How YieldFinder Works
We built YieldFinder to make cash-yield comparisons easier to check. We collect public rates and yields, keep different product types separate, rank each product by the measure that applies, and publish cleaned data feeds so the numbers can be inspected.
What we track
We track common cash and cash-like products:
- Savings accounts and high-yield savings accounts.
- Certificates of deposit, grouped by term.
- Money-market mutual funds and money-market ETFs.
- U.S. Treasuries by maturity.
- After-tax estimates across supported product types.
We do not treat those products as interchangeable. A savings account, CD, Treasury bill, money-market fund, and Treasury ETF can differ in liquidity, insurance, market risk, tax treatment, transfer mechanics, minimums, and account-opening requirements. The tables put yield next to the details we can verify, so a higher number is not shown without context.
Data collection
When possible, we scrape public rate and yield pages daily. We use public source material: provider rate pages, fund sponsor pages, product disclosures, official Treasury data, and reviewed tax documents when tax treatment matters.
Each table uses the latest accepted daily row for the relevant product. Savings accounts use the latest APY row. CDs use the latest APY row for each term. Money-market funds and ETFs use the latest provider-reported SEC yield row. Treasuries use the latest Treasury par yield by maturity.
Rows may include APY or yield, rate date, minimum opening deposit, minimum balance for APY, balance-cap details, expense ratio, FDIC, NCUA, or SIPC context, product links, and source notes. Some fields are more consistent than others. Rates, yields, dates, terms, maturities, minimums, and expense ratios are usually structured. Operational details, such as transfer limits, wire support, buckets or vaults, joint-account support, and account-opening requirements, are disclosed less consistently.
We do not fill blanks with assumptions. If a detail is not available from reviewed public source data, it stays unknown. Unknown does not mean unavailable.
Ranking rules
We rank each product type by the measure used in its market.
Savings accounts are ranked by APY.
CDs are ranked by APY inside each term group.
Money-market funds and ETFs are ranked by provider-reported SEC yield.
Treasuries are shown by maturity and Treasury par yield.
The after-tax calculator ranks by estimated after-tax yield using the selected balance, federal marginal rate, state, and state tax-rate assumption. A product appears there only when we have enough rate and tax-treatment data to support the estimate.
When a rate has conditions, such as a required direct deposit, recurring deposit, monthly fee, or APY balance cap, we show those conditions when they are available. A conditional headline rate is not the same as an unconditional rate.
We also try to exclude accounts where the headline APY applies only to a very low maximum balance, such as caps below $10,000, because those offers are less useful for broad cash-yield comparisons.
Yield definitions
We use APY for savings accounts and CDs because annual percentage yield includes compounding and is the standard advertised measure for deposit products.
We use SEC yield for money-market funds and ETFs because it is the standardized yield measure reported by fund sponsors. Traditional money-market funds generally report a 7-day SEC yield. Some ETF products, especially Treasury or ultra-short bond ETFs, may report a 30-day SEC yield. Where available, we keep the provider's yield label or period with the product.
We use Treasury par yield for Treasury pages because it gives comparable points along the Treasury curve by maturity.
These measures are not identical. We use the standard reported measure for each product type instead of forcing every product into one artificial yield convention.
After-tax yield estimates
The after-tax calculator is a comparison estimate. It starts with each product's pre-tax yield and subtracts the estimated federal and state tax drag based on the assumptions shown on the page.
after-tax yield = pre-tax yield - federal tax drag - state tax drag
annual income = balance x (after-tax yield / 100)
We model savings accounts and CDs as ordinary taxable interest.
We model direct Treasury interest as federally taxable and exempt from state income tax.
We model money-market fund distributions as dividends. Treasury and government money-market funds can have a state-exempt portion, but that depends on fund-specific tax allocation data and state rules. Municipal funds can have federal exemption, state-specific treatment, and AMT exposure depending on the fund, state, tax year, and available source data.
This is not tax advice. It does not calculate an actual tax return, filing status, deductions, AMT liability, local taxes, timing differences, or account-specific tax reporting.
Sources, review, and limitations
We prioritize provider pages for deposit and fund data, official Treasury source data for Treasury yields, and provider or IRS documents for tax treatment and fund tax allocations.
Rates and product terms can change without notice. Confirm terms on the provider's website before opening an account, buying a CD, purchasing a Treasury, or investing in a money-market fund.
Some details appear only when reviewed source data is available. If a field is missing or unknown, we do not infer it from similar products, marketing language, or assumptions about the provider. Products may also be omitted from a table or calculator view when the current rate, yield, or tax-treatment data needed for that view is unavailable.
Affiliate policy
Affiliate relationships do not change the ranking logic.
Compensation from a link or partner does not affect APY, SEC yield, Treasury yield, after-tax calculations, table sorting, or inclusion of competing products. Paid relationships are separate from product rankings.
Provider terms control. We may link to third-party products or tools, but confirm details directly with the provider before taking action.
Machine-readable data
We publish public JSON feeds for readers, researchers, crawlers, and tools that want to inspect the cleaned comparison data.
The feeds include current table rows, rates or yields, rate dates, and selected comparison fields. They are reference feeds for inspection and citation, not a guaranteed long-term API contract.
Comparison pages
Current comparison pages are linked below. Each page shows a visible freshness date so readers can see how recent the underlying comparison data is.