Cashback Calculator
Work out exactly what you'll earn back — on a one-off buy or a recurring subscription. Stack your cashback site and card, and see it add up over the years.
Tap the currency symbol to switch between £, $ and €
Stack a cashback card
Most people use one or the other — stack both to earn twice
Cashback on this purchase
£21.60
How to use the calculator
Enter the price you are paying. Use the amount you will actually be charged, not the list price, if you are on a discounted or promotional plan. Enter the cashback rate. You will find this on the merchant's page on Rewardio, and rates do change, so check the live listing rather than working from something you saw last month. Choose your billing frequency. One-off for a single purchase, monthly or annual for a subscription. Set your projection period. For subscriptions, this is where the difference between one-off and recurring cashback shows up.
Cashback = Purchase amount × (Cashback rate ÷ 100)
Cashback is worked out as a straightforward percentage of what you spend: Cashback = (Price × Rate) ÷ 100 For a recurring subscription where the merchant pays on renewals, the calculation repeats for every billing cycle: Total cashback = (Price × Rate ÷ 100) × Number of billing cycles The maths is simple. What is less obvious is how much difference the second formula makes over a few years, which is the whole point of the projection.
Cashback rate reference table
| Spend | 1% | 2% | 5% | 10% | 20% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £50 | £0.50 | £1.00 | £2.50 | £5.00 | £10.00 |
| £100 | £1.00 | £2.00 | £5.00 | £10.00 | £20.00 |
| £250 | £2.50 | £5.00 | £12.50 | £25.00 | £50.00 |
| £500 | £5.00 | £10.00 | £25.00 | £50.00 | £100.00 |
| £1,000 | £10.00 | £20.00 | £50.00 | £100.00 | £200.00 |
One-off cashback versus recurring cashback
Most cashback sites pay you once. You click through, you buy, you get a percentage back, and that is the end of it. If you renew the subscription next year, nothing happens, because the renewal does not pass through a tracked affiliate link. Some merchants run recurring affiliate programmes, where commission is paid on every renewal for as long as the customer stays subscribed. Where that is the case, Rewardio passes the cashback on every time, not just on the first payment. The gap widens the longer you stay subscribed. On a tool you keep for three or four years, the difference between one-off and recurring cashback is not a rounding error. Set the projection period on the calculator to see it. Not every merchant offers this. On Rewardio, merchants with recurring cashback are labelled as such on their listing, so check before you assume the renewal maths applies.
What the calculator does not account for
Worth being honest about the limits, because a number on a screen is not a promise. Rates change. Merchants adjust their commission, and cashback rates follow. The figure you calculate today is based on today's rate. Not every merchant pays on renewals. If the merchant runs a one-off commission programme, only the first payment earns cashback, regardless of what the projection shows. VAT and taxes. Some merchants pay commission on the net amount rather than the gross. Where that applies, your cashback will be lower than a straight percentage of what your card was charged. Free trials and introductory pricing. Cashback is calculated on what you are actually billed. A free trial earns nothing, and a discounted first month earns cashback on the discounted amount. Plan changes. Upgrade or downgrade and the cashback recalculates against the new price from that billing cycle onwards. Tracking. Cashback depends on the click being tracked. Ad blockers, cookie clearing, and buying through a different route than your tracked link can all break it.