The Prime Visa by annual spend tier

Every figure above is the published rate multiplied by the spend. No estimates, no assumed bonus categories, no projected value. If your Amazon spending falls between two rows, the arithmetic is linear — multiply by 0.05 and you have your number.

$600 a year, about $50 a month. The rate advantage is roughly $12 a year against the no-membership card. That is not a reason to change anything. If you already hold the card and already pay for Prime, take the 5%; if not, this tier does not justify an application on rewards grounds.

$1,200 to $2,400 a year. The advantage is $24 to $48 a year. Still modest, but the card costs $0 (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11) to hold, so it is free money for spending you are doing anyway. At this tier the deciding factors are usually the protections and the exclusions rather than the rate.

$6,000 a year, about $500 a month. Now the numbers are real: $300 a year of rewards, $120 more than the Amazon Visa would pay. This is also roughly the level at which buying Prime purely for the rate starts to make arithmetic sense, which the next section handles.

$12,000 a year. $600 of rewards. At this level the exclusions matter more than the rate, because a few thousand dollars accidentally spent through an ineligible route costs more than most of the tier differences on this page. Those are on what actually earns 5%.

At every tier on this page, the first-year picture is dominated by one number. Chase advertises a $150 Amazon Gift Card loaded into your Amazon Gift Card balance on approval (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11).

Against the $12 to $240 of annual rate advantage in the table, that is the largest single item in year one at all but the highest spending levels. Which is exactly why it should be treated carefully rather than as the deciding factor: it is one-time, it is subject to approval, it is for new cardmembers only, and welcome offers change without notice. A card chosen for a one-time offer is a card you then hold for years on its recurring terms.

It also arrives as Amazon credit rather than as cash, which is a real difference in value if you would rather have money. That is worked through on what the welcome offer is really worth.

The exclusions. Rewards are 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). A tier calculation assumes every Amazon dollar earns 5%, and the terms are more specific than that.

The APR. The purchase APR is 18.74%–27.49% variable (Chase — Prime Visa Pricing & Terms, verified 2026-08-13). Every row above is void for anyone carrying a balance, at any spending level, because the interest term is larger than the rewards term. The arithmetic is on when interest eats the 5%.

The protections. The card publishes benefits that do not appear in a rate table, including Extended Warranty Protection extends the manufacturer's U.S. warranty by an additional year, on eligible warranties of three years or less, up to four years from the date of purchase (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-12). Those are on the protections page, and at low spending tiers they can matter more than the rewards do.