Chase Freedom Categories: 5% Cash Back Calendar for 2026

• Written by Jasmin Baron, CCC™
  

  Jasmin Baron, CCC™

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

  Jasmin Baron is a NACCC Certified Credit Counselor™ and CardCritics’ senior 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 of 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.

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• Edited by Antonio Ruiz-Camacho
  

  Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

  Credit cards, travel rewards, points and miles, credit building, budgeting, premium travel, consumer credit

  Antonio has two decades of experience leading editorial teams and a decade covering personal finance. Before joining CardCritics, he served as senior director of credit cards content at Bankrate and associate director of life insurance content at Policygenius. His work has been featured in U.S. News, Newsweek, USA Today and CNET. He was nominated for a National Magazine Award. Antonio's favorite credit card is The Platinum Card® from American Express. His favorite loyalty programs include World of Hyatt and Southwest Rapid Rewards. His favorite credit card perk is the annual CLEAR credit offered by his Amex Platinum card.

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• Last Updated Dec 15, 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 available exclusively to 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 first quarter of 2026 (January to March), the Chase Freedom 5% cash-back categories are dining, Norwegian Cruise Line and the American Heart Association.

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 Q1 2026 (January through March), cardholders must activate by March 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 2026

Here’s a look at the 5% rotating cash-back categories for 2026 so far:

Q1: January to March

• Dining: Includes eat-in restaurants and eligible takeout and delivery services. Some merchants that sell food in facilities such as sports stadiums, hotels and theme parks may not qualify (depending on how they’re classified); bakeries, caterers, meal delivery services and gift card merchants are not included.
• Norwegian Cruise Line: Includes purchases made directly with Norwegian Cruise Line. Bookings made through third-party sites or travel agencies (such as for sightseeing activities, excursions and tourist attractions) don’t qualify.
• American Heart Association: Donations made directly through the American Heart Association’s official channels qualify, but donations made through local chapters may not, due to differences in how transactions are processed.

It’s unknown exactly how Chase selects the rotating Freedom Flex categories. However, in the past few years, some of the same categories have been repeated in each quarter of the following year. Category selections seem at least partially focused on what might be appealing to cardholders at the time, such as in the third quarter of 2025, which included gas stations, EV charging and select live entertainment — all ideal for summer road trips and concerts.

Here’s a look at the Chase Freedom 5% calendar categories for 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026:

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	Department stores, Old Navy, Chase Travel℠ and PayPal (December only)
2026	Dining, Norwegian Cruise Line and American Heart Association	TBA	TBA	TBA

For later in 2026, there’s no guarantee that we’ll see the same categories as before, but if history repeats, we could see Amazon and select streaming services in Q2. 

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 in to your Chase account and update your email address to receive alerts. If you forget to activate by the quarterly deadline, 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 quarter, rather than on the 15th day, as Chase does. So, instead of announcing categories for January to March on Dec. 15, Discover announces them around Dec. 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 as Chase does.

So, if you activated the Discover 5% cash-back rewards during the last month of Q1 on March 5, you’ll only earn 5% rewards on eligible purchases from March 5 to March 31, up to the spending cap. Any purchases you made with your Discover it® Cash Back from Jan. 1 to March 4 would only earn 1% cash back.

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 18.49% - 27.99% 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.