The Amex Cobalt is a specialist card, sold as a general recommendation.
It is not a bad card. Taken as a statement credit, its five times rate needs about $320 a month at restaurants and stand-alone grocery stores to cover the card fee.
Is this you?
A card with a fee that comes out every month, and points you take as a statement credit. At a cent a point, the five times categories alone return the fee once you spend about $320 a month at restaurants and stand-alone grocery stores.
You have the Amex Cobalt. Five points on food and drinks, which is a real rate on real spending.
The question worth asking before taking the recommendation is what you have to spend for that rate to cover what the card costs.
What most people believe
Back to topThat the Amex Cobalt is the best rewards card in Canada, so it is the right card for them.
The first part is an opinion other people hold. The second does not follow from it, and Amex’s own numbers show why.
The break-even
Back to topAmex charges $15.99 a month, $191.88 a year, for cardholders outside Quebec.
Amex also publishes what a point is worth when you cash it out: 1,000 points is a $10 statement credit. One cent a point.
Five points a dollar is therefore five cents a dollar. Counting only the five times categories, you need about $3,840 a year to earn that back, which is $320 a month, every month, at restaurants and stand-alone grocery stores. Everything else on the card earns one point a dollar, one cent, and lowers that figure.
That is the floor for the five times rate to pay for the card on its own.
The rate is capped, and the cap resets
Back to topThe five times rate applies up to a combined maximum of $2,500 in net purchases posted monthly. Past that you earn one point a dollar, and the count resets to zero on the first of each month.
So a heavy month cannot make up for a light one, and the maximum the five times rate can ever return is fixed.
Two ways to redeem, two different cards
Back to topThe one cent a point figure is what Amex pays for a statement credit. Amex also lets you transfer points to frequent flyer and other loyalty programs, where a point has no fixed cash value.
Which means the Amex Cobalt is really two cards. If you transfer points, the value depends on the program and the redemption, and the arithmetic above may not apply. If you take the statement credit, a cent a point is what you get, and the break-even stands.
The higher returns you may have seen quoted for this card, and the lower break-even in the video on this page, come from valuing each point above the one cent Amex pays as a statement credit. At the statement credit rate, the break-even is about double.
Where the rate applies
Back to topAmex pays five points at stand-alone grocery stores and at restaurants, and says directly that purchases where those categories are not the merchant’s primary business, such as general merchandise retailers, do not qualify. Merchants are typically assigned codes based on what they sell, which is the same mechanism your grocery card runs on.
So the $320 a month has to be spent at the right kind of store, not just on the right kind of thing.
What you now know
The Amex Cobalt costs $191.88 a year. At a cent a point on statement credits, you need about $320 a month in eligible spending to break even on the five times categories alone, every month, at merchants whose primary business is food. The five times rate is capped at $2,500 monthly and resets on the first. It earns most for a household that spends heavily at restaurants and dedicated grocery stores, close to the $2,500 monthly cap. It is a specialist card, and it is recommended as a general one.
Common questions
Back to topWhy did my grocery purchase earn one point instead of five
Amex’s terms pay five points at stand-alone grocery stores, and purchases at merchants where groceries are not the primary business, such as general merchandise retailers, do not qualify. The base rate also applies when the merchant code is not in an eligible category, when the purchase goes through a third party payment service or a card reader attached to a phone, and once $2,500 in eligible purchases has posted that month.
Does the $2,500 cap carry over to the next month
No. Amex’s terms say the calculation resets to zero on the 1st of each month. A month under $2,500 adds no room to the next one, and once the maximum is reached, purchases in those categories earn one point per dollar until the reset.
Sources
Back to topEvery claim on this page was checked against these documents on 24 September 2026.
- American Express: Cobalt Card benefits and terms · Cobalt Card, card fee
The Amex Cobalt Is Overrated. Here Are 5 Better Cards (Canada 2026). Published 29 April 2026. Loads on click. Nothing is requested from YouTube until you ask.
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