Does CardMax see my purchases or card numbers?

No. CardMax never sees your statements, transactions, or full card numbers. The only inputs are photos of public-facing things — a storefront, your cart, a printed receipt — plus the card nicknames you choose to enter. There is no Plaid integration, no bank login, no number stored.

Which cards does CardMax support?

Every major U.S. consumer card from Chase, American Express, Capital One, Citi, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Discover, U.S. Bank, and Apple Card, plus the most common co-branded airline/hotel cards. Bonus structures and quarterly 5% rotations are kept in sync with each issuer's published category list.

CardMax is free to download with a generous free tier — unlimited card storage and a daily quota of merchant-identification scans. CardMax Pro unlocks unlimited scans, advanced features like transfer-partner sweet-spot suggestions, and the Chase 5/24 tracker. You can use the free tier indefinitely.

Can CardMax tell me when to OPEN a new card?

Yes — CardMax tracks the gaps in your wallet (groceries you keep paying 1% on, dining you have no bonus card for) and surfaces specific card recommendations when a sign-up bonus would clearly pay for itself, factoring in your Chase 5/24 status and current sign-up bonus offers.

Does CardMax sync with my actual statements?

Not yet. CardMax is deliberately scan-first and statement-free — that's how the privacy story works. A future Plaid integration is planned as an opt-in for users who want CardMax to verify caps were actually hit, but it will always be opt-in, never required.

How accurate is the merchant detection?

CardMax uses a multimodal vision model tuned on retail signage, point-of-sale receipts, and shopping carts. In testing, top-1 merchant match is over 90% on legible receipts and around 80% on storefront photos; you can always correct the merchant in one tap and CardMax remembers the correction for next time.

How do I cancel my subscription?

CardMax Pro is billed through Apple, so you cancel it the same way you cancel any iOS subscription: open Settings → tap your name at the top → Subscriptions → CardMax → Cancel Subscription. Your Pro features stay active until the end of the current billing period.

CardMax · pick the right card to swipe

Pick the bestcard to swipe.

CardMax is an AI credit card optimizer for iOS — the fastest way to figure out the best card to swipe before you pay. Snap a photo of the storefront, your cart, or the receipt and CardMax infers the merchant and likely MCC, ranks every card in your wallet by estimated return for that purchase, and factors in bonus categories, quarterly 5% rotations, transfer-partner sweet spots, and your Chase 5/24 status. Think of it as a credit card rewards calculator and AI receipt scanner that lives in your pocket — no statement import, no card-number entry, just the math behind which card to pull out.

Live on the App StoreCap-aware ranking · math in the open

Merchant rules CardMax knows

Whole FoodsMCC 5411 · Groceries
ShellMCC 5541 · Gas
United AirlinesMCC 3000 · Travel
Olive GardenMCC 5812 · Dining

Best card for this swipe

Rewards · Generic Network

GOLD

4× groceries12.0% est.

GOLD

12.0% est.

4× · assumes 3¢/pt · est. +$14.40 on $120

4× on groceries at this merchant (MCC 5411). The runner-up's quarterly grocery cap is nearly full — using it now risks dropping to 1× for the rest of the quarter.

Cap-aware alert87% used

PLATINUM · Q1 grocery cap — keep it for the next quarter, not this run.

Merchant

Whole Foods

CardMax in 10 seconds.

Three cards, one register, and a quiet little camera that turns “which one?” into the math.

01 · Before

Three cards. One register.

No clue which earns the most on this run.

Grocery run · ~$120 · 3 cards in your wallet, 3 different rates.

02 · Snap

CardMax reads the cart.

Merchant, category, cap state — all in one tap.

Merchant inferred · MCC 5411

Whole Foods · Groceries

GOLD best card
4× on groceries
12.0% est.
PLATINUM
3× on groceries
⚠ 87% of Q1 cap used
9.0% est.
BLUE
1× on everything
1.0% est.

The math · GOLD · assumes 3¢/pt

$120 × 4× × 3¢/pt = $14.40 est. value(vs. $1.20 at 1× = +$13.20)

03 · After

Swipe the right card.

Pocket the math. Wallet stays informed.

Best for this swipe

GOLD

4× groceries12.0% est.

+$13.20 vs default 1× card

Wallet updated · logged to Recent

Illustrative example — GOLD, PLATINUM & BLUE are generic cards, not product recommendations. Percentages and payouts are estimates at an assumed 3¢/pt; issuer MCC coding and redemption values can vary.

Cap-aware ranking · math in the open · merchant rules baked in

Open in the App Store

What it does

The receipt math you weren't doing.

Snap before you swipe

Photograph the cart, storefront, or receipt — CardMax infers the merchant and category.

Optimal pick, with the math

Every card in your wallet ranked by estimated return for this purchase.

Cap-aware

Knows your quarterly bonus-category caps — like a $1.5K rotating 5% grocery cap — and stops recommending a card once you've maxed it out.

How it works · 4 beats

Snap, scan, match, swipe.

Use CardMax to pick the best card to swipe in four steps: snap a photo, let CardMax scan the merchant, match against your wallet, and swipe the winner.

Step 1
Snap
Open CardMax at the register and snap a photo of the storefront, your cart, or the printed receipt. One tap; no menu diving.
Step 2
Scan
CardMax runs the photo through its vision model and infers the merchant plus its likely MCC — “Whole Foods · Grocery · MCC 5411”.
Step 3
Match
Every card in your wallet is ranked by the estimated return for that purchase — multiplier, assumed cents-per-point value, and remaining bonus-category cap all factored in.
Step 4
Swipe
Pull out the card at the top of the list — CardMax shows its estimated effective % back and warns when you’re close to a quarterly cap.

FAQ · 8 questions

CardMax, answered.

CardMax infers the merchant and its likely merchant category code (MCC) from a single photo, then ranks every card in your wallet by the estimated return that purchase would earn — multiplier × an assumed cents-per-point value — net of bonus-category caps. Issuer MCC coding and point redemption values can differ; the card at the top of the list is the one to pull out.