Cash Back Calculator
Spending $600 on groceries at 3%, $200 on gas at 2%, and $1,200 everywhere else at 1% earns $34 in monthly cash back. This cash back calculator estimates rewards from one card across one or more spending categories. Enter your spend and each reward rate to see total cash back, your blended reward rate, and what that pace looks like over a full year.
Quick answer
Cash back for each category equals spending x cash-back rate.
Category 1
Category 2
Category 3
Enter spending for the period you selected above. This estimate does not include spending caps, rotating-category activation, annual fees, balance interest, or point redemptions at different values.
What this tells you
- •Cash back for each category equals spending x cash-back rate.
- •Total cash back equals the sum of all category rewards.
- •Your effective cash-back rate equals total cash back divided by total spend.
- •If you enter monthly spending, the calculator also annualizes the result by multiplying by 12.
How to Use
- 1Choose whether your spending amounts are monthly or annual.
- 2Enter a spending amount and cash-back rate for each category you want to include.
- 3Add another row if your card pays different rates in more than three categories.
- 4Calculate to see total cash back, your blended reward rate, and the annual or monthly equivalent.
How It Works
Formula
Cash back by category = spending x (cash-back rate ÷ 100)
Total cash back = sum of category cash back
Effective cash-back rate = (total cash back ÷ total spend) x 100
Annualized cash back from monthly spending = monthly cash back x 12The calculator works category by category. It converts each percentage into a decimal, multiplies that rate by the spending in that category, and adds the reward dollars together. It then divides total rewards by total spend to show the blended rate you actually earned across all categories, not just the headline rate on one part of your spending.
Calculation note: values are processed in the order shown above, using the current input units.
Worked Examples
Three-category monthly rewards mix
Groceries earn $18, gas earns $4, and everything else earns $12. That adds up to $34 on $2,000 of spend. Over 12 similar months, that pace would equal $408 in annual cash back.
Flat 2% card on annual spend
A flat-rate card is simple because every dollar earns the same rate. Multiply $24,000 by 0.02 to get $480 for the year, which works out to $40 per month on average.
What common cash-back rates earn on $1,000 of spend
Quick reward estimates for one spending category before any caps, fees, or point-value adjustments.
| Cash-back rate | Cash back on $1,000 | Cash back on $2,500 |
|---|---|---|
| 1% | $10 | $25 |
| 1.5% | $15 | $37.50 |
| 2% | $20 | $50 |
| 3% | $30 | $75 |
| 5% | $50 | $125 |
The dollar reward scales in a straight line as long as the full spend qualifies for that rate.
Common mistakes
- Using one average reward rate when your card actually pays different percentages by category
- Counting the full category spend at 5% when the card has a quarterly or annual spending cap
- Comparing reward dollars without subtracting annual fees or checking whether interest charges wipe them out