Rates updated · Based on 63 tracked high-yield savings accounts
How much are you losing in a typical high-yield savings account instead of the best one?
A saver in a typical high-yield savings account gives up about $988 a year versus a top-available one — a gap of 3.95 percentage points (0.38% national average vs 4.33% best available) on a $25,000 balance.
Gap Spread
3.95%
percentage points
Best Available
4.33%
APY
National Average
0.38%
APY
What the gap costs you per year
| Balance | Annual interest lost | 5-year cost |
|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | $395 | $1,975 |
| $25,000 | $988 | $4,940 |
| $50,000 | $1,977 | $9,885 |
| $100,000 | $3,953 | $19,765 |
| $250,000 | $9,883 | $49,415 |
How the High-Yield Savings Gap Index has moved
Each month's value is recorded as a dated snapshot. The full machine-readable series is published as a public dataset.
| Month | Index value | Gap | Tracked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2026 | $984/yr | 3.94% | 63 |
| Oct 2026 | $962/yr | 3.85% | 63 |
| Sep 2026 | $931/yr | 3.72% | 62 |
| Aug 2026 | $976/yr | 3.90% | 105 |
| Jul 2026 | $997/yr | 3.99% | 94 |
| Jun 2026 | $977/yr | 3.91% | 94 |
Methodology
High-Yield Savings Gap Index = representativeBalance × (bestAvailableAPY − nationalAverageAPY)
representativeBalance is $25,000 — held fixed so the Index moves only when rates move. bestAvailableAPY is the average of the top-3 rates across the 63 actively tracked high-yield savings accounts in the SwitchWize rate database. nationalAverageAPY is the FDIC national average rate for this product — what a typical big-bank saver actually earns (updated quarterly).
The dated monthly series is published as a public dataset at /data/indices/hysa-spread.
See today's top high-yield savings accounts
Compare every tracked high-yield savings account ranked by rate, then trust and access.
Compare high-yield savings accounts →