Enter what you spend each month. We calculate the cashback you would earn on 11 popular Indian cashback cards and rank them by the cashback you earn in a year.
All amounts are monthly spends in ₹. Leave blank if you don't spend on it.
Quick view of where each card pays off. Rates are cashback on spend.
Annual fee, the fee-waiver spend, the headline reward, the cap and lounge access for every card the calculator covers.
| Card | Annual fee | Fee waived at | Headline reward | Monthly / statement cap | Lounge access |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PhonePe SBI BlackSBI Card | ₹1,499 | ₹3L a year | 8% net Utilities, recharges, insurance paid inside the PhonePe app (10% minus ~2% convenience fee) | ₹1,500 (₹500 insurance) on the 10% reward, ₹1,000 on 5%, ₹2,000 on 1% per month | 4 domestic visits/year |
| PhonePe HDFC UltimoHDFC Bank | ₹999 | ₹2L a year | 8% net Recharges, bills, flights, bus, trains and hotels booked in the PhonePe app (10% minus ~2% PhonePe convenience fee) | 1,000 points/month on the 10% (about ₹800 net of the fee), 500 on 5%, 500 on 1% | 8 visits/year (₹75K spend/quarter) |
| SBI CashbackSBI Card | ₹999 | ₹2L a year | 5% Online spends (except excluded categories) | ₹2,000 per statement on the 5% | None |
| Swiggy HDFC BLCKHDFC Bank | ₹1,000 | ₹2L a year | 10% Swiggy app spends (not Swiggy Money wallet or liquor) | ₹1,500 each on the 10% and 5% categories, ₹1,000 on 1% per statement | None |
| HDFC MillenniaHDFC Bank | ₹1,000 | ₹1L a year | 5% Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Swiggy, Uber, Zomato, BookMyShow, Cult.fit, Sony LIV, Tata CLiQ | 1,000 points each on the 5% and 1% per statement cycle | 4 visits/year (₹1L spend/quarter) |
| Amazon Pay ICICIICICI Bank | Lifetime free | No waiver needed | 5% Amazon with Prime (3% without) | No cap | None |
| Flipkart AxisAxis Bank | ₹500 | ₹3.5L a year | 7.5% Myntra | ₹4,000/quarter each for Flipkart and Myntra | None |
| Neu InfinityTata Neu / HDFC | ₹1,499 | ₹3L a year | 1.5% Flat on all spends | Fair usage limits per merchant | 8 visits/year (₹50K spend/quarter) |
| HSBC Live+HSBC | ₹999 | No waiver needed | 10% Food delivery, groceries, dining, online shopping (not Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra), utilities | ₹1,200/month on the 10%; 1.5% is unlimited | 2 domestic + 1 international/year |
| Jupiter Edge+Jupiter / CSB | Lifetime free | No waiver needed | 10% Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra | 3,000 Jewels per merchant, 1,000 per transaction | None |
| Axis CashbackAxis Bank | ₹1,000 | ₹4L a year | 2–7% Online: 2% to ₹5K, 5% on ₹5K–₹40K, 7% above ₹40K a month | See card terms | None |
Waiver amounts are yearly spends. Caps are monthly unless the card says per statement or per quarter. “Headline reward” is the best rate on the card; most spends earn less.
Three example spending profiles, run through the same calculator. Yearly cashback is before annual fees. “Best case” assumes you route spends the right way (PhonePe or Neu app, Amazon Prime, Amazon Pay); “base case” assumes you do not.
Mostly everyday spending: stores, online shopping, one electricity and phone bill, a couple of food-delivery orders a week and a few cab rides. Total monthly spend: ₹30,000.
Spend mix: Offline / in-store spends ₹6,000, Other online spends ₹6,000, Utility bills ₹3,000, Amazon ₹5,000, Swiggy Food ₹3,000, Zomato ₹2,000, Blinkit ₹2,000, Uber ₹1,500, Flipkart ₹1,500.
| # | Card | Yearly cashback, best case | Yearly cashback, base case | Annual fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HSBC Live+ cap hit | ₹16,920 | ₹16,920 | ₹999 |
| 2 | PhonePe SBI Black cap hit | ₹15,600 | ₹10,440 | ₹1,499 |
| 3 | SBI Cashback | ₹13,320 | ₹13,320 | ₹999 |
| 4 | Axis Cashback | ₹11,520 | ₹11,520 | ₹1,000 |
| 5 | Swiggy HDFC BLCK | ₹10,680 | ₹8,280 | ₹1,000 |
HSBC Live+ leads at ₹16,920 a year because 10% on food delivery, groceries, online shopping and utilities suits a spend that is spread across everyday categories. Its 10% rate is capped at ₹1,200 a month, so the cap is reached quickly. PhonePe SBI Black (₹15,600) ranks second only if you pay bills inside the PhonePe app; with best-case rates switched off, SBI Cashback is second at ₹13,320.
A family that shops on Amazon, Flipkart and Myntra, orders groceries and food online, pays insurance and bills, and books regular travel. Total monthly spend: ₹99,000.
Spend mix: Offline / in-store spends ₹15,000, Other online spends ₹15,000, Utility bills ₹8,000, Insurance premiums ₹3,000, Amazon ₹12,000, Flipkart ₹8,000, Myntra ₹5,000, Swiggy Food ₹6,000, Zomato ₹4,000, Blinkit ₹6,000, Uber ₹4,000, Travel & stays ₹8,000, Offline retail shopping ₹5,000.
| # | Card | Yearly cashback, best case | Yearly cashback, base case | Annual fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Axis Cashback | ₹48,000 | ₹48,000 | ₹1,000 |
| 2 | Jupiter Edge+ | ₹37,560 | ₹37,560 | Free |
| 3 | Swiggy HDFC BLCK cap hit | ₹31,920 | ₹30,360 | ₹1,000 |
| 4 | SBI Cashback cap hit | ₹26,400 | ₹27,360 | ₹999 |
| 5 | PhonePe SBI Black cap hit | ₹24,960 | ₹17,160 | ₹1,499 |
At this level the calculator ranks Axis Cashback first at ₹48,000 a year, followed by Jupiter Edge+ (₹37,560) and Swiggy HDFC BLCK (₹31,920). Axis Cashback leads because its online rate steps up slab by slab, from 2% to 5% to 7% as monthly online spend rises. The calculator assumes every online merchant in your mix qualifies for those slabs, so check Axis Bank’s exclusions before relying on this number. Cards with a 5% rate and a monthly cap fall behind once your spend in that category passes the cap.
Large offline and online spends plus insurance, education fees, travel and jewellery, which many cashback cards exclude. Total monthly spend: ₹1,40,000.
Spend mix: Offline / in-store spends ₹30,000, Other online spends ₹20,000, Utility bills ₹12,000, Insurance premiums ₹5,000, Education fees ₹10,000, Amazon ₹10,000, Flipkart ₹6,000, Swiggy Food ₹5,000, Zomato ₹3,000, Blinkit ₹4,000, Travel & stays ₹15,000, Offline retail shopping ₹10,000, Jewellery ₹10,000.
| # | Card | Yearly cashback, best case | Yearly cashback, base case | Annual fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Axis Cashback | ₹45,840 | ₹45,840 | ₹1,000 |
| 2 | Swiggy HDFC BLCK cap hit | ₹34,080 | ₹29,880 | ₹1,000 |
| 3 | PhonePe SBI Black cap hit | ₹33,120 | ₹21,000 | ₹1,499 |
| 4 | Jupiter Edge+ | ₹32,040 | ₹32,040 | Free |
| 5 | Neu Infinity | ₹29,076 | ₹25,200 | ₹1,499 |
With a larger and more varied spend, Axis Cashback again tops the list at ₹45,840, then Swiggy HDFC BLCK (₹34,080) and PhonePe SBI Black (₹33,120). Notice what is missing: ₹10,000 of education fees, ₹5,000 of insurance and ₹10,000 of jewellery earn nothing on several of these cards, so the cards that exclude them lose ground. If you pay school fees or buy jewellery on a card, read its exclusion list before you pick it.
These are examples, not predictions. Your own categories decide the winner, so enter your numbers in the calculator above.
Both are SBI Card products and both pay 5% on online spends, but they behave differently once you look at the caps. SBI Cashback pays 5% online up to ₹2,000 of cashback per statement, which is about ₹40,000 of online spend. PhonePe SBI Black caps its 5% tier at ₹1,000 a month, which is about ₹20,000 of online spend, but it adds a net 8% on utility bills, recharges and insurance paid inside the PhonePe app (capped at ₹1,500 a month, ₹500 of it for insurance) and 4 domestic lounge visits a year.
If most of your spend is online shopping and you pay bills elsewhere, SBI Cashback (annual fee ₹999, waived at ₹2L spend) gives you more room before the cap. If you pay bills and recharges through PhonePe, PhonePe SBI Black (annual fee ₹1,499, waived at ₹3L spend) can earn more despite its smaller 5% allowance. SBI Cashback gives nothing on utilities, insurance, education, jewellery or gift cards, and neither card pays on rent, fuel or wallet top-ups.
A cap is the most cashback a card pays in a month, a statement cycle or a quarter. Once you hit it, the extra spend in that category earns nothing. A card that advertises 10% with a ₹1,200 monthly cap is really a ₹12,000-a-month card, so it rewards spread-out everyday spends more than a single big purchase. The calculator applies each card’s caps and marks the result “cap hit” when you reach one.
Exclusions matter as much as caps. Most cashback cards pay nothing on rent, fuel, wallet loads and government payments, and many also exclude insurance, education fees, jewellery and gift cards. These are the categories where a premium card quietly earns 0% or 1%, so check them before you move a large payment. The 7 things to know before applying for a cashback card covers these traps in more detail.
The ranking above assumes you put every rupee on a single card. In practice, pairing a card with a high rate on a specific merchant (Flipkart Axis for Flipkart and Myntra, Amazon Pay ICICI for Amazon with Prime, Swiggy HDFC BLCK for Swiggy) with a flat-rate card for everything else usually earns more. The “Highest rate per category” table in the results shows which card is strongest for each of your categories.
Annual fees are shown for each card but are not deducted from the cashback figures, so subtract the fee yourself if it will not be waived. Cards such as Amazon Pay ICICI and Jupiter Edge+ have no joining or annual fee, which can outweigh a higher rate on a card you would pay ₹999 to ₹1,499 to keep. Lounge access is listed for reference and is not valued in rupees. Specialised spends have their own guides: see the best credit card for education fee payment and the best credit card for jewellery purchase.
Every rate, cap, fee and lounge rule on this page was taken from the card issuer’s published terms, such as the most important terms and conditions (MITC) and reward-programme pages, and cross-checked against a card comparison chart dated 26 May 2026. Where a bank’s wording was ambiguous, we used the more conservative reading and added it to the card’s note instead of rounding it up.
Each category you fill in is multiplied by the card’s cashback rate for that category. Where a card caps a group of categories, the combined cashback for that group is limited to the cap, and the result is shown as “cap hit”. The monthly total is multiplied by 12 and cards are ranked by that yearly figure.
Banks decide whether a payment earns rewards by the merchant category code (MCC) the merchant is registered under, not by the label we show. The calculator works on everyday spend categories instead, and applies each issuer’s published exclusion list to them: for example, insurance, education, jewellery and gift cards earn nothing on SBI Cashback, and utilities and insurance on the PhonePe cards earn the higher rate only when paid inside the PhonePe app. A payment can still be coded differently from what you expect, such as a school paying through a third-party gateway or a jeweller using a wallet, so treat the result as an estimate and not a guarantee.
It does not rank cards by joining fees, welcome benefits or lounge value, and it assumes you use one card for everything unless you read the “Highest rate per category” table. It is general information, not financial advice, and does not see your credit profile or eligibility.
I’m Sarath, a software engineer with 10 years of experience and a credit card enthusiast. I live a simple life, not much and not less, and I’m a low spender who doesn’t chase spends for points or cashback. That is why this calculator starts from your own everyday spends and shows the caps and exclusions, instead of headline rates. I’m not a financial adviser or a bank employee, so please confirm the terms with the issuer before you apply.
We re-check the rates when a bank announces a change and at least once a quarter, and update the “last reviewed” date when we do. If you find a rate or cap that no longer matches the bank’s terms, tell us through the feedback form below and we will verify and fix it.
Unwind earns nothing from which card you pick: the ranking is computed only from the spends you enter and the published rules above. The site shows Google ads, which do not affect the results.
There is no single winner; it depends on your spend mix. In our three example profiles, HSBC Live+ led at ₹30,000 a month (₹16,920 a year) because its 10% rate covers everyday categories, and Axis Cashback led at ₹99,000 a month (₹48,000) and ₹1,40,000 a month (₹45,840) as its online rate steps up to 7%. If you pay bills and recharges inside the PhonePe app, PhonePe SBI Black gives a net 8% on them. Axis Cashback's figure assumes every online merchant qualifies for its slabs, so check its exclusions. Enter your own spends in the calculator to see your ranking.
Each category spend is multiplied by the card's cashback rate, monthly or statement caps are applied, and the monthly total is multiplied by 12. Annual fees are not subtracted, so deduct the fee yourself if it will not be waived. Lounge access is listed but not given a rupee value.
A cap is the most cashback a card pays in a month, statement cycle or quarter; after that, extra spend in the category earns nothing. A card advertising 10% with a ₹1,200 monthly cap is really a ₹12,000-a-month card. SBI Cashback's ₹2,000 per statement cap on its 5% rate is about ₹40,000 of online spend, while PhonePe SBI Black's ₹1,000 cap on 5% is about ₹20,000.
No. None of the 11 cards compared here give cashback on rent, fuel or government payments, so they are left out of the calculator. Most also exclude wallet loads, and many exclude insurance, education fees, jewellery and gift cards, so check each card's note before moving a large payment.
The calculator compares PhonePe SBI Black, PhonePe HDFC Ultimo, SBI Cashback, Swiggy HDFC BLCK, HDFC Millennia, Amazon Pay ICICI, Flipkart Axis, Neu Infinity, HSBC Live+, Jupiter Edge+ and Axis Cashback. Annual fees range from free (Amazon Pay ICICI, Jupiter Edge+) to ₹1,499 (PhonePe SBI Black, Neu Infinity).
PhonePe SBI Black and PhonePe HDFC Ultimo give a net 8% on bills and recharges paid inside the PhonePe app, after the PhonePe convenience fee. The caps are ₹1,500 a month on PhonePe SBI Black (₹500 of it for insurance) and about ₹800 net on Ultimo, so the high rate covers roughly ₹10,000 of bills a month on Ultimo and about ₹18,750 on PhonePe SBI Black. HSBC Live+ gives 10% on utilities within its ₹1,200 monthly cap shared with its other 10% categories, and bills paid outside the PhonePe app earn nothing on PhonePe SBI Black.
HSBC Live+ gives 10% on offline retail shopping in stores and malls, up to ₹1,200 of cashback a month (about ₹12,000 of spend), and 1.5% beyond that. Most other cards give only 0.75% to 1.5% on in-store spends: Axis Cashback 0.75%, most others 1% and Neu Infinity 1.5%.
Rates and caps come from each bank's published terms and a comparison chart dated 26 May 2026, and the page was last reviewed in October 2026. Banks change terms often, so confirm with the issuer before applying. If you spot a figure that has changed, tell us through the feedback form on this page.
Spotted a wrong rate, or want another card added? Let us know.
Annual fees are not included in the calculation. Rates and caps are based on a comparison chart dated 26-May-2026 and may change. Always confirm with the bank before applying. Rent, fuel and government payments earn no cashback on any of these cards, so they are not included. Where a rate is conditional (PhonePe or Neu app, Amazon Prime, Amazon Pay), the calculator uses the higher rate by default; untick the best-case option to see the lower rate. PhonePe SBI Black utility and insurance rewards use a net 8% (10% minus the 1.5–2.5% PhonePe convenience fee). Quarterly caps are split evenly across 3 months. Jupiter Edge+ caps are in Jewels and are assumed to be 1 Jewel = ₹1. Axis Cashback online tiers are applied slab-wise (2% on the first ₹5,000, 5% on ₹5,000–₹40,000, 7% above). Buying gold or diamonds? See the best credit card for jewellery. New to cashback cards? Read the 7 things to know before applying. Back to Unwind home.