KrisFlyer SBI Card APEX
Keep3 KrisFlyer miles per ₹100 on your ordinary life — the best direct line into KrisFlyer India sells, and it charges ₹9,999 for the privilege.
a year at ₹40,000 a month, after the fee
Skip the arithmetic — the board, ranked → · nothing to sign up for
What it's worth to you, after the fee
Welcome: 10,000 KrisFlyer miles on annual-fee payment plus a first transaction within 60 days of card issuance
Priced on the everyday mix — 30% groceries · 10% utilities · 20% travel · 6% fuel · 34% everything else — with this card's published category rules applied: it earns nothing on utilities and fuel here, so that spend is dropped, not paid at the headline, and stops pacing milestones and the waiver. Plus milestones, minus the fee. No accelerator credit — the ranking model on /compare adds ~20% of spend at the card's best accelerator, so its ₹ for this card reads higher.
How these numbers are computed — and why the rankings show a bigger one →
Spend tiers, milestones and fee waivers included, at our house ₹/point. Portal and category multipliers can push higher — run your exact number →
Pays for itself at ₹31,000 a month
At ₹31,000 a month — ₹3,72,000 a year — on the everyday mix this card returns ₹10,300 gross (earn ₹10,300) against its ₹9,999 fee = ₹300 net — the first rung at or above ₹0. The ladder runs in ₹1,000 steps to ₹1,00,000 a month and ₹10,000 steps to ₹5,00,000; figures are rounded to the hundred, and the accelerator is never credited.
2 notes on the card itself: how it is issued · the network variants
Our #3 for KrisFlyer miles — 1 of the 23 questions this desk ranks.
The take
This is the KrisFlyer SBI Card with the volume turned up: 6 miles per ₹200 on everyday spend where the ₹2,999 version pays 2, which at our ₹1.10 mark is 3.3% versus 1.1%. Triple the earn for 3.3 times the fee is a fair trade, and it lands somewhere genuinely rare — straight into a Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer account, no transfer step, no ratio haircut, in the one program where a Saver Business seat routinely returns north of ₹2 a mile. Add 10,000 welcome miles, 10,000 more at ₹5 lakh, 3,000 at ₹10 lakh, and eight domestic plus eight international lounge visits, and the ₹9,999 pays for itself on a moderate spender who actually flies SQ. Then read the fine print, because it does most of the arguing. The fee has no spend-based reversal — the Etihad Guest cards SBI killed to make room for MILES had one, this doesn't. The 8 miles per ₹200 on international spend looks like the headline until you notice the 3.5% forex markup sitting on top of it: you earn 4.4% and pay 3.5% to do it, so the "international accelerator" nets under a point. Fuel, rent, utilities, government payments, wallet loads and every EMI earn nothing at all, which is a large slice of a real Indian card statement. And the Elite Gold headline is theatre: SBI grants it at ₹7.5 lakh spent ON Singapore Airlines through SQ's own app, not on card spend. Buy this if you fly Singapore Airlines and want the miles without the transfer dance. If you don't fly SQ, a transferable currency at the same fee gives you every airline instead of one.
Your renewal — keep, downgrade or cancel
Here is the fee, the spend that clears it, and everything that has moved under this card since you last decided.
Keep, downgrade or cancel
₹9,999/yr at stake · 5 spend bands
The charge ₹9,999/yr
Break-even ₹31,000 a month — ₹3,72,000 a year — is where this card's value crosses its fee.
At your spend
−₹1,700 a year, net of the fee, at ₹3,00,000 of annual spend
₹17,600 a year, net of the fee, at ₹6,00,000 of annual spend
₹37,600 a year, net of the fee, at ₹12,00,000 of annual spend
₹1,04,100 a year, net of the fee, at ₹36,00,000 of annual spend
₹1,70,600 a year, net of the fee, at ₹60,00,000 of annual spend
Everyday earn plus milestones, minus the fee — the same model as the value panel above, so the two cannot disagree. run your exact spend →
Your copy of this card
You hold this card.
Kept on this device, in your browser. It is never sent to us, never synced, and nothing else on the site reads it yet.
The downgrade the issuer publishes
SBI Card publishes exactly one downgrade, and it is a reversal: "Downgrade may be initiated by a customer only within a period of 90 days post upgrading" — and after it you cannot upgrade again for six months. Outside that window the bank publishes no route down.
SBI Card's own document · read 29 Aug 2026
What has changed under this card
- 18 Aug 2026 Amex India re-rates Virgin Atlantic upward — 2:1 becomes 5:4, the first MR buff in years a program these points reach
- 3 Aug 2026 SBI drops Etihad Guest from the MILES transfer table — the last SBI door into the programme issuer-wide
- 21 Jul 2026 KrisFlyer puts a miles floor under award search a program these points reach
We price what is in force today — a change that has not happened yet is not in these numbers. the full archive for this card →
If you call to cancel
What the bank offers to keep you is the one fact this desk cannot compute. We are collecting those reports — dated, and only in aggregate — before publishing any: an offer one reader was made is not one you are owed. Called about this card? Tell us what they offered →
The desk publishes subscribable .ics feeds for the dates it knows — offer deadlines, devaluations, expiry audits. Your renewal date is not one of them: only your statement knows it.
What's good
- 3 KrisFlyer miles/₹100 on everyday spend — triple the ₹2,999 KrisFlyer SBI Card, straight into your KrisFlyer account
- 5 miles/₹100 on Singapore Airlines Group spend; 4/₹100 on international
- 10,000 welcome miles, +10,000 at ₹5L and +3,000 at ₹10L annual spend
- 8 domestic lounge visits a year (2/quarter) on the full network list — not SBI's cut-down Set A/Set B
- 8 complimentary international Priority Pass visits a year (2/quarter), outside India
Watch out
- ₹9,999 every year with no spend-based waiver — the only SBI travel card at this fee that publishes none
- 3.5% forex markup against a 4.4% international earn — the international accelerator nets under 1%
- Fuel, rent, utilities, government, wallet loads, cash advances and every EMI earn zero miles
- KrisFlyer Elite Gold is NOT a spend milestone — SBI gates it on ₹7.5L booked with Singapore Airlines on SQ's own app or site
- Single-program currency: the miles land in KrisFlyer and go nowhere else
- KrisFlyer miles expire a hard 3 years from accrual — no activity extension
- Priority Pass is complimentary for 24 months only, primary cardholder only, and its complimentary visits work OUTSIDE India only — inside India every Priority Pass visit is US$27 + taxes
- An active KrisFlyer membership is a precondition of issuance, and miles do not follow you if you flip to another SBI card
What these points actually fly
You hold this — the numbers below are your own points.
KrisFlyer SBI Card APEX earns Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer outright — no transfer, no ratio to lose on the way. The cheapest verified seat we hold in each cabin:
- Delhi → Singapore Economy 19,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer the play
- Bengaluru → Singapore Business 45,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Singapore → Kuala Lumpur First 32,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
What earns, what doesn't
7 sourced rules · 6 pay zero
Base 3 KrisFlyer miles/₹100 (6 per ₹200); international spends 4/₹100 (8 per ₹200); Singapore Airlines Group 5/₹100 (10 per ₹200). Unlike the ₹2,999 tier, this card's T&C publishes the actual MCC codes behind its exclusion set, so the rows below are code-backed rather than category-name guesses. Miles credit straight to the holder's KrisFlyer account and expire 36 months from accrual. Mastercard/American Express card, so no UPI linkage.
- Fuel · excluded Zero miles — MCC 5172, 5541, 5542, 5983 in the T&C's own exclusion table; 1% fuel-surcharge waiver on ₹500–₹4,000 transactions, max ₹250 per statement cycle
- Rent & property management · excluded Zero miles — MCC 6513, 7349 (rent / property management) in the T&C's exclusion table
- Wallet loads · excluded Zero miles — MCC 6540, 6541 (e-wallet loading) in the T&C's exclusion table
- Utilities (electricity/water/gas) · excluded Zero miles — MCC 4900, 4814, 4899, 9399 in the T&C's exclusion table
Does your spend count toward the milestones?
not published — and we say which
₹5,00,000 a year is the bar for the first milestone. A different question from the one above — earning points and counting toward a threshold are separate rules, and issuers write them separately.
Not published. SBI Card states what the KrisFlyer SBI Card APEX earns and does not earn, but has not published which spend categories count toward the milestones — the ₹5,00,000 bar. We won't guess it from the earn table or from a sibling card: Axis published three cards' rules on one day and all three lists differed. If you hold this card and have it in writing from the issuer, send us the document and we'll source it.
Lounge access
689 of 793 tracked doors
Gate: Not a Set A/Set B card; Priority Pass is complimentary for the first 24 months and to the PRIMARY cardholder only, and its complimentary visits do not work inside India — every within-India Priority Pass visit is US$27 + taxes from the first
Opens 689 of 793 tracked lounge doors across 275 airports , via Mastercard India, Priority Pass Global — see the full map →
Can you get it?
income, age and the route in
The cutoffs and the actual route in — not the "apply now" button, the door that opens.
Direct application — no invite list, no banking relationship required.
Openly available — SBI's card catalogue carries a live Apply Now flow for the APEX and flags it isOnline "yes". It is the top rung of SBI's two-card KrisFlyer co-brand and the most expensive card SBI sells a points reader; the ₹9,999 has no spend reversal, so the welcome and milestone miles are the only thing that offsets it.
per the official SBI Card MITC — figures marked (community) aren't in the PDF; the issuer won't say · filter the board by what you can get →
The fine print
7 of 7 MITC rows published
What the MITC actually says — the rates, fees and cutoffs the brochure skips.
Fee ₹9,999 + taxes as both the annual (one-time, at issuance) and the renewal charge — SBI's MITC fee table names this card by name — with NO spend-based reversal published anywhere, unlike the Etihad Guest SBI pair it succeeded. Earn 10 KrisFlyer miles/₹200 on Singapore Airlines Group, 8/₹200 on international spends, 6/₹200 on all other eligible spends, crediting straight to the holder's KrisFlyer account. The T&C's own MCC table zeroes fuel (5172, 5541, 5542, 5983), e-wallet loading (6540, 6541), rent and property management (6513, 7349), utilities (4900, 4814, 4899, 9399), government (9311), cash advances, financial charges, disputed transactions, Encash, ATM withdrawals, Flexipay and merchant EMI. Miles accumulate for 36 months from accrual. Annual milestones run 12 months from the account creation date, not the financial year. An active KrisFlyer membership is a precondition of issuance, and miles do not transfer if the holder flips to another SBI card. Priority Pass: complimentary, 24 months only, primary cardholder only, 8 complimentary visits — and clause 15.5 restricts complimentary Priority Pass visits to lounges OUTSIDE India, so every within-India Priority Pass visit is US$27 + taxes from the first. Fuel-surcharge waiver 1% on ₹500–₹4,000 transactions, max ₹250 per statement cycle. Insurance: ₹1 lakh baggage loss/delay and ₹10 lakh fraud cover. Income band is not published in the MITC; SBI's own card catalogue files the APEX under "2lac-above" monthly income. Every figure here read verbatim off the card's own 78-page T&C PDF on 2026-08-15.
per the official SBI Card MITC · reviewed 10 Jul 2026
What's changed for this card
8 dated changes
Devaluations and buffs that touch this card directly, its issuer, or the points and programs it earns and transfers to. Every one is dated here; the tracker carries each one's before → after and the write-up.
- 18 Aug 2026Amex India re-rates Virgin Atlantic upward — 2:1 becomes 5:4, the first MR buff in yearsMembership Rewards transferred to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club at 2:1 (1,00,000 MR → 50,000 Virgin Points). → Virgin Atlantic Flying Club at 5:4 (1,00,000 MR → 80,000 Virgin Points). Transfer mechanics unchanged: multiples of 400 MR with an 800 MR minimum, normally immediate.
Indian points news is a devaluation ledger, so read this twice: Amex India made this transfer route BETTER on 18 August 2026, and by a lot. Virgin Atlantic goes from 2 MR per point to 5 MR for 4 — a 60% uplift that moves the route from ₹0.50 of Virgin value per MR to ₹0.80, second only to KrisFlyer among Indian MR's airline doors. Amex published fresh Virgin Atlantic transfer terms on 17 August — the T&C restates the minimums and timing but, as always with Amex India, prints no ratio table, so the ratio itself is sourced to two community desks that caught the change independently and quoted the same 1,00,000 → 80,000 figure. Their "before" number matches what this file already held, which is the corroboration that matters.
- 3 Aug 2026SBI drops Etihad Guest from the MILES transfer table — the last SBI door into the programme
- 21 Jul 2026KrisFlyer puts a miles floor under award search
- 1 Jul 2026PhonePe SBI SELECT BLACK stops paying on UPI outside PhonePe
- 1 Jul 2026PhonePe SBI PURPLE stops paying on UPI outside PhonePe
- 1 Apr 2026ITA Airways joins Star Alliance as member 26
- 31 Mar 2026SBI kills both Etihad Guest co-brands and force-swaps holders into MILES
- 28 Mar 2026KrisFlyer quietly cuts its own dynamic 'Access' award rates
Every SBI Card change we've dated → 19 events since 1998, 13 of them nerfs — worst year 2025.
Verified against SBI Card's own documents on · the net-annual-value engine, at our house ₹/point
Every document behind this page — 6 of them, each with the day we read it
- official SBI's own T&C for this card — ₹9,999 annual and ₹9,999 renewal, 10 KrisFlyer miles/₹200 on Singapore Airlines, 8/₹200 international, 6/₹200 on other spends, and the MCC exclusion table
- official SBI's product record behind the APEX page — the full earn, milestone and lounge grid, plus isOnline "yes" (open to new applications), productType KFAA, cardLaunchDate 2024-09-30
- official SBI's live card catalogue — the APEX is listed and applyable, isOnline "yes", annual fee 9,999, launched 30 September 2024
- official Airport Lounge Access — the APEX appears in neither Set A nor Set B, and the page scopes those cut-down lists to "all cards with an annual fee of ₹1,499 & ₹2,999"
- community CardInsider — the APEX is issued in an "American Express and Mastercard variant"; ₹9,999 joining and annual, 10/8/6 miles per ₹200, 3.5% forex
- official SBI Card's upgrade/downgrade FAQ — the only downgrade the issuer publishes: customer-initiated, inside 90 days of an upgrade, and no upgrade again for six months