart pickup orders are expressly excluded. Only delivery orders qualify.
  5. Let the order complete. Entries from orders that are cancelled, refunded, reversed or left incomplete are voided even after being recorded.

There is no minimum spend for the contest itself. The only minimums that apply are whatever the service, merchant or delivery platform already imposes to let you check out.

One entry, or three

Every qualifying transaction earns one standard entry. Orders from six named homegrown brands earn three entries in total — and Grab spells out that this is three, not one standard entry plus three bonus ones:

  • On GrabFood: Oriental Kopi, ZUS Coffee, Beautea, Tealive and Marrybrown
  • On GrabMart: Jaya Grocer

So a RM14 ZUS delivery with the code attached is worth exactly three times a RM90 order from a restaurant that is not on the list. If you are ordering coffee or bubble tea anyway during this window, the brand you pick is the single biggest lever you have.

The part most contest write-ups skip: how winners are actually chosen

This is not a random draw, and understanding that changes how you play it.

Grab sorts every valid entry chronologically by the time the transaction completed. The holders of the 100,000th, 200,000th and every subsequent 100,000th valid entry, up to the 2,000,000th, become potential winners. That is twenty positions. If fewer than twenty are identified, or a potential winner is disqualified, Grab selects replacements by a method of its own choosing.

Two practical consequences. First, your odds are a function of *how many entries land in total* — at the full 2,000,000, that is one winning position per 100,000 entries. Second, the terms note that where an order earns three entries, the three are inserted into the system consecutively, one after another. Three consecutive positions give you three chances to land on a milestone rather than one, which is a marginally better shot at straddling the line than three scattered single entries would be.

Claiming is time-boxed, and there is a question

Winners are announced on 30 September 2026 and contacted between 30 September and 30 October 2026, during Malaysian business hours (9am to 5pm), by any channel Grab chooses — in-app or push notification, phone, SMS, email or direct message. From notification you have 72 hours to respond, supply any documents Grab reasonably asks for, and correctly answer one true-or-false question. You get one attempt at that question. Miss the window, fail verification or answer wrongly and Grab may disqualify you and pick a replacement. If you are in this contest, keep Grab's push notifications switched on through October.

What the prize actually is

Each of the twenty winners receives one Malaysia Airlines MHgiftcard worth RM5,000 — RM100,000 across the pool. The card is:

  • valid from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2027
  • non-transferable — usable only by the winner, not by a third party
  • good for all cabin classes, not just Economy
  • valid on all flights including FY and codeshare flights booked through the Malaysia Airlines website or app
  • limited to domestic destinations within Malaysia only

That last line is the one to read twice. RM5,000 of domestic Malaysian flying is a genuinely large prize — several return trips to Sabah or Sarawak for a family — but it is not a ticket to Tokyo. The prize is non-refundable, non-exchangeable and not redeemable for cash, and any unused portion lapses when the card expires.

The discounts running alongside — with the RM figures

These are separate from the contest and each carries its own fine print.

Grab Dine Out — 25% off, no cap. Twenty-five per cent off your total bill on your first visit at a Grab Dine Out restaurant, with no discount cap and no minimum spend, and no redemption limit stated. On a RM200 table that is RM50 back, which makes it the largest single saving in the whole campaign. Three conditions: it must be paid cashless (GrabPay Wallet, PayLater, a linked GX Account, or a credit or debit card), it works only during the restaurant's opening hours at participating restaurants, and it is not valid with delivery or pickup. It is also the one geographically limited offer here — valid only in KL and Selangor, Penang, Ipoh, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Johor Bahru, Kuantan, Kota Bharu, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.

GrabFood Hot Deals — RM12 off RM50. A RM50 minimum order gets RM12 off, which is 24% on the threshold spend. It runs Wednesday to Sunday only, all day, in all cities at participating restaurants, on any payment method. The trap is the cap: two redemptions per Grab account or device for the entire campaign, not per day. Best case across the month is RM24. Not valid with pickup or Dine Out.

GrabFood Group Order — tiered to 15%. The discount scales with heads, not with spend: 5% for 4 members, 8% for 5, 11% for 6 and 7, and 15% for 8 or more. A minimum of four members must each add at least one item. Two redemptions per user per day, available at all restaurants on GrabFood, cash or cashless, and it can be combined with other GrabFood promotions. On a RM250 office lunch for eight, 15% is RM37.50 — the best value here if you can herd the people.

GrabMart — up to 69% off, plus RM69 off RM300. Selected GrabMart merchants run up to 69% off with no minimum spend, 17 August to 17 September, all payment methods, delivery only. In Sarawak and in Kota Kinabalu, Grab names Everrise as the merchant carrying this discount — its GrabMart page states the up-to-69% cut applies to Everrise local brands and household essentials, at the same prices and the same range as in store, delivered in about 30 minutes. That is the only East Malaysian merchant Grab names anywhere in this campaign, and it matters because Dine Out — the biggest offer here — reaches only Kuching and Kota Kinabalu out of the whole of Sabah and Sarawak. Separately, RM69 off a RM300 minimum — 23% — is live only on 17 August, 24 August, 1 September and 14 September, from 12:00pm onwards. Two caps stack on it, and Grab states both: two redemptions per user, per Grab account or per device for the whole campaign, *and* a daily redemption cap on top. So even though four dates are listed, you can only ever win this twice. Jaya Grocer runs its own version of the RM69-off-RM300 offer at a separate, tighter cap of one redemption per user for the whole campaign, on 17 and 24 August and again on 1 September, from 12pm. Whether Jaya Grocer also gets the 14 September window is now disputed between Grab's own two pages — the next section sets out both.

Checked again on 8 September: only one GrabMart date is left — 14 September. The 17 August, 24 August and 1 September windows have all passed. If you have not used the general GrabMart offer yet, both of your two redemptions are still sitting there but there is now only one day left to spend them on, so in practice you get one. Be in the app at 12:00pm on 14 September — the daily redemption cap means these run out.

Grab's own two pages now disagree about Jaya Grocer on 14 September

This is worth flagging because it changed during the campaign. The Merdeka hub page at grab.com/my/merdeka-2026/, which Grab has not edited since 18 August, carries the Jaya Grocer RM69-off-RM300 offer as two separate clauses — 17 and 24 August in one, 1 September in the other — and lists no 14 September date for Jaya Grocer at all.

The dedicated GrabMart offer page at grab.com/my/grabmart-merdeka-2026-deals/, which Grab edited on 7 September, says something different. Both its banner copy and its Jaya Grocer terms clause now read 17 August, 24 August, 1 September and 14 September — the same four dates as the general offer, still at one redemption per user for the whole campaign.

So the newer page adds a Jaya Grocer date the older page does not have, and neither page acknowledges the other. Practical reading: the general RM69-off-RM300 offer is unambiguously live on 14 September at selected GrabMart merchants, so that is the one to plan around. If you specifically want it on Jaya Grocer, treat 14 September as possible rather than promised, open the app at noon and check the voucher before you build a RM300 basket — and have a second GrabMart merchant in mind if it does not appear.

Grab PayLater — RM35 off RM200, code PLMERDEKA35. One redemption per user for the whole campaign, at participating online stores, 17 August to 16 September — note this one ends a day before everything else. First-come, first-served while stocks last, and not combinable with other discounts. PayLater is instalment credit, so treat it as a credit decision rather than a coupon.

GrabUnlimited — RM1.50 a month. Sixty-nine per cent off the 12-month plan, which works out to RM18 for a year of membership. Valid 15 August to 17 September, one redemption per user per device, paid by GrabPay Wallet, linked GX Account or an eligible credit or debit card — AMEX and cash are excluded. If you are already on a 12-month or 6-month plan, the price only takes effect at your new membership cycle, not immediately. No reward points are given for the membership purchase itself.

GrabCar Saver — up to 20% off. The quietest offer in the campaign, and the only one aimed at riders rather than eaters. GrabCar Saver is Grab's cheaper ride tier — you accept a slightly longer wait or a short walk to a pickup point in exchange for a lower fare. Grab lists it here at up to 20% off and publishes no separate campaign terms for it beyond a link to its help-centre explainer, so treat the 20% as a ceiling rather than a rate you are promised on any given trip.

GrabExpress — RM5 off your first delivery. Worth RM5 per order, valid on a first GrabExpress delivery only, nationwide but for selected users — meaning it may simply not appear in your app. It works on both the app and the website, applies to all GrabExpress services, and is capped at one redemption per user, per account, per device, with a daily redemption cap on top. Small, but if you were going to courier something anyway it is free money, and a GrabExpress order is the sort of thing people forget Grab even does.

One thing the English and Malay banners do not agree on

Grab's own campaign page carries the contest blurb twice, once in each language, and they list different qualifying services. The Malay banner reads that orders via *"GrabCar, GrabFood, Dine Out atau GrabMart"* earn 1x entry. The English banner on the same page says *"GrabCar, GrabFood or GrabMart"* — no Dine Out.

The formal contest terms settle it: the Qualifying Transaction clause names GrabCar, GrabFood and GrabMart only. Dine Out is not in it. So if you are booking a Dine Out table expecting it to buy you a contest entry, plan on it earning you nothing — take the 25% off the bill, which is the real prize on that service anyway, and place a separate delivery order if you want the entry. Where marketing copy and terms disagree, the terms are what Grab will administer the draw on.

Grab also points to a GXBank "Menang Emas Setiap Hari — Edisi Merdeka" Flexicredit campaign, with terms held on GXBank's own site. Flexicredit is a loan product; the campaign is a separate proposition from anything above and worth reading on its own terms.

What else is live on Grab right now — and why the code does not block it

The single most useful property of the MERDEKA code is that it is zero-value. It discounts nothing, so it takes nothing away from whatever discount you were already going to use. That makes the contest genuinely free to enter on top of Grab's ordinary September promotions, and there are two running this week that are worth more than most of the Merdeka stack.

GrabMart Kombo Jimat — 7 to 9 September only. Selected items at selected GrabMart shops run Buy 2 for the price of 1 and Buy 1, get the 2nd item at 50% off, applied automatically at checkout. Grab spells out the arithmetic in its own terms, and it is worth reading before you fill a basket: "buy 1, get the 2nd at 50% off" is calculated as 25% off the price of the two items together, and "buy 2 for the price of 1" as 50% off the two together. Both are capped at three discounted units per customer, and each is usable once per customer for the whole campaign — so the second, third and fourth trips get nothing. Grab also notes the participating shops and items change from day to day.

The monthly one: 30% off when you buy three. The same Kombo Jimat page carries a standing offer — 30% off selected items bought in threes on GrabMart, from the 18th to the 24th of every month. That is not a Merdeka offer and it does not expire with this campaign, which makes it the more durable of the two.

Kombo Jimat runs on GrabFood too, at 50% off your 2nd item and Buy 1 Free 1 at selected restaurants.

Grab publishes its own stacking order. Grab's GrabFood "Mesti Murah" page, updated 2 September, lays out three steps in sequence: use Group Order for up to 15% off, then apply Hot Deals to save up to RM12, then choose Saver delivery before checkout for the lowest delivery fee — and it states outright that these stack with Kombo Jimat. Those first two steps are the same Group Order and Hot Deals offers described above, so the practical September recipe is: build a Group Order, attach the Hot Deals voucher, pick Saver delivery, and add the MERDEKA code last for the contest entry it costs you nothing to collect.

One caveat worth keeping straight: the two-redemptions-per-campaign cap on the RM12-off-RM50 Merdeka Hot Deals voucher is a Merdeka term, not a description of Hot Deals generally. Grab's Mesti Murah page presents Hot Deals as an everyday feature with "no time caps"; the specific RM12-off-RM50 voucher tied to this campaign is the thing capped at two.

Who this is good for, and who should skip it

Worth doing if you already order delivery a few times a week. The contest code is free, the six 3x brands include the coffee and bubble tea most people are buying anyway, and the discount stack is real money — a Dine Out first visit plus two Hot Deals redemptions plus a Group Order lunch can clear RM100 of savings over the month without changing your habits.

Not worth chasing if you would be ordering purely to collect entries. Twenty winning positions against a possible two million entries is long odds, and the prize is domestic flights on a one-year clock — valuable if you already fly within Malaysia, close to worthless if you do not. Delivery fees and service charges on orders you did not need will out-run any expected value long before you reach a milestone.

A note for non-citizens: the contest is restricted to Malaysian citizens. The discounts are not — Dine Out, Hot Deals, Group Order, GrabMart, PayLater and GrabUnlimited are open to any eligible Grab user, so the savings half of this campaign still applies to you even though the contest half does not.

The fine print that actually trips people

  • Forgetting the code. It must be applied before checkout and payment. Attaching it afterwards is not possible, and the order is worth zero entries.
  • Choosing pickup. Self-collect saves the delivery fee and costs you the entry. Delivery only.
  • Assuming Hot Deals resets. Two redemptions total across the campaign, not two a day.
  • Assuming Dine Out works on delivery. It does not — it is a dine-in offer, cashless payment only, in ten named areas.
  • Mid-cycle GrabUnlimited. Existing 6- or 12-month members get the RM1.50 rate only at renewal.
  • The 16 September cliff on PayLater. Everything else runs to 17 September; PayLater's RM35 offer stops a day earlier.
  • Reading "four dates" as four chances on GrabMart. The RM69-off-RM300 offer lists four dates but caps you at two redemptions for the entire campaign — one on Jaya Grocer. The dates tell you *when*, not *how many*.
  • Expecting Dine Out to earn a contest entry. Grab's Malay banner lists it; the English banner and the binding contest terms do not.
  • Grab's discretion. As with every campaign of this shape, Grab reserves the right to amend, shorten or terminate the contest without notice, and its decision on all matters is stated as final.

Related reads

*Verified on Grab Malaysia's official campaign pages (grab.com/my/merdeka-2026 and grab.com/my/grabmart-merdeka-2026-deals) and their published promotion terms, re-read 8 September 2026. At that check the GrabMart RM69-off-RM300 offer had one date left (14 September); Grab's two pages were found to disagree on whether Jaya Grocer is included on it, with the GrabMart page edited on 7 September and the Merdeka hub unedited since 18 August. The Everrise section for Sarawak and Kota Kinabalu, and the section on Kombo Jimat (7–9 September) and Grab's published Mesti Murah stacking order, were added at that check. The Dine Out, Hot Deals, Group Order, PayLater, GrabUnlimited, GrabCar Saver and GrabExpress figures were each re-read against the live terms and are unchanged. The GrabMart per-user redemption caps, the GrabCar Saver and GrabExpress offers, and the Malay/English banner discrepancy were added at an earlier 30 August check. Mechanics, dates and caps are as Grab states them; Grab may amend them without notice.*

*Image: Grab Malaysia*