Best cards for gas
Every open card in our database that prints a gas rate, ranked by what a dollar of that spending is actually worth back — the printed rate times our mid-range value for the points it pays. A big multiplier in a weak currency doesn't get to win.
There is no clear winner for gas. AAA Travel Advantage Visa Signature and USAA Cashback Rewards Plus American Express both land on exactly 5.0¢ back per dollar, which is inside the error bar on any point valuation — so calling either one the best would be inventing a result the data doesn't support. Decide on the annual fee, the caps and where the rest of your spending actually goes.
Reviewed: Data verified 2026-09-15 · Credit Upside editorial · Updated 2026-09-16 · How we rank
Featured cards
All 12 cards in this ranking, with what each one is actually best at. Tap any card to jump to its row.
- 1 AAA Travel Advantage Visa Signature — Best overall for gas: 5% on gas up to $7,000/year, no annual fee — 5.0¢ back per dollar
- 2 USAA Cashback Rewards Plus American Express — Best uncapped no-fee rate: 5% on gas, no annual fee — 5.0¢ back per dollar
- 3 PenFed Platinum Rewards — 5x on gas, no annual fee — 4.3¢ back per dollar
- 4 Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi — Best for business spending: 4% on gas up to $7,000/year, no annual fee — 4.0¢ back per dollar
- 5 Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi — 4% on gas up to $7,000/year, no annual fee — 4.0¢ back per dollar
- 6 U.S. Bank Altitude Connect Visa Signature Card — 4x on gas up to $1,000/quarter, no annual fee — 4.0¢ back per dollar
- 7 Travel Rewards+ (Elan) — 4x on gas, $99 a year — 4.0¢ back per dollar
- 8 Chase Sapphire Preferred — Best for transferable points: 3x on gas, $95 a year — 3.8¢ back per dollar
- 9 AT&T Points Plus® Card from Citi — 3x on gas, no annual fee — 3.3¢ back per dollar
- 10 Citi Strata℠ Card — 3x on gas, no annual fee — 3.3¢ back per dollar
- 11 Citi Strata Premier® Card — 3x on gas, $95 a year — 3.3¢ back per dollar
- 12 Blue Cash Everyday Card from American Express — 3% on gas up to $6,000/year, no annual fee — 3.0¢ back per dollar
The ranking
| # | Card | Value | Rate | Cap | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AAA Travel Advantage Visa Signature Comenity Capital Bank (AAA) |
5.0¢/$ | 5% | first $7,000/year | $0 |
| 2 | USAA Cashback Rewards Plus American Express USAA |
5.0¢/$ | 5% | uncapped | $0 |
| 3 | PenFed Platinum Rewards PenFed |
4.3¢/$ | 5x | uncapped | $0 |
| 4 | Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi Citi |
4.0¢/$ | 4% | first $7,000/year | $0 |
| 5 | Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi Citi |
4.0¢/$ | 4% | first $7,000/year | $0 |
| 6 | U.S. Bank Altitude Connect Visa Signature Card U.S. Bank |
4.0¢/$ | 4x | first $1,000/quarter | $0 |
| 7 | Travel Rewards+ (Elan) Elan Financial Services |
4.0¢/$ | 4x | uncapped | $99 |
| 8 | Chase Sapphire Preferred Chase |
3.8¢/$ | 3x | uncapped | $95 |
| 9 | AT&T Points Plus® Card from Citi Citi |
3.3¢/$ | 3x | uncapped | $0 |
| 10 | Citi Strata℠ Card Citi |
3.3¢/$ | 3x | uncapped | $0 |
| 11 | Citi Strata Premier® Card Citi |
3.3¢/$ | 3x | uncapped | $95 |
| 12 | Blue Cash Everyday Card from American Express American Express |
3.0¢/$ | 3% | first $6,000/year | $0 |
14 more cards can reach up to 5x here through rotating or pick-your-own categories — powerful, but only in the right quarter or with the right election, so we rank them separately: American Express Business Gold Card, Bank of America Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards, Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards, Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Secured, Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards for Students, Chase Freedom Flex, Citi Strata℠ Card, Discover it Balance Transfer, Discover it Cash Back, Discover it Student Cash Back, NHL Discover it, U.S. Bank Business Leverage Visa Signature Card, U.S. Bank Cash+ Visa Signature Card, Venmo Credit Card.
What these actually pay on a year of gas
A rate is a promise about one dollar. This is the same ranking run over 45 real gas charges totalling $2,351 — our sample year — scored one charge at a time by the same engine the app uses on your own statement. Caps, category rules and point values all apply; nothing is annualised or rounded up.
| Card | Earned on $2,351 | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|
| AAA Travel Advantage Visa Signature | $118 | 5.00% |
| USAA Cashback Rewards Plus American Express | $118 | 5.00% |
| PenFed Platinum Rewards | $100 | 4.25% |
| Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi | $94 | 4.00% |
| Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi | $94 | 4.00% |
On this spending the gap between top and bottom is $24 a year — the effective rate, after caps and point values, runs from 4.00% to 5.00%. Your own charges are what matter, and the app scores those rather than a sample.
How we rank
One arithmetic rule, applied by code to our maintained card database. There is no editorial pick, no hand-ordering and no sponsored slot.
- Printed earn rate. The gas rate each issuer actually prints in its terms, read from our maintained database — not a promotional headline and not an average.
- Conservative point value. That rate is multiplied by our conservative mid-range value for the currency it pays. It is the step that turns "5x" into cents, and the reason a big multiplier in a weak programme does not win here. Every point value we use, published →
- Annual fee. Printed next to every card and used to break ties — where two cards pay the same, the cheaper one ranks higher. We never net the fee out of the rate for you, because whether it is worth paying depends on how much you spend.
- Caps and limits. 5 of the 12 cards here cap this bonus, and the cap is printed in its own column. A capped rate is never treated as if it ran all year.
- Pool and cutoff. 221 open US cards are in our database; 58 of them print a flat gas rate and qualify. The page publishes the top 12 by real value — the cutoff is #12, so 46 qualifying cards did not make it and can be found on the full card list.
- Rotating and pick-your-own categories. Kept out of the headline ranking, because they only pay in the right quarter or with the right election. Issuer-travel-portal-only rates are excluded for the same reason: they pay only if you book through the portal.
- Commission. The ranking code has no access to which cards pay us a commission — the ordering function never reads the affiliate file. Any apply link is attached after the order is already fixed, so it cannot move a card up or down. How that works.
Full methodology, including how each point value is set: how we value points and rank cards →
The honest caveat
The best gas card for you depends on what you actually spend — a high-rate card with a $325 fee loses to a no-fee card below a certain volume, caps bite, and your redemptions may beat or trail our point values. That math is exactly what the optimizer does: it re-scores your real charges against every card here.
Common questions
What's the best gas card?
There isn't a clear one. AAA Travel Advantage Visa Signature and USAA Cashback Rewards Plus American Express both land on exactly 5.0¢ per dollar, which is inside the error bar on any point valuation — so pick on the annual fee, the caps and where the rest of your spending goes.
How do you rank them?
We rank by real value: each card's printed gas rate multiplied by our conservative mid-range value for the points or cash it pays — so a large multiplier in a weak currency can't out-rank a smaller one in a strong currency. Rankings never depend on whether a card pays us a commission.
Is an annual fee worth it for gas?
On this ranking you don't need to pay one: AAA Travel Advantage Visa Signature charges no annual fee and pays 5.0¢ per dollar, and no fee-charging card here earns enough extra on gas to beat it on this category alone.
Are these gas rates capped?
5 of the 12 cards above cap the bonus: AAA Travel Advantage Visa Signature (first $7,000/year), Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi (first $7,000/year), Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi (first $7,000/year), U.S. Bank Altitude Connect Visa Signature Card (first $1,000/quarter) and others. Past the cap the rate drops to the card's base rate, so a capped headline rate is only worth its headline up to that number.
What about rotating-category cards?
14 more cards can reach up to 5x on gas through rotating quarterly categories or a category you elect. We keep them out of the main ranking because they only pay in the right quarter or with the right election, which makes them impossible to compare fairly against a rate that runs all year. They are listed under the table.
Which card should this spending actually be on? The demo re-scores a year of realistic spending against every card in a wallet — free, no signup. See it on sample data →
More guides
Every guide on this site is built by the same code from the same card database, so the numbers on one page mean exactly what they mean on another. Jump sideways:
All 70 best-card guides → · Best card for a specific store or bill →