What Capital One Shopping is
A free browser extension and web portal that Capital One bought as Wikibuy in 2018. It does three things: tests coupon codes at checkout, compares the price of what you’re looking at against other retailers, and pays a rebate (“Shopping Rewards”) on purchases made through its tracked links or with the extension activated.
It’s funded the same way Rakuten is, by the affiliate commission retailers pay for referred sales, which is also why the two can’t both be paid on one order.
How it pays, and why that’s the catch
Shopping Rewards redeem for e-gift cards only. No cash, no PayPal, no bank transfer, and no conversion to airline or hotel points. The gift-card list is decent (Marriott and Hotels.com are useful for readers of this site) and there’s no minimum, but a gift card is a gift card. A dollar of Rakuten cashback paid as Membership Rewards or Bilt points can be worth $1.50 to $2 on a premium-cabin redemption; a dollar of Capital One Shopping credit is worth a dollar at Best Buy.
That’s the trade. Capital One Shopping wins only when its rate is high enough to beat Rakuten’s rate plus the points premium.
Rates at Stackable retailers
Read from capitaloneshopping.com on September 15, 2026, against the Rakuten rate on the same day.
| Retailer | Capital One Shopping | Rakuten | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net-a-Porter | 8% | up to 2.5% | Capital One |
| Farfetch | 7% | 2% | Capital One |
| Dyson | 6% | 1% base, 10-12% windows | Capital One at base; Rakuten in a window |
| Sixt | 3% | 12% | Rakuten |
| Mr Porter | up to 2.5% | 2% | Roughly even; TopCashback 7% for new customers |
| Bergdorf Goodman | up to 2% | 15% | Rakuten |
| Neiman Marcus | up to 2% | 2% | Even; TopCashback 5% |
| StubHub | 2% | 10% | Rakuten |
| Bose | 2% | 2% | Even |
| Away | 2% | 2% | Even |
| Design Within Reach | 2% | 2% | Even |
| Vrbo | 1% | 6% | Rakuten |
| Sephora | 1% | 2% | Rakuten; TopCashback 2.5% |
| Bloomingdale’s | 1% | 2% | Rakuten; TopCashback 4% |
| Saks Fifth Avenue | 1% | 2% | Rakuten; TopCashback 5% |
| Samsung | up to 0.75% | 2% | Rakuten |
| Apple | 0.5% | 0% on hardware | Capital One, barely |
| Harrods | 0.5% | 2% | Rakuten |
| Herman Miller | 0.5% | 2% | Rakuten |
| Tempur-Pedic | 0.5% | 3% | Rakuten |
| Crate & Barrel / CB2 | up to 0.5% | none / 1-2% | Even |
| Marriott | up to 0.5% | 3% | Rakuten; TopCashback 4% |
| Nordstrom, Sonos, Luxury Escapes | Not listed | see pages | n/a |
The pattern: Capital One Shopping runs the lowest of the three at department stores and hotels, matches Rakuten at the 2% floor, and occasionally spikes at a luxury fashion site where the others haven’t. Check it on the day; don’t default to it.
The one rule
Never let two portals track the same purchase. The merchant’s affiliate network pays one commission to the last tracker that set a cookie before checkout. If you click through Rakuten, then the Capital One extension pops up and you click “activate,” Capital One’s cookie overwrites Rakuten’s and Rakuten pays nothing. The reverse is equally true.
The clean setup is a separate browser profile for each extension, or the Capital One extension disabled except when you’ve decided it’s the portal for that order.
Referral program
Capital One Shopping pays $80 to the referrer and $80 to the new member, as Shopping Rewards, once the new member installs the extension through the link within seven days and keeps it active for 90 days. The button at the top of this page is our referral link; it pays us $80 if you qualify, and it does not change any rate you see. Referral bonuses have a history of posting late, and support has resolved missing ones on request.
Gotchas
- Credits post slowly (30 to 90 days) and pending purchases can take days to appear
- Price-drop alerts are email-only and can’t be set per item
- Some merchants’ pages exist only for coupons with no cashback rate (Sonos, Luxury Escapes as of mid-September)
- Category exclusions mirror Rakuten’s (refurbished and parts at Dyson, jewelry at Saks, UK orders at Harrods)
- Capital One Offers, the cardholder program in the Capital One app, is a different product that pays miles or cash and requires a Capital One card
FAQ
Sources
What we read to write this page. Every link is the company's own page, not a summary of it.
- Capital One Shopping help centercapitaloneshopping.comHow rewards are earned and redeemed
- Capital One Shopping terms of servicecapitaloneshopping.comProgram terms
Use it as a second opinion, not a replacement
Three steps, and the portal layer on every stack gets a little better.
- 1 Install the extension in a separate browser profile from Rakuten's, so they never fire together.
- 2 Before any purchase, compare the rate here against Rakuten and TopCashback. Take the highest.
- 3 Redeem credits for a gift card you'll actually use (Marriott, Best Buy, Hotels.com are among the options).
Terms verified September 15, 2026.
Get alerted when Capital One Shopping beats Rakuten at a store you follow
We compare all three portals on every retailer page weekly. Subscribers get an email when the leader changes at a store in their stack.