Best FD Interest Rates

The highest fixed deposit rate in our table is 8.25% from Suryoday Small Finance Bank for general citizens, and 8.50% for senior citizens. Across the 12 banks tracked here, headline FD rates run from 6.45% to 8.25%. All figures are as captured on 2 October 2026, for deposits below ₹3 crore.

Small finance banks pay the most and public sector banks the least, and the gap is roughly a percentage and a half. That difference is not free — it is the reason the ₹5 lakh deposit insurance limit further down this page matters more than the rate itself.

Highest FD interest rates today

Ranked by the general-citizen rate. The last column links to the bank’s own tariff page, so you can check any figure here against the source rather than taking our word for it.

Bank	General rate	Senior citizen rate	Best tenure	Check the issuer
Suryoday Small Finance Bank	8.25%	8.50%	5 years exactly	suryoday.bank.in
Utkarsh Small Finance Bank	8.10%	8.25%	666 days	utkarsh.bank.in
Shivalik Small Finance Bank	8.00%	8.25%	23 months 1 day to 27 months	shivalik.bank.in
Unity Small Finance Bank	8.00%	8.50%	501 days	theunitybank.com
Jana Small Finance Bank	8.00%	8.30%	Over 2 years to 3 years	jana.bank.in
Bank of Baroda	6.75%	7.25%	555 days (Golden Goal)	bankofbaroda.bank.in
Kotak Mahindra Bank	6.65%	7.15%	2 years to under 3 years	m.kotak.com
Punjab National Bank	6.60%	7.10%	444 days	pnb.bank.in
Axis Bank	6.50%	7.25%	18 months to 10 years (senior rate at 5–10 years)	axis.bank.in
HDFC Bank	6.50%	7.10%	3 years 1 day to under 4 years 7 months	hdfc.bank.in
ICICI Bank	6.50%	7.10%	3 years 1 day to 5 years	icici.bank.in
State Bank of India	6.45%	7.05%	444 days (Amrit Vrishti); senior rate at 5–10 years	sbi.bank.in

Best small finance bank FD rates

Small finance banks consistently top this table. They are licensed and regulated by the RBI and their deposits carry the same DICGC insurance as any other scheduled bank, but they pay more because they are raising deposits to fund higher-risk lending. That is a reason to respect the insurance limit, not a reason to avoid them.

Bank	General rate	Senior citizen rate	Best tenure	Check the issuer
Suryoday Small Finance Bank	8.25%	8.50%	5 years exactly	suryoday.bank.in
Utkarsh Small Finance Bank	8.10%	8.25%	666 days	utkarsh.bank.in
Shivalik Small Finance Bank	8.00%	8.25%	23 months 1 day to 27 months	shivalik.bank.in
Unity Small Finance Bank	8.00%	8.50%	501 days	theunitybank.com
Jana Small Finance Bank	8.00%	8.30%	Over 2 years to 3 years	jana.bank.in

Best private bank FD rates

Private banks sit between the small finance banks and the public sector on rate, and are usually the easiest to open and break a deposit with online.

Bank	General rate	Senior citizen rate	Best tenure	Check the issuer
Kotak Mahindra Bank	6.65%	7.15%	2 years to under 3 years	m.kotak.com
Axis Bank	6.50%	7.25%	18 months to 10 years (senior rate at 5–10 years)	axis.bank.in
HDFC Bank	6.50%	7.10%	3 years 1 day to under 4 years 7 months	hdfc.bank.in
ICICI Bank	6.50%	7.10%	3 years 1 day to 5 years	icici.bank.in

Best public sector bank FD rates

Public sector banks pay the least of the three groups. Depositors who stay with them are generally paying for branch access and familiarity rather than for safety, because the deposit insurance is identical.

Bank	General rate	Senior citizen rate	Best tenure	Check the issuer
Bank of Baroda	6.75%	7.25%	555 days (Golden Goal)	bankofbaroda.bank.in
Punjab National Bank	6.60%	7.10%	444 days	pnb.bank.in
State Bank of India	6.45%	7.05%	444 days (Amrit Vrishti); senior rate at 5–10 years	sbi.bank.in

FD rates for senior citizens

Anyone aged 60 or above earns a higher rate on the same deposit — typically 0.50 percentage points more, and at some banks more than that. The premium is applied to the bank’s ordinary card rate, so the ranking below is not the same as the general-citizen ranking above.

Bank	Senior citizen rate	General rate	Best tenure	Check the issuer
Suryoday Small Finance Bank	8.50%	8.25%	5 years exactly	suryoday.bank.in
Unity Small Finance Bank	8.50%	8.00%	501 days	theunitybank.com
Jana Small Finance Bank	8.30%	8.00%	Over 2 years to 3 years	jana.bank.in
Shivalik Small Finance Bank	8.25%	8.00%	23 months 1 day to 27 months	shivalik.bank.in
Utkarsh Small Finance Bank	8.25%	8.10%	666 days	utkarsh.bank.in
Bank of Baroda	7.25%	6.75%	555 days (Golden Goal)	bankofbaroda.bank.in
Axis Bank	7.25%	6.50%	18 months to 10 years (senior rate at 5–10 years)	axis.bank.in
Kotak Mahindra Bank	7.15%	6.65%	2 years to under 3 years	m.kotak.com
Punjab National Bank	7.10%	6.60%	444 days	pnb.bank.in
HDFC Bank	7.10%	6.50%	3 years 1 day to under 4 years 7 months	hdfc.bank.in
ICICI Bank	7.10%	6.50%	3 years 1 day to 5 years	icici.bank.in
State Bank of India	7.05%	6.45%	444 days (Amrit Vrishti); senior rate at 5–10 years	sbi.bank.in

The senior citizen premium is one of the few genuinely free upgrades in Indian personal finance. If a deposit can be held in an eligible parent’s name, and the interest is genuinely theirs, it earns more at the same bank for the same tenure and the same risk.

What is a fixed deposit

A fixed deposit is money lent to a bank for an agreed period at a rate agreed on the day you book it. The rate does not move afterwards, whatever the RBI does — that is the entire product. A deposit booked at 8.00% today pays 8.00% for its full term even if rates fall next month, and equally keeps paying it if rates rise.

Two things follow, and they are the whole case for and against an FD. The return is known in advance and the capital does not fluctuate, which nothing market-linked can offer. And the return is fixed in nominal terms, so inflation is taken out of it — at 8.00% before tax, a taxpayer in the 30% slab keeps about 5.60% after tax, which is a thin real return.

Interest can be paid out monthly or quarterly, or left to compound until maturity (a cumulative deposit). Cumulative pays more in total; payout suits someone living on the income.

Special-tenure schemes

Most banks run at least one deposit on an odd tenure — 444 days, 555 days, 390 days — priced above the ordinary card rate on either side of it. These are not a forecast. A bank with a funding gap at a particular maturity prices a bucket to fill it, and withdraws the scheme when it is full.

They are usually worth taking if the tenure genuinely suits you, with two cautions. The premium is often smaller than it looks once you compare it against the ordinary rate for a similar period rather than against the headline. And these schemes are withdrawn at short notice, so a rate seen last month may no longer be on sale — which is why every row above links to the bank’s own page.

How FD interest is taxed

Interest on a fixed deposit is fully taxable as income from other sources, at your slab rate, in the year it accrues — not in the year the deposit matures. There is no special rate and no indexation.

The bank deducts TDS under section 194A at 10% once interest crosses ₹50,000 (₹1,00,000 for senior citizens) in a financial year, per bank. Two things follow from that, and both are routinely got wrong:

TDS is not the tax. If your slab rate is 20% or 30%, the 10% deducted is a part payment and you owe the rest at filing. If your total income is below the exemption limit, you can reclaim it.
Below the threshold is not tax-free. No TDS simply means the bank did not deduct. The interest is still taxable and still has to be declared.

If your total income for the year will be below the taxable limit, you can file Form 15G (or Form 15H if you are 60 or above) with each bank at the start of the financial year to stop the deduction. File it with every bank you hold a deposit at — the threshold applies per bank, and so does the form.

Senior citizens: the ₹50,000 most people miss

Under section 80TTB, anyone aged 60 or above can deduct up to ₹50,000 of interest income — interest income for senior citizens, including fds — from taxable income. It is available under the old only regime only.

For a senior citizen holding deposits under the old regime, that is the first ₹50,000 of FD interest each year effectively untaxed, on top of the higher card rate the banks already pay. Both are why the senior-citizen table above, not the general one, is the one that matters in most households.

Tax-saver fixed deposits

A tax-saver FD is a five-year deposit qualifying under section 80C, within the overall ₹1,50,000 limit shared with EPF, PPF, ELSS, life insurance premiums and home loan principal. Like 80C itself, it is available under the old only regime only — under the new regime it buys nothing at all, and a five-year lock-in for nothing is a bad trade.

Three constraints that catch people out:

Item	Details
It cannot be broken.	Five years, no premature withdrawal, no loan against it. The flexibility described above does not apply.
The interest is still fully taxable.	The deduction is on the amount deposited, not on what it earns. TDS applies exactly as it does to any other deposit.
The rate is usually not the bank’s best.	Tax-saver buckets are frequently priced below the special-tenure schemes at the same bank.

Tax figures on this page are for financial year 2026-27, from the income tax department’s own portal.

Breaking an FD early

A fixed deposit is breakable. What you lose is not the whole interest but a rate adjustment, applied in two parts:

Interest is recalculated at the rate that applied to the tenure you actually held the deposit for, not the rate you booked.
A penalty, typically 0.50 to 1.00 percentage points, is deducted from that recalculated rate. Several banks waive it on small deposits or for senior citizens.

The practical consequence: booking a five-year deposit and breaking it at fourteen months does not pay the five-year rate for fourteen months. It pays the fourteen-month rate, minus a penalty. If there is any real chance you will need the money, a shorter deposit at a slightly lower advertised rate usually pays more than a longer one broken early.

Some banks also sell non-callable deposits, which pay marginally more and cannot be broken at all before maturity. The extra is rarely worth losing access for.

How much of your deposit is insured

Small finance banks pay the most because they are raising deposits to fund higher-risk lending. Deposit insurance through the DICGC covers ₹5 lakh per depositor per bank — principal plus interest, not principal alone — and it applies across all your accounts at that bank taken together, not per deposit.

That last point is the one that costs people money. Ten deposits of ₹5 lakh at one bank are insured to ₹5 lakh in total, not ₹50 lakh. Five deposits of ₹5 lakh at five different banks are insured in full. If you are chasing the highest rates, which means smaller banks, splitting across banks is the whole of the risk management.

Choosing a tenure

The highest advertised rate at most banks sits on one oddly specific bucket — 555 days, 444 days, 23 to 27 months — rather than on the longest tenure. Those are funding requirements, not a view on interest rates, and they move. Two rules survive that:

Match the tenure to when you need the money, then take the best rate available at that tenure. Reaching for a higher rate at a tenure you cannot hold is how the early-withdrawal penalty above gets paid.
Compare the special-tenure bucket against the ordinary one. The premium is often two or three basis points for months of extra commitment.

Where these numbers come from

Captured from each bank’s own rate page or rate card on 2 October 2026, and re-checked against each bank’s own rate page every week.

Four banks publish their tables in a way we can’t read automatically — Unity, Bank of Baroda, Kotak and Suryoday. For those, the linked bank page is the authority, not this table.

Advertised rates are the best case: the exact tenure, the exact deposit size, the strongest applicant. Confirm with the bank before you move money.