In today’s world, complex cognitive tasks formerly reserved for humans start becoming feasible for computer algorithms. Consequently, humans encounter increasingly more opportunities to offload a variety of tasks to such algorithms. The present studies investigate under which conditions people engage in this form of “cognitive offloading”. Our findings demonstrate that people’s willingness to offload an attentionally demanding task to a computer algorithm is influenced by their knowledge about the algorithm’s capacity and by the possibility to engage in a bonus task. That is, people want to make sure that the offloaded work is performed well: they are more willing to offload if they have knowledge about the algorithm’s reliability. Also, people want to avoid boredom and stay engaged: they are more willing to offload if they themselves have another task to perform – regardless of whether this task promises additional monetary reward.