Chase Freedom Categories: 5% Cash Back Calendar for 2025

• Written by Jasmin Baron
  

  Jasmin Baron

  Credit Cards, Travel Rewards, Loyalty Programs, Family Travel, Credit Building, Credit Scores

  Jasmin Baron is CardCritics’ senior SEO editor, responsible for editing and writing credit cards, travel rewards, loyalty program, and other credit-related content. She is passionate about personal finance education and enjoys sharing tips and tricks for making the most credit card points and miles with her readers. Her expertise in maximizing credit card travel rewards originated from over two decades of aviation industry experience, including 18 years working as a pilot and college professor/flight instructor in her native Canada. Her work has appeared on sites such as CNN Underscored Money, Business Insider, The Points Guy, and point.me. When she’s not planning her next trip with credit card rewards, you’ll probably find her tinkering around in the kitchen, hanging out with her three kids, or playing with her dog, Benji.

  Read more
• Edited by Jasmin Baron
  

  Jasmin Baron

  Credit Cards, Travel Rewards, Loyalty Programs, Family Travel, Credit Building, Credit Scores

  Jasmin Baron is CardCritics’ senior SEO editor, responsible for editing and writing credit cards, travel rewards, loyalty program, and other credit-related content. She is passionate about personal finance education and enjoys sharing tips and tricks for making the most credit card points and miles with her readers. Her expertise in maximizing credit card travel rewards originated from over two decades of aviation industry experience, including 18 years working as a pilot and college professor/flight instructor in her native Canada. Her work has appeared on sites such as CNN Underscored Money, Business Insider, The Points Guy, and point.me. When she’s not planning her next trip with credit card rewards, you’ll probably find her tinkering around in the kitchen, hanging out with her three kids, or playing with her dog, Benji.

  Read more
• Last Updated Aug 29, 2025

Credit cards with rotating categories offer the opportunity to turbocharge your rewards earning on everyday spending. The Chase Freedom calendar lists the quarterly 5% cash-back bonus categories that are exclusively for Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom® (no longer accepting new applicants) users.

As a cardholder, as long as you activate each quarter, you’ll be eligible to earn 5% back on up to $1,500 in combined purchases (then 1%) within that quarter’s categories. These rewards are in addition to the standard cash back you can earn throughout the year on other spending. For the third quarter of 2025 (Jully to September), the Chase Freedom 5% cash-back categories are gas stations, EV charging, select live entertainment and Instacart. 

Let’s take a closer look at how the Chase 5% calendar works and how to maximize these categories to earn the most cash back.

How the Chase Rewards Calendar Works

About the middle of the third month of each quarter — March 15, June 15, Sept. 15 and Dec. 15 — the next quarter’s categories are announced. 

However, to take advantage of earning 5% cash back, you’ll need to activate that quarter’s rewards by the 14th day of the third month of each quarter. So for Q3 (July through September), cardholders must activate by September 14.

The good news is that the rewards are retroactive, so even if you wait until the 14th to activate, you’ll earn 5% cash back, up to spending limits, on all eligible purchases made during the quarter. However, it’s best to activate as soon as you can to avoid missing the deadline. 

To activate quarterly bonus categories, Chase Freedom or Freedom Flex cardholders can go to the Chase bonus activation page to complete the process. Other options for activation include online in your Chase account or mobile app, calling Chase customer service or visiting a branch location. You can also activate through a link in the reminder email Chase sends out to cardholders.

Chase Freedom Categories for 2025

Here’s a look at the 5% rotating cash-back categories for 2025:

Q1: January to March (expired)

• Grocery stores (excluding Target and Walmart)
• Norwegian Cruise Line
• Fitness clubs and gym memberships
• Hair, nails and spa services
• Tax preparation and insurance (March 2025 only)

Q2: April to June

• Amazon: Including digital downloads, Amazon.com Gift Cards, Amazon Fresh orders, Amazon Prime subscriptions, and items sold by third-party merchants through Amazon.com’s marketplace, plus purchases made in-store and online with Whole Foods
• Select streaming services: Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, Netflix, Sling, Vudu, Fubo TV, Apple Music, SiriusXM, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube TV, HBO Max, Paramount+, Peacock, and Showtime
• Internet, cable and phone services (June 2025 only)

Q3: July to September (activate starting June 15)

• Gas stations
• EV charging
• Select live entertainment
• Instacart

Q4: October to December (activate starting Sept. 15)

• To be announced mid-September

It’s unknown exactly how Chase selects the rotating Freedom Flex categories. However, in the past few years, some of the same categories for each quarter repeated the following year. Category selections seem at least partially focused on what might be appealing to cardholders at the time, such as in the first quarter of 2025, which included a combination of everyday spending categories, like groceries, and also fitness clubs and gym memberships for those looking to make good on New Year’s resolutions.

Here’s a look at the Chase Freedom 5% calendar categories for 2023, 2024 and 2025:

Chase Rewards Calendar (5% cash back)	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
2023	Grocery stores (except Walmart), fitness clubs and gym memberships, and Target	Lowe’s and Amazon.com	Select live entertainment, gas stations and electric vehicle charging	Wholesale clubs, select charities and PayPal
2024	Select grocery stores, fitness club and gym memberships, and self-care and spa services	Hotels, restaurants and Amazon.com	Select live entertainment, movie theaters, gas stations and electric vehicle charging	McDonald’s, PayPal, pet shops and vet services, and select charities
2025	Grocery stores (except Walmart and Target), fitness clubs and gym memberships, Norwegian Cruise Line and hair, nails and spa services	Amazon and select streaming services	Gas stations, EV charging, select live entertainment and Instacart	TBA

For 2025, there’s no guarantee that we’ll see the same categories as before, but if history repeats, we could see select charities and PayPal in Q4. 

How To Activate Your Chase 5% Cash Back Each Quarter

Follow these steps to activate your Chase 5% cash-back categories each quarter:

1. Go to the Chase bonus activation page
2. Enter the primary cardholder’s last name
3. Enter the last four digits of the card number
4. Enter the cardholder’s ZIP code
5. Click the green “Activate now” button

You can also sign in to Chase online and activate through your card’s dashboard, phone Chase at 800-432-3117 or visit a Chase branch for help activating your Chase bonus cash back. 

It’s important to set a calendar reminder so that you don’t forget to activate, or sign into your Chase account and update your email address to receive alerts. If you forget to activate by the deadline each quarter, any purchases you make in the 5% cash-back categories will only earn 1% cash back. 

Strategies To Maximize Cash Back With Chase Rewards Calendar

To maximize the 5% cash back, use the Chase rewards calendar to plan your spending. For example, when grocery stores are a bonus category, you could use your card for all your grocery purchases and stock up on essentials. When gas stations are a bonus category, designate your Chase Freedom card for those purchases — sometimes, gas stations sell much more than fuel. 

Also, consider timing large purchases to align with bonus categories. Just be sure you can pay off your credit card bill in full to avoid paying interest.

If keeping track of rotating categories feels too complicated, there’s another option. The Chase Freedom Unlimited® is the Freedom Flex’s sister cash-back credit card. It doesn’t offer rotating categories; instead, cardholders earn 5% cash back on Chase Travel℠ purchases, 3% cash back on dining and at drugstores, and 1.5% cash back on everything else. Its base rate of 1.5% outshines the Freedom Flex’s 1% cash back, so if you do a lot of non-bonus category spending, the Freedom Unlimited may be a better choice for you.

Chase Freedom Calendar vs. Discover Rewards Program

The Chase Rewards Calendar is a little different from the Discover 5% cash-back calendar. Discover announces categories for the upcoming quarter at the beginning of the last month of each current quarter, instead of on the 15th day, like Chase does. So, instead of announcing categories for July to September on June 15, like Chase, Discover announces them around June 1.

Similar to Chase, Discover rewards you with 5% cash back on eligible purchases in rotating categories on up to $1,500 spent each quarter (then 1%). However, Chase rewards 5% on all eligible purchases made during the quarter — before and after you activate — as long as you activate by the deadline. Discover only rewards 5% on purchases (on up to the quarterly maximum) made after you actually activate the rewards —not retroactively like Chase does.

So, if you activated the Discover 5% cash-back rewards during the last month of Q3 on Sept. 5, you’ll only earn 5% rewards on eligible purchases from Sept. 5 to Sept. 30, up to the spending cap. Any purchases you made with your Discover it® Cash Back from June 1 to Sept. 4 would only earn 1% cash back. 

Because Discover and Chase’s rotating categories are often similar, even though they occur during different times of the year, Chase’s program might fit your spending habits better if you fear you might forget to activate categories at the beginning of the quarter. With Chase, rewards are retroactive up to the deadline, which occurs close to the end of each quarter — the 14th day of the third month.

Other Benefits of the Chase Freedom Flex Card

The Chase Freedom Flex offers strong cash-back rewards, but it also comes with other benefits, including:

• $200 bonus after spending $500 within the first three months
• $0 annual fee
• 0% Intro APR on Purchases and Balance Transfers for 15 months, then 18.99% - 28.49% Variable APR
• Zero liability protection for any authorized purchases
• Up to 120 days of purchase protection against damage or theft, up to $500 per item
• Extended warranty protection
• Free credit score and identity restoration services
• Fraud monitoring
• Auto rental coverage
• Trip cancellation and interruption insurance — up to $1,500 per traveler and $6,000 per trip
• Travel and emergency assistance

Additionally, if you have a premium Chase credit card that earns Ultimate Rewards® points, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you can combine your rewards and transfer them to Chase’s airline and hotel partners. That’s in addition to using points for cash back, travel booked through Chase Travel, gift cards and more.

The information related to the Chase Freedom Flex® was collected by CardCritics™ and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of this product/card. Product details may vary. Please see issuer website for current information. CardCritics™ does not receive a commission for this product.