Straight money back on every spend. Ranked by our editor score: reward rate, fee-to-value, perks you will actually use and ease of approval.
The word "cashback" gets stretched a long way by Indian banks. Some cards credit real money to your statement. Others give you "CashPoints" that are worth ₹1 only if you redeem them one particular way, and ₹0.30 if you don't. So the first thing we check is not the headline percentage but what a unit of reward is actually worth and how it lands in your account.
Is the base rate real? A card that pays 5% on ten named brands and nothing on everything else is a co-branded card wearing a cashback badge. If most of your spending is groceries, fuel, school fees and the odd Amazon order, a flat 1.5% to 2% on everything (Axis ACE, HSBC Live+, YES PaisaSave) will beat it over a year. We have run the numbers for a family spending ₹40,000 a month: the flat-rate card came out roughly ₹3,000 a year ahead of the "5% on partners" card, because only a third of that spend touched a partner.
What is the cap? Nearly every 5% rate is capped. SBI Cashback stops at ₹5,000 a month, Millennia at 1,000 CashPoints, Swiggy HDFC at ₹1,500. Caps are fine as long as they sit above your real spend; a 5% rate capped at ₹500 is a 1% card for anyone spending more than ₹10,000.
What is excluded? Rent, wallet loads, fuel, insurance premiums, EMIs and government payments are excluded on most cards, and these are often the biggest lines in a household budget. Read the exclusion list in the MITC before you believe a rate.
If you fly more than four or five times a year, a cashback card is usually the wrong primary card. Lounge access and a low forex markup are worth more than one or two percent back. Look at the travel category instead and keep a cashback card as your second card for online shopping.
For pure online spending, SBI Cashback is still the simplest card in India to get value from. For everyday mixed spending, Axis ACE and HSBC Live+ do the most work with the fewest conditions. Fee waivers on all three are reachable for a typical salaried household.
Written by the CardSparrow editorial team. Figures checked against each issuer's MITC; see our editorial policy.
12 cards found
Best for online shopping
Flat 5% cashback on all online spends with no merchant restrictions, auto-credited to your statement.
Best for everyday online spends
5% CashPoints on Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, Zomato, Uber, Myntra and more, with quarterly lounge visits.
Best for amazon prime members
Lifetime free card with 5% back for Prime members on Amazon, 2% on Amazon Pay partners and 1% everywhere else.
Best for bill payments & food delivery
5% cashback on bill payments via Google Pay, 4% on Swiggy, Zomato and Ola and 1.5% on everything else, uncapped.
Best for flipkart & myntra shoppers
5% unlimited cashback on Flipkart and Cleartrip, 7.5% on Myntra, 4% on preferred partners and 1% everywhere.
Best for tata brands & upi
5% NeuCoins on Tata Neu and Tata brands (BigBasket, Croma, Westside, Air India), 1.5% on UPI and everything else.
Best for groceries & dining cashback
10% accelerated cashback on dining, food delivery and groceries, 1.5% unlimited on all other spends, 4 lounge visits.
Best for food delivery lovers
10% cashback on Swiggy, Instamart, Dineout and Genie, 5% on Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra and more, 1% elsewhere.
Best for fuel + utilities
6.5% back on HPCL fuel, 5% on grocery, departmental and utility spends and 1 domestic lounge visit a quarter.
Best for flat cashback starter
3% cashback on online spends, 1.5% unlimited on everything else and a lifetime-free offer on ₹10,000 spends in 30 days.
Best for beginners on hdfc
10X CashPoints on Amazon, Flipkart, BigBasket, Swiggy and Reliance Smart, 2 CashPoints per ₹150 elsewhere, ₹500 quarterly voucher.
Best for low interest on emi
2% cashback on online spends, 1% offline and the lowest interest rate on a mass card – 0.99% a month on transfers.