No time, no problem: 5 last-minute digital gifts that actually feel personal

We’re just a few days away from Christmas, and you haven’t bought any presents yet. No judgment here — we’ve all been there.

The problem is that it may be too late to get something shipped, and if you’re like me, the idea of going to the mall knowing how busy it is at the moment is far from appealing.

Fortunately, there’s a great solution right in front of you. Buying a digital gift is simple, fast, and if you know just a little bit about the person you’re buying it for — which I assume you do — it can still be very personal. Let’s be honest, you don’t want to gift something that screams, “I forgot about this whole Christmas thing.”

This is by far the best digital gift if you ask me, mainly because it’s so versatile. Instead of being tied to just one product or service, this gift card lets people choose their own adventure on the Play Store.

That means they can use it to fund a YouTube Premium subscription, buy a premium game like Minecraft, or set up Todoist Pro to kick off the new year productively. They can even use it to subscribe to Gemini Advanced, which also gets them 2TB of cloud storage for photos and other files.

The easiest way to buy one is via Amazon. Choose the denomination — from $25 to $200 — and then just type in the person’s email address or phone number to send it to them instantly. You can even select from a few designs to personalize the email a bit so it doesn’t look too generic.

Honestly, I would be super excited if I received this as a gift. Online privacy matters more than ever, with people moving away from Google and even going the self-hosted route just to keep their data private. For the privacy-conscious person in your life, a Proton gift card is a great choice.

Proton is a Swiss company known for its privacy services. For example, it offers things like Proton Mail, Calendar, and Drive, all of which are encrypted, so not even the company can see your files and data. That is different than Google, for example, which has the technical capabilities to see everything in one’s account.

A gift card will allow the person to subscribe to Proton’s services individually, although the best thing to do is to subscribe to Proton Unlimited, which offers access to all the services with a single subscription. In addition to the ones already mentioned, these include Proton VPN, Meet, Pass, Docs, Sheets, and even a privacy-focused AI chatbot called Lumo.

You can’t buy the gift card on Amazon, but it is available through the company’s website. You can choose from a few different denominations — $20, $50, and $100.

If you have a gamer in your life with an Xbox, this is the gift to get. Instead of buying an individual game that the person may not like anyway, an Xbox Game Pass subscription is a much better option. It’s basically like Netflix, but for games.

There are a few different plans available, but I recommend splurging for the Ultimate one. It offers more than 500 games, with more added frequently. Some of the most popular new titles are added to the service on launch day.

Just like with the Play Store gift card, you can buy this on Amazon. I linked the 3-month subscription below, but you can also get a subscription for just a single month or the whole year. Before you buy it, though, make sure the person actually has an Xbox and isn’t signed up for the service already, since it’s a popular one.

Books have always been one of the best gifts you can give, but choosing the right one is tricky. Here’s where Audible comes in.

Audible is Amazon’s subscription service for audiobooks. It’s not exactly like Netflix for books, since you don’t have unlimited access to every single title. Instead, the plan gives you one credit per month to redeem for any book you want, regardless of the price. However, you also get unlimited access to a “Plus” catalog of podcasts and select originals.

Gifting an Audible subscription puts the selection in the hands of the receiver. They can browse through the vast library, select the book they want, and listen to it within the app. The book is theirs to keep forever, even after the subscription runs out.

You can buy an Audible subscription as a gift directly on the company’s website.

Who doesn’t like the gift of music? Spotify is the biggest music streaming service in the world and also has a great selection of podcasts — some of which are exclusive to the platform.

If the person you’re buying the gift for isn’t already a subscriber, a yearly Spotify subscription is a great gift. Listening to your favorite tunes for a whole year without any limitations or those annoying ads sounds appealing to me.

Keep in mind that you generally can subscribe to Spotify with the Google Play gift cards mentioned earlier in this post. However, gifting a Spotify subscription directly can feel more personal. Additionally, sometimes paying for Spotify through the Play Store can cost more than if you were to buy a yearly gift card.

There you have it — these are the best last-minute digital gifts I recommend that will save you time and help you avoid the crowds. Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below.