Is the Instacart Mastercard worth it?

MoneyRoom Card Score

8.3/ 10

Usable value10.0

Effort10.0

Earning4.3

For an Instacart regular, yes. The score is for the card in a normal year: the one-time credit you get when approved is shown next to the score, not counted in it.

How the 0–10 Card Score works

Data: MoneyRoom card catalog (details pending verification are flagged) · scores update daily · catalog data as of 2026-09-30 (source: creditcards.chase.com) · How we verify

The card's one extra is a credit you get when you're approved, and because it comes once, it goes in the first-year extras list, not the credits list — our score counts what a cardholder still gets in year two. So the credits list is empty by design, and the 8.3 score is for the card itself: its rates, with no fee.

Those rates are decent for its users: 2% on dining and gas over an ordinary base rate, about 1.3% back on a typical year of spending. The card's real selling point — what it earns on Instacart orders — falls in a category our household spending mix doesn't separate out. No fee, no deadlines: even the plainest version of this card is a free card that pays you to keep using the service it's named after.

Credits vs. fee

No annual fee to cover.

Typical value applies our published discounts for what makes credits easy to miss: deadlines, limits on where you can use them, enrollment (switching a credit on once), and waiting to be paid back.

This card has no recurring statement credits. There's nothing to enroll in, track, or lose — the list is empty by design.

The fine print that matters

Why is typical value less than face value?

One first-year item and one lasting fact. The approval credit happens once, so it's in the first-year extras list, which our score leaves out. What lasts is the earning: the card's best rates are at Instacart's own checkout, so its value depends on how often you order, more than a general bonus-category card's does.

Earning

What does everyday spending actually earn?

Rewards come as cash back, worth exactly what it says. On our published mix of everyday spending, that works out to 1.3% back.

Category	Rate	After spending caps	Note
Dining	2%	2.00%
Groceries	1%	1.00%	Base rate
Gas	2%	2.00%
Flights booked direct	1%	1.00%	Base rate
Hotels booked direct	1%	1.00%	Base rate
Everything else	1%	1.00%

Not in the score

What does the score leave out?

The approval credit. A one-time sign-up event — listed under first-year extras, and left out by the same rule that leaves out every welcome bonus.
Earning on Instacart orders. Our spending mix has no delivery-app category; someone who orders every week earns more than this page's figure.
The Chase Travel rate. Travel booked through Chase Travel earns the card's top rate, but you have to choose to book there, so it isn't a rate you always get. We leave travel-site rates out of our spending mix on every card we score.

First-year extras, left out of the score: $50 Instacart credit upon approval ($50).

Listed on the card, never priced:

$50 Instacart credit upon approval

Your own numbers

See if it pays for itself for you.

The score assumes a typical cardholder. The free Annual Fee Calculator loads this card's real credits and fee and lets you enter what you'd actually use — no account needed.

Run this card in the calculator Track your own cards free

Keep comparing

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Questions

Common questions before you apply.

Why doesn't the score count the approval credit?
Because it happens once. Our score counts what a cardholder still gets in year two; one-time extras are listed next to the number, never in it — the same rule that leaves out every welcome bonus on every card we publish.
What's the card worth from year two on?
Its rates: 2% on dining and gas, about 1.3% back on a typical year of spending, and no fee — a solid free second card for the app's regulars.
Should non-Instacart users consider it?
No — everything special about it assumes you order on Instacart. Without that, it's an ordinary bonus-category card with another company's name on it.