BEST FOR GROCERY
Best Credit Cards for Grocery in India 2026
Top credit cards for grocery shopping in India. Maximum rewards on BigBasket, Blinkit, Zepto, and supermarket purchases. Ordered by our own shortlist, chosen and ranked by hand — weighing real-world return against whether you can actually get the card. For the order at your own spend, use the recommender.
Grocery credit cards maximise rewards on supermarket and quick-commerce spends — BigBasket, Blinkit, Zepto, DMart, and neighbourhood stores. Since groceries are a large, recurring expense for most households, even a 2–5% return adds up quickly over a year.
The best grocery cards offer accelerated rewards on the grocery category or co-branded benefits with specific platforms. Note that some quick-commerce apps may register under online shopping rather than grocery. The cards below are our editors’ picks for groceries — chosen for grocery and quick-commerce rewards, strongest first.
Best for grocery, ranked
₹588/yr
annual fee · ≈ ₹694 incl. GST
● BEST FOR: 10% cashback on Groceries at Blinkit
₹249/yr
annual fee · ≈ ₹294 incl. GST
● BEST FOR: 3.75% reward points on Groceries
₹999/yr
annual fee · ≈ ₹1,179 incl. GST
● BEST FOR: 5% cashback on Groceries
₹499/yr
annual fee · ≈ ₹589 incl. GST
● BEST FOR: 10% cashback on Groceries at BigBasket, Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart
₹500/yr
annual fee · ≈ ₹590 incl. GST
● BEST FOR: 5% reward points on Groceries
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Which credit card is best for grocery shopping in India?
Do Blinkit and Zepto count as grocery on credit cards?
Are grocery rewards capped?
Is a grocery rewards card worth it?
Recent changes to these cards
The latest source-verified changes to the cards ranked above, from their value timelines. A strong best for grocery card can be devalued overnight — this is how each pick has actually behaved.
Fuel surcharge waiver cap cut from ₹200 to ₹100 a month
1% waiver, capped at ₹200 per statement month→1% waiver, capped at ₹100 per statement month
From 1 October 2026 the Xcite's 1% fuel surcharge waiver (on fills of ₹400 to ₹5,000) is capped at ₹100 per statement month, down from ₹200, so the most it can save in a year falls from ₹2,400 to ₹1,200. AU's MITC dated 30 September 2026 lists the Xcite cards in its ₹100 row, where the July 2026 edition had the Xcite series at ₹200, and the card's page now says ₹100. The 1 October date is the one AU announced for the same revision on its Zenith, Vetta and Altura Plus pages; no dated line for this card was captured, so the date is reconstructed.
Verification: AU Small Finance Bank ↗ · Confidence: Reconstructed
Fuel fair-usage terms tightened — trigger halved, levy on the whole aggregate
1% fair-usage charge once monthly fuel spends exceeded 50% of the credit limit or ₹50,000→1% on the entire aggregate once a single fuel transaction exceeds ₹10,000 or monthly fuel spends exceed ₹25,000
From 1 July 2026 AU tightened its fuel fair-usage charge: the trigger dropped from ₹50,000 of aggregate fuel spend in a calendar month to ₹25,000 (or a single fuel transaction above ₹10,000), and the 1% charge is now levied on the entire aggregate fuel spend for the month rather than the portion above the threshold. Fair-usage charges do not apply to international transactions. The complimentary fuel-surcharge waiver bands are unchanged.
Verification: AU Small Finance Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
Transportation-category spends stop earning rewards
AU stopped awarding reward points on 11 transportation MCCs (rail, transit, tolls and similar) bank-wide, including on Xcite. (Dating note, 2026-08-06: AU's own surfaces carry both 1 April and 10 April 2026 as the effective date of the transportation change, and the bank-wide revision PDF originally cited for it now serves a lounge-only notice at the same URL; both dates are disclosed rather than silently picking one.)
Verification: AU Small Finance Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
New 1% fee on large FASTag top-ups and toll payments
No FASTag or toll transaction fee→1% fee on any FASTag-loading or toll-payment transaction above ₹10,000
From 7 January 2026 RBL Bank charges a 1% fee on any single FASTag-loading or toll-payment transaction above ₹10,000, measured per transaction per card, across merchant category codes 4784, 4111 and 4131. Because the threshold is per transaction rather than a monthly aggregate, it bites on one-off large FASTag top-ups rather than on regular commuting; splitting a top-up below ₹10,000 avoids it. The fee sits alongside RBL's existing 1% charges on rent, on utility spends above ₹50,000 a month, on fuel transactions above ₹10,000, and on education payments routed through third-party apps. It is a fee on the transaction, not a change to reward earning — these categories already earn no reward points on most RBL cards.
Verification: RBL Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
Lifetime-free positioning ends — ₹249 annual fee introduced
Lifetime free→₹249 + GST joining and annual, waived on ₹1,00,000 annual retail spends
AU's Key Fact Statement v1.6 (3 December 2025) prices the Xcite at ₹249, and the product page shows a ₹249 + GST annual membership fee waived on ₹1 lakh of retail spends in the previous card-anniversary year. The card launched lifetime-free on the SwipeUp platform in 2023. AU published no dated notice for the change and the Wayback Machine holds no captures of the Xcite page from the interim, so the KFS date is used as the dated upper bound — the fee may have been introduced earlier. The sibling Xcite ACE and Xcite Ultra timelines record the same fee round.
Verification: AU Small Finance Bank ↗ · Confidence: Reconstructed
Show 10 more changes
HSBC launches its first RuPay cashback card
HSBC India introduced the RuPay Cashback Credit Card alongside a RuPay Platinum card — its first cards on the domestic RuPay network and among the first from a foreign bank in India. The UPI-linkable ₹499 card launched with 10% cashback on dining, food delivery and groceries (₹400/month combined cap), 1% on everything else, up to 10 airport lounge visits a year, and a 0% forex-markup promo. It can be linked to HSBC SimplyPay or any third-party UPI app.
Verification: CardAdvisor Research · Confidence: Reconstructed
Myntra 20% instant discount withdrawn
20% off Myntra, up to ₹700/month→Myntra offer removed
Standard Chartered discontinued the DigiSmart card's flagship Myntra benefit — a 20% instant discount capped at ₹700 a month — with effect from 1 March 2025. It was one of the card's headline partner offers, so its removal materially thins the discount roster for holders who shopped on Myntra.
Verification: CardAdvisor Research · Confidence: High
More categories excluded from base reward points
Base points on most remaining spends→Nil points on education, government, contracted services, cash, Bills2Pay
From 15 October 2024 RBL widened its bank-wide exclusions: no base reward points at all on Education, Government Services, Contracted Services, Cash and Bills2Pay, and these plus Fuel & Auto, Utilities, Insurance, Quasi-Cash, Railways, Rental and Wallet stopped counting toward spend-based benefits. On ShopRite this compounds the 2023 cull, further shrinking where the base 1 reward point per ₹100 applies; the capped 5% grocery earn was left in place.
Verification: RBL Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
New 1% fees on large fuel, utility & education spends
No category surcharge on fuel/utility/education→1% on large fuel, high-value utility & third-party education
From 15 October 2024 RBL added a 1% fee on any single fuel transaction over ₹10,000 (capped at ₹3,000 per transaction), 1% on utility spends above ₹50,000 in a month, and 1% on education payments made via third-party apps (Cred, PhonePe, Paytm and similar). These apply to ShopRite like every RBL card, independent of how it earns, and are separate from the standard 1% fuel-surcharge waiver on ₹500–4,000 fuel spends, which continues.
Verification: RBL Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
Cashback redemption minimum raised again to ₹1,500
₹1,000, in multiples of ₹500→₹1,500, in multiples of ₹500
The Manhattan Platinum T&C dated 30 September 2024 states a minimum cashback balance of ₹1,500 is required before a redemption request, still in multiples of ₹500 — a second step up in the same year, after the March 2024 rise to ₹1,000. The exact effective date between March and September 2024 is not published; the T&C date is used here.
Verification: Standard Chartered ↗ · Confidence: Reconstructed
Fair-usage charge added on fuel and utility spends
1% on fuel spend over 50% of limit or ₹50,000/month; 1% on utility spend over ₹50,000/month
AU introduced a 1% fair-usage fee on fuel spends exceeding 50% of the credit limit or ₹50,000/month (whichever is lower), and on utility spends over ₹50,000/month, applied to all personal AU cards except Zenith Plus.
Verification: CardAdvisor Research · Confidence: High
Rent, education and government spends stop earning rewards
Rent, education and government-category transactions stopped earning reward points on Xcite (and most other AU cards) from this date, closing off a category some holders used to rack up points.
Verification: CardAdvisor Research · Confidence: High
Cashback redemption minimum raised to Rs 1,000
Rs 500, in multiples of Rs 50→Rs 1,000, in multiples of Rs 500
Standard Chartered raised the minimum accrued cashback needed to redeem on the Manhattan (and Super Value Titanium) cards from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000, redeemable only in multiples of Rs 500. Earn rates and the 5% grocery cashback were untouched — the change only made it slower to cash out what the card earned.
Verification: Standard Chartered ↗ · Confidence: High
Reward points removed on utilities, insurance, fuel & more
Base points on most everyday spends→No points on insurance, wallet, fuel, utility, rental, railways, misc.; utilities/insurance/EMI ineligible
Effective 09 October 2023 RBL stopped awarding reward points on Insurance, Wallet loads, Fuel, Utilities, Rental, Railways and Miscellaneous transactions across its reward-point cards, and made EMI, utilities and insurance ineligible. On ShopRite this thins the base 1 reward point per ₹100 on those everyday categories — the card's own terms record utilities, insurance and EMI as non-earning since October 2023; the 5% grocery accelerator was untouched.
Verification: RBL Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
E-voucher redemption value cut
₹0.25/point→₹0.20/point
The redemption value of 1 AU reward point when redeemed for e-vouchers or gift cards fell from ₹0.25 to ₹0.20; other redemption categories stayed at ₹0.25.
Verification: CardAdvisor Research · Confidence: High
How this list has changed
Our picks move when the cards do — these are CardAdvisor’s own list updates, dated, with the reason. They are editorial decisions, not issuer events.
- 25 Sept 2026 · Removed Hsbc Live Plus — Now on our cashback list only. Its 10% grocery rate shares one ₹1,200-a-month cap with dining, shopping and utilities, which makes it a broad cashback card — and we now list each card once.
- 14 Aug 2026 · Removed Kotak Cashback Plus Prime — Its 5% applies to online grocery only and shares one ₹750/cycle cap with four other categories — realistically under ₹3,000/year.
- 14 Aug 2026 · Added Standard Chartered DigiSmart Credit Card — 10% instant discount on Blinkit (capped ₹1,000/month) — around ₹12,000/year for quick-commerce households.
- 14 Aug 2026 · Added AU Bank Xcite Credit Card — 3.75% on grocery and departmental stores with no stated cap, fee waived at ₹1 lakh annual spend.