Skip to main content
PointBagel
PointBagel Free Tools

Credit Card Earning Cap Calculator

Bonus-category rates stop at a spend cap, and the issuer's headline number never mentions where. A 6% grocery card with a $6,000 cap pays 6% through June and 1% the rest of the year if you spend $1,000 a month. This calculator shows the exact line where your rate really stops, your blended rate for the year, and what believing the headline costs you.

Free for everyone, no signup. The answer comes before any gate - no account, and your scenario is remembered in your browser, not in an account.

Cap check · try itlive catalog · 2026-09-12
$12,000
$0$6K cap$20K
Advertised rate · first $6,0006%
Above the cap1%
Your real rate at $12,000 / yr3.5%
Believing the 6% costs you~$300 / yr
one leak, on one card · plain cash back · how we got this →

Methodology:Card list, bonus rates, caps, and post-cap rates come from the PointBagel card catalog (the same data our optimizer runs on). Worked example: Amex Blue Cash Preferred earns 6% at U.S. supermarkets on the first $6,000 each year, then 1%. At $12,000 of annual supermarket spend that is $360 + $60 = $420 back - a 3.5% real rate, not 6% - and $300 less than the $720 the headline implies. Cash-back leaks are plain dollars. For points cards, the leaked points are valued at our balanced redemption value for that program, and the calculator names that basis next to the number. Caps that reset quarterly or monthly are shown annualized with the issuer's cadence noted. How we value points →

What this doesn't model: welcome offers, annual fees, and credits - a cap leak is one line of a card's full picture, on one card. The free audit runs the same math against every card you sync.

Not financial advice. PointBagel is an independent optimization tool, not affiliated with any card issuer.