Chase Credit Card Minimum Payment: How It's Calculated

Section I · Where Chase Publishes the Formula

The cardmember agreement is the only authoritative source

The exact minimum-payment formula for any Chase consumer credit card is disclosed in the Cardmember Agreement that came with your card and is available as a PDF in your Chase online account. Look in the section titled "How We Calculate Your Minimum Payment", "Making Payments", or similar. Chase also publishes its agreements on the disclosure pages at chase.com/digital/resources/disclosures/cardholder-agreement.

The reason we point you to your own agreement rather than reproducing the formula here is twofold. First, Chase issues many different consumer card products (Sapphire family, Freedom family, Slate, Ink for small business, co-branded airline and hotel cards, plus white-label products), and minimum-payment formulas can vary across them. Second, agreements are updated periodically; the version in effect for your account is the version delivered to you (or made available in your online account) by Chase, not any older version archived elsewhere.

For consumer protection regulators, the Cardmember Agreement is the binding source under the Truth in Lending Act and Regulation Z. Any third party (including this site) describing your card's specific formula is at best summarising and at worst out of date. The agreement is the source of truth.

Section II · The Industry Tier

What the typical Chase consumer card minimum looks like

Major US bank issuers (Chase, Bank of America, Citi, Wells Fargo, Capital One, Discover, American Express) cluster their minimum-payment formulas in two industry tiers. Tier A: a flat percentage of the statement balance, typically 1% to 2%, with a $25 to $35 floor. Tier B: monthly interest plus 1% of principal, with a $25 to $35 floor. Both tiers produce an effective payment of approximately 2% to 3% of balance at typical 2026 APRs. Both are described in regulatory examples published by the CFPB.

Chase's consumer card minimum-payment formulas, per the agreements published on the Chase disclosures site, sit within these industry tiers. The exact percentage, floor amount, and treatment of fees varies by individual card product. For a $5,000 balance at the 2026 average APR of 22%, a Chase card using the interest-plus-1% formula would produce a first-month minimum near $142; a Chase card using the flat 2% formula would produce a first-month minimum near $100. Both calculations are well above the typical $25 to $35 floor at this balance.

For the cross-issuer comparison and the methodology, see average minimum payment percentage 2026 and how minimum payments are calculated.

Section III · Verifying The Number

Three places to cross-check your Chase minimum payment

1. The cardmember agreement. The legally binding source. Open the PDF in your online account, find the minimum-payment section, and read the formula in plain language. The agreement also discloses the floor amount, late-fee schedule, penalty APR triggers, and grace-period rules. Worth a careful read once; the document is shorter than its reputation suggests, typically 12 to 20 pages.
2. The Minimum Payment Warning box on every monthly statement. Federal regulation, codified at 12 CFR Section 1026.7(b)(12), requires every issuer to print this box on every monthly statement. It shows the time to payoff at the current minimum and the alternate monthly payment that clears the balance in 36 months. Cross-check this against the calculator on the homepage; the numbers should match within a few dollars.
3. The Schumer Box at card application. Every credit card application is required to disclose key terms (purchase APR, balance-transfer APR, cash-advance APR, fees, grace period) in a standardised "Schumer Box" format under 12 CFR Part 1026 Subpart B. The minimum-payment formula itself is in the longer cardmember agreement, but the Schumer Box gives you the rate context that drives the interest portion of any minimum-payment calculation.

Section IV · Common Chase Cards

Where to find the agreement for your specific Chase card

Chase's consumer card portfolio includes the Sapphire family (Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve), the Freedom family (Freedom Unlimited, Freedom Flex, Freedom Rise), the Slate Edge product, the Ink family for small business, and a wide co-branded airline and hotel portfolio (United, Southwest, Marriott, IHG, Hyatt, World of Hyatt, Aeroplan, British Airways). Each card has its own cardmember agreement.

The Chase disclosures landing page at chase.com/personal/credit-cards/cardmember-services lists current agreements by card name. For an existing cardholder, the fastest route is to log in to your Chase online account, navigate to the card detail page, and select "Cardmember Agreement" from the document list under "Account Services" or "Disclosures". The PDF is usually a few pages long and the minimum-payment section is typically near the front.

For new applicants comparing Chase cards before applying, the Schumer Box on each application page shows the APR ranges, fees, and grace-period terms. The full cardmember agreement is delivered with the physical card or via email shortly after approval; the minimum-payment formula is in that document.

Section V · Worked Math at Common Balances

What Chase-style minimum-payment math produces at $1,000 to $25,000

Using the industry-standard interest-plus-1% formula at the 2026 average APR of 22%, with a typical $25 floor, the first-month minimum payments at common balances are: $1,000 → about $28, $2,500 → about $71, $5,000 → about $142, $10,000 → about $283, $15,000 → about $425, $25,000 → about $708. These are illustrative figures using the industry-tier formula; verify your specific Chase card's terms in your cardmember agreement.

For balance-specific deep dives with payoff timelines and structured-payment alternatives, see $5,000 minimum payment, $10,000 minimum payment, or use the calculator on the homepage with your specific balance and APR.

Questions

Frequently asked about Chase minimum payments