Three dollars doesn’t buy much anymore. Perhaps a gallon of gas in some states, half a coffee at most chains, and if you time it right at Wendy’s, a Frosty every single day until the end of the year.
The burger giant has brought back its Frosty Key Tags, the small plastic tags that trade three dollars for a year of Jr. Frosties. The program returned this week and runs through April 5.
Customers can buy the tags in restaurants, inside the Wendy’s app, or through the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. The physical tags are still available, but there’s also a digital version that lives in your Wendy’s Rewards account instead of on a keyring.
The rules are the same as before. Buy something. Get a Jr. Frosty. One per visit. No limit on how many visits that turns into before the end of 2026. The tag doesn’t unlock a special menu item or a seasonal flavor. It just removes the decision. Fries, sandwich, coffee, whatever. The Frosty comes with it.
The proceeds go to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, a charity Wendy’s has supported since the early 1990s. The foundation focuses on placing children from foster care into permanent homes.
Wendy’s says the Frosty Key Tag program has raised hundreds of millions of dollars over the decades and helped fund thousands of adoptions.
The tags arrived a bit later than their typical holiday-season kickoff, but the return was rolled out without much drama. No mascot push, no celebrity tie-in, nothing beyond the charity itself.
And they’ll probably disappear just as quietly. By which time, most folks who wanted one already have it. And for the rest of the year, the transaction stays the same. You order. They hand you a Frosty—no explanation required.
Sources: Wendy’s, QSR Magazine, Dave Thomas Foundation