Every welcome bonus on our list, ranked by what you get per dollar spent

Welcome bonuses are usually ranked by size, which puts the Chase Sapphire Reserve and The Platinum Card from American Express, at up to 175,000 points each, at the top. Rank the same offers by what they pay per dollar you are required to spend, subtract the first-year annual fee, and the list turns over. Four no-fee cards that pay $200 on $500 return 40 cents a dollar. The Platinum’s maximum offer nets 7.1 cents.

How we ranked the welcome bonuses

The study ranks every credit card in our catalogue whose welcome offer states an amount, a spending requirement and a deadline. That is 13 cards in 15 rows: the Sapphire Reserve appears at both its elevated and standard offers, and the Sapphire Preferred at two point values. Every product figure comes from our catalogue as verified on August 1, 2026.

Welcome bonus return per dollar of required spending

Four no-fee cards tie at 40 cents per required dollar: the Wells Fargo Active Cash, Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards, Chase Freedom Flex and Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards, each paying $200 after $500 in three months. No points or miles offer comes close except the Reserve’s elevated one, at 29.2 cents. The minimum matters as much as the bonus: the same $200 drops to 20.0 cents on Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards, which asks for $1,000, and to 13.3 on Citi Double Cash, which asks for $1,500.

A four-way tie at 40%, broken by what comes after

With the bonus identical, ongoing earn breaks the tie: 2% on everything on the Active Cash, 1.5% on the Quicksilver, 3% on dining, entertainment, popular streaming and grocery stores on the SavorOne, and 5% rotating quarterly categories on the Freedom Flex. The flat-rate cash back showdown takes that question further.

Net of the first-year fee: the travel cards reshuffle

Seven of the 13 cards charge no annual fee, so their net equals their gross. For the other six, the fee comes straight off the bonus. Our catalogue lists no first-year fee waiver on any ranked card, so none is assumed.

The Venture now leads the points and miles cards: $750 of miles less a $95 fee is $655, or 16.4 cents per required dollar. The Venture X earns the identical bonus on the identical spend, but its $395 fee leaves $355, less than half its gross rate. The Platinum nets $855, second in dollars only to the Reserve’s elevated offer, yet ranks 14th of 15 rows per dollar because it asks for $12,000. The Gold is last: $275 net on $6,000.

Optional add-on: credits our catalogue puts a number on

A statement credit is worth something only if you would have spent the money anyway, so credits stay out of the ranking. Where our catalogue gives an amount, the table shows year one with every dollar used. Read the last column as a ceiling, not a second ranking.

Use the Venture X’s $300 credit in full and its year one lands at $655, level with the Venture’s bonus-only net. Count the Venture’s own Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit too and the Venture still leads, at up to $775. Past year one, the choice turns on the years after the bonus.

Big bonuses need big, fast spending

A spending requirement is a pace, not a total. Divide it by the window and you get the monthly card spending each bonus assumes from the day the account opens.

$2,000 a month is a $24,000-a-year pace. If your household already puts that on cards, the Reserve and the Platinum ask nothing unusual. If not, the gap has to come from bills moved onto the card, where the biller accepts cards without a surcharge, from a large purchase you had already planned, or from purchases you did not need. Only the first two are free. A bonus earned by buying things you did not need is a discount, not a return.

A bonus earned by buying things you did not need is a discount, not a return.

Moving spending you would do anyway still has a small cost: your current card stops earning on it. $12,000 of everyday spending moved from a 2% card to the Platinum’s 1x gives up $120 at 1 cent a point. The ranking leaves this out because it depends on the card you hold now. Your own arithmetic should not.

The full table: 15 rows, every figure

Six findings from the welcome bonus data

1. 01

   1. Small no-fee bonuses pay the most per dollar

   40.0%

   Wells Fargo Active Cash · 4.7/5

   Four cards pay $200 on $500 in three months. The trade-off is the ceiling: $200 is all you get, however much you spend.

2. 02

   2. The biggest bonus hinges on an offer you do not choose

   $500 swing

   Chase Sapphire Reserve · 4.6/5

   $955 net at the Reserve’s elevated offer, $455 at the standard one. At 125,000 points it trails the Venture in dollars, on $2,000 more spending and with a fee $700 higher.

3. 03

   3. Among points and miles cards, the Venture nets the most per dollar

   16.4%

   Capital One Venture Rewards · 4.6/5

   The Sapphire Preferred matches its $655 only at 1.25 cents through Chase Travel, and on $1,000 more spending. Compare the two, or read Sapphire Preferred vs Venture for the years after the bonus.

4. 04

   4. The Platinum’s size is also its weakness

   7.1%

   The Platinum Card from American Express · 4.4/5

   $855 at most, after $12,000 in six months. Four of the $500-threshold cards would collect $800 on $2,000, a sixth of the spending, at the cost of four applications, each of which typically brings a hard inquiry. The Platinum break-even math covers the years after.

5. 05

   5. A long window can matter more than a low minimum

   $250/mo

   Citi Double Cash · 4.7/5

   The Double Cash asks for three times the Active Cash’s spending but allows six months: $250 a month against $167. Six months also puts the Gold at $1,000 a month, below the Venture’s $1,333.

6. 06

   6. The Gold finishes last on both measures

   4.6%

   American Express Gold Card · 4.7/5

   10.0% before its $325 fee, 4.6% after. Its case is 4x at restaurants and U.S. supermarkets year after year, which is how it still places fifth in our ranking.

Freedom Unlimited and Discover it: first-year offers with no threshold

Two offers have no required spend to divide by. Each pays in proportion to what you spend in the first year, so a per-dollar figure would only restate the offer. They are explained here instead.

Chase Freedom Unlimited: an extra 1.5% on up to $20,000

The Freedom Unlimited adds 1.5% cash back on everything you buy, on up to $20,000 spent in the first year: up to $300 extra. There is no deadline and no cliff. The first dollar earns the extra 1.5 cents, and so does the 20,000th. The price is a low rate per dollar.

It passes a $200-on-$500 bonus only at $13,333 of first-year spending. It fits a household that would put at least that much on one no-fee card in year one and would rather not watch a deadline.

Discover it Cash Back: the Cashback Match

The Discover it Cash Back has no up-front bonus. At the end of the first year, Discover automatically matches all the cash back you earned in it, with no cap. Year one effectively pays double: 2% on ordinary purchases and 10% in the rotating 5% categories, on up to $1,500 a quarter after activation. The Discover it Student Cash Back carries the same match.

The match rewards steady spending over a full year and has no upper limit. Its trade-offs are the wait, the quarterly activation the 5% rate needs, and acceptance: our catalogue notes Discover is accepted more narrowly than Visa or Mastercard abroad. The Discover it pros and cons weighs the rest.

Which cards are left out of the ranking, and why

• Blue Cash Preferred. The Blue Cash Preferred from American Express lists a cash back welcome offer after a spend requirement in the first 6 months, but the amount varies by offer and our catalogue gives no figure, so there is nothing to divide. To place your own offer, subtract the $95 fee from the bonus unless your offer waives it for year one, which our catalogue notes is often the case, and divide by the required spend.
• Freedom Unlimited and both Discover it cards. Their first-year offers have no threshold; see above.
• Six cards with no welcome bonus. The Wells Fargo Reflect, Citi Simplicity and BankAmericard trade rewards for long 0% intro APR windows. The Capital One Platinum Secured, OpenSky Secured Visa and Chime Credit Builder Visa exist to build a credit file. A bonus ranking would score all six at zero and say nothing useful about them.

Caveats: what a welcome bonus ranking cannot tell you

• Elevated offers are not guaranteed. Applicants not eligible for the Reserve’s 175,000 points may see 125,000. That $500 difference moves the Reserve from ahead of the Double Cash to behind the Venture X on net return.
• Offers vary by applicant. The Platinum’s 175,000 points is a maximum. Every 10,000 points below it takes $100 off the net value and about 0.8 percentage points off the net return. Below 89,500 points, the bonus at 1 cent no longer covers the $895 fee.
• Windows are short, and the terms decide what counts. Three months, 90 days or six months, typically measured from account opening. Returns, balance transfers, cash advances and fees generally do not count toward a requirement.
• Eligibility rules can cancel a bonus. Issuers commonly restrict bonuses for people who hold, or recently held, the same or a related card, and Chase is widely reported to decline applicants who have opened five or more personal cards in 24 months.
• Point values are assumptions. Transfer partners can yield more than 1 cent and some redemptions less. Our catalogue notes the Freedom cards can lift their value when paired with a Sapphire card, which this study does not model.
• Ordinary earn is excluded by design. Adding it back would add each card’s own rate to its row, 1 to 2 cents on most purchases and more in bonus categories. That narrows the gaps without changing the order at the top.
• Interest erases bonuses. Every figure assumes you pay in full. Every ranked card that publishes a regular APR range starts it at 18.24% or higher; the two Amex cards list a Pay Over Time APR instead.
• Snapshot and taxes. Figures date from August 1, 2026, and bonuses change often, so confirm the current offer on the issuer’s own page. Whether a bonus counts as income is covered in our FAQ.