Every tier of every card, priced in place. Set your monthly spend and your budget for lockups or subscriptions, and the calculator prices your best affordable tier on every rewards-earning card at once, showing the tiers beyond your budget instead of hiding them. Conservative estimates: subscription fees, spending caps, and a standard 1.5% conversion cost are always factored in. Covers 88 rewards-earning crypto cards.
Pre-computed rankings at four common monthly spend levels, shown both for users with no budget for lockups or subscriptions and for users with a $5,000 budget (up to $5,000 locked or about $30/month).
For every card we run the same formula:
Capital locked in tokens (CRO, NEXO, WXT, COCA, PLU) is not subtracted as a cost because the asset is still yours. We treat lockup as an opportunity cost rather than a fee.
Annual cashback equals monthly spend times 12 times the cashback rate of the priced tier. Net annual value subtracts the card's annual fee, any tier subscription cost (for example $4.99/mo for Crypto.com Plus), and an estimated 1.5% crypto-to-fiat conversion fee. Spending caps are applied and points or token rewards are counted at 50% of face value. Token lockup requirements are not subtracted because the capital is still yours, only illiquid.
It is how much you are willing to commit to unlock higher cashback tiers, either capital locked or staked (CRO, NEXO, PLU and similar) or a monthly subscription. Free means no commitment at all. $500 covers up to $500 locked or about $10/month. $5K covers up to $5,000 locked or about $30/month. Any removes the limit. The calculator automatically prices each card at the best tier within your budget. Tiers beyond it stay visible but dimmed, and you can click any tier to price it instead.
Flat-rate cards have no lockup or subscription options, so there is nothing for a budget to unlock. They earn the same rate for everyone. Category cards like the Gemini Credit Card tier by spending category rather than commitment, so they are priced at the base all-purchases rate regardless of budget.
Estimates are based on the latest verified card data and standard assumptions: 12 months of consistent monthly spend, the 1.5% conversion fee that applies to most providers, and the cheapest qualifying path for each tier. Spending caps and the 50% points discount are always applied. Token-price volatility and category-specific rates are not modeled. Verify rates and fees on the provider's site before deciding.
There is no single answer, because the ranking changes with both your monthly spend and your budget for lockups or subscriptions. A headline rate is not the deciding factor: the top rates usually sit behind a token lockup or a paid tier, and once the subscription cost, the monthly spending caps, and the roughly 1.5% conversion cost come out, a free 2% card often beats an 8% one at ordinary spend levels. Higher spend is what makes a paid tier pay for itself, since the fee is fixed while the cashback scales. Run your actual monthly spend through the calculator above, then switch between the Free and $5K budgets to see which cards move, because the cards that only appear at a higher budget are the ones asking you to commit capital for their rate.