SBI Credit Cards 2026 - All Cards, Eligibility & Charges

SBI Card is the second-largest credit card issuer (after HDFC) in India. It has forty-odd credit cards spread across shopping, travel, rewards and other needs. It also partners with popular brands to provide exclusive savings and rewards tailored to specific spending habits.

So here's the whole lineup, sorted by what a card costs and who it's for. It includes comparisons and recommendations to help you choose the best SBI credit card for your spending pattern,

SBI cut its Cashback card's earning ceiling on 1 April 2026 – here's exactly what changed

How Big is SBI Card in India's Credit Card Market?

SBI Card held 22.24 million credit cards in April 2026, against a national total of 119.44 million. That's 18.6% of total credit cards in the country, second only to HDFC Bank's 26.44 million. ICICI sits just behind at 19.20 million and Axis at 16.09 million.

The first is reach. SBI Card is the easiest large issuer to get approved by if you bank with State Bank of India. It runs the widest co-brand network in the country, plus a whole tier of cards issued through partner banks like Karur Vysya, UCO, PSB and Bank of Maharashtra.

However, its profit in Q1 FY26 fell 6.4% year on year on higher impairments. A bank under margin pressure with 22 million cards outstanding has one obvious lever, and it pulled it four times in eighteen months. We'll get to all four.

SBI Card launched the Google Pay Flex SBI Card on 29 July 2026 — its first Google co-branded product, at ₹499 plus GST, on RuPay and Visa. Note that only the RuPay variant links to UPI.

All SBI Credit Cards

Entry Tier

Mid Tier

Premium Tier

Super-Premium Tier

Apart from these mainstream cards, SBI also has the MILES card at as MILES PRIME's lighter sibling; Miles Elite that duplicates ELITE's rewards with travel credits; and ELITE Advantage and PRIME Advantage variants with near-identical terms. The PULSE card is another popular one, but with a weak 0.5% base reward rate.

Only looking at SBI? See how it stacks up against every other issuer →

SBI also offers FD-backed cards, such as Unnati, secured against a fixed deposit of ₹25,000 or more, with no annual fee for the first four years. It works well as the first card to build good credit history. Our first credit card guide walks through the full route.

SBI Co-Branded Credit Cards

SBI Card also offers several partner cards that are worth it if that specific ecosystem is already where your money goes.

• PhonePe SBI Card SELECT BLACK, ₹1,499. 10 points per ₹100 on PhonePe spends and 5 points on other online spends.
• IRCTC SBI Card Premier, ₹1,499. Up to 10% value back on IRCTC train bookings and a 1% transaction charge waiver on the IRCTC site. Sensible if you book rail travel monthly.
• Air India SBI Signature Card, ₹4,999. 10 points per ₹100 on Air India bookings. Two complimentary domestic lounge visits per quarter. Suitable for frequent flyers.
• Reliance SBI Card, ₹499. Accelerated points at Reliance Retail, Smart, Trends and Digital. The PRIME variant adds 2 lounge visits a quarter with no spend gate.
• Apollo SBI Card, ₹499. Pharmacy and diagnostics rewards. Worth it if someone at home has a standing prescription.
• Paytm SBI Card SELECT, ₹1,499. Cashback-focused card offering high rewards on Paytm transactions, travel, movies and mall spends.

Apart from those, SBI has other co-brand cards with curated but narrow reward rates, including Titan, Doctor's (IMA), IndiGo and KrisFlyer. The Etihad Guest SBI and OLA Money SBI cards were pulled during a portfolio rationalisation.

Several SBI cards changed in 2026. See the current status of each.

SBI Credit Card Eligibility

A few things that decide the credit card SBI actually approves for you, beyond the salary number:

Your relationship matters more here than at most issuers. If you hold an SBI savings account or salary account, SBI Card assesses you against that history rather than as a cold applicant. People get approved a full tier above the numbers above on that basis alone.

Credit score. 750+ clears the mid and premium range comfortably. 700–749 usually gets you SimplySAVE, SimplyCLICK or a co-brand entry card. Below 700, go to Unnati against a fixed deposit. That's the working route for building a credit score.

Our guide on why credit card applications get rejected covers the rest.

SBI Credit Card Charges & Fees

The 1% education fee charge catches more people than any other line here. Paying your child's school fee through CRED or a similar aggregator now costs 1% on top. On a ₹1.5 lakh annual fee, that's ₹1,500 you didn't budget for.

📺 Ankur Warikoo on the credit card trap – worth 10 minutes of your time.

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What an SBI Reward Point Is Actually Worth

SBI runs three separate reward currencies, and they are worth very different amounts. Some co-brand credit cards also have their own points transfer rates. Getting these wrong can lead you to applying for a wrong card.

So "10X Reward Points" on SBI Card PRIME means 10 points per ₹100. At ₹0.25 a point, that's ₹2.50 back on ₹100. A 2.5% return, not a 10% one.

Run the same sum on SBI Card MILES and the picture changes. Six Travel Credits per ₹200 on travel, at ₹1 a credit, is 3% on flights and hotels, and 1% on everything else, in money you can actually use.

On cashback cards, what you see is what you get. Tata Neu Infinity SBI Card and other Neu cards offer NeuCoins, valued at ₹1 per unit.

📺 Ankur Warikoo on earning from credit cards – worth 10 minutes of your time.

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What the Fine Print Doesn't Say

Nearly every headline rate on this page has a cap, an exclusion, or a spend gate behind it. These aren't hidden exactly; they just live in a separate terms document from the one you read before applying.

The Cashback SBI Card's 5% now stops at ₹40,000 of online spend a month. From 1 April 2026, the online cashback is capped at ₹2,000 per statement cycle, offline at ₹2,000 separately, and the total at ₹4,000.

And the exclusion list is longer than the inclusion list. Rent, fuel, utilities, wallet loads, insurance, education, railways, merchant EMI, jewellery and school fees earned nothing already. Digital gaming, tolls and FASTag, and all government transactions were added on 1 April 2026.

SBI reserves the right to reclassify merchants without telling you. The April 2026 notice added a term allowing SBI to apply MCC changes communicated by Visa, Mastercard or RuPay without prior intimation to customers.

In practice, a merchant that earns rewards today can stop earning them next month with no notice. Our merchant category code guide explains how to check a merchant's MCC.

BPCL Octane's caps at 2,500 points a billing cycle. That's ₹10,000 of BPCL fuel a month. Fill up more than that and the excess earns 1 point per ₹100.

Statement credit redemption is now capped and lumpy. From April 2026, reward points redeemed as statement credit are limited to 60,000 points per card per calendar month and must go in multiples of 4,000. If you're sitting on 9,500 points, you can redeem 8,000 and the remaining 1,500 stay stuck.

Which SBI Credit Card Should You Get?

If you're applying for your first card, or you have no income proof, SBI Card Unnati against a fixed deposit is the realistic entry point. Free for four years, the FD keeps earning, and after eighteen months of clean repayment, SBI will usually pre-approve you for something better.

If most of your money goes online and your online spend sits under ₹40,000 a month, the CASHBACK SBI Card is still the right pick. At 5%, you'd earn ₹2,000 a month against a ₹1,179 (₹999+GST) fee, so it pays for itself in the first three weeks of the year.

If you spend over ₹40,000 a month online, you should read our SBI Cashback alternatives comparison before applying/renewing.

If your spends are mostly offline and you want to keep the fee small, SimplySAVE at ₹499 returns 1.67% on dining, groceries, movies and departmental stores, and the fee is waived at ₹1 lakh of annual spend, which is ₹8,300 a month.

If you travel four or more times a year and book your own flights and hotels, SBI Card MILES PRIME at ₹2,999 is the strongest travel pick, 6% on travel and 1% general in Travel Credits worth ₹1 each, plus 1.99% forex markup. The catch is a ₹10 lakh spend for the fee waiver.

If your household spends heavily across Croma, Westside, BigBasket, Tata 1mg and Tata CLiQ, Tata Neu Infinity at ₹1,499 returns 5% in NeuCoins on the Tata Neu app, and NeuCoins are worth ₹1. That's the highest genuine return rate among SBI cards.

Which SBI Card Fits Your Monthly Spend

Under ₹15,000 a month. SimplySAVE at ₹499. At this level, skip anything with a lounge benefit. You won't hit the spend gate, and you'll pay the fee anyway.

₹15,000 to ₹40,000 a month. CASHBACK SBI Card if most of it is online, since the ₹2,000 monthly cap is reachable but not wasteful in this band. The ₹2 lakh fee waiver needs ₹16,700 a month, so the fee disappears near the bottom of the range.

If your spending is offline-heavy, check SimplyCLICK or SimplySAVE.

₹40,000 to ₹75,000 a month. SBI Card PRIME at ₹2,999, waived at ₹3 lakh annual spend, which is ₹25,000 a month and comfortably cleared here. You get 2.5% on dining, groceries and departmental stores, 8 domestic lounge visits a year, 4 international, and a ₹7,000 voucher at ₹5 lakh of annual spend.

₹75,000 to ₹1.5 lakh a month. MILES PRIME at ₹2,999 if you travel, ELITE at ₹4,999 if you don't. ELITE waives at ₹10 lakh (₹83,000 a month), throws in ₹6,000 of BookMyShow vouchers a year, and carries a 1.99% forex markup, the lowest in the SBI lineup. On ₹2 lakh of overseas spend a year, that markup difference alone saves you ₹3,000 against a 3.5% card.

SBI Card Devaluations: What Changed

SBI has cut benefits four times since mid-2025. Here's the full record, in order.

August 2025 – complimentary air accident insurance withdrawn. The ₹1 crore cover on premium cards including ELITE and Miles Elite was removed from 11 August 2025.

September 2025 – gaming and government spends stopped earning. Digital gaming platforms and government transactions were removed from reward point eligibility across the portfolio from 1 September 2025.

November 2025 – A 1% charge on education payments made through third-party apps, and 1% on wallet loads above ₹1,000. Cash payments at the counter went to ₹250 and cheque payments to ₹200.

January 2026 – lounge access re-mapped to a smaller network. SBI moved several cards, including PRIME, MILES PRIME and BPCL Octane, off blanket Visa/Mastercard lounge access and onto two curated lists it calls Set 1 and Set 2. The number of complimentary visits didn't change, but the lounges that actually accept the card did, and it's a shorter list than before.

April 2026 – the big one. The Cashback card's total ceiling dropped from ₹5,000 to ₹4,000 a cycle, with online capped at ₹2,000 and offline at ₹2,000 separately. Digital gaming, tolls and FASTag, and government transactions were added to the exclusion list.

Across the whole portfolio, statement credit redemption was capped at 60,000 points a month in multiples of 4,000, and promotional reward points now expire in 90 to 120 days.

Read the full Cashback card analysis.

So, this is a pattern of regular cuts. If you take an SBI card, redeem your points as you earn them rather than banking them for a redemption two years out.

SBI Card Domestic Lounge Access

SBI runs over 40 cards and roughly two dozen have some form of lounge benefit, most of them niche partner-bank variants. Here are the lounge benefits on its most popular cards.

For the full Set 1 and Set 2 card lists, the specific lounges each one covers by city and terminal, and validation fees, see our SBI credit card lounge access page.

How to Apply for an SBI Credit Card

Check your pre-approved offers first if you already bank with State Bank of India. A pre-approved card is assessed against your existing relationship rather than as a fresh application, which avoids a hard enquiry on your credit report and usually decides instantly.

Step 1. Pick the card that matches where your money actually goes, not the one with the best welcome gift.

Step 2. Check the approximate income bar.

Step 3. Apply at sbicard.com or through the SBI Card mobile app. Entry and mid-tier decisions land in three to seven working days.

Step 4. Complete video KYC, then wait for dispatch. Track it with your application number on the SBI Card website.

Step 5. Activate on arrival. Cards ship inactive under RBI rules and are closed automatically 30 days after issue if you don't activate them.

Documents You'll Need

• Identity proof: PAN is mandatory, plus Aadhaar, passport or voter ID
• Address proof: Aadhaar, passport, or a utility bill from the last three months
• Income proof: three months of salary slips and a recent Form 16 if salaried; two years of ITR plus six months of bank statements if self-employed
• Photograph: passport-sized, though video KYC usually removes this step

If you hold an SBI salary account, most of this is already on file. Applying for Unnati against a fixed deposit needs the FD receipt and a lien-marking form instead of income proof.

Managing Your SBI Credit Card

Paying your bill. Pay through the SBI Card app, the website, UPI, NEFT from another bank, or auto-debit. Do not set auto-debit to the minimum due.

Redeeming rewards. Redeem through the SBI Card app or website under Rewards. Statement credit is now capped at 60,000 points a month in multiples of 4,000, so plan larger redemptions across two months if you've built a big balance. Cashback is credited automatically at statement generation, with nothing more to claim.

Closing a card. Request closure in writing through the app or website so there's a record. RBI requires closure within seven working days of dues being cleared, with ₹500 payable to you for each day beyond that. Redeem your points first; unredeemed points are forfeited on closure.

SBI Card Customer Care and Grievance Redressal

Stage one. Helpline on 1860 180 1290 or 1800 180 1290. Keep the reference number, because stage two needs it.

Stage two. The Nodal Officer, if stage one misses its stated timeline. Put it in writing and quote your stage one reference.

Stage three. The Principal Nodal Officer, whose details SBI Card publishes on its website.

If those fail, the RBI Ombudsman is next, and SBI must have had thirty days to respond before the Ombudsman will accept the case. Given how much of SBI's recent friction involves reward terms changing without notice, a dated written record of what you were told is worth more here than at most issuers.

FAQs About SBI Credit Cards

What are the details of SBI credit cards?

SBI Card issues around 40 active cards. The most popular among them can be grouped into four fee tiers: entry (SimplySAVE, SimplyCLICK and Flipkart SBI), mid (CASHBACK, BPCL Octane and Tata Neu Infinity), premium (PRIME, MILES PRIME), and super-premium (ELITE). SBI Card also offers the Unnati FD-backed card.

What is the minimum income for the Cashback SBI Card?

While SBI Card doesn’t publish an official minimum income for the CASHBACK Card, applicants are generally cleared from around ₹3L per year. If you hold an SBI account, you'll usually clear easily. A credit score of 750 or above matters more than the salary figure here.

Which SBI credit card is best?

There's no single answer. For online spends, the CASHBACK SBI Card. For offline everyday spends, SimplySAVE. For travel, SBI Card MILES PRIME. And for the Tata ecosystem, Tata Neu Infinity SBI card.

Is there an SBI Visa credit card?

Yes. SBI Card issues on four networks, and most of the lineup has a Visa variant – SimplyCLICK, SimplySAVE, BPCL Octane, PRIME, ELITE, Flipkart SBI and more. The CASHBACK SBI Card is Mastercard only. RuPay variants also exist on selected cards to support UPI payments.

What is the minimum salary for an SBI credit card?

It starts at ₹20,000 a month for SimplySAVE and SimplyCLICK, rises to around ₹40,000 for SBI Card MILES, ₹60,000 for PRIME, and roughly ₹1 lakh a month for ELITE. SBI Card Unnati needs no income proof at all – it's issued against a fixed deposit of ₹25,000 or more. Note that SBI doesn't publish these figures officially, so they're observed bars rather than stated ones.

What is an SBI reward point worth?

₹0.25 when redeemed against the Shop & Smile catalogue. So a "10X Reward Points" offer is 10 points per ₹100, which is ₹2.50 back – a 2.5% return, not 10%. Travel Credits on the MILES cards and NeuCoins on the Tata Neu cards are worth ₹1 each, which is four times as much per unit.

Which SBI credit card is lifetime free?

None of SBI's mainstream cards are truly lifetime free. SBI Card Unnati against FD comes close – the ₹499 fee is waived for the first four years, and there's no joining fee. After that, it becomes chargeable. Most other SBI cards waive the annual fee on hitting a spend threshold instead.

If a true lifetime-free card is what you're after, our lifetime free credit card guide covers the cards that actually qualify.

What credit score do I need for an SBI credit card?

750 or above clears the mid and premium range comfortably. 700 to 749 usually gets you SimplySAVE, SimplyCLICK or an entry co-brand. Below 700, apply for Unnati against an FD. It's reported to the bureaus like any other card, so twelve to eighteen months of clean repayment will move your score into the approval range for the rest of the lineup.

Can I get an SBI credit card without a salary slip?

Yes, through SBI Card Unnati, which is secured against a fixed deposit of ₹25,000 or more with no income documentation required. It’s one of our recommended FD-backed credit cards for anyone rebuilding a thin credit file. The deposit continues earning FD interest while it's lien-marked.

Are SBI credit card rewards and benefits permanent?

No, and SBI's 2026 record makes that plain. Air accident insurance was withdrawn in August 2025, gaming and government spends stopped earning in September 2025, the Cashback card's ceiling was cut in April 2026. These were the few changes among many others.

SBI also added a term allowing merchant reclassification without prior customer notice. Redeem your points as you earn them.

Our Take on SBI Credit Cards

SBI Card gives you the widest choice in India and the least stability.

The product design is often excellent. The Cashback card was, for three years, the single best flat-rate cashback card in the country. BPCL Octane at 7.25% is still the best fuel card at its fee. SBI MILES converts to real money at ₹1 a credit, which is better than most reward programmes.

But holding these cards is where it gets uncomfortable. Four cuts in eighteen months, one of them landing on a card less than a year after launch, plus a clause letting SBI reclassify merchants without telling you. You can't plan a points strategy against an issuer that behaves this way.

If you want the card that returns the most money, that's still the CASHBACK SBI Card, for anyone whose online spend sits under ₹40,000 a month. At 5%, you'd earn ₹2,000 a month against a ₹1,179 all-in fee, which pays for itself in three weeks.

But whatever you pick from this lineup, redeem as you earn. You already know why.

Disclaimer

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Eligibility criteria, fees and product features mentioned are accurate to the best of our knowledge as of August 2026, but they can change without notice at the issuer's discretion. Please read the latest Most Important Terms and Conditions (MITC) on the SBI Card website and consult a certified financial advisor before applying for any credit card.