Best CD Rates for 2026, Ranked by Yield and Term

A certificate of deposit is a simple bargain. You promise not to touch the money for a fixed period, and the bank promises a fixed rate for that period. Both halves matter. The fixed rate is the reason to want one, and the promise not to touch the money is the reason most people should think twice.

That bargain only pays off in one specific situation: you know the date you need the money, and that date is far enough away to be worth locking. Property taxes due in eleven months, a tuition payment next August, an insurance excess you have already budgeted for. If the date is unknown, the lock-up is a cost with no offsetting benefit, because a savings account will pay a competitive variable rate for the same deposit with no restriction at all.

The panel above lists the providers tracked on this page. CD rates change frequently and differ by term, and no specification values are currently on record for these products. Any rate you see anywhere needs confirming on the provider's own rate page for the specific term you want, on the day you open the account.

How we picked

Providers are ranked on four criteria: how competitive the rates are across the full range of terms rather than on a single promotional term, how clear and how mild the early withdrawal penalty schedule is, whether a no-penalty option exists, and what happens automatically at maturity.

Marcus Online Savings from Goldman Sachs takes the overall award for being competitive across terms with a straightforward penalty schedule, which matters more than a single headline term. Ally Online Savings from Ally Bank is the flexible pick because a no-penalty option exists for money you might need before the term ends. Discover Online Savings earns the long-term award, on the basis that five-year terms are where providers diverge most and are worth comparing directly.

TopicDrill may earn a commission when a reader opens an account through a link on this site. Commissions never affect the ranking or the awards, and the affiliate links on this page are currently inactive, so nothing here pays us today. See how we make money.

When is a CD better than a savings account?

Only when you value certainty about the rate more than access to the money. A savings account pays a variable rate the bank can cut at any time but never restricts withdrawal. A CD fixes the rate for the term but penalizes early access. If the deposit has a known end date and the CD rate beats what savings pays today, the lock is doing real work.

The comparison is not just rate against rate. It is rate certainty against the possibility that savings rates rise during the term, in which case the CD holder is stuck with yesterday's number, or fall, in which case the CD holder wins. Nobody knows which way that goes, and this page will not pretend to. What you can control is whether the lock-up matches a real date.

For a working comparison of the alternative, high-yield savings accounts covers the same providers on the variable-rate side.

How does an early withdrawal penalty work?

The penalty is usually expressed as a number of days or months of interest, set when the account is opened and applied whether or not you have earned that much. If you break the CD before earning enough interest to cover the penalty, the shortfall comes out of your principal, and you get back less than you deposited.

Here is the arithmetic on a $10,000 deposit broken after 60 days, where the schedule specifies 90 days of simple interest. There is no CD rate on record for these providers, so this example uses the 4.10% figure recorded for Marcus Online Savings on the savings side purely as a stand-in rate for the arithmetic. Substitute the actual CD rate you are quoted.

The account has gone backwards. This is the single most important mechanic in the category and it is the reason emergency money never belongs in a term deposit. A no-penalty CD, which is the basis of the Ally award here, removes this risk in exchange for a rate that is generally lower than an equivalent standard term.

Which term should you choose?

Match the term to the date, not to the rate. A twelve-month CD for money needed in eleven months is a term mismatch that guarantees a penalty. Longer terms sometimes pay more and sometimes pay less than shorter ones, so the term is a decision about your own calendar first and the rate curve second.

The mistake to avoid at the long end is treating a five-year CD as a substitute for investing. It is not. It is a deposit product with a nominal return, and over five years inflation is a real consideration. If the horizon is genuinely long, the relevant comparison is with a brokerage account, which carries different risk and different upside.

What happens when the CD matures?

Most CDs renew automatically. The bank gives a short grace period, often around ten days, in which you can withdraw or change the term without penalty. If you do nothing, the money rolls into a new CD of the same length at whatever rate the bank is offering that day, and the lock-up starts again.

That default is where a lot of money quietly gets stuck at an uncompetitive rate. The fix is a calendar entry, set on the day you open the account, for a week before maturity. Decide then whether to take the money, roll it, or move it to a different provider. Also check the maturity instructions at opening, because some banks let you set the destination account in advance, which removes the problem entirely.

What is a CD ladder?

A ladder splits one deposit across several terms so that part of the money matures each year. It reduces the cost of guessing wrong about rates, because you are never fully committed to a single term, and it produces a regular point at which cash becomes available without a penalty.

Here is a $20,000 ladder built from four equal rungs.

Each rung, as it matures, is either taken as cash or reinvested into a new four-year CD. After four years the ladder is self-sustaining: $5,000 becomes available every twelve months, and the average rate across the ladder smooths out whatever the rate environment does. The cost of the structure is complexity, four maturity dates to track instead of one.

Common mistakes

Putting the emergency fund in a CD. The penalty arithmetic above shows why. Emergency money needs to be reachable the same week, which means savings or a checking account.

Letting the CD auto-renew by default. The grace period is short and the renewal rate is whatever the bank is paying that day. Diarize the maturity date at opening.

Comparing a promotional odd term against a standard one. Banks often price an unusual term, such as thirteen months, attractively to win new money. That is fine, but compare it against the same provider's standard terms and check what it renews into.

Assuming the penalty is capped at the interest earned. Some schedules take the stated number of days of interest regardless of how much was actually earned, which is exactly how a deposit shrinks.

Forgetting the interest is taxable as it is credited. On a multi-year CD, interest is generally taxable in the year it is credited, not in the year you finally cash out, so tax can be owed on money you have not yet received. The 2026 federal tax brackets set the rate.

Who this is wrong for

A CD is wrong for anyone whose need date is uncertain. That includes emergency funds, house-hunting money where the closing date is not fixed, and any balance that doubles as a buffer. The penalty converts a small timing surprise into a real loss.

It is wrong for small balances. On $1,000, the difference between a competitive CD rate and a competitive savings rate is a few dollars a year, which does not justify a lock-up or the administration of tracking a maturity date.

And it is wrong for long-horizon money that has no fixed date at all. A deposit product returns a nominal rate with no growth beyond the interest. For retirement money, the annual retirement contribution limits point at a more appropriate structure.

What to check before you sign up

• Confirm the current rate for your exact term on the provider's own rate page, since rates differ term by term.
• Read the early withdrawal penalty in the disclosure, and note whether it is expressed in days or months of interest.
• Check whether the penalty can reduce your principal, not just your interest.
• Confirm the minimum deposit and whether the advertised rate requires a higher balance tier.
• Find out what happens at maturity by default, and how long the grace period is.
• Set the maturity date and a reminder one week before it in a calendar you actually use.
• Check whether a no-penalty version exists and what rate it pays, if there is any chance you need the money early.
• Confirm the institution is FDIC or NCUA insured and check the current coverage limit at the regulator.

CD rates move with short-term interest rates and can change between the day you research and the day you fund the account, so nothing in a comparison table, including the panel above, should be treated as a quote. The parts that stay true are structural: match the term to a real date, read the penalty before you sign, and put the maturity date in your calendar on day one.