I’ve been researching which bank yields the most lately and found that there are quite a few interesting options out there. You know that money sitting idle in your checking or savings account? Well, many digital banks are offering a much more profitable alternative.

What caught my attention was this: while traditional savings yields around 7.41% per year, many digital banks are offering accounts that yield 100% of the CDI or even more. And here’s an important detail – the CDI is calculated every business day, not like savings which updates only once a month. This makes a difference in the final result.

I understood that the CDI is basically the rate banks use to lend money to each other, and it moves along with the Selic rate. That’s why when we see a bank offering 105% or 110% of the CDI, it really yields more than savings, especially in scenarios where interest rates are rising.

I started looking at the most well-known digital banks to see which one yields the most, and I found some quite interesting. Nubank, for example, lets your money earn 100% of the CDI in an account that isn’t even a checking or savings account. The cool thing is that it yields every business day after the first month. PicPay offers up to 102% of the CDI and has that “Cofrinhos” feature that helps organize savings. Neon starts with 100% of the CDI and increases this percentage every six months until reaching 113%.

There are also options like Mercado Pago, which offers 100% of the CDI to anyone and goes up to 105% if you subscribe to the Meli+ program and deposit at least a thousand reais per month. 99Pay, from the mobility app, offers up to 110% of the CDI for balances up to five thousand reais. There’s also cashback on top of that, making it quite attractive.

PagBank, from the PagSeguro platform, has the Conta Rendeira that automatically yields 100% of the CDI. Then there’s Iti, from Itaú, which offers 100% of the CDI through a tool called “Minhas Metas” from the first business day. And Banco PAN is also jumping on this trend – the balance starts earning 10% of the CDI in the first 30 days and then rises to 100%.

What impressed me most was comparing the numbers. If you put a thousand reais into one of these CDI accounts for two years, it will yield much more than in savings. A simulation I saw showed that a thousand reais would earn more than two hundred reais in CDI versus just over one hundred and thirty in savings. That’s not a small difference.

The question is why this happens. Savings has a fixed yield of 70% of the Selic plus the Referential Rate, and that’s calculated monthly. The CDI, on the other hand, is calculated daily, reflecting changes in interest rates more accurately. That’s why when a product yields above 100% of the CDI, it can more easily outperform savings.

What made me think is that many of these digital banks still offer other advantages besides the yield. Some have categories to organize your money, others offer cashback on purchases or rides. It’s basically an account that yields better and still gives you some extra benefits.

For those wondering which bank yields the most, the answer depends on how long you want to keep the money there and whether you’ll use other features. If you want maximum pure yield, Neon reaches 113%. If you prefer something simpler and reliable, Nubank or PagBank with their 100% of the CDI are solid options. If you want a bit of cashback along with it, 99Pay and Mercado Pago have interesting choices.

The main point is that by 2026, keeping money in traditional savings really doesn’t make much sense anymore. Digital banks have evolved a lot and offer much more attractive alternatives. The profitability is higher, access is easy via the app, and there are features that help organize your finances.

If you have money sitting idle and want it to work better for you, it’s definitely worth researching these digital bank options. The difference you’ll gain over a year or two is quite significant compared to leaving it in savings. It’s one of those situations where a little research now can lead to a real gain in the future.