Updated
Bilt 2.0 Calculator: Which Bilt Card Earns the Most, and Should You Opt Out in 2027?
Bilt changed the math again
On October 27, 2026, Bilt announced its 2027 program changes. The biggest one for cardholders: the 4% Bilt Cash option is being retired. On your first 2027 card anniversary, every Bilt card (Blue, Obsidian and Palladium) moves to "Housing-only" earning of up to 1.25X on rent or mortgage, and the Obsidian and Palladium hotel credits turn into annual Bilt Cash. You can keep 4% Bilt Cash and your current credits, but only if you opt out in the Bilt app before your anniversary, and once you're on the new plan you can't go back.
So there are now two questions: which card, and which plan. The Bilt 2.0 Calculator answers both. Enter your rent and monthly spending and it compares all three cards on both plans, spends your Bilt Cash the way that earns you the most, and shows the math behind every number.
The short version:
- Your card spending is more than your rent, and you'd use Point Accelerators: opting out to keep 4% Bilt Cash usually wins, by several hundred dollars a year.
- You spend 75% to 100% of your rent on the card: the two plans come out within about $50 of each other. Decide on the credits.
- You won't book two Bilt Travel hotel stays a year: take the new default. On the Palladium, $600 of flexible Bilt Cash beats $400 of hotel credits you won't use.
- You're applying in 2027: the 4% option isn't available to you. Only offers accepted by December 31, 2026 can keep it.
What changes at Bilt, and when
| When | What changes |
|---|---|
| Now | Bilt Cash lasts 12 months: it expires at the end of the month, a year after you earn it. The December 31 expiry and $100 rollover cap are gone. |
| December 31, 2026 | Last day to accept a new Bilt card offer and still be able to keep 4% Bilt Cash. |
| January 1, 2027 | Bilt Cash on Bilt Travel hotels drops from monthly to twice a year: up to $50 a booking for Blue and Silver members, $100 for Gold and Platinum, $200 for eligible Palladium cardholders. |
| January 15, 2027 | Daily Rewards start for every Bilt member (see below). |
| Your 2027 card anniversary | Your card moves to 1.25X housing and the new credits, unless you opted out in the Bilt app's card settings before then. Annual Bilt Cash credits now post on your anniversary instead of January 1. |
Everyday earning rates don't change.
The Bilt 2.0 cards at a glance
| Bilt Blue | Bilt Obsidian | Bilt Palladium | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual fee | $0 | $95 | $495 |
| Everyday earning | 1X | 3X on dining or groceries (groceries capped at $25,000 a year), 2X travel, 1X other | 2X on everything |
| Rent and mortgage | Up to 1.25X | Up to 1.25X | Up to 1.25X |
| Welcome offer | $100 Bilt Cash | $200 Bilt Cash | 50,000 points and Gold status after $4,000 of everyday spending in 90 days, plus $300 Bilt Cash |
| Credits on the new default | None | $100 Bilt Cash a year | $600 Bilt Cash a year |
| Credits if you opt out | None | $100 Bilt Travel hotel credit ($50 twice a year) | $400 Bilt Travel hotel credit ($200 twice a year) and $200 Bilt Cash |
| Point Accelerator | No | Yes | Yes |
The Obsidian's 3X is one category, not both. You pick dining or groceries each January, and it's dining if you don't choose. All three cards also earn more at Bilt Dining partners, on Lyft and in the Bilt Travel portal; the calculator leaves those out.
Two ways to earn points on rent
1.25X housing (Housing-only, the 2027 default). Your rent points depend on how much you put on the card that month compared with your housing payment:
| Everyday spend vs. housing payment | Points on housing | On $2,000 rent |
|---|---|---|
| Under 25% | 250 points a month | 250 |
| 25% or more | 0.5X | 1,000 |
| 50% or more | 0.75X | 1,500 |
| 75% or more | 1X | 2,000 |
| 100% or more | 1.25X | 2,500 |
Everyday spend means purchases, not the rent payment itself. Points post after the statement closes, so each month is judged on its own.
4% Bilt Cash (Flexible Bilt Cash, kept only if you opt out). You earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday purchases, and every $30 of Bilt Cash unlocks 1,000 points on your housing payment, up to 1X. You don't have to redeem in $30 blocks: $15 unlocks 500 points. Bilt Cash you don't put toward rent can go to Point Accelerators, Bilt Dining, Lyft, hotels and other Bilt redemptions.
Under both plans, every member earns $50 of Bilt Cash for every 25,000 points in a calendar year.
Point Accelerator. On the Obsidian and Palladium, $200 of Bilt Cash adds 1X on your next $5,000 of everyday spending, up to five times a year. That's 5,000 points for $200, a worse rate than rent points (1,000 for $30), so it's the second use of spare Bilt Cash, not the first.
Is $30 of Bilt Cash worth 1,000 rent points?
At 2.2 cents a point, 1,000 points are worth $22. So unlocking rent points only beats holding the cash if a dollar of Bilt Cash is worth less than 73 cents to you. For most people it is: Bilt Cash can't be cashed out, and the hotel caps above limit the easiest way to spend it at face value. The calculator asks what spare Bilt Cash is worth to you (50 cents by default) and only unlocks rent points or buys accelerators when they're worth more.
Bilt Daily Rewards: how they work
Bilt's announcement says a lot about prizes and very little about odds. Here's what Bilt has published so far, and what it hasn't.
How do you earn a Daily Reward?
Two ways, starting January 15, 2027:
- An on-time rent or mortgage payment through Bilt earns one Daily Reward a month. Bank account, debit card and credit card payments all count, so you don't need a Bilt card.
- One qualifying purchase a day with a Bilt neighborhood partner earns one more: a meal at a Bilt Dining restaurant, a fitness class or a ride, paid with any card linked to your Bilt account.
Payments made before January 15, 2027 earn points under the current terms, not Daily Rewards.
What can you win?
Each Daily Reward shows you two options, and you pick one:
- An instant prize: Bilt Points, Bilt Cash or a neighborhood credit. Bilt's examples are 1,000 points, $10 of Bilt Cash and $10 credits for dining, fitness or rides. You see the amount after you choose, and coverage of the launch notes it could be large or small.
- A collectible piece toward a grand prize. Four pieces complete a set. The grand prizes Bilt has listed are $1,000,000 toward buying a home, 10,000,000 Bilt Points, a year of free rent or mortgage, a year of free Lyft rides (up to $5,000) and a "dream getaway." Bilt says more grand prizes are coming in January 2027.
How are winners chosen? Is there a drawing?
What's behind each reward is chance: you choose between two options, but you don't control which pieces or amounts come up. Bilt's page says to "complete a set of four collectibles for a chance to win a grand prize," and its help center says wins are subject to review. Bilt hasn't said whether a completed set wins outright or enters you in a drawing, or how rare the final piece of each set is. The official rules are due before January 15, 2027. Until then, assume the grand prizes are built to be very hard to complete.
Does Bilt status improve your odds?
Nothing Bilt has published says so. Daily Rewards are earned by actions (a rent payment, a partner visit), not by status tier, and none of the 2027 status changes mention them. Holding a Bilt card doesn't change your odds either. The difference is what happens to your rent points: cardholders keep their housing points and get Daily Rewards on top, while for members without a Bilt card, Daily Rewards replace the up to 250 points a month they earn on rent today.
What are the actual odds?
Bilt hasn't published any. Without odds or the number of each prize, there's no way to put an expected value on Daily Rewards, which is why the calculator counts them as $0. If the rules show real odds, we'll add them.
Are the prizes per day, per month or per year?
Earning is per day and per month: up to one reward a day from partner purchases plus one a month from your housing payment. Instant prizes are paid per reward. Collectible progress runs on the calendar year, so pieces from 2027 don't carry into 2028, and according to Bilt's help center you have 30 days to reveal a reward before it expires. Grand prizes are one-off prizes, not recurring payments (the "year of rent" prize covers 12 months of housing payments).
Should Daily Rewards change which card you get?
No. They're the same whether or not you hold a Bilt card, and the instant prizes in Bilt's examples are small. Treat them as a bonus on top of the numbers in the calculator.
How to use the Bilt 2.0 Calculator
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Pick your situation. I have a Bilt card compares both plans so you can decide whether to opt out. Applying in 2026 does the same and counts the welcome offer. Applying in 2027 shows only the 1.25X housing plan.
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Enter your rent and monthly spending. Rent or mortgage, then dining, groceries, travel and everything else you'd put on the card. The bar under the inputs shows which housing tier you're in and how much more spending reaches the next one.
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Set your point value. 2.2 cents is a typical value for airline transfers, 1.5 cents is conservative and 1.25 cents is what Gold and Platinum members get booking Bilt's Home Away From Home hotels with points. The Points Value tool can help you pick.
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Say what spare Bilt Cash is worth to you. 50 cents on the dollar by default. Choose $1 if you'll spend all of it at Bilt Dining restaurants, on Lyft or on hotels anyway.
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Hotel stays and the welcome offer. Turn off I'll book 2 Bilt Travel hotel stays a year if you won't use the hotel credits (each needs a stay of at least 2 nights), and turn the welcome offer on for your first year.
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Read the results. The top card shows the best card and plan for you. The table compares every card on both plans, with the gain from opting out under each card's name. Pick a card to see the line-by-line math and a chart of how both plans change as your spending grows.
Tip: The calculator saves your numbers in the page address. Use Copy link to send a comparison to someone else.
How the calculator does the math
- Everyday points: Blue earns 1X and Palladium 2X. On the Obsidian, the calculator puts the 3X on whichever of dining or groceries earns more (with the $25,000 grocery cap), 2X on travel and 1X on the rest.
- Rent points on 1.25X housing: the tier table above, from your average month.
- Bilt Cash: everything you'd earn goes into one pot: 4% of everyday spend (if you opt out), annual Bilt Cash, the welcome Bilt Cash and the $50 milestones. The calculator spends it in order of value: Bilt Travel hotel stays up to the card's hotel amount (if you'll book them), rent points at $30 per 1,000 up to 1X, then Point Accelerators. It only does the last two when the points are worth more than the cash, and counts what's left at your Bilt Cash value.
- Milestones: $50 per 25,000 points in the year, including rent and accelerator points. Welcome bonus points aren't counted toward them.
- Credits: hotel statement credits count at face value when you say you'll book the stays. The welcome bonus counts only if you turn it on, and the Palladium's 50,000 points only if your spending reaches $4,000 in 90 days.
- Net value: points times your point value, plus hotel credits and hotel stays paid with Bilt Cash, plus spare Bilt Cash at your value, minus the annual fee.
Worked example: $2,500 rent, $2,000 everyday spend
You pay $2,500 a month in rent and put $2,000 a month on the card: $600 dining, $500 groceries, $200 travel and $700 everything else. Points are worth 2.2 cents, spare Bilt Cash 50 cents on the dollar, you'll book two Bilt Travel hotel stays a year, and this isn't your first year.
Your spending is 80% of your rent, so 1.25X housing pays 1X on rent (30,000 points a year). With 4% Bilt Cash you'd earn $960 a year, and $900 of it unlocks the same 30,000 rent points.
| Card | 1.25X housing | Keep 4% Bilt Cash |
|---|---|---|
| Bilt Blue | $1,238 | $1,268 |
| Bilt Obsidian | $1,613 | $1,643 |
| Bilt Palladium | $1,806 | $1,846 |
At 80% of rent, both plans earn the same rent points, so opting out is worth only $30 to $40 a year. The Palladium wins because of its 2X on everything plus the credits. On the opt-out plan, its $200 annual Bilt Cash and leftover 4% buy two Point Accelerators (10,000 extra points).
If you won't book hotels through Bilt Travel, the answer flips for the cards with credits:
| Card | 1.25X housing | Keep 4% Bilt Cash |
|---|---|---|
| Bilt Blue | $1,238 | $1,268 |
| Bilt Obsidian | $1,598 | $1,543 |
| Bilt Palladium | $1,626 | $1,446 |
Without the stays, the opt-out plan's $400 hotel credit is worth nothing to you, while the new plan's $600 of Bilt Cash still buys three Point Accelerators. Taking the new default is worth $180 a year on the Palladium.
In your first year on the Palladium, the 50,000-point welcome bonus and $300 of Bilt Cash push it to $3,076 on 1.25X housing and $3,106 with 4% Bilt Cash.
Worked example: high rent, light spending
Rent is $3,000 and you put $1,000 a month on the card ($300 dining, $300 groceries, $100 travel, $300 other). That's 33% of rent.
| Card | 1.25X housing | Keep 4% Bilt Cash |
|---|---|---|
| Bilt Blue | $685 | $653 |
| Bilt Obsidian | $875 | $842 |
| Bilt Palladium | $964 | $968 |
Clearing the 25% tier earns 0.5X on all $3,000 of rent (18,000 points a year). On the opt-out plan, $40 a month of Bilt Cash unlocks about the same number of rent points, so there's almost nothing to gain from opting out. If your spending is low compared with your rent, let the change happen, or spend just enough to reach the next tier: the bar in the calculator shows how much.
Worked example: you spend twice your rent
Rent is $2,000 and you put $4,000 a month on the card ($1,000 dining, $800 groceries, $500 travel, $1,700 other).
| Card | 1.25X housing | Keep 4% Bilt Cash |
|---|---|---|
| Bilt Blue | $1,791 | $2,234 |
| Bilt Obsidian | $2,491 | $3,024 |
| Bilt Palladium | $2,922 | $3,420 |
This is who should opt out. 1.25X housing stops growing once your spending matches your rent, but 4% Bilt Cash keeps adding up: $1,920 a year here. $720 of it unlocks 1X on rent and $1,000 buys all five Point Accelerators (25,000 extra points). Keeping 4% is worth about $500 a year on the Obsidian or Palladium.
What the calculator doesn't count
- Daily Rewards. Bilt hasn't published odds, so they count as $0.
- Partner and portal rates. Bilt Dining partners (up to 6X on the Obsidian), Lyft and Bilt Travel portal bookings earn more than the base rates used here.
- Palladium perks. Priority Pass membership and Gold status have value the calculator leaves out.
- Uneven months. Housing tiers are checked each statement. If your spending swings from month to month, you can earn less than the average suggests.
- Spending only within Bilt's rules. Some purchases don't earn Bilt Cash, and actual statements may differ.
For Bilt's luxury hotel program and where the hotel credits can go, see the Bilt Hotels Map.
Frequently asked questions
Should I opt out of the Bilt 2027 changes?
Opt out if your card spending is higher than your rent or mortgage and you'd use Point Accelerators, since 4% Bilt Cash keeps earning after 1.25X housing tops out. If you spend 75% to 100% of your rent on the card, the plans come out close. If you won't book two Bilt Travel hotel stays a year, the new default's annual Bilt Cash is usually worth more than the hotel credits you'd keep.
When is the deadline to opt out of the new Bilt plan?
Before your first card anniversary in 2027. Opt out in the card settings of the Bilt app; if you do nothing, your card switches on your anniversary and you can't switch back. To be able to keep 4% Bilt Cash on a new card, you have to accept the offer by December 31, 2026.
How does Bilt 2.0 earn points on rent?
On the 1.25X housing plan, rent earns 0.5X to 1.25X depending on how much you spend on the card relative to your rent, or 250 points a month if you spend under 25%. If you opt out and keep Flexible Bilt Cash, you earn 4% in Bilt Cash on everyday spending, and every $30 of Bilt Cash unlocks 1,000 rent points, up to 1X.
What is Bilt Cash and when does it expire?
Bilt Cash is Bilt's spendable rewards currency. You earn it from the 4% option, annual card credits, welcome offers and $50 for every 25,000 points in a year. It can unlock rent points, buy Point Accelerators or be spent on hotels, dining, Lyft and other Bilt redemptions. Since October 2026, each amount expires at the end of the month, 12 months after you earn it.
How do Bilt Daily Rewards work?
Starting January 15, 2027, each on-time rent or mortgage payment through Bilt and one qualifying neighborhood partner purchase a day earn a Daily Reward. Each one shows two options and you pick one: an instant prize (Bilt Points, Bilt Cash or a neighborhood credit) or a collectible piece. Four pieces complete a set for a chance at a grand prize such as $1,000,000 toward a home.
What are the odds of winning a Bilt Daily Rewards grand prize?
Bilt hasn't published any odds, prize counts or official rules yet; it says they'll come before the January 15, 2027 launch. It also hasn't said whether a completed set of four collectibles wins outright or enters a drawing.
Does Bilt status improve your Daily Rewards odds?
Nothing Bilt has published ties Daily Rewards to status. You earn them by paying rent on time and visiting neighborhood partners. Bilt cardholders get them on top of their rent points; for members without a Bilt card, they replace the up to 250 points a month earned on rent today.
Does the Bilt Obsidian earn 3X on dining and groceries?
No, it's one or the other. You choose 3X on dining or 3X on groceries (capped at $25,000 a year) each January, and it's dining if you don't choose. Travel earns 2X and everything else 1X. The calculator assumes you pick whichever category earns more.
Is the Bilt Palladium worth the $495 annual fee?
It came out ahead in all three of our worked examples. It earns 2X everywhere, and from your 2027 anniversary it comes with $600 of Bilt Cash a year (or $400 in hotel credits plus $200 of Bilt Cash if you opt out), plus Priority Pass. If you won't use the Bilt Cash or hotel credits, the Obsidian can come out ahead.
What point value does the calculator use?
2.2 cents per Bilt Point by default, a typical value when you transfer to airline partners. You can choose 1.5 cents, 1.25 cents (Bilt's rate for booking Home Away From Home hotels with points) or any number you like.
The bottom line
Bilt's 2027 changes make the opt-out decision the one that matters most this year, and it's permanent. The Bilt 2.0 Calculator runs all three cards through both plans with your rent and spending, so you can see whether keeping 4% Bilt Cash is worth it before your anniversary, and which card earns you the most if you're applying.