Where to Keep Your Cash in Canada: Every Option Ranked After Tax

The headline rates on Canadian savings products sit close together, so the details decide where your cash should go. Interest is taxed at your full rate wherever it comes from, but not inside a TFSA. A GIC locks your money in until it matures. A new-client rate drops after a few months. And one kind of cash ETF turns its interest into a capital gain, taxed at half the rate and only when you sell. Put in your numbers and every option is ranked by what you keep.

01Your Numbers

Every quoted rate is first turned into what it actually earns over the time you chose, so they can be compared; rates that are not already yearly effective rates are also shown "as a yearly yield". "After tax" is that yearly yield after your combined federal and provincial tax on it. "You keep" is the interest left over for the time you chose. The part you put in a TFSA is not taxed, but only where the product can be held in a TFSA, and at the rate of that provider's TFSA account (EQ Bank's Personal Account pays 3.00%, its TFSA Savings Account 1.75%); a product that cannot be held in a TFSA, such as Wealthsimple Chequing or Simplii's new-client offer, is taxed in full. Outside a TFSA, the tax is the extra federal and provincial tax the interest adds to your income, worked out on your 2026 brackets; HSAV's gain is taxed as a capital gain when you sell. Options you cannot use with your amount, time, province, pay or as an existing client are listed at the bottom, not ranked. ETFs are counted in whole units, at their net asset value; T-bill minimums are set by your broker. Savings accounts and ETFs assume today's rate holds, which it will not exactly do; GICs and T-bills are locked in.

02What a TFSA Is Worth to You

Interest earned inside a Tax-Free Savings Account is never taxed, and withdrawals are tax-free. Outside one, the same interest is taxed at your top rate. Pick an option (only products you can hold in a TFSA, at their TFSA rate): the first number below is the rate a taxable account would need to pay to leave you as much as that option does inside a TFSA, over the amount and time you chose above, and the map shows it in every province and territory at your income.

Tap a province or territory to make it yours in the calculator. Rates use your taxable income above; dollars use your amount and time. The TFSA limit for 2026 is $7,000. Someone who has been 18 or older and resident in Canada every year since 2009 and has never contributed has $109,000 of room. CRA My Account shows your room, but the CRA warns it is not updated right away for this year's contributions and withdrawals, so check it against your own records before you contribute.

03What Your Cash Turns Into

The same ranking as a picture: the interest you keep on $25,000 over 12 months, after tax.

04How Fast Can You Get Your Money?

Higher rates usually cost you access. Here is every option sorted by how quickly the cash is back in your chequing account, with the after-tax yield for your numbers.

05Head to Head

Pick any two and see them side by side on your numbers.

06Today's Rates

Every rate on this page, how it is quoted, when we checked it and where it came from. T-bill yields update weekly from the Bank of Canada; we check the bank, GIC and ETF rates by hand every week. A date in red means the rate is older than we would like, so check it with the provider before you act on it.

These rates are quoted in different ways, so the calculator converts them before comparing. Canadian banks quote a yearly rate on interest worked out daily and paid monthly, so the calculator compounds it monthly. A 1-year GIC pays its rate once, at maturity. A T-bill's yield is a simple yearly rate for one bill; the calculator compounds it as bills are rolled over. For cash ETFs we use the fund's own yield less its management expense ratio (MER), compounded monthly as distributions are reinvested.

07The Fine Print

What each option promises, what it costs to leave early, and what protects your money if the bank, credit union or broker fails.

08Questions, Answered

09How We Compare

The math

Each option's quoted rate is turned into the interest it earns over the time you chose. Savings rates compound monthly. A new-client rate is paid for its months and then drops to the regular rate, and money above its limit earns the regular rate from the start. A 1-year GIC pays its rate at maturity and cannot be cashed earlier; held longer than a year, it renews at the same rate for each full year, and any months left over go into the best savings account on the list that you can use. T-bills roll into new bills at today's yield, and are assumed to be sold through a broker at an unchanged yield if you choose a time shorter than the bill. Cash ETF yields, less the fund's MER, compound monthly. ETFs are bought in whole units at their net asset value; cash left over after the last whole unit earns nothing in the calculation. Trading commissions, the bid-ask spread and any premium or discount to net asset value are left out (HSAV closed 0.18% above its net asset value on November 11, 2026, and a premium that disappears after you buy comes off a short holding's return). The Simplii offer pays 5.00% in total on up to $100,000; above that, and after the offer, the regular rate applies to the whole balance by tier.

The tax

The tax on interest is the difference between the tax on your taxable income with the interest and without it, for each year it is earned, so interest that crosses into a higher bracket is taxed at both rates. We build each province's schedule from the 2026 combined federal and provincial rates on TaxTips.ca (which include Ontario's surtax and Quebec's federal abatement) and the federal and provincial basic personal amounts: below both, no tax; between them, only the federal or only the provincial lowest rate. HSAV's gain is taxed when you sell, with half of it added to your income. Nothing in the part you put in a TFSA is taxed. This is still an estimate: it leaves out provincial low-income reductions and other credits, health premiums, Old Age Security recovery and the alternative minimum tax.

How we make money

No bank, credit union, broker or fund company pays DaveManuel.com for this page, and every link goes to the provider's own page or our source. If that changes, the link will say so, and it will not change the order: the order comes from the arithmetic above.

More from DaveManuel Money: all comparisons, the U.S. version of this page and the compound interest calculator.

This page is for information, not financial or tax advice. Rates change; check them with the provider before you move money.