CD Rate Statistics (2026)

The FDIC national average 12-month CD paid 1.71% in August 2026. The 6-month averaged 1.41%, the 3-month 1.14% and the 1-month 0.22%.

Those are averages across every institution the FDIC surveys, weighted by branch, so they include the largest banks in the country, which pay very little on deposits.

That is why the average looks so far below what a saver reading about rates would expect. It is a measure of the deposit market, not a quote.

The same FDIC table carries a third column: the national rate cap, the most a less-than-well-capitalised institution is permitted to offer.

For a 12-month CD that cap was 5.65%. So the regulator's own monthly publication spans 1.71% to 5.65% for the same product, in the same month.

No aggregator is needed to make the point that the average is not the offer. The FDIC makes it in a single row.

The cap is the higher of two numbers: the national deposit rate plus 75 basis points, or the comparable Treasury yield plus 75 basis points.

For CDs the Treasury leg wins at every term, because Treasury yields sit so far above deposit averages. The 12-month cap of 5.65% is the 4.08% Treasury yield plus 75 basis points, rounded through the FDIC's own method.

That construction is why the cap is a useful reference point for a saver: it is anchored to what the government pays for the same money over the same period.

Treasury yields rise with maturity, from 3.78% at one month to 4.45% at sixty. That is the normal shape.

CD averages do the opposite after the one-year mark: 1.71% at 12 months, then 1.57%, 1.34%, 1.27% and 1.36% at 24, 36, 48 and 60 months.

Banks are paying least where they are borrowing longest, which is the clearest signal in the table that they do not expect to need long-term deposits at today's prices.

On $25,000 held for a year, the difference between the average 12-month CD at 1.71% and the 12-month Treasury at 4.08% is roughly $593 in simple interest.

At the one-month term the gap is wider still, 0.22% against 3.78%, worth about $890 a year on the same balance.

Those figures are our arithmetic for scale rather than a projection, and they ignore compounding and tax. The order of magnitude is the useful part.

The average 1-month CD pays 0.22%. A one-month Treasury bill yields 3.78%.

That is a gap of more than three and a half percentage points for locking money up, which is the opposite of what a term deposit is supposed to compensate you for.

If a CD is being used for genuinely short-term cash, the average product in this market is worse than leaving it in a money market deposit account at 0.63%, and much worse than a Treasury bill.

Interest checking averages 0.07%, savings 0.38% and money market deposit accounts 0.63%. All three are immediately accessible and FDIC insured to $250,000.

A 12-month CD averages 1.71% and gives up access, with an early withdrawal penalty set by the bank rather than by regulation.

A 12-month Treasury yields 4.08%, is backed by the US government rather than by deposit insurance, and can be sold before maturity at whatever the market will pay.

There is no national standard. The penalty is set by the issuing bank and is typically expressed as a number of months of interest, which means it can exceed the interest earned on a CD broken early in its term.

That is the specific risk in a long CD: not that rates move, but that the money is needed and the exit costs more than the product paid.

It is also why the term should be chosen against the date the money is needed rather than against the rate on offer.

FDIC insurance covers deposits up to $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, per ownership category.

It covers the principal and the interest accrued, and it does not cover market losses, because a deposit has none.

That protection is identical across an interest checking account paying 0.07% and a CD paying 1.71%, which is worth stating: the extra yield on a CD is compensation for giving up access, not for taking more risk.

Deposit pricing is a competitive decision, and the largest banks compete on branch networks and convenience rather than on rate.

Because those institutions hold an enormous share of US deposits, an average that includes them sits far below what a rate-seeking saver can obtain.

The corollary is that the average is the right number for describing the market and the wrong number for making a decision, and this page reports it as the former.

It does not name a best available CD rate. Those figures are published only by rate aggregators, they change constantly, and they are not verifiable against a primary source.

It does not carry a historical series of CD rates. The commonly quoted extremes, including an 18.65% average in December 1980, trace to compilations of Federal Reserve data rather than to a Federal Reserve release, and could not be verified directly.

Where a number could not be checked in the issuing body's own document, it was removed rather than attributed to whoever repeated it.

Every rate, yield and cap is from the FDIC's Monthly Update to the National Rates and Rate Caps for August 2026.

The deposit insurance limit is the FDIC's published standard maximum deposit insurance amount.

The gap columns and the dollar illustrations are our arithmetic on the FDIC figures and are labelled as such rather than presented as published values.