Capital One Spark Cash vs Chase Ink Business Cash: Which Earns More?

Research-based comparison: I haven’t personally held either card. This comparison is based on verified issuer data and research into real cardholder experiences. Verify all figures at the official issuer websites before applying.

The short answer is: Capital One Spark Cash wins for a business with genuinely flat spending, no bonus categories, no exceptions. Chase Ink Business Cash wins for almost everyone else, including businesses that eventually spend past its $25,000-a-year category caps. Here’s why.

I ran the math on three small-business spending shapes, category by category, cash back only, no point-value conversions to argue about since neither card pays in points. One profile is pure flat spend, and Capital One’s uncapped 2% wins there by a real margin, in Year 1 and every year after. The other two lean into office supplies, telecom, gas, or dining, and Chase’s 5% and 2% categories win both of those, even after one profile’s spend crosses Chase’s annual cap. The rest of this article shows the math so you can match it against your own spend before applying.

At a Glance

At a glance, this is a flat 2% with no exceptions against a card that pays more in specific categories but drops to a plain 1% everywhere else. Capital One’s fee isn’t really $0 forever either, it’s $0 for one year, then $95 from year 2 on. Whether that trade is worth it comes down to whether your actual spend lands inside Chase’s bonus categories.

How the Rewards Work

Capital One Spark Cash

Every purchase earns 2% cash back, no cap, no categories to track. Here’s the math: $7,000 a month in mixed business spend earns $140 a month, every single month, regardless of what it’s spent on.

The card also pays 5% cash back on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Business Travel, uncapped. That rate doesn’t show up in the three profiles below since none of them route travel spend through Capital One’s own portal, but it’s worth knowing it’s there if your business books its own travel.

The annual fee is genuinely $0 for the first year, then $95 from year 2 on. That’s the trade for a flat rate with nothing to think about: free for a year, then a real, recurring cost every year after that.

There’s also a limited-time $250 Capital One Business Travel credit, live as of this writing but scheduled to expire September 7, 2026, on the same $10,000-in-3-months spend threshold as the sign-up bonus. Check Capital One’s own page before applying in case it’s gone by the time you read this. It requires booking hotels or rental cars through the same Capital One travel portal that unlocks the 5% rate above, so it’s real value on paper, but only for a business that will actually book travel that way. For that reason it isn’t counted in the Year 1 math below, only mentioned here.

Chase Ink Business Cash

Chase’s structure is built around specific categories instead of one flat rate. Office supply stores, plus internet, cable, and phone services combined, earn 5% cash back, up to $25,000 in combined spend per account anniversary year, then 1% after that. Gas stations and restaurants combined earn 2%, up to their own separate $25,000-a-year limit, then 1%. Everything else earns a flat 1%.

Here’s the math: $1,200 a month in office supplies and telecom earns $60 a month at 5%, more than double what Capital One’s flat 2% pays on the same spend ($24). But that 5% only lasts until the category hits $25,000 for the year, which works out to roughly $2,083 a month sustained. Cross that line and the rest of the year’s spend in that category drops to 1%, worse than Capital One’s flat 2%.

Chase also pays 5% total cash back on Lyft rides, uncapped, through 9/30/2027, a narrow perk that won’t move the needle for most business spending but is worth knowing about if your team leans on Lyft for client meetings or airport runs.

One eligibility restriction matters more than any rate here: the sign-up bonus is not available to anyone who currently has, or has ever had, this card or another no-annual-fee Chase Ink card. If you’ve held Ink Business Unlimited or a previous Ink Business Cash before, budget $0 for the bonus and compare the two cards on ongoing rewards rate alone.

The Math: 3 Spending Profiles

Profile 1: Solo Consultant, Flat Spend, No Bonus Categories

A solo consultant spending $3,500 a month, none of it in Chase’s bonus categories, just general business expenses.

With nothing hitting a bonus category, Chase falls back to its 1% base rate on every dollar. Capital One’s flat 2% doubles it, no categories required.

Annual earnings:

• Capital One Spark Cash: $840/year
• Chase Ink Business Cash: $420/year

Year 1 (with sign-up bonus):

• Capital One Spark Cash: $840 + $1,000 bonus = $1,840 (no annual fee in year 1; $10,500 spent over 3 months clears the $10,000 threshold with room to spare)
• Chase Ink Business Cash: $420 + $1,000 bonus = $1,420 ($14,000 spent over 4 months clears the $8,000 threshold easily)

Year 2+ (ongoing):

• Capital One Spark Cash: $840/year ($745 after the $95 annual fee)
• Chase Ink Business Cash: $420/year (no fee to subtract)

Break-even: N/A. Capital One leads in Year 1 and every year after.

Takeaway: Capital One Spark Cash wins clearly here. A flat 2% beats Chase’s 1% fallback by a wide enough margin that even Capital One’s $95 fee from year 2 on doesn’t come close to closing the gap.

Profile 2: Small Office, Office-Supply and Telecom Heavy

A small office spending $3,000 a month: $1,200 on office supplies plus internet, cable, and phone combined, $400 on gas and dining combined, and $1,400 on everything else.

Both categories stay well under Chase’s $25,000-a-year caps at this pace (office supplies and telecom annualizes to $14,400, gas and dining to $4,800), so the full 5%/2% rates apply for all twelve months.

Annual earnings:

• Capital One Spark Cash: $720/year
• Chase Ink Business Cash: $984/year

Year 1 (with sign-up bonus):

• Capital One Spark Cash: $720, no bonus. At $3,000 a month, three months of spend is $9,000, $1,000 short of Capital One’s $10,000-in-3-months threshold, so the bonus doesn’t land at this pace. Total: $720 (no annual fee in year 1)
• Chase Ink Business Cash: $984 + $1,000 bonus = $1,984 ($12,000 spent over 4 months clears the $8,000 threshold)

Year 2+ (ongoing):

• Capital One Spark Cash: $720/year ($625 after the $95 annual fee)
• Chase Ink Business Cash: $984/year (no fee to subtract)

Break-even: N/A. Chase leads in Year 1 and every year after.

Takeaway: Chase wins decisively here, and not just on rate. This spend pace clears Chase’s $8,000-in-4-months bonus threshold comfortably while falling $1,000 short of Capital One’s $10,000-in-3-months threshold in the exact same window. A moderate, category-heavy spender can miss one card’s bonus entirely while easily hitting the other’s.

Profile 3: Growing Team, High Combined Spend Past Chase’s Caps

A growing team spending $7,000 a month: $2,500 on office supplies plus telecom, $1,000 on gas and dining, and $3,500 on everything else.

*Office supplies and telecom at $2,500 a month hits Chase’s $25,000-a-year cap partway through month 10. The table above shows the 5% rate that applies for those first 10 months; the annual math below accounts for the drop to 1% on the remaining two months of that category, so the totals don’t just multiply the monthly figures by 12.

Gas and dining annualizes to $12,000, comfortably under its own separate $25,000 cap, so that 2% rate holds for the full year without interruption.

Annual earnings:

• Capital One Spark Cash: $1,680/year (2% flat on $84,000 of total annual spend, no caps anywhere)
• Chase Ink Business Cash: $1,960/year ($1,250 at 5% on the first $25,000 of office supplies/telecom, plus $50 at 1% on the remaining $5,000 that crosses the cap; $240 at 2% on gas/dining; $420 at 1% on the $42,000 of everything else)

Year 1 (with sign-up bonus):

• Capital One Spark Cash: $1,680 + $1,000 bonus = $2,680 (no annual fee in year 1; $21,000 spent over 3 months clears the $10,000 threshold)
• Chase Ink Business Cash: $1,960 + $1,000 bonus = $2,960 ($28,000 spent over 4 months clears the $8,000 threshold)

Year 2+ (ongoing):

• Capital One Spark Cash: $1,680/year ($1,585 after the $95 annual fee)
• Chase Ink Business Cash: $1,960/year (no fee to subtract)

Break-even: N/A. Chase leads in Year 1 and every year after.

Takeaway: Even after $5,000 of office-supply and telecom spend reverts to Chase’s 1% rate, Chase still earns more than Capital One’s uncapped 2% at this volume. The cap crossover costs Chase real money against an uncapped 5%, but it isn’t enough to hand the win to Capital One at this spending level.

Where Each Card Wins

The pattern across all three profiles: Capital One wins when spend genuinely doesn’t hit a bonus category, or when it blows so far past Chase’s caps that the 1% fallback rate drags Chase’s blended rate below 2%. Chase wins everywhere in between, which for most small businesses with any real office, telecom, gas, or dining spend, is most of the time.

Who Should Choose Capital One Spark Cash

✅ A solo consultant or freelancer whose spend doesn’t naturally sort into office supplies, telecom, gas, or dining, and who’d rather not track categories at all.

✅ A business that spends meaningfully abroad and wants zero foreign transaction fees, versus Chase’s 3%.

✅ A business that’s held a no-annual-fee Chase Ink card before and can’t collect Chase’s bonus again, but still wants a strong flat rate on every dollar.

✅ An owner who values simplicity over squeezing out the last percentage point, and is fine paying $95 a year starting in year 2 for it. If you’re weighing whether that trade is worth it, the annual fee guide walks through how to think about it. A business that outgrows this card’s structure entirely might also look at Capital One Spark Cash Plus, Capital One’s higher-fee, no-preset-limit sibling.

If this sounds like you, Capital One Spark Cash is the right call.

Who Should Choose Chase Ink Business Cash

✅ A small office or team with real, recurring office-supply, internet, cable, or phone bills, where 5% cash back adds up fast.

✅ A business with steady gas and dining spend that wants a 2% rate without paying an annual fee to get it.

✅ A growing business whose combined office/telecom or gas/dining spend might eventually cross the $25,000-a-year caps, since even the capped, blended rate still beat Capital One’s flat 2% in Profile 3 above.

✅ An owner who hasn’t previously held this card or another no-fee Ink card, and wants the easier $8,000-in-4-months bonus threshold. A business that outgrows this card’s caps has natural next steps within the same Ink lineup: Ink Business Preferred for higher combined caps and travel protections, or Ink Business Unlimited for a flat 1.5% with no categories to track at all.

If this sounds like you, Chase Ink Business Cash is the right call.

The Bottom Line

Here’s what I’d actually tell a friend who asked me this: don’t start with the sign-up bonus. Both pay $1,000, and the thresholds are close enough that spend pace, not bonus size, decides which one you actually collect. Start with your last three months of real business spending and see how much of it is office supplies, internet, cable, phone, gas, or dining. If the answer is “not much,” Capital One Spark Cash’s flat 2% wins, plain and simple. If the answer is “a real chunk,” Chase Ink Business Cash wins, and it keeps winning even once you outgrow its $25,000-a-year caps.

Neither card is a bad pick here. Capital One’s case is simplicity: one flat rate, no caps, no categories, and no foreign transaction fee if your business spends abroad. Chase’s case is that most small businesses do spend something on office supplies, telecom, gas, or dining, and 5% and 2% on those categories adds up to more than a flat 2%, fee or no fee.

If your spend leans toward Chase’s categories, read the full Chase Ink Business Cash review next. If it doesn’t, the Capital One Spark Cash review has the rest of the details. Either way, the full list of the best business credit cards is worth a look before you apply, in case a third option fits your spend even better than either of these two.