Sam's Club membership

Sam's Club is a members-only warehouse chain, and Walmart opened the first club in 1983. Walmart ran 601 clubs in 44 states and Puerto Rico at January 31, 2026, and counted 602 clubs at July 31, 2026. It also runs samsclub.com and an app. Members choose Club at $60 a year or Plus at $120. Both prices went up on May 1, 2026, from $50 and $110, Walmart's quarterly report says. Each card comes with a second one for a person in the same home. A membership works at every club in the country and cannot be passed to someone else.

The two tiers share a base. Members pay member prices for fuel at select clubs and get Instant Savings taken off at checkout. They can pay through Scan & Go in the app and pick up orders at the curb for free. Scan & Go also handles cafe orders and fuel. Plus adds the paid perks. Plus members get free shipping and free delivery from the club on orders over $50, where Club members pay a $12 delivery fee. They can shop up to an hour before the doors open to everyone else. They also get $0 prescriptions on up to 10 select generic drugs, 40% off additional pairs of glasses and half off tire installs.

Sam's Cash is the reward, and it is kept as a dollar balance. Plus members earn 2% back in Sam's Cash on qualifying purchases in the club, up to $750 a year. Club members do not get that base rate. Both tiers can earn Sam's Cash away from the club through Bonus Offers on dining and shopping, and Plus members get 20% more on what those offers pay. Walmart's annual report says members can spend Sam's Cash on purchases, take it as cash or use it to pay the fee. Cash taken out in a club is capped at a level Sam's Club sets.

The Sam's Club Mastercard, issued by Synchrony Bank, is open to both tiers and pays in Sam's Cash. It earns 5% on gas and EV charging on the first $6,000 each calendar year, then 1%. It earns 3% at restaurants. At Sam's Club itself a Plus member earns 3% on the card and a Club member earns 1%. Every other card purchase earns 1%. Tobacco, prescriptions, gift cards and card fees earn nothing. Synchrony lists a World Elite Mastercard for Plus members and separate versions for Club members. Card rewards stop at $5,000 of Sam's Cash a year, counted across every card one member holds. They post within one or two billing cycles and do not expire, but a lapsed member cannot spend them until the membership is renewed.

New members can try Plus free for 30 days. The fine print holds back any Sam's Cash earned in the trial until the member pays for a full year of Plus. Walmart's results show the tiers at work. Sam's Club U.S. booked $2.5 billion of membership and other income in the year to January 31, 2026, up 8.7%, and Walmart gave the credit to more members and a higher share of Plus. In the quarter to October 31, 2025, that line held about $40 million of breakage from Sam's Cash that members never spent.

The math sets the 2% rate against the fee. At $3,000 a year of club spending, 2% back covers the $60 gap between the tiers, and at $6,000 it covers the whole Plus fee. The rate keeps paying until $37,500 of club spending, where the $750 cap stops it. Only a member who spends about $3,125 a month in the club ever reaches that cap. Walmart says Gen Z and Millennials made up more than half of new sign-ups in the quarter to July 31, 2026. More than half of that group chose Plus. Sam's Cash that members leave unspent also comes back to Walmart as breakage income.