Best Cashback Credit Cards in India
Cashback cards pay a flat rupee value, so what you see is what you get. The catch is usually a monthly cap.
Ranked for a spender with ₹50,000 a month across categories: Other online shopping ₹12,000, Groceries ₹6,000, Dining & food delivery ₹4,000, Bills & utilities ₹6,000, Fuel ₹3,000, Everything else ₹19,000. Change these numbers in the calculator. Values are best-case: points at their best redemption value and spend milestones included (vouchers at half of face value).
Top picks
- 1
HSBC Live+ Credit Card
HSBC India · fee ₹999 (waived at this spend) min income ≈ ₹50,000/month₹20,700net a year · 3.4% of spendRewards ₹20,700Milestones ₹0Fee −₹0 - 2
Cashback SBI Card
SBI Card · fee ₹999 (waived at this spend)₹12,600net a year · 2.1% of spendRewards ₹12,600Milestones ₹0Fee −₹0 - 3
Swiggy BLCK HDFC Bank
HDFC Bank · fee ₹1,000 (waived at this spend)₹12,264net a year · 2.0% of spendRewards ₹12,264Milestones ₹0Fee −₹0 - 4
Axis Bank ACE Credit Card
Axis Bank · fee ₹499 (waived at this spend) min income ≈ ₹25,000/month₹10,200net a year · 1.7% of spendRewards ₹10,200Milestones ₹0Fee −₹0 - 5
HDFC Millennia
HDFC Bank · fee ₹1,000 (waived at this spend) min income ≈ ₹35,000/month₹9,944net a year · 1.7% of spendRewards ₹7,944Milestones ₹2,000Fee −₹0 - 6
Swiggy Ornge HDFC Bank
HDFC Bank · fee ₹500 (waived at this spend) min income ≈ ₹20,000/month₹9,864net a year · 1.6% of spendRewards ₹9,864Milestones ₹0Fee −₹0 - 7
Airtel Axis Bank Credit Card
Axis Bank · fee ₹500 (waived at this spend)₹9,240net a year · 1.5% of spendRewards ₹9,240Milestones ₹0Fee −₹0 - 8
HDFC PIXEL Play
HDFC Bank · fee ₹500 (waived at this spend)₹8,808net a year · 1.5% of spendRewards ₹8,808Milestones ₹0Fee −₹0
What the numbers show: HSBC Live+ Credit Card leads this list at ₹20,700 a year net, about ₹8,100 ahead of Cashback SBI Card.
How to read this ranking
This list ranks on a mixed ₹50,000-a-month profile and includes only cashback-type cards, so cards with a broad capped bonus beat cards with a high rate at a few merchants. HSBC Live+ leads at ₹20,700 because its 10% on dining, groceries, other shopping and utilities (₹1,200 a month in total, per the HSBC product page) covers four of the persona's categories at once. The cap is reached at ₹12,000 a month of eligible spend and this persona has ₹28,000, so the figure is ₹14,400 of capped bonus plus 1.5% on everything else (₹2,880 on the excess eligible spend and ₹3,420 on the ₹19,000 of other spend). A 10% headline is only as good as its cap.
SBI Cashback (₹12,600) and Swiggy BLCK (₹12,264) follow, ₹8,100 and ₹8,400 behind. SBI earns 5% on the ₹12,000 of online spend and, on our assumption that 40% of grocery and dining spend is online, about 2.6% on those; utilities and fuel earn nothing. Swiggy BLCK depends on two assumptions of ours: 40% of dining and groceries on the Swiggy app (10%) and 40% of other online spend at its listed 5% merchants. Second to sixth place are within about ₹2,800, so your own merchant mix decides that part of the order.
Figures come from the issuers' own terms as recorded on each card page (sources and check dates are listed there). Estimates, not offers.
Head to head
- Amazon Pay ICICI vs Cashback SBI
- Amazon Pay ICICI vs Axis ACE
- Axis ACE vs Cashback SBI
- Axis ACE vs Flipkart Axis
Questions
How was this "best cashback credit cards" list ranked?
We ran a spender with ₹50,000 a month across categories (about ₹50,000 a month of card spend in total) through each card's reward rules, caps, fee and milestones and ranked by net yearly value: rewards plus milestones, less fees. Affiliate payouts play no part in the ranking.