Best 12-Month CD Rates for 2026

What You're Actually Trading for a Higher Rate

A 12-month CD's yield exists because you're giving up something a savings account doesn't ask for: access. Once you lock in the rate, that money is committed for a year, and pulling it out early typically costs an early-withdrawal penalty. Banks pay more for that certainty because they can plan around your deposit staying put — and right now, that trade pays exceptionally well.

Top 12-Month CD Rates

Sallie Mae Bank leads at 4.35% APY, verified August 10, 2026 — more than 20 times the 0.20% national average rate for 12-month CDs. Even the lowest rate on this list, 4.15% from Barclays or Popular Direct, still crushes the national average by a wide margin.

Is a 12-Month CD Right for You?

A 12-month term is short enough to stay flexible — you're never locked in for more than a year — while still capturing a meaningfully higher rate than a typical savings account at a brick-and-mortar bank. If you have cash you're confident you won't need for the next 12 months, a CD at these rates locks in that yield regardless of what happens to rates in between. If there's a real chance you'll need the money sooner, a high-yield savings account trades some yield for full liquidity instead.

Why 12 Months Specifically

A 12-month CD sits at a common middle ground in CD-term shopping: long enough to lock in a rate that's meaningfully better than a fully liquid account, short enough that you're not committing money for years at a time. Shorter terms, like 3 or 6 months, typically pay a bit less because the bank has less certainty about how long it'll hold the deposit; longer terms, like 2 or 5 years, sometimes pay more but expose you to opportunity cost if rates rise while your money is locked in at the old rate.

If you're deciding between terms rather than just banks, it's worth comparing the 12-month rate against what the same institution offers at 6 months and 24 months — the gap between terms varies by bank and sometimes a shorter or longer commitment barely changes the rate at all, which would make the shorter term the easy choice.