Cashback Calculator UK
Monthly spend (£) and cashback rate (%) per category. The rates are examples — check the live rate on your cashback site before you buy.
Model: yearly cashback per category is monthly spend × 12 × rate. The rates are user inputs with example defaults — they are not promised rates. Cashback is only paid on purchases made through a cashback site, only if the purchase tracks and the retailer confirms it, and it usually takes weeks to months to become payable. Figures are estimates, not financial advice.
Worked example: £193.20 a year
| Category | Monthly spend | Example rate | Cashback / year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Groceries | £300 | 2% | £72.00 |
| Fashion | £80 | 5% | £48.00 |
| Tech | £50 | 3% | £18.00 |
| Travel | £100 | 4% | £48.00 |
| Other | £60 | 1% | £7.20 |
| Total | £590 | £193.20 |
Groceries earn the least per pound because grocery cashback rates are low — most supermarkets pay 1% to 2% through the big sites, and the real grocery cashback comes from Shopmium’s per-product offers instead. Fashion and travel pay better: 5% on fashion and 4% on travel are realistic example rates, but they vary by retailer — some fashion retailers pay 10% or more during promotions, and some pay nothing at all.
Where the real money is
This calculator only covers your regular monthly spending, and that is deliberately the smaller half of cashback. The bigger half is the one-off purchases that do not fit in a monthly category: car insurance, home insurance, broadband, a mobile contract, a holiday. Those can each pay £50 to £150 in a single purchase, and they are the reason a household can realistically reach £200 to £500 a year in total. Add your expected one-off cashback on top of the calculator’s figure to get your real yearly total.
A worked example: £193.20 from monthly spending, plus £85 for switching car insurance through a cashback site, plus £60 for a broadband switch, plus £45 for a hotel booking, gives £383.20 for the year. That is a realistic good year. A year with no insurance or broadband switch would be closer to £200.
What the calculator does not count
- Welcome bonuses. TopCashback and Quidco both pay a £10 welcome bonus through a referral link once you earn a small amount of confirmed cashback. Add £10 in your first year if you qualify.
- Untracked or declined purchases. Not every purchase tracks. If you use an ad-blocker, shop in private browsing, or use a discount code the retailer excludes, the cashback may not appear. Budget for a small share of purchases not paying out.
- Returns. If you return an item, the cashback on it is cancelled. The calculator assumes you keep everything you buy.
- Gift cards and excluded items. Many retailers exclude gift cards, sale items and certain brands from cashback entirely.
- The time it takes. Cashback usually takes weeks to months to become payable, so this year’s spending may not reach your bank until next year.
The honest way to use this calculator is as a planning tool: if the number is £150 a year, cashback is a nice bonus worth ten minutes a month, not a side income. If it is £400, it is worth checking both big sites before every large purchase. Either way, never spend extra to earn cashback — spending £100 to earn £5 is not saving money.
What counts as cashback-eligible spending?
Not every pound you spend earns cashback, and the gap between what you spend and what counts is the most common reason the calculator’s figure and the money in your account disagree. First, the purchase has to start at the cashback site: you click from TopCashback or Quidco to the retailer, then buy in the same session. If you visit the retailer directly, or you click through and then wander off to compare prices elsewhere before coming back, the tracking cookie may be overwritten and the purchase will not count. Second, the retailer has to allow cashback on what you bought. Gift cards are excluded almost everywhere, and many retailers exclude sale items, certain brands, marketplace sellers and purchases made with some discount codes. Third, the payment method matters: some retailers exclude purchases paid for with gift cards or store credit, and a few exclude PayPal. If a purchase does not track, the cashback site lets you raise a missing-cashback claim — keep the order confirmation email, the order number and the date, and file the claim as soon as you notice, because most sites have a deadline for claims.
Groceries deserve a special note because they are the biggest line in most household budgets and the worst cashback category on the big sites. A weekly supermarket shop paid for online through a cashback site typically earns 1% to 2% — on £300 a month that is £3 to £6 a month, which is the £72 a year in the worked example. The reason is simple: supermarkets run on thin margins and do not pay generous commissions. Shopmium is the exception, but it works differently: it pays cashback on specific branded products rather than on your whole shop, so a £2.50 branded item with a 100% cashback offer earns you £2.50 back, while the rest of the basket earns nothing. The two approaches stack — you can claim a Shopmium offer on a product inside a shop you also routed through a cashback site — but the per-product offers are the only part that makes grocery cashback worth the effort.
How to squeeze more from the same spending
The calculator shows what your current spending earns at today’s rates. Five habits raise that number without spending a penny more. First, always check both TopCashback and Quidco before a purchase over £50 — rates differ by retailer and by day, and a 2% difference on a £400 purchase is £8. Second, time big purchases for boosted-rate events: cashback sites regularly run double or triple rates on travel, insurance and fashion around sales periods, and a holiday booked during a boosted week can pay £30 to £50 more than the same holiday booked a month earlier. Third, route the purchases you already make — insurance renewals, broadband, mobile contracts, hotel bookings — through a cashback site every single time; these are the purchases that pay £50 to £150 each, and they are also the ones people most often forget to route. Fourth, stack where the rules allow it: a cashback site plus a retailer’s own loyalty points, or a cashback site plus a Shopmium offer on the same product, is legitimate double-earning. What is not legitimate is using a discount code the retailer has excluded from cashback — that can void the whole purchase, so check the exclusions before you apply a code. Fifth, withdraw promptly. Cashback sitting in an account is not in your bank, and some apps charge inactivity fees on dormant balances, so move the money out once you reach the minimum withdrawal.
One habit to avoid: chasing cashback into spending you would not otherwise do. A 10% rate on a £80 item you did not need costs you £72, however satisfying the £8 back feels. The test is simple — would you buy it at full price with no cashback? If the answer is no, the cashback is not a saving, it is a discount on a mistake. Used that way, cashback is a quiet £200 to £500 a year for doing nothing different except clicking through a different link first.
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Sources: TopCashback and Quidco retailer rates and bonus terms (topcashback.co.uk; quidco.com; verified Oct–Nov 2026); Shopmium (shopmium.com/uk). Rates in the calculator are user-editable examples, not quoted rates. Checked 13 November 2026.