Amazon vs Flipkart co-brand cards: which fits your spending
Updated 30 Oct 2026 · by SwipeWise editorial team · how we write
Two cards dominate this question in India: the Amazon Pay ICICI Bank credit card and the Flipkart Axis Bank credit card. Their headline rate is the same, 5% at the home marketplace, but the conditions around that 5% are different enough to change the answer. The figures below are from the issuers’ own terms as we read them on 29-30 October 2026; check the current documents before applying, because both issuers have changed these cards in the past year.
What each card pays
| Amazon Pay ICICI | Flipkart Axis | |
|---|---|---|
| Joining and annual fee | ₹0 (no joining or annual fee) | ₹500 joining; ₹500 annual, waived at ₹3.5 lakh spend in the preceding card anniversary year |
| Home marketplace | 5% on amazon.in for Prime members, 3% without Prime; no cap in the T&C | 5% on Flipkart, capped at ₹4,000 cashback per statement quarter |
| Other partners | 2% on digitally fulfilled categories (for example recharges, bill payments) and physical gift cards when paid through “Login and Pay with Amazon Pay”; purchases on other platforms earn 1% | Myntra 7.5% and Cleartrip 5% (each with a separate ₹4,000 quarterly cap); 4% at Swiggy food delivery |
| Everything else | 1% | 1% |
| Earns nothing on | Fuel, gold, silver, tax payments, EMI, rent (from 18 Jun 2024); education, international spend and utility bills outside Amazon (from 11 Oct 2025) | Utilities, telecom, fuel, rent, insurance, education, government, wallets, jewellery, financial institutions, EMI and gift cards on Flipkart and Myntra; from 28 Aug 2026 also bridge, road fees and tolls |
Sources: ICICI Bank, Amazon Pay credit card T&C (12 Oct 2026 version) and MITC; Axis Bank, MITC for credit cards and the cashback T&C. Links at the end.
Worked example: ₹10,000 a month on one marketplace
₹10,000 × 12 = ₹1,20,000 a year.
- On Amazon with Prime: 5% = ₹6,000, no fee. Without Prime: 3% = ₹3,600.
- On Flipkart: 5% = ₹6,000, less the ₹500 annual fee (your total spend would need to reach ₹3.5 lakh for it to be waived) = ₹5,500. The quarterly cap of ₹4,000 only binds above ₹80,000 of Flipkart spend in a quarter (₹80,000 × 5% = ₹4,000), so it does not matter here.
So at this spend the two cards are within ₹500 a year of each other, and the question is which marketplace you really use. If you buy on both, split the spend and the card that earns 1% off-platform matters little.
Where the headline stops
- Prime changes the Amazon card. Without Prime the rate is 3%, so on ₹10,000 a month the card pays ₹2,400 a year less.
- The 2% rate on Amazon Pay ICICI is narrow. ICICI’s terms tie it to digitally fulfilled categories such as recharges and bill payments, and to physical gift cards, paid through “Login and Pay with Amazon Pay”; purchases on other platforms earn 1%.
- Flipkart Axis has caps and a wider bonus set. Myntra at 7.5% is the best rate of either card, but it has its own ₹4,000 quarterly cap. Heavy sale-season shoppers can hit the Flipkart cap.
- Both cards exclude a lot. Neither pays on fuel or rent, and if a large share of your card spend is utilities or education, a co-brand card earns little on it.
- Terms move. Axis’s notice of 28 August 2026 adds bridge, road fees and tolls to the no-reward list and moves gift cards, already excluded, into a separate “Gift Card” spend category that also does not count towards fee-waiver spend. The Axis documents we read list no lounge benefit for the Flipkart Axis card, so we show none.
When a general card beats both
SBI Cashback pays 5% on online spends at any merchant, not just one marketplace, but caps the total at ₹2,000 cashback per statement cycle (per the SBI notice effective 1 April 2026) and charges ₹999 a year (waived at ₹2 lakh spend). On ₹30,000 a month spread across Amazon, Flipkart and other online sites, that is ₹1,500 a month, under the cap. The same spend earns 1% to 5% on the co-brand cards depending on the site. If your online shopping is spread across many stores, a card with a broad rate can beat both co-brand cards; if one marketplace has most of it, the co-brand card with no fee (Amazon) or the higher partner rates (Flipkart/Myntra) is hard to beat. See our Amazon ranking (a profile with ₹25,000 a month on Amazon), our Flipkart ranking (₹20,000 a month on Flipkart) and the head-to-head: Amazon Pay ICICI vs Flipkart Axis.
A short checklist
- Pull three months of orders and write down the monthly spend per platform.
- Check whether you hold Prime (it moves the Amazon card from 3% to 5%).
- Check the fee waiver threshold against your total annual spend, not only the marketplace spend.
- Read the exclusions list for the categories in your regular bills.
- Pay the full bill every month; interest on an unpaid balance can erase a year of cashback (see our interest guide).
Sources
- ICICI Bank, Amazon Pay credit card terms and conditions (last updated 12 Oct 2026; accessed 30 Oct 2026).
- ICICI Bank, Most Important Terms and Conditions (no joining or annual fee; accessed 30 Oct 2026).
- Axis Bank, MITC for credit cards (₹500 fees, ₹3.5 lakh waiver) and Flipkart Axis cashback terms (rates, caps, exclusions) (accessed 30 Oct 2026).
- Axis Bank, revision of credit card terms effective 28 Aug 2026 (gift card category; no rewards on bridge, road fees and tolls) (accessed 30 Oct 2026).
- SBI Card, Cashback SBI Card revised terms, effective 1 Apr 2026 (5% online capped at ₹2,000 per statement cycle; exclusions) and Key Fact Statement (₹999 fee, waived at ₹2 lakh) (accessed 30 Oct 2026).
This is general information, not financial advice. No link on this site earns us a commission today; how that would be disclosed if it changed is explained in our affiliate disclosure, and how cards are ranked in our methodology.