Grocery Rewards Credit Card Calculator

The top grocery cards, ranked

Amex Blue Cash Preferred (6%, $95 fee, $6,000 cap). Highest flat rate available. 6% on first $6,000 at US supermarkets per year = $360 gross, $265 net of fee. Below $500/month grocery spend, no other card comes close.

Amex Gold (4x, $325 fee, $25,000 cap). Best for ultra-high grocery spenders AND simultaneous dining bonus. 4x earns ~7.2% value at 1.8¢/pt on transferable points redemption.

Capital One SavorOne (3%, $0 fee). Best no-fee grocery card. 3% on groceries + dining + streaming + entertainment. Good for moderate spenders avoiding fees.

Citi Custom Cash (5% top cat, $0 fee, $500/month cap). If groceries are your top monthly spend category (often yes under $500/mo), 5% with zero fee is excellent.

Chase Freedom Flex (5% rotating, $0 fee, $1,500/quarter cap). Grocery is sometimes featured as a rotating 5% category. Stack with other cards when active.

How to pick for YOUR household size

Single person, $200–$400/month groceries: Citi Custom Cash 5% or Capital One SavorOne 3% ($0 fee). Don't pay a fee you can't recoup.

Couple, $400–$700/month groceries: Blue Cash Preferred 6% ($95 fee). Break-even is $1,583/year in qualifying groceries vs. a 2% card — easily cleared by couples.

Family of 4, $700–$1,200/month groceries: BCP for the first $6,000/year ($500/mo), then flat 2% card above that — OR Amex Gold if you also spend $400+/mo on dining.

Large family, $1,200+/month: Amex Gold for the $25,000 cap + BCP as a secondary card for extra coverage. This is the high-end 2-card grocery stack.

Where most families get the coding wrong

The biggest 'grocery' spending leaks into non-grocery MCCs: Target ($2B+ annual grocery sales, coded as discount), Walmart ($300B+ annual grocery, coded as discount), Costco ($150B+ revenue, coded as warehouse), Amazon Fresh (coded as Amazon). For these stores, no 6% grocery card helps.

Fixes: (1) Target RedCard for 5% off Target purchases — effectively a dedicated Target grocery card. (2) Walmart+ Mastercard for 3% Walmart cashback. (3) Costco Anywhere Visa for 2% in-warehouse. (4) Amazon Visa for 3–5% at Amazon. See store vs. general card for the full comparison.

Whole Foods and specialty grocers

Whole Foods codes as supermarket (MCC 5411) on nearly all cards — grocery bonus applies. Trader Joe's also 5411. Wegmans, H-E-B, Publix, Aldi — all 5411. Sprouts codes as 5411 typically. Grocery Outlet codes as 5411.

Specialty food stores often code differently: butchers (5422), bakeries (5462), delis (5462), seafood markets (5422), wine/liquor stores (5921). These usually don't trigger the grocery bonus even though they're food. Use a flat 2% card at specialty food stores.

The Blue Cash Preferred cap problem

BCP's 6% only applies to the first $6,000/year in grocery spend. Above that, you drop to 1%. For a family spending $900/month ($10,800/year), the math is: $6,000 × 6% = $360, plus $4,800 × 1% = $48, total $408 gross − $95 fee = $313 net. That's lower net than a second stacked card (e.g., Amex Gold's 4x) would deliver on the same overage.

Strategy: use BCP for the first $500/month, then switch to Amex Gold or a flat 2% for overage. This two-card approach captures the 6% headline rate without the 1% cliff. See our card stacking calculator.

Grocery + gas + streaming combos

BCP is uniquely valuable because it bundles 6% groceries + 3% gas + 3% streaming. For a family with $500/mo groceries + $200/mo gas + $50/mo streaming, BCP earns $360 + $72 + $18 = $450 gross − $95 = $355 net/year. No other card in the market matches this combo.

See our gas rewards calculator and streaming rewards calculator for the individual category math. The bundled BCP return usually exceeds the sum of three separate no-fee category cards.

Watch the 'US supermarket' restriction

Amex cards specifically require 'US supermarkets' — international grocery purchases don't earn the bonus. Whole Foods in London? 1x (not 4x). A grocery run in Toronto on a US-issued Amex? 1x. Chase, Capital One, and Citi grocery bonuses are less geographically restricted but still check terms.

For frequent international travelers, no-foreign-transaction-fee cards with flat rates (Capital One Venture X 2x everywhere) often beat a US-specific 6% grocery card on international trips. See foreign transaction fee calculator.

Related calculators

Compare dining cards in dining rewards calculator. See gas cards in gas rewards. Streaming in streaming rewards. Total cross-category in rewards per dollar. Break-even on fee cards with annual fee worth it. Store card pitfalls in store vs. general.