Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card vs American Express® Gold Card
People shopping mid-tier rewards cards almost always end up comparing these two, because both run big welcome offers (up to 100,000 points), charge no foreign transaction fees, and build their rewards around dining. The difference is cost and style. The Sapphire Preferred charges $95 a year and keeps earning simple. The Amex Gold charges $325 but pays 4x at restaurants and U.S. supermarkets and hands back a stack of recurring statement credits. The right pick depends on how much you spend on food and whether you'll actually use Amex's credits.
| Spec | Chase Sapphire | American Express® |
|---|---|---|
| Annual fee | $95/yr | $325/yr |
| Welcome bonus | 100,000 points bonus | 100,000 points bonus |
| Base rate | 1x | 1x |
| Top earn rates |
|
|
| Foreign tx fee | None | None |
| Statement credits | 3 credits | 4 credits |
| Rewards | Chase Ultimate Rewards | American Express Membership Rewards |
Choose Chase Sapphire Preferred®
Choose the Sapphire Preferred if you want strong rewards without a coupon book to manage. The annual fee is $95 against the Gold's $325, and its welcome offer (100,000 points after $5,000 in the first 3 months) asks for less spend than the Gold's $8,000 over 6 months. You earn 5x on travel booked through Chase Travel and 3x on dining, and the June 2026 refresh added 3x on gas and EV charging, 3x on vacation home rentals (Airbnb, Vrbo and similar), 3x on online groceries, and 3x on select streaming. It also covers Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS with a credit of up to $120 every four years, plus a $100 hotel credit each year through Chase Travel and $10 a month back on DoorDash. If you'd rather not track which restaurants and apps trigger a credit, this is the easier card to carry.
Full details →Choose American Express® Gold
Choose the Amex Gold if you spend heavily on food. It pays 4x at restaurants worldwide (on up to $50,000 per year) and 4x at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 per year), both above the Sapphire's 3x dining and 3x online grocery. The $325 fee comes with monthly and semiannual statement credits that can offset much of it if you use them: up to $120 a year in dining credits at partners like Grubhub and Five Guys, $120 in Uber Cash, $100 at Resy restaurants, and $84 at Dunkin'. The welcome offer runs up to 100,000 points, an estimated $2,000 in value, after $8,000 in the first 6 months, though the offer varies and some applicants see 60,000 to 90,000 points. There's no preset spending limit, since it's a charge card with a Pay Over Time option. The catch is that those credits only pay off if you eat and ride where Amex wants you to.
Full details →Verdict
Get the Sapphire Preferred for a low-fee, low-maintenance travel and dining card, or the Amex Gold if your restaurant and supermarket spending plus its monthly credits clear the $325 fee.