ThynkRise Most people pick a savings account once and never check it again. That habit can quietly cost hundreds of dollars a year. Put your balance, monthly deposit and each account’s APY in the calculator below to see what the same money earns in different places. It also checks whether any of your cash sits above what FDIC insurance covers.
Investing rather than saving? The robo-advisor fee calculator compares what automated investing costs.
Savings interest & FDIC coverage calculator
Compare what the same cash earns in up to three accounts, and check whether any of it sits above FDIC limits.
| Account | Interest earned | Ending balance | FDIC-insured up to |
|---|
Default rates are examples only. Enter the current APY from each provider’s site, since rates change often. Assumes the APY stays fixed, interest compounds monthly and deposits land at month-end. FDIC coverage shown is the standard $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, per ownership category, multiplied by the number of banks your money is actually spread across. For a single-owner account this is an estimate, not advice.
How the calculator works
APY (annual percentage yield) already includes compounding, so the calculator turns each APY into its monthly equivalent and grows your balance one month at a time, adding your deposit at the end of each month. “Interest earned” is your ending balance minus everything you put in.
It assumes the APY stays fixed for the whole period. In real life, rates on savings and cash accounts are variable and can change any month, often soon after the Federal Reserve moves rates. Read the result as “what this gap looks like at today’s rates”, not as a promise.
What the FDIC column means
FDIC insurance covers deposits up to $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, for each account ownership category (single, joint, certain retirement accounts and so on). If a bank fails, money above that limit at that bank isn’t covered.
Some cash accounts, like the ones offered by robo-advisors and fintech apps, aren’t banks themselves. They “sweep” your money across a network of partner banks, keeping each slice under $250,000, which is how they advertise coverage in the millions. That coverage depends on your money actually being spread across those banks, and it protects you if a partner bank fails, not if the app company itself has problems. Enter the number of partner banks your provider actually uses in the “Insured banks behind it” field to see your real ceiling.
Going deeper on one provider? We compared what happens to a Wealthfront Cash Account if Wealthfront shuts down, and Wealthfront Cash vs SoFi Checking on safety.
Frequently asked questions
Is a higher APY always better?
Not on its own. Check for minimum balances, monthly fees, rate caps on part of your balance and how fast you can get money out. A 0.25% higher APY on $10,000 is about $25 a year, and one fee can wipe that out.
How much of my cash should earn a high yield?
Your emergency fund and anything you’ll spend in the next one to three years is the usual candidate. That money shouldn’t be in the stock market, but it doesn’t need to earn close to nothing in a big-bank savings account either.
Is interest on savings taxed?
In the US, savings and cash-account interest is generally taxed as ordinary income in the year it’s paid, so your after-tax gain is smaller than the number shown here.
Where do I find an account’s current APY?
On the provider’s own rates page. Rates move often, so check there rather than trusting any article’s number, including ours.
More on where to keep and grow your money: SoFi high-yield savings review · Wealth & Investing hub.
This calculator is for education, not financial advice. ThynkRise may earn a commission from some providers we review; it never changes the math above.