Chase Sapphire Preferred vs Amex Gold: $95 vs $325

Verdict: Get Chase Sapphire Preferred unless restaurants and US supermarkets are your two biggest flexible spend lines and you will actually capture the American Express Gold monthly credits. The fee gap is $230 a year. Gold only closes that gap if you do the chores.

Preferred is $95. Gold is $325. We publish 24 credit cards. The catalog average annual fee is $190. Preferred sits cheap. Gold sits expensive. That $230 is the product, not a footnote.

Chase's page on September 7, 2026 posts 75,000 Ultimate Rewards points after $5,000 in the first three months. The July 2026 100,000-point elevated print is gone. Amex's Gold page the same day did not pin a public welcome number. We still store the catalog line: as high as 100,000 Membership Rewards points after $8,000 in six months, personalized. You might see 60,000. You might see 100,000. We will not pretend the ceiling is your offer.

This is not financial advice. Offers are personalized. Credits need enrollment. Read the issuer page before you apply.

Side by side

Gold's supermarket cap is the trap people miss. 4x on $25,000 of US supermarket spend is a lot of groceries. After the cap you earn 1x. Preferred's online-grocery 3x is uncapped in the marketing block, with exclusions. Superstores and warehouse clubs are where grocery cards usually break. We do not invent an exclusion list Chase did not print in the hero.

The fee is the whole argument

$325 a year is $27 a month before you buy anything. Gold's credits, if you enroll and use them, add up to $424 on paper:

• $10 a month dining credit at a short list (Grubhub including Seamless, Buffalo Wild Wings, Five Guys, The Cheesecake Factory, Wonder). $120 a year.
• $10 a month Uber Cash on US rides and Uber Eats when you add the Gold to Uber. $120 a year.
• Up to $100 a year at qualifying US Resy restaurants, split $50 / $50 across the two halves of the year.
• $7 a month at US Dunkin locations. $84 a year.

That is $424 of statement credit or Uber Cash if you already lived that way. It is $0 if you do not. Preferred's $95 does not ask you to remember Dunkin in month eleven.

Net fee if you max Gold's four credits: $325 minus $424 = you are ahead $99 before points, if every credit is a purchase you would have made anyway. Net fee if you use none: $325. Preferred's net fee if you skip the $100 hotel credit: $95. Preferred's net fee if you book one Chase Travel hotel night that uses the credit: about $0, plus you still have the rest of the card.

People who "know they will use the credits" and then do not are how Gold becomes a $325 dining coupon book. If that sounds like you, stop here and get Preferred.

The bonus is not the same object

Preferred's 75,000 after $5,000 in three months is a public print. Chase says allow six to eight weeks after you qualify. Balance transfers, cash-like transactions, and person-to-person payments do not count.

Gold's welcome is personalized. The spend gate we store is $8,000 in six months, up from $6,000 earlier in 2026. Six months is kinder than three. $8,000 is heavier than $5,000. A 100,000-point Gold offer you do not actually see is not an offer.

Do not pick Gold because a screenshot on Reddit showed 100,000. Open the application and read the box. If the box is 60,000 after $8,000, the first-year math flipped.

What you earn after the bonus

Gold is a food card that also travels. 4x restaurants worldwide, including many places that code as restaurants, up to $50,000 a year. 4x US supermarkets up to $25,000. 3x flights booked direct or through Amex Travel. 5x prepaid hotels through Amex Travel. 1x elsewhere. If your life is takeout, groceries, and two flights, Gold's earn rate is the reason the fee exists.

Preferred is a travel card that also eats. 3x dining is worse than Gold's 4x. 3x online grocery is a different pile than Gold's supermarket 4x. 5x Chase Travel and 2x other travel, plus Hyatt / United / the rest of the Ultimate Rewards chart, is why people keep Preferred after year one. Gold's Membership Rewards chart is deep too. We will not rank transfer partners as if a point were a dollar. If you already think in Hyatt nights, Preferred is the simpler story. If you already think in airline partners Amex transfers to, Gold can be the better currency. That is a preference, not a rate we invent.

Gold has no lounge access. Preferred has no lounge access. Sapphire Reserve at $795 and Amex Platinum at $895 are a different conversation. The travel card guide ranks that stack. If this pair already feels like too much card, the no-annual-fee list is the off-ramp.

Who should hold which

Preferred if you want a travel-points card you will not resent in November. Preferred if your grocery run is a superstore Chase may not 3x. Preferred if you will not open the Amex app every month to hunt a $10 dining credit.

Gold if restaurants and US supermarkets are honestly your two biggest flexible lines, you have a real personalized offer in hand, and you already use Uber, Resy, or Dunkin enough that the credits are not extra errands. Gold if you want a charge card and you pay in full.

Do not get either card to carry a balance. Preferred's APR range is ordinary expensive credit. Gold's Pay Over Time rate is disclosed at application; we do not store a public range because Amex does not publish one.

FAQ

Which card should I get, Sapphire Preferred or Amex Gold?
Get Chase Sapphire Preferred unless restaurants and US supermarkets are your two biggest flexible spend lines and you will actually capture the American Express Gold monthly credits. The fee gap is $230 a year. Gold only closes that gap if you do the chores.

Is the Sapphire Preferred 100,000-point offer still live?
No. Chase's page on September 7, 2026 posts 75,000 points after $5,000 in the first three months. The July 2026 100,000-point print is gone.

What is the Amex Gold welcome bonus?
Personalized. We store "as high as 100,000 points after $8,000 in 6 months." Amex's public Gold page on September 7, 2026 did not pin a number. Treat the ceiling as marketing until your application shows an offer.

Do I need the Gold credits to justify the fee?
Yes, unless your 4x grocery and restaurant volume is enormous and you value Membership Rewards enough to ignore $230. For most people the credits are the fee.

Is this financial advice?
No. It is a dated comparison of two cards we verify. Your offer is the one on your screen.