Amex Gold vs Chase Sapphire Preferred: Which Card Should You Get in 2026?

Two of the most-carried travel cards in the country. One costs $325 a year and earns 4x where you eat. One costs $95 and keeps the whole Ultimate Rewards transfer universe open.

The comparison posts you will find elsewhere run the headline as “the Gold’s credits pay for itself.” That is lazy and, in several places, wrong. The credits are monthly drips at specific merchants, and the math only works if your life happens to fit them.

Here is the head-to-head across fees, credits, earning, and what the points are actually worth, plus the real math on those credits and the honest case for each card.

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The short answer

Buy the card that matches where your money already goes. The American Express® Gold Card earns 4x Membership Rewards points at restaurants worldwide and US supermarkets, and its $424 in annual credits can erase the $325 fee if you actually use them. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card costs $95, earns 3x on dining plus gas, streaming, online groceries, and vacation rentals, comes with a $100 hotel credit, and unlocks 1:1 transfers to every Ultimate Rewards airline and hotel partner.

Food-heavy spenders who will use the monthly credits should take the Gold. Everyone else should take the Preferred. And yes, plenty of people carry both, one for food and one for everything else.

The fees and credits: where the face-value math lies

On paper, the Gold is free. $424 in annual credits against a $325 annual fee means Amex pays you $99 a year to carry the card. The Preferred gives you a $100 hotel credit against a $95 fee, which is a $5 profit before you earn a single point.

A point worth being honest about, because it trips people up: the Gold’s credits arrive as monthly drips that vanish if you do not use them. Ten dollars a month at Grubhub. Ten dollars a month in Uber Cash. Seven dollars a month at Dunkin’. None of it rolls over, and all of it requires enrollment first. If you do not already eat at these places, you are not saving money, you are inventing new spending to chase a credit.

The Preferred’s $100 credit is one booking through the Chase Travel portal. Book one hotel night a year through the portal and the fee is gone. That is a much easier bar to clear.

Here is the real comparison, not the face-value one. Use only the Gold’s dining credit and Uber Cash, the two credits most people actually capture, and the net fee is $85 a year before points. That is the honest number for most households, not negative $99. The full $424 only materializes if you eat at Resy restaurants twice a year and buy Dunkin’ every month.

And the Preferred is genuinely close to free for anyone who books a hotel through the Chase portal once a year. $95 out, $100 back. Done.

Where each card actually wins

The Gold wins the food categories by a clear margin. 4x at restaurants worldwide and 4x at US supermarkets is the best food earning of any mid-tier card. The Preferred wins almost everything else: gas and EV charging, streaming, online groceries, and vacation rentals all earn 3x, categories where the Gold earns a flat 1x.

Two details people miss. First, the Gold’s 4x has caps: $50,000 a year at restaurants, $25,000 a year at US supermarkets, then everything drops to 1x. Most households will never touch either cap, but it is there. Second, the Preferred’s 3x grocery rate is online grocery only. If you shop in person at Kroger, Publix, or Whole Foods, the Preferred earns 1x and the Gold earns 4x. That is a massive gap for a family that spends $800 a month at the supermarket.

Take a household spending $600 a month on dining and $800 a month on groceries. The Gold earns 67,200 points a year on that spend. The Preferred earns 50,400. That 16,800-point gap is real, and it is why food-heavy households love the Gold.

But flip the profile. A commuter spending $400 a month on gas and a renter booking Airbnb weekends: the Preferred earns 14,400 points a year on that spend at 3x, and the Gold earns 4,800. Earning follows your spending.

What the points are really worth

Both cards earn transferable points that can be worth 2 cents or more each moved to the right airline partner. That is the ceiling for both. The floor is where they split: Ultimate Rewards cash out at a clean 1 cent each, while Membership Rewards cash out at 0.6 cents. If you ever need to just erase a charge, Chase’s floor is 67% higher.

Amex has one escape hatch for the floor problem: cash out to a Charles Schwab brokerage account at 1.1 cents per point, up to 1 million points a year. That only helps if you have a Schwab account, and most beginners do not.

Two more differences that matter. Chase lets you combine your points with one person in your household for free, which is how a lot of couples build one big balance. Amex does not let you combine Membership Rewards across people. And Amex charges a small excise fee, 0.06 cents per point up to $99, when you transfer to US airlines. Chase does not.

The annual fee, done right

Put the fees and credits together and the picture gets simple. Both cards can end up costing you nothing, or less than nothing, if you use what they give you. The difference is how much work that takes.

Both cards can be effectively free. The Preferred gets there with one booking. The Gold gets there with twelve months of remembering.

The part the hype glosses over

Three things worth knowing before you decide.

First, the Gold is a coupon book, and coupon books expire monthly. Every credit on the card is use-it-or-lose-it inside its window. Skip a month of Grubhub and that $10 is gone forever. The Resy credit is $50 a half, so a $40 dinner leaves $10 on the table. If you are the kind of person who will set a monthly reminder, this is free money. If you are not, be honest about it, because the honest math for a normal household is closer to $240 in credits against the $325 fee.

Second, the Preferred lost its anniversary bonus. The old 10% rebate on points earned each year ended October 1, 2026, for existing cardholders, and new applicants from the June 2026 refresh never got it. Nothing replaced it. The June refresh added real value elsewhere, the $100 hotel credit, 3x on gas and vacation rentals, emergency evacuation coverage, but the bonus is gone and most comparison posts have not caught up.

Third, both cards count toward Chase 5/24. The Gold is a charge card, and a common myth says charge cards do not count. They do. Open both cards and you have used two of your five slots in 24 months, so do it with a plan, not on impulse.

My take

Pick the card that matches the way you actually spend. If restaurants and supermarkets are your two biggest categories and you will use the monthly credits, the Gold earns more points and the fee takes care of itself. The 4x on food is genuinely the best in its class.

If your spending is spread across dining, gas, streaming, travel, and the occasional Airbnb, the Preferred is the simpler, cheaper, and more forgiving card. One $100 hotel credit erases the fee, the 1-cent cash floor means your points are never stranded, and you can pool everything with a spouse.

The honest caveat: neither card is the “best” card in any absolute sense. The right one is the one whose categories match your last three months of statements. Check those before you apply.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I have both the Amex Gold and the Chase Sapphire Preferred?

Yes, and a lot of points people do exactly that: the Gold for restaurants and US supermarkets at 4x, the Preferred for travel, gas, streaming, and vacation rentals at 3x to 5x. Just know the two currencies stay separate. There is no way to move Membership Rewards points into Ultimate Rewards or the other way, so you are building two balances in two programs. Both cards also count toward Chase 5/24, so carrying both uses two of your five slots.

Which card is better for groceries?

The Amex Gold, by a wide margin. It earns 4x at US supermarkets on up to $25,000 a year, which covers in-person shopping at stores like Kroger, Publix, and Whole Foods. The Preferred earns 3x on online grocery only, so in-store supermarket runs earn 1x. If most of your grocery spend happens in a store rather than in a delivery app, the Gold is the clear winner.

Can I transfer Amex points to Chase, or Chase points to Amex?

No. Membership Rewards and Ultimate Rewards are completely separate currencies with no path between them. Each can only be spent inside the program that issued it: its travel portal, its transfer partners, and its cash-out options. Plan which program you want to build before you pick a card, because the choice sticks.

Does the Amex Gold count toward Chase 5/24?

Yes. Chase’s 5/24 rule counts every personal card opened in the last 24 months, including closed cards and Amex charge cards. The Gold is a charge card, not a credit card, but it still reports and still counts. So opening a Gold adds one to your 5/24 count, just like any other personal card.

Which points are worth more, Membership Rewards or Ultimate Rewards?

For cash, Ultimate Rewards: the 1-cent floor is nearly double the Membership Rewards floor of 0.6 cents, and you can pool Chase points with a household member for free. For transfers, both currencies reach 2 cents or more per point with the right airline partner. Amex has one edge Chase lacks, the 1.1-cent Schwab cash-out up to 1 million points a year, but it only helps if you have a Schwab account.

The Bottom Line

The Gold is the better earner for food and the Preferred is the better all-rounder, and the fees are close to a wash if you use what each card gives you. The decision is not which card is better. It is which card’s categories match your spending and which card’s credits match your habits.

Related Reading: How Much Are Amex Membership Rewards Points Worth? (2026 Guide), How Much Are Chase Ultimate Rewards Points Worth? (2026 Guide), Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: A Straight Answer on Whether to Get It

Pick the card that matches the way you actually spend.