Ink Business Cash and Unlimited land $5 apart, so your expense mix decides

The short answer

Chase Ink Business Cash and Ink Business Unlimited are both no-annual-fee business cards. Cash rewards particular categories more strongly. Unlimited gives an uncapped 1.5% on ordinary eligible purchases. Julia starts with the bills a business already has before choosing between them, and her example is a mobile repair business.

On a $27,000 budget, Cash returns $410 and Unlimited $405. The strong 5% category appeals, but a $5 gap does not make Cash a dramatically better fit. If ordinary spending grows, Unlimited pulls ahead: on a $33,000 budget it leads by $25. The Business Wallet Scores are 68 for Cash and 67 for Unlimited, out of 100, and a one-point gap does not settle it. Your own mix does, especially how much of it qualifies for Cash's higher categories.

Side by side

• Annual fee: none on either card.
• Ink Cash: 5% on office-supply, internet, cable and phone purchases, 2% on gas and restaurants, and 1% on everything else.
• Ink Unlimited: 1.5% on ordinary eligible purchases, with no cap to track.
• Caps: under the terms checked in October 2026, Cash's 5% group earns on the first $25,000 combined each account anniversary year. Gas and restaurants share a separate $25,000 cap. Above either cap the rate becomes 1%.
• Rewards: both cards track Ultimate Rewards points, and the ordinary cash redemption is 1 cent per point.
• Introductory APR: both currently offer a 12-month introductory purchase APR.
• Foreign transactions: both charge foreign transaction fees.
• Promotions: either card can have occasional promotional categories, which Julia calculates separately.

Where each one wins

Cash wins when a large share of spending lands in its 5% and 2% groups. Its record names the fit as businesses with recurring office and telecom bills, and states the limits: category caps, merchant coding and a weaker return on spending that earns no bonus.

Unlimited wins when spending is spread across ordinary purchases, and it needs no cap tracking. Its record names the fit as a simple cash return across varied business purchases, and notes that a 1.5% flat rate can trail higher-rate competitors.

The arithmetic

Julia's budget has three groups:

• $2,000 in Cash's office-supply, internet, cable and phone group at 5% earns $100.
• $6,000 of qualifying gas and restaurants at 2% earns $120.
• The other $19,000 at 1% earns $190.

Cash returns $410 on the $27,000, with both bonus groups below their caps. Unlimited earns $405 on the same purchases.

Now let ordinary spending rise from $19,000 to $25,000 while the other groups stay the same. Cash still earns $100 and $120 in its bonus groups, plus $250 on ordinary purchases, a total of $470. Unlimited returns $495 on the full $33,000. It now leads by $25, because more of the budget sits where Cash earns less.

For a quick check of your own statements, multiply the spending actually earning 5% by 7, then add the gas and restaurant spending earning 2%. Compare that with the purchases earning only 1% on Cash. A bigger first number means Cash wins, a smaller one means Unlimited wins, and equal numbers mean equal ordinary cash back. For the original budget, 7 times $2,000 is $14,000. Adding $6,000 brings it to $20,000, just above the $19,000 of ordinary spending, which matches the small advantage already found. Leaving out gas and restaurants would have pointed to the wrong card.

The 7 comes from the difference between the rates. Each dollar earning 5% gains 3.5 cents over Unlimited. At 2% it gains 0.5 cent, and at 1% it gives up 0.5 cent. Dividing those differences by 0.5 cent gives the weights 7, 1 and 1. Use it to check a budget, not as a reason to change what the business buys.

What can move the result

Sort the purchases correctly before using the shortcut.

• Above a cap, move the excess to the 1% group. Only dollars actually earning 5% or 2% belong in those groups.
• Allow for the anniversary-year reset. A calendar-year expense report might not match the card's reward period.
• Merchant classification matters. Packaging from an office-supply store may earn 5%, while the same packaging from a general online retailer does not automatically qualify. Use the card's classification, even if your bookkeeping described the expense differently.
• A thin lead is fragile. If just $200 counted at 5% actually earned 1%, Cash would lose $8 from the estimate, enough to reverse this very close result.

Look at posted rewards for your regular suppliers and build in some room for changes. When the difference is that small, a setup you understand and can maintain matters more than a prediction to the nearest dollar.

Pairing the cards, or looking outside Chase

If two accounts are easy to manage, Julia would try a pair. Cash takes the $2,000 at 5% and the $6,000 at 2%, and Unlimited takes the $19,000 of ordinary purchases. That earns $285, for a combined $505 against $410 with Cash alone.

She would also look outside Chase. Her script describes Amex Blue Business Cash as a no-annual-fee card that currently earns 2% on the first $50,000 of eligible purchases each calendar year, then 1%. If her suppliers accepted Amex without extra fees, she would keep the $2,000 on Ink Cash at 5% and put the other $25,000 on Blue Business Cash. Ink would return $100 and Amex $500, for $600, which is $95 more than the Ink pair. The shortcut helps choose between these two Ink cards. It does not show that either beats every other card available to your business.

For travel, a separate eligible Chase card with transfer access can open options. Compare the redemption's net value with cash, using what you actually receive after transfer ratios and award charges and including any extra card fee the setup needs. A real, useful travel redemption can change the result. A hoped-for one should not replace the cash comparison.

Keep borrowing costs apart from rewards. Any financing plan needs a payoff amount, on-time required payments and the actual expiration date, and a promotion is not a reason to buy supplies early without a business need. Welcome offers also stay separate. Current Chase terms may limit eligibility if you have held this or another no-annual-fee Chase business card, so holding both does not necessarily earn two bonuses. Check the offer before each application.

What the Business Wallet Score shows

Cash scores 68 and Unlimited 67 out of 100. Julia uses the same 3 business budgets, each with $60,000 of spending, and weighs net value, flexibility, upkeep and tested protections. Cash gets a little more value from category bills. Unlimited gets the convenience point back because there is no cap to track. One point would not decide it for her.

Before you apply

On each issuer's page, check the current category list and caps, how the account anniversary year works, the welcome offer and its eligibility rules, the introductory APR terms, the foreign transaction fee and the redemption rules. Check the posted rewards for your regular suppliers, since merchant classification decides what earns the higher rate.

Choose using the expenses your business actually has, with the real caps applied. A $5 difference would not make Julia reorganize everything, though a meaningful improvement might if she could keep payments and records straightforward. For the original budget she would investigate the Cash and Blue Business Cash pairing before choosing the Ink pair. If you prefer one account, remember that a shift toward ordinary spending could favor Unlimited.

The records for both Ink cards were checked on October 6, 2026, and the terms in Julia's script were checked in October 2026. Caps, offers and the Amex terms may have moved since.

The cards in this guide