A dining-first breakdown of the Chase Sapphire Preferred and American Express Gold Card in 2026: 3x vs 4x earn rates, a 75,000-point bonus against up to 100,000, the $95 vs $325 fee math, every food credit on both cards, and the monthly restaurant spend where each card wins.
Updated August 1, 2026: The Chase Sapphire Preferred's welcome bonus is now 75,000 points after $5,000 of spending in 3 months, down from the 100,000 points this comparison originally carried. The American Express Gold Card is unchanged at up to 100,000 points after $8,000 in 6 months. The tables below reflect the current offers.
The American Express Gold Card out-earns the Chase Sapphire Preferred on dining: 4x Membership Rewards points per dollar at restaurants versus 3x Ultimate Rewards points. The catch is the fee: the Gold costs $325 a year against the Preferred's $95, so the Gold's earn edge only pays off if your restaurant spending is heavy, or you reliably use the Gold's $424 in annual credits.
Quick answer: under $500 a month of restaurant spending, the Preferred wins for most people. Above $600 a month, or with big in-store supermarket spending on top, the Gold pulls ahead. In between, and for anyone who would naturally spend every Gold credit anyway, it is close, and the credit sections below will settle it. For the full comparison beyond dining, see the complete decision framework.
| Chase Sapphire Preferred | American Express Gold Card | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual fee | $95 | $325 |
| Dining earn rate | 3x | 4x |
| Value per dining dollar (at 2.0¢/point) | 6.0¢ | 8.0¢ |
| Extra value on $500/month of dining | baseline | +$120 per year |
| Food-related credits, face value | up to $240 per year (DoorDash perks, through 2027) | up to $424 per year (four credits) |
| How the credits work | mostly automatic | monthly and semiannual use-it-or-lose-it windows |
| Foreign transaction fee | $0 | $0 |
| Welcome bonus | 75,000 points | up to 100,000 points |
Every number above comes from our live cards database, verified against the issuer pages. The sections below unpack each row.
| Category | Chase Sapphire Preferred | American Express Gold Card |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | 3x | 4x |
| U.S. supermarkets | 1x in store, 3x on online groceries | 4x (up to $25,000 per year) |
| Travel booked through the issuer | 5x on Chase Travel | 3x on flights booked direct or via Amex Travel |
| Other travel | 2x | 1x |
| Gas and EV charging | 3x | 1x |
| Select streaming | 3x | 1x |
| Everything else | 1x | 1x |
Both cards earn transferable points rather than cash back, and our database carries both currencies at a 2.0 cents-per-point planning value for transfer-partner redemptions. At that value:
That 2¢-per-dollar edge is worth $120 a year on $500 a month of restaurant spending, and $240 a year on $1,000 a month.
Groceries widen the gap. The Preferred's 3x only covers online grocery orders (Instacart-style delivery, not the checkout lane); in a physical supermarket it earns 1x. The Gold earns 4x at U.S. supermarkets at the register, up to $25,000 a year. Put $300 a month through in-store groceries and that 6¢-per-dollar difference hands the Gold another $216 a year.
Current offers, straight from our cards table:
| Chase Sapphire Preferred | American Express Gold Card | |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome bonus | 75,000 points | up to 100,000 points |
| Spend required | $5,000 | $8,000 |
| Window | 3 months | 6 months |
| Value at 2¢/point (transfer redemptions) | $1,500 | up to $2,000 |
| Value at 1¢/point (cash-style redemptions) | $750 | up to $1,000 |
The Gold's headline number is bigger, up to 100,000 points against the Preferred's 75,000, but the Preferred's offer is the cheaper one to earn and the surer one to get. The Preferred asks for $5,000 in 3 months, about $1,667 a month, and the offer is the same for everyone. The Gold asks for $8,000 over 6 months, about $1,333 a month, and Amex frames it as "up to": different applicants can see different offers, so treat the number your own application shows as the real one. The Gold's spend requirement also climbed from $6,000 to $8,000 in the April 2026 refresh.
The rows below update automatically from our live welcome-bonus tracker, so you are seeing today's verified numbers, not the ones from the day this article was written:
Live from the tracker: Chase Sapphire Preferred — 75,000 pts · min spend $5,000 in 3 mo · verified Jul 25. All current offers →
Live from the tracker: American Express Gold Card — up to 100,000 pts (offers vary) · min spend $8,000 in 6 mo · verified Aug 3. All current offers →
This is where the comparison swings. The Preferred costs $95 a year, the Gold $325. That $230 fee gap is what the Gold's credits and earn rates have to close.
The Gold's credit stack, every value confirmed against our card-credits table:
| Credit | Annual value | How it pays out |
|---|---|---|
| Uber Cash | $120 | $10/month for Uber rides and Uber Eats in the U.S. |
| Dining (monthly) | $120 | $10/month at Grubhub (including Seamless), Buffalo Wild Wings, Five Guys, The Cheesecake Factory, Wonder |
| Resy U.S. restaurants | $100 | $50 in each half of the year at Resy-affiliated U.S. restaurants |
| Dunkin' Donuts | $84 | $7/month at Dunkin' in the U.S. |
| Total face value | $424 | All four require enrollment |
Use everything and the Gold nets +$99 a year against its $325 fee. The realistic capture rate is lower: the Dunkin' credit only helps if you would buy Dunkin' anyway, and the Resy credit is easiest in Resy-dense cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, Miami, and Austin. At a 65 percent capture rate across the four credits, you get roughly $275 of real value against the $325 fee, about $50 underwater before the earn rate does any work.
The Preferred's stack is smaller but easier:
| Credit | Annual value | How it pays out |
|---|---|---|
| Chase Travel hotel credit | $100 | Automatic statement credit on hotel stays prepaid through Chase Travel each account anniversary (doubled from $50 effective June 15, 2026) |
| DashPass membership | $120 | Complimentary DashPass for 12 months; activate by December 31, 2027 |
| DoorDash non-restaurant promo | $120 | $10 off one non-restaurant DoorDash order (groceries, retail) each calendar month through 2027; requires active DashPass |
The card also carries a Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS application-fee credit worth up to $120 every four years. And if you opened the card before June 15, 2026, the old 10 percent anniversary points bonus still pays on purchases through October 1, 2026; new applicants no longer get it.
The fee math: book one hotel through Chase Travel a year and the $100 credit alone covers the Preferred's $95 fee. Count the DoorDash perks at face value and the Preferred nets +$245 a year, versus the Gold's +$99 at full capture. That is a $146 gap the Gold has to close with its dining and grocery earn edge, which at 2¢ per dining dollar takes about $7,300 a year of restaurant spending, roughly $600 a month. Skip the DoorDash perks (plenty of people never order delivery) and the Gold's break-even drops toward zero. Your honest answer lives between those two lines. More on the Preferred's 2026 upgrades in the refresh breakdown.
The Gold's monthly credits ($10 Uber + $10 dining + $7 Dunkin' = $27 a month, $324 a year) expire at the end of each calendar month. Miss April's Dunkin' window and that $7 is gone. That is 36 small windows a year across three apps, and it is the attention tax the Gold charges for the higher earn rate.
The Gold's Resy credit is easier: one $50 charge at a Resy-affiliated restaurant in each half of the year captures the full $100. In Resy-dense metros that is close to free money; elsewhere it means planning a meal around a credit.
The Preferred's hotel credit applies automatically to your first $100 of prepaid Chase Travel hotel spend each anniversary year. No windows, no apps. The DoorDash pairing takes one activation (DashPass with the Preferred set as default payment), then the $10 monthly discount only pays if you actually place a non-restaurant order that month.
The pattern: the Gold's credits are worth more on paper and demand more of you. The Preferred's are smaller and mostly automatic. Most people overestimate how diligently they will chase monthly windows; price that honestly.
Points earned at dinner are worth the most when they leave the issuer's portal, and the two transfer rosters in our partner table differ in useful ways.
Chase Ultimate Rewards transfers 1:1 to 15 active partners: 11 airlines and 4 hotel programs. World of Hyatt tops our per-point valuations on the hotel side, and Chase is the only one of the two with United MileagePlus and Southwest Rapid Rewards. Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, and Air Canada Aeroplan round out the high-value airline list.
Amex Membership Rewards transfers to 19 active partners: 16 airlines and 3 hotel programs, most at 1:1 (a few, like JetBlue, Cathay Pacific, and Emirates, transfer at 5:4, and Hilton Honors at 1:2). The airline list runs deeper than Chase's: Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, ANA Mileage Club, and Avianca LifeMiles sit at the top of our valuations, and Amex is the only one of the two with Delta SkyMiles. Amex also runs periodic transfer bonuses; Virgin Atlantic carried a 30 percent bonus at our last data refresh.
The structural question: if you fly United or Southwest, or redeem at Hyatt, hold Chase points. If you fly Delta or SkyTeam, or want the deeper international airline list, hold Amex points. If your travel is route-agnostic, both lists are strong enough that the fee and credit math above should decide it, not the partner rosters.
Take the Preferred if:
Take the Gold if:
Hold both if:
Skip both if:
For most people choosing between these two, the Preferred wins. The Gold is the stronger pure dining earner, and heavy restaurant-plus-supermarket spenders who work the credits will out-earn the Preferred with it. But the Preferred's $95 fee is covered by one hotel booking a year, its credits do not need babysitting, and its 3x umbrella covers more of a normal budget. If your dining spend clears $600 a month and you will do the credit accounting, take the Gold; otherwise take the Preferred.
Before you decide, run your own categories through the purchase optimizer; it draws on the same live card data as this article.
Which card earns more on dining? The American Express Gold Card, at 4x points per dollar at restaurants versus the Chase Sapphire Preferred's 3x. At our 2.0¢ planning value that is 8¢ per dining dollar against 6¢. The Gold's $325 fee, versus $95, is what keeps the race close.
Are the welcome bonuses the same right now? No. The Preferred is at 75,000 points; the Gold is at up to 100,000. The Preferred requires $5,000 of spending in 3 months; the Gold requires $8,000 over 6 months, and Amex offers vary by applicant, so confirm the number your own application shows. The live tracker has today's verified offers.
Does the Chase Sapphire Preferred have any food credits? Yes. It includes a complimentary DashPass membership (a $120 value, activate by the end of 2027) and a $10 monthly discount on one non-restaurant DoorDash order, worth up to $120 a year through 2027. Both require activating DashPass with the card.
Can I hold both cards? Yes, and heavy spenders often do: the Gold for restaurants and supermarkets, the Preferred for travel, streaming, and Hyatt transfers. They earn different currencies, so you will manage two points balances. Chase's 5/24 rule makes the Preferred the harder approval if you have opened several cards recently, which is why many people start there.
What are the points actually worth? Our database carries both Ultimate Rewards and Membership Rewards points at 2.0 cents apiece as a planning value for transfer-partner redemptions; cash-style redemptions run closer to 1 cent. Your real value depends on the partner you transfer to and the award you book.
Card terms verified July 2026 against our live cards database and the issuer product pages (chase.com, americanexpress.com). Welcome bonuses, credits, and fees change; confirm current terms on the issuer's page before applying.