What you are actually paying with
When you enter a no essay scholarship, your information is usually the price of entry. Most of them run through a platform that asks you to make an account, and the terms you accept when you do typically allow your details to be shared with partner schools and advertisers. That is the business model rather than automatically a scam, but it is worth knowing before you hand over your GPA and your phone number. Open the privacy policy and the entry terms first and look for who your information gets shared with. If the page will not say plainly, that is your answer.
The prize is real, but for whoever runs the promotion it is a marketing cost. Treat these as advertising with a random winner attached rather than as a way to pay for school.
The Odds Are Terrible
Because entering takes one click, these draw far more entries than any scholarship that asks for an essay and a transcript. Most sponsors do not publish how many people entered, so anyone quoting you exact odds is guessing, and so would we be.
Do not spend hours on these. You might feel productive, but it is not money you can plan a tuition bill around.
Red Flags to Avoid
If a scholarship asks for your Social Security number, credit card, or bank details, close the tab. Legitimate providers do not ask for that info to apply.
Also, if you are asked to pay a fee to enter or to 'process' your award, it is a scam. Real scholarships give you money, they never take it.
How to Actually Win Money
Put most of your time into local scholarships, like those from Rotary clubs, community foundations, or a parent's employer or union. They have far fewer applicants precisely because they ask for an essay or a transcript, and that barrier is doing you a favor.
Spend what is left on the low-effort ones if you want, but make a separate email address for it first, something like yourname.scholarships@gmail.com. That keeps the marketing mail that follows out of your real inbox.