How Much Interest a High-Yield Savings Account Earns in 2026

A $10,000 balance earns $354 a year at the 3.54% average APY Financeradar verifies, if that rate holds and you leave the money untouched. The same balance earns $37 at the 0.37% national savings rate the FDIC published on September 21, 2026. The gap is $317. A banner APY can shrink it once a cap or a deposit test applies.

A high-yield savings account is a deposit account that pays a variable APY above that national savings average, and the cash stays available without a locked term. It fits money you might spend this year, and it is a poor home for money you can tie up, because the rate can move inside a month. Financeradar data: the dollar table below uses a 3.54% average, the mean of 34 published APYs among 35 high-yield savings accounts we verify, with a low of 1.84% and a high of 4.50% on September 23, 2026 (high-yield savings statistics). The ranked list of those accounts is the high-yield savings guide.

What each balance earns in a year

Multiply the balance by the APY and stop. Annual percentage yield already includes a year of compounding, so interest on an untouched balance is the balance times the APY if the rate holds and you add or withdraw nothing. The first money column is the catalog average and the second is the FDIC national savings rate, both variable readings rather than a contract.

The monthly credit is smaller than the APY divided by 12. The monthly rate that compounds to the catalog average is (1.0354) to the power of 1/12, minus 1, which is 0.2903%. The first month on the example balance is $29.03, not the $29.50 you get by splitting the annual dollars into twelve equal parts. Banks that credit interest monthly are already inside the APY, so a second compound factor double-counts the year.

Five frozen years is an illustration, not a forecast. Left alone at a copy of that average that never moves, the example balance earns $1,899.83 and ends at $11,899.83. A real account will not hold the starting APY that long, so that ending figure is a ceiling, not a plan. The rate tracker exists because these rates move inside a single month.

Financeradar data: maintenance fees barely show up in this catalog as of September 23, 2026, with 31 of the 34 accounts that list a fee charging none (91%), and no opening minimum on 25 of those 34 (74%), on the same statistics page. A waived fee will not move the year for most of these accounts. What cuts the dollars is a rate that stops partway up the balance, which is why the no-minimum savings guide and the no-minimum savings filter sit apart from this math.

The same balance at seven named accounts

The catalog average is a benchmark, not an account you can open. The seven rates below were taken from each issuer's site on September 23, 2026. The dollar column is the balance times the stated APY, rate held still, nothing added or withdrawn, and no fee removed from the earnings. Two rates in one row are both outcomes, because missing the test pays the lower one.

Elevault, a Southern Bancorp account, is the cleanest large-balance reading in this set: 4.34% APY and a 4.25% interest rate, paid daily, with no monthly fee and no minimum. It suits a saver who will leave a large pile alone. The homepage footnote dates the pair to May 5, 2026, and the site was still showing it for this reading.

The rate applies through a $500,000 balance, while FDIC insurance at Southern Bancorp is stated at $250,000 per depositor, per ownership category, so a pile at the interest cap is partly uninsured at that one bank. An in-app transfer stops at $2,500 for the day, and anything larger has to be pushed from the other bank, using the routing number Elevault calls a VaultKey. That cap slows the exit without cutting the rate.

Pibank Savings, issued by Intercredit Bank, N.A., shows a July 2, 2026 offer of 4.10% APY, with no fee and no minimum to open or to hold the rate. It suits someone who wants that APY on the full balance and will move cash by wire. Interest is calculated daily and credited on the 15th, or the next business day when the 15th is a weekend or a federal holiday. Wires are free on Pibank's side, but bill pay and Zelle are absent, so the other bank's wire fee is the cost of moving the cash.

Axos ONE is a checking-and-savings bundle, and the 4.21% APY (a 4.12% interest rate) is the boosted tier. It suits payroll or large deposits that keep both accounts open through the test date. Axos prints $421 of annual earnings on the example balance at that APY. Miss the test and every savings tier in its rate table falls to 1.00%, which is $321 less than that $421 line, so the headline is a conditional paycheck, not a floor.

The test is one of two monthly paths, and qualifying transactions have to post by the 25th:

• At least $1,500 in qualifying direct deposits, plus an average daily balance of at least $1,500.
• At least $5,000 in qualifying deposits, and the same amount as an average daily balance.

Both accounts also have to be open on the 25th and on the day interest is paid, so closing either one early fails the test. Above $249,999.99 the boosted APY falls to 3.50% on the additional dollars, so only the first slice keeps the boosted rate. Axos also describes up to $2.5 million of additional FDIC insurance through its insured deposit program, on top of ordinary coverage at Axos Bank, at no fee, which is why a very large pile might stay after the step-down. Irregular deposits are a bad bet here, because a miss reprices the whole balance.

Happen Bank's LevelUp Savings pays 4.20% APY on the full balance when it receives at least $250 in qualifying deposits during an evaluation period, and 3.00% APY otherwise. Both rates are accurate as of September 22, 2026. Automating the deposit keeps the higher rate on the whole balance. Income that lands in lumps is a poor fit, because a miss reprices every dollar.

Interest the bank pays you does not count as a deposit, and neither do bonuses, credits, or refunds. The first evaluation period is the third statement cycle, so an account opened in August is first measured in October, with any rate change effective in November. Until that test the account earns the higher rate, and that rate can still change. There is no minimum to open. Miss the test and the year looks like Ally's unconditional rate. Our rate log records a move from 4% to 4.2% with a last capture on September 23, 2026.

Marcus prints 3.50% APY, with no fees and no minimum deposit. It suits someone who wants a fast large transfer and will accept a mid-pack APY instead of a monthly test. Marcus can move $100,000 or less the same day if you ask by noon Eastern on a business day. If you do not need that speed, the boosted rows pay more on an untouched balance.

One referral stacks an extra 1.00% for three months. If the standard APY never moved, Marcus blends that bump into 3.75% for the year, then the account returns to the standard rate, so the bump is not a new floor. The savings page says maximum balance limits apply and does not print the dollar cap, so a very large balance needs the agreement. The head-to-head with Ally is Marcus vs Ally.

Ally's savings page shows 3% APY on a page dated September 22, 2026, and that APY does not step with the balance, including at $25,000 and above. Interest compounds daily, with no monthly maintenance fee and no minimum to open. It suits someone using buckets, round-ups, and a paired spending account who has decided the last bit of APY is not the goal, and who will leave yield on the rows above.

Ally's binding constraint is a count of 10 restricted withdrawals or transfers in a statement cycle. There is no fee for going over, and Ally says it will close the account if you do so more than occasionally, so the penalty is losing the account. An outgoing domestic wire is $20. Accounts at the top of this catalog's range are collected on savings accounts over 4% APY.

The highest APY can pay the least

GO2bank is the top of that range and a bad translation of a large balance. The savings feature page and the help center both still print 4.50% APY and a 4.41% interest rate. The feature page dates that pair to December 2024, and the help center dates it to June 2025, so the pages disagree on when the rate was set. Treat the headline as possibly stale.

Interest posts quarterly on the combined average daily balance of up to five vaults, only up to the cap in the table, and only in good standing at quarter-end. No rate is published for dollars above the cap, and fees on the primary deposit account may reduce the earnings. Green Dot Bank is the FDIC bank, which names the insurer rather than a rate for the uncapped dollars. It is the wrong input for the largest row of the first table. Caps, hoops, and teaser rates are the subject of the APY catch report.

National rates, CDs, and a rate that moves

The FDIC national savings rate is a floor for ordinary savings, not a high-yield account wearing a disguise. On the national rates table published September 21, 2026, savings are 0.37%, money market accounts are 0.63%, and a 12-month CD is 1.73%. On the example balance that national 12-month CD is worth $173, ahead of ordinary savings and well behind the catalog savings average. The savings national rate is built from the $2,500 tier, weighted by domestic deposits, with inputs through the previous month-end, which is why a branch average sits so far under the first table.

Our tracker keeps a different FDIC print and still compares savings with 0.38% from August 17, 2026, and it shows a 3.71% average across 21 savings accounts stamped in the last 14 days, as of September 23, 2026. That 3.71% is not the catalog average in the first table: the catalog takes every published high-yield savings account we verify, while the tracker keeps only two-week stamps and is not limited to this set. Cite the catalog average for the dollar table and the tracker for the newest slice, and do not mix them in one year of interest.

A competitive CD can beat the savings average, and it will not float, which is the trade when you can give up access. The same tracker shows a fresh CD average of 4.06% on 9 CDs stamped in 14 days. That CD average pays $406 on the example balance if you lock that rate, more than the first table's savings illustration and less than the Elevault and boosted Axos rows. The extra yield costs a lockup and an early-withdrawal penalty (CD vs high-yield savings).

The log is why a one-year freeze is a model. Between August 25 and September 20, 2026, Betterment Cash Reserve went from 3.25% to 4.40% in our snapshots, a 1.15 point gap worth $115 a year on the example balance if the new rate held. From August 26 to September 19, Wealthfront Cash Account's snapshots went 4.20% then 4.45%. LevelUp's move, from 4% to 4.2%, matches the higher rate on its issuer page. Using last month's APY as the interest you will receive is a guess.

Tax and the insurance cap

The interest in these tables is pre-tax. IRS Topic 403, reviewed by the IRS as of June 28, 2026, treats bank interest you can take out without a penalty as income for the year it is credited. At $10 of credited interest, the payer generally issues Form 1099-INT, and a missing form does not cancel the duty to report it. Every balance in the first table produces more than that $10 threshold in a year, so each row is a reporting event.

This page does not apply a tax bracket, because the bracket depends on the rest of the return. Treasury bill interest is federal tax only, exempt from state and local income tax. Savings-account interest does not receive that exemption.

FDIC insurance covers the deposit, not the rate. The FDIC insures $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, per ownership category. A single savings balance the size of the largest row sits inside that cap at one bank. Checking and savings in one single-owner category at the same bank are added together, and a joint account is its own category.

Financeradar data: as of September 23, 2026, FDIC insurance is disclosed by 34 out of 35 high-yield savings accounts we verify, or 97% of the set. One account does not, so check the line on the account you choose, using the FDIC page above for the coverage rules. If your pick skips the disclosure, read that issuer's page before you treat the balance as insured, because coverage is not a yield guarantee.

How we calculated

Issuer pages and regulator pages were read on September 23, 2026, along with the live catalog figures on our statistics page and rate tracker that day. Dollar results are the balance times the stated APY, with the rate held constant and nothing added or withdrawn. The average draws on 34 published APYs from the 35 high-yield savings accounts in the catalog. No account was opened for this calculation. The rates were editorially reviewed by Louis Corneloup, founder of Financeradar and Dupple. These figures are general information about published rates, not a plan for your bracket or your cash. If a savings link on this page pays Financeradar a commission, that payment does not change the interest math or which accounts appear as examples (how we make money). The broader savings statistics write-up is the high-yield savings report, and the screen of every savings account we publish is best savings accounts.

FAQ

How much interest will $10,000 earn in a high-yield savings account in a year?

Leave that balance untouched for a year at the 3.54% catalog average and the interest is $354, against $37 at the FDIC's 0.37% savings rate from the September 21, 2026 table. The gap is $317 before tax, which is what ordinary savings costs on this balance if the rate holds. Pibank's 4.10% APY produces $410 on that balance, and Ally's 3% APY produces $300. Neither dollar figure is after tax.

How much does $100,000 earn in a high-yield savings account?

A $100,000 balance earns $3,540 in a year at the catalog average if the rate holds, and $370 at the national savings rate, but only when the published rate covers the whole balance. GO2bank's headline stops at the vault cap, so the largest row of the first table is not what that product pays. Elevault quotes 4.34% on balances up to $500,000, inside its interest cap and above the $250,000 FDIC cap it states for one ownership category at Southern Bancorp. Past that insurance line, part of a balance this size is uninsured at that one bank even while interest still accrues.

How much interest does $1,000 earn in a high-yield savings account?

A $1,000 balance earns $35.40 in a year at the catalog average, and $3.70 at the FDIC national savings rate, if those rates hold. The extra yield is small enough that a wire fee can erase it, so check fees before the banner rate. Pibank says interest starts at $0.01, so a small balance is not shut out. A capped product does not work that way on a much larger sum, which is why the no-minimum list and this dollar table answer different questions.

Is interest credited to a high-yield savings account taxable?

Yes, for a normal bank savings account. IRS Topic 403 treats interest you can withdraw without a penalty as taxable in the year it becomes available, and a payer generally sends Form 1099-INT when the interest is $10 or more. You still report it if the form never shows up. The dollar tables here are pre-tax, not a bracket calculation, because what you keep depends on the rest of the return.

What is the difference between APY and the interest rate?

APY is the one-year result with compounding already included, and the interest rate is the nominal rate before that compounding. Multiply by the APY for the year, and do not compound it again, or the budget overstates the credit. Elevault prints a 4.25% interest rate and a 4.34% APY, paid daily, so the gap is the daily compound, not extra money. Axos prints 4.12% and 4.21% on the boosted tier under $249,999.99. GO2bank is the quarterly case in the account table: the APY is the figure that already includes the compound.

Does the highest APY always pay the most dollars?

No. A higher headline can pay fewer dollars once a cap or a missed test applies. GO2bank's 4.50% is the highest headline in the catalog range and pays $225 on the $5,000 slice that earns it, not a scaled-up result on a larger balance. Axos's 4.21% becomes 1.00% if the monthly deposit test is missed, and that lower rate hits the whole balance. LevelUp's 4.20% becomes 3.00% if the $250 deposit test is missed. Pibank's 4.10%, with no minimum and no deposit gate, can pay more on a large untouched balance than a capped or conditional headline.

How does a high-yield savings account compare with a CD?

The FDIC's national 12-month CD rate was 1.73% on the September 21, 2026 table, which is $173 on the example balance, above the national savings rate and below the catalog savings average. That ordinary certificate is the wrong comparison for a competitive online CD. Our rate tracker shows a fresh CD average of 4.06% on 9 CDs stamped in the last 14 days, which is $406 on that example if you lock it. The CD holds the rate for the term, while the savings APY can change the next day. CD vs high-yield savings is the longer version of that trade.

Can the rate change after the account is open?

Yes. Every issuer page used here says the APY is variable, so a year at today's APY is a snapshot, not a locked coupon. Pibank can change its rate without notice, Ally says the rate may change after opening, and Axos says savings rates may change as often as daily. Our log recorded LevelUp moving from 4% to 4.2% between August 26 and September 23, 2026, and Betterment Cash Reserve moving from 3.25% to 4.40% between August 25 and September 20. Planning from the opening-day rate uses a number the issuer can replace.

Cite this: Financeradar, "How Much Interest a High-Yield Savings Account Earns in 2026", September 2026.