Which cash-back card pays you the most?
Put in what you spend in a month. This shows what seven common cash-back cards would pay you in a year after their fees, the pair of cards that pays most together, and what a carried balance would take back.
Cash back
No signup, nothing stored.
Best single card, a year after fees
$497
- A flat 2% card
- $483
- Best two-card pair
- $653
- Interest on the balance
- $0
Each card alone, a year after its fee
How the best pair splits your spending
An estimate from the earning rules each issuer printed on October 31, 2026, before sign-up bonuses and taxes. Categories are defined by the issuer and merchant codes, so your results can differ. The reasoning and the cards' full terms are in the guide: Cash-back credit cards: which kind pays, and for whom.
Six things behind the answer
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What the calculator does
It takes a year of your card spending, category by category, and applies each card's earning rules as the issuer prints them, including the caps: Amex's 6% and 3% supermarket rates stop at $6,000 of purchases a year. It subtracts the annual fee and ranks the cards by what is left. Then it tries every pair of cards, sending each category to whichever card pays more, spilling past a cap onto the other card when that helps.
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Where the default spending comes from
The defaults are the average American household's spending in 2025 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Surveys, released October 29, 2026: $6,491 on food at home, $4,142 on food away from home and $2,503 on gasoline and other fuels, divided by twelve (BLS). "Everything else" adds utilities, apparel and entertainment, $11,025 a year, as a stand-in for bills a household might put on a card. BLS does not report online shopping, streaming or drugstores separately, so those start at zero. Replace all of it with your own statements.
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A flat 2% is the bar to clear
Two of the cards pay 2% on everything with no fee. Any other card has to beat that on your actual mix of spending, after its fee, to be worth the effort. A category card pays well where its categories are large and the cap is not hit, and pays 1% or 1.5% everywhere else, which is why it usually works best as a second card next to a 2% card than as the only one.
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Rotating categories are a guess, so you supply it
Chase Freedom Flex pays 5% on up to $1,500 a quarter in bonus categories you activate, and the categories change each quarter. How much of your spending will land in them is unknowable in advance, so it starts at zero. If you enter an amount, the calculator assumes that spending would otherwise have earned the card's 1% (or 2% in a pair with a flat-rate card).
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The balance line is the one that matters most
Rewards are paid on purchases. Interest is charged on what you don't pay off. The Federal Reserve's average rate on card accounts that paid interest was 22.36% in August 2026 (G.19 via FRED). An average balance of $3,000 carried all year at that rate costs about $671, more than any single card here earns on the default household's spending. Enter a balance and the calculator subtracts it.
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What this leaves out
Sign-up bonuses, which are one-time and change often; issuers' definitions of each category (a superstore or warehouse club may not count as a "supermarket", for example); travel-portal bonuses; and the fact that the BLS figures are averages that include households that pay cash. Interest is shown as balance times APR for scale; cards charge daily interest on the average daily balance.
Questions people ask
Is a 2% cash back card better than a category card?
It depends on how much of your spending lands in the category card's bonus categories, and whether you'll carry two cards. On the average household's 2025 spending, a flat 2% card earns about $483 a year. Amex Blue Cash Preferred earns about $592 on the same spending but charges $95 a year after the first, leaving about $497. Used only for groceries and gas next to a 2% card, the same pair earns about $653 after the fee.
How much do I need to spend on groceries for the Blue Cash Preferred to pay its fee?
Compared with putting those groceries on a 2% card, the Preferred's 6% earns four points more on up to $6,000 a year. The $95 fee is covered at about $2,375 a year of U.S. supermarket spending, roughly $198 a month, before counting its 3% on gas and 6% on select streaming.
Does cash back matter if I carry a balance?
Very little. At the Federal Reserve's August 2026 average of 22.36%, a $3,000 balance carried all year costs about $671 in interest, more than the best single card earns on the average household's spending. Paying the balance down comes first; the debt payoff and balance transfer calculators show how.
Are the card terms current?
They were read on each issuer's own website on October 31, 2026. Issuers change rates, caps and fees; confirm on the issuer's page before applying.
Does the calculator store my spending?
No. It runs in your browser and nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
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This calculator produces estimates from the inputs you provide and the issuers' published earning rules. It is educational and is not personalized financial advice. We are not paid by any card issuer named on this page; if that changes, links will be marked. Approval, rates and terms are set by the issuer.