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Which card pays the most at Amazon?
One table, every card whose rate we could read from its issuer, ranked on the only number that matters at Amazon checkout.
The short answer
Which card pays the most at Amazon?
5% is the ceiling, and it is rented. The Prime Visa and the Amazon Store Card both pay 5% at Amazon with an eligible Prime membership. Without one, the best rates we could source from an issuer’s own page are 3%: the Amazon Visa, uncapped, and Amex Blue Cash Everyday, capped at $6,000 a year.
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The ranking
Every card we could source, at Amazon
One rule for this table: a card is only on it if we could read its rate from the issuer’s own page. That excludes plenty of cards people ask about, and it means every number below carries a source and a date rather than a recollection.
The right-hand column is the only one that matters at an Amazon checkout: what one dollar of Amazon spending returns.
| Card | Rate at Amazon | Condition | Return per $100 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prime Visa | 5% | An eligible Prime membership | $5.00 |
| Amazon Store Card | 5% | An eligible Prime membership, and Amazon only | $5.00 |
| Amazon Visa | 3% | None | $3.00 |
| Blue Cash Everyday | 3% | U.S. online retail, up to $6,000 a year, then 1% | $3.00 |
| Apple Card | 2% | Paid with Apple Pay — 1% with the titanium card | $2.00 |
| Chase Freedom Unlimited | 1.5% | Base rate — Amazon is not a bonus category | $1.50 |
| Costco Anywhere Visa | 1% | Base rate | $1.00 |
| Savor Rewards | 1% | Base rate | $1.00 |
| Chase Sapphire Preferred | 1x point | Base rate — value depends on redemption | Varies |
Sources: Chase — Prime Visa · Yahoo Finance — Amazon Store Card review · Chase — Amazon Visa · American Express — Blue Cash Everyday · Apple — Apple Card · Chase — Freedom Unlimited · Citi — Costco Anywhere Visa · Capital One — Savor Rewards · Chase — Sapphire Preferred · verified 2026-08-11 Includes figures confirmed against a corroborating source because the issuer’s own page could not be reached.
The top
Two cards at 5%, one condition
The joint winners are both Amazon cards and both carry the same gate. The Prime Visa earns 5% back (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11) at Amazon.com, Audible.com, Whole Foods Market and Chase Travel, with an eligible Prime membership (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11). The Store Card earns 5% back at Amazon.com and Whole Foods Market for cardholders with an eligible Prime membership (Yahoo Finance — Amazon Store Card review, secondary source, verified 2026-08-11).
Choosing between them is not about the rate, because there is not one. It is about everything else: the Store Card Amazon purchases only — Amazon.com, Amazon Go, Amazon Fresh, Audible, AWS, Alexa Skills, and your Amazon Prime membership charge (Yahoo Finance — Amazon Store Card review, secondary source, verified 2026-08-11), where the Prime Visa is a Visa that works anywhere. That comparison is on Prime Visa vs Amazon Store Card.
The condition is the real story. Both 5% rates require an eligible Prime membership at $139 per year (About Amazon — Prime free trial, verified 2026-08-11). If you are buying the membership purely to unlock the rate, it has to earn itself back against the best no-membership option, and that break-even sits at about $6,950 a year of Amazon spending.
Sources: Chase — Prime Visa · Yahoo Finance — Amazon Store Card review · About Amazon — Prime free trial · verified 2026-08-11 Includes figures confirmed against a corroborating source because the issuer’s own page could not be reached.
Without a membership
Two ways to get 3%, and they differ
This is the part of the table most people should be reading, because most people are not spending $6,950 a year at Amazon.
The Amazon Visa earns 3% back (Chase — Amazon Visa, verified 2026-08-11) at Amazon.com, Audible.com, Whole Foods Market and Chase Travel (Chase — Amazon Visa, verified 2026-08-11), with $0 (Chase — Amazon Visa, verified 2026-08-11) annual fee and no membership condition. No cap. Same issuer, same protections and same everywhere-acceptance as the Prime Visa.
Blue Cash Everyday earns 3% cash back on eligible U.S. online retail purchases, on up to $6,000 per year in purchases, then 1% (American Express — Blue Cash Everyday, verified 2026-08-12). Amazon orders are U.S. online retail, so this catches them — and it also catches every other online retailer you buy from, which the Amazon Visa does not.
Below those two, the Apple Card is the strongest remaining option at 2% — but only when you pay with Apple Pay, which is worked through on Prime Visa vs Apple Card.
The trade between the two 3% cards: the Amazon Visa is uncapped but Amazon-specific; Blue Cash Everyday is broader but stops at $6,000 a year in that category. If your online shopping is spread across several retailers, the Amex covers more of it. If it is concentrated at Amazon and exceeds $6,000, the Visa keeps paying after the Amex has stopped. Worked through on Prime Visa vs Blue Cash Everyday.
Sources: Chase — Amazon Visa · American Express — Blue Cash Everyday · verified 2026-08-11
The trap
The card that pays less than its rate suggests
One entry on the table has a catch that does not show up in the rate column, and it is worth its own section because the card is extremely common.
Chase states that on the Freedom Unlimited, when using points at Amazon checkout, each point is worth $0.008, which means 100 points equals $0.80 in redemption value (Chase — Freedom Unlimited, verified 2026-08-12).
So a Freedom Unlimited holder who links the card to Amazon and pays with points is not earning 1.5% on those purchases. They earn 1.5%, then lose a fifth of it at redemption — an effective 1.2%. The fix is to take the cash back as a statement credit and pay for Amazon orders with the card normally.
No other card on this table has a route-dependent point value that we could find. The Prime Visa is explicit in the other direction: 100 points = $1 (each $1 in % back rewards earned is equal to 100 points) (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11), the same on every redemption route.
Sources: Chase — Freedom Unlimited · Chase — Prime Visa · verified 2026-08-12
Before you optimize
The exclusions that apply to all of it
Every rate on this page has conditions in the terms behind it. Three exclusions Chase publishes on the Prime Visa are worth knowing because they catch ordinary purchases that look exactly like Amazon spending:
not earned on purchases from merchants using Amazon Pay, on purchases at international Amazon retail sites, or on purchases made directly with travel suppliers including airlines, hotels, car rentals and cruises (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-12).
Buying from a small merchant that uses Amazon Pay at checkout is not an Amazon purchase for rewards purposes. Nor is an order on Amazon.co.uk while you are travelling. Nor is a hotel booked directly with the hotel. The full list, and what each one catches, is on Amazon purchases that earn nothing.
And the largest caveat of all: none of these percentages survive contact with interest. At 18.74%–29.99% variable (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11) on the Prime Visa, or 29.49% variable (Firstcard — Amazon Visa vs Store Card, secondary source, verified 2026-08-11) on the Store Card, a carried balance costs multiples of anything on this table. Optimizing between 3% and 5% while paying 24% is arithmetic pointed at the wrong number.
Sources: Chase — Prime Visa · Firstcard — Amazon Visa vs Store Card · verified 2026-08-12 Includes figures confirmed against a corroborating source because the issuer’s own page could not be reached.
Where the answer is no
Skip this if…
Your Amazon spending is a small part of your budget
Optimizing a merchant that takes 5% of your spending is worth less than getting the other 95% right. A good flat-rate card usually beats a good Amazon card for that reader.
You would carry a balance to do it
Interest is the largest number in this whole comparison and it is not in the table. Clear balances first; the two-point difference between cards is noise next to it.
You are looking for a card that is not on this list
We only list cards whose rates we could read from the issuer’s own page. If your card is missing, that is not a judgment on it — it means we could not source the figure and would not print one from memory.
#ad New cardmembers only. We are an Amazon Associate and earn a flat fee on Amazon card and Prime signups. We have no relationship with Citi, Apple, Capital One or American Express and earn nothing if you choose their cards. We earn a flat fee if you sign up through this link, at no cost to you. How we’re paid.
Common questions
Common questions
- What is the best credit card for Amazon purchases?
- On rate alone, the Prime Visa or the Amazon Store Card at 5% with an eligible Prime membership. Without a membership, Amex Blue Cash Everyday's 3% on U.S. online retail and the Amazon Visa's 3% are the strongest we could source.
- What is the best Amazon card without Prime?
- The Amazon Visa at 3% with no membership, or Blue Cash Everyday at 3% on U.S. online retail up to $6,000 a year. The Amazon Visa is uncapped; Blue Cash Everyday also covers non-Amazon online retail.
- Do non-Amazon cards earn well at Amazon?
- Some do. Blue Cash Everyday's online retail category covers Amazon at 3%. Most others treat Amazon as ordinary spending and pay their base rate, typically 1% to 2%.
- Which card should you avoid using at Amazon?
- Any card whose points are worth less at Amazon checkout than elsewhere. Chase states Freedom Unlimited points are worth $0.008 each at Amazon checkout, a 20% reduction against taking the cash back.
- Is 5% at Amazon worth paying for Prime?
- Only above roughly $6,950 of annual Amazon spending, if the membership is bought purely for the card rate. If you would pay for Prime anyway, the 5% costs you nothing extra.
Related
Read next
- Prime Visa vs Amex Blue Cash Everyday — the closest fight on this table, worked through properly
- Prime Visa vs Chase Freedom Unlimited — including the redemption detail that costs 20% at Amazon checkout
- Every Amazon card, side by side — the four Amazon-branded cards on their own terms
- Amazon purchases that earn nothing — every rate here has exclusions, and these are the ones that catch people
Written by Stephen V. — An enthusiast who's genuinely into this. I read the terms, compile the published rates, and do the math. No lab coat, no credentials, no test lab.
About this site · How we research · How we’re paid
Last verified: 2026-08-12