The Amex Green Card is closed to new applicants. Amex's Green Card page now redirects to its general card listing, and the card is no longer offered there. So this is a comparison with one side you can still act on: if you are choosing between these two today, the Gold is the card available to you. The Green half is here for the many readers who already hold one and are deciding whether to keep it, and because the comparison still explains what the Gold does and does not do well.
Because Amex no longer publishes the Green's terms, the current annual fee, earning rates and credit amounts for your Green are the ones in your own account and cardmember agreement. Read those before running any of the math below.
The two cards share a Membership Rewards balance, share Amex's transfer-partner roster, and target an overlapping audience of mid-tier travelers. They were never interchangeable. The Green earned 3x Membership Rewards points across travel, transit and dining, with no caps. The Gold runs $325 a year and earns 4x at U.S. supermarkets and on dining, with hard caps that matter once you sit down and do the math. If the Gold fits, you can apply for the Amex Gold Card directly through Amex.
Quick Answer: Which Card for Which Reader
If you are picking a card now, it is the Gold, because the Green is closed. The Gold is the stronger card outright if your spend is concentrated in dining and U.S. supermarkets, say $400 a month or more across both, where its 4x earning beats 3x by a wide margin.
If you hold a Green and are deciding whether to renew, the question is different and it comes down to two things: whether your spend spreads across travel and transit enough for three uncapped 3x categories to keep pace, and whether you use the CLEAR Plus credit. Both cards earn into the same Membership Rewards pool, so switching does not strand your points.
Annual Fee Math
The Gold's fee is $325. The Green's is whatever your own cardmember agreement says, since Amex no longer publishes it, and that number is the starting point for any renewal decision you make.
Amex Green: Closed to New Applicants
Two credits sat against the Green's fee, and both still work for existing holders:
- A CLEAR Plus credit, which covered a CLEAR Plus membership. Check your account for the credit amount. For scale, CLEAR itself charges $219 a year at retail, which is the cost the credit is set against rather than the credit figure.
- A LoungeBuddy credit for single-visit airport lounge passes, typically $25 to $50 each.
For a holder who flies through CLEAR-equipped airports often enough to want the membership, the CLEAR credit did most of the work of covering the fee on its own. The catch was always that you had to be that traveler, and that you had to remember to use LoungeBuddy when you were at a non-Centurion lounge.
Amex Gold: $325 a Year
The Gold's $325 fee in 2026 is up from the historical $250 mark; Amex repriced the card and reshaped the credit stack. The current credit menu, used in full, totals $524 a year, but every credit is monthly or biannual, so usage discipline is the whole game:
- Up to $120 dining credit ($10/month at Grubhub and Seamless, Buffalo Wild Wings, Five Guys, The Cheesecake Factory and Wonder; enrollment required).
- Up to $84 Dunkin' credit ($7/month at U.S. Dunkin' locations; enrollment required).
- Up to $120 Uber Cash ($10/month, redeemable on Uber rides or Uber Eats in the U.S.).
- Up to $100 Resy credit ($50 in January through June and $50 in July through December, at U.S. Resy-booked restaurants).
- Up to $100 Hotel Collection credit on stays of two nights or more booked through Amex Travel.
Add those up: $120 + $84 + $120 + $100 + $100 = $524 if you fully use the Hotel Collection credit. That is more than the $325 fee, so a cardholder who uses every credit is ahead before points. The honest version: most cardholders capture $200 to $350 of credit value, not the full $524, because Dunkin' visits don't stack neatly to $7 a month for some readers, and the Hotel Collection credit only triggers on Amex Travel bookings of 2+ nights.
Gold break-even: if you capture even $325 across these credits, the card pays for itself before you earn a single point. For most readers who eat out monthly and order rideshare, that threshold is realistic.
Earning Categories: Where Your Spend Lands
This is the structural difference between the two cards, and it was always bigger than the fee gap.
Amex Green Earning Structure
Three bonus categories at 3x, none of them capped. Confirm your own rates against your cardmember agreement, since Amex no longer publishes them.
- 3x on travel. Flights, hotels, cruises and vacation rentals.
- 3x on transit. Rideshare, taxis, parking, tolls, public transit and trains. Note that gas did not code as transit on the Green.
- 3x on dining worldwide. Restaurants, takeout, delivery, bars, coffee shops. The "worldwide" qualifier matters; many competing cards limit dining to U.S.-only.
- 1x on everything else.
The Green's structural advantage was that transit is a genuinely broad category. If you take rideshare to work, pay for parking, and ride the subway, all of that earned 3x. Combine that with 3x flights and hotels and the Green covered a wide slice of urban-traveler spending.
Amex Gold Earning Structure
Four bonus categories with caps that bite:
- 4x at U.S. supermarkets, capped at $25,000 in annual spend (then 1x). At the cap, that's 100,000 MR a year from groceries alone.
- 4x at restaurants worldwide, capped at $50,000 in annual spend (then 1x).
- 3x on flights booked directly with airlines or through Amex Travel.
- 5x on prepaid hotels booked through Amex Travel.
- 1x on everything else.
The Gold rewards concentrated grocery and dining spend. The $25,000 supermarket cap maps to roughly $2,083 a month, high enough that most households won't hit it, but worth knowing if you're feeding a family of four. Note: at Amex, "U.S. supermarkets" excludes Walmart, Target, warehouse clubs (Costco, Sam's Club, BJ's), and most specialty retailers. Whole Foods, Kroger, Publix, Safeway, Trader Joe's, Wegmans, and similar all code as supermarkets. If you do most of your grocery shopping at Costco, the Gold's 4x rate doesn't apply there.
Side-by-Side Earning Math: Three Real Spend Scenarios
Numbers make this concrete. Here are three reader profiles run through both cards, on points earned, which is the part that does not depend on a credit amount Amex no longer publishes. All values use a 2 cent per point Membership Rewards transfer-partner valuation.
Scenario A: The Urban Single, $48,000 in Annual Spend
- $400/month dining ($4,800/year)
- $300/month transit (rideshare, subway, parking; $3,600/year)
- $250/month flights/hotels ($3,000/year)
- $300/month groceries ($3,600/year, mostly at Trader Joe's, which codes as supermarket)
On the Green: $4,800 dining × 3 = 14,400 MR. $3,600 transit × 3 = 10,800 MR. $3,000 travel × 3 = 9,000 MR. Groceries 1x = 3,600 MR. Other spend at 1x adds another 33,000 × 1 = 33,000 MR. Total: roughly 70,800 MR ≈ $1,416.
On the Gold: $4,800 dining × 4 = 19,200 MR. $3,600 groceries × 4 = 14,400 MR. $3,000 flights × 3 = 9,000 MR. Transit at 1x = 3,600 MR. Other spend at 1x = 33,000 MR. Total: roughly 79,200 MR ≈ $1,584. After the $325 fee and assumed $300 in credits captured, net value: about $1,559.
Edge: the Gold, by about 8,400 MR, or $168 at 2 cpp. For a Green holder with this profile the decision turns entirely on the CLEAR credit: use it and the Green can still come out ahead on net cost, skip it and the Gold is simply the better card for this spend.
Scenario B: The Family of Four, $84,000 in Annual Spend
- $1,200/month groceries at Kroger ($14,400/year, well under Gold's $25K cap)
- $500/month dining ($6,000/year)
- $400/month travel ($4,800/year)
- $250/month transit ($3,000/year)
On the Green: $6,000 dining × 3 = 18,000 MR. $4,800 travel × 3 = 14,400 MR. $3,000 transit × 3 = 9,000 MR. Groceries 1x = 14,400 MR. Other spend at 1x = 55,800 MR. Total: roughly 111,600 MR ≈ $2,232.
On the Gold: $14,400 groceries × 4 = 57,600 MR. $6,000 dining × 4 = 24,000 MR. $4,800 flights × 3 = 14,400 MR. Transit at 1x = 3,000 MR. Other spend at 1x = 55,800 MR. Total: roughly 154,800 MR ≈ $3,096. After the $325 fee and $300 in captured credits: about $3,071.
Edge: the Gold decisively, by roughly 43,000 MR. Routing $14,400 of Kroger spend at 4x instead of 1x is worth about 43,200 extra MR a year on its own, which is $864 at 2 cpp and dwarfs any credit difference. A Green holder in this profile should be asking about a product change.
Scenario C: The Frequent Flyer Who Eats Out Modestly, $60,000 in Annual Spend
- $250/month dining ($3,000/year)
- $400/month flights and hotels ($4,800/year)
- $200/month transit ($2,400/year)
- $300/month groceries at Costco ($3,600/year, does not code as supermarket on Gold)
On the Green: $3,000 dining × 3 = 9,000 MR. $4,800 travel × 3 = 14,400 MR. $2,400 transit × 3 = 7,200 MR. Costco groceries 1x = 3,600 MR. Other spend at 1x = 46,200 MR. Total: roughly 80,400 MR ≈ $1,608.
On the Gold: $3,000 dining × 4 = 12,000 MR. Groceries don't earn the bonus (Costco doesn't code). $4,800 flights × 3 = 14,400 MR. Transit at 1x = 2,400 MR. Other spend at 1x = 49,800 MR. Total: roughly 78,600 MR ≈ $1,572. After fees and credits: about $1,547.
Edge: the Green, by about 1,800 MR on points before any credit is counted. The Costco grocery spend kills the Gold's structural advantage, and the Green's 3x transit and travel categories pick up the slack. This is the profile where keeping a Green you already hold makes the clearest sense.
The Credits, Honestly: What You'll Actually Capture
Both cards advertise more credit value than most readers capture. Here's a realistic breakdown.
Green Card Credits (Realistic Capture)
- CLEAR Plus credit: only useful if you'd actually pay for CLEAR Plus. If you would, it retains roughly whatever CLEAR charges you, and CLEAR's retail price is $219 a year. If you wouldn't, it's $0. Check your own account for the credit amount.
- LoungeBuddy credit: worth $25 to $50 a visit depending on the lounge, and realistic capture for a four-trip-a-year flyer is one or two visits.
The pattern: for a CLEAR-using flyer the two credits together cover most or all of the fee. For a non-CLEAR user they are worth very little, and that is the whole renewal decision.
Gold Card Credits (Realistic Capture)
- Dining credit ($120): requires monthly $10 charges at specific merchants. If Grubhub or Cheesecake Factory is in your rotation, full capture is realistic. If not, you'll capture maybe half.
- Dunkin' credit ($84): requires $7/month at Dunkin'. If you're a regular, full capture. If you're not, this is $0.
- Uber Cash ($120): full capture is realistic for anyone who uses Uber or Uber Eats monthly. The $10 expires monthly if unused.
- Resy credit ($100): requires booking through Resy at participating restaurants. Realistic capture for urban diners is $50 to $100.
- Hotel Collection credit ($100): requires a 2+ night Amex Travel booking. Realistic capture if you take one Amex Travel trip a year.
Realistic credit capture for a typical Gold cardholder: $200 to $350. The headline $524 figure assumes perfect monthly discipline that few readers maintain.
Welcome Bonuses
Only one of these cards still has one. Amex's current public offer on the Gold is as high as 100,000 Membership Rewards points after $8,000 in eligible purchases in the first six months. Amex frequently runs targeted offers through CardMatch or in-app promotions, and Amex's own page frames its offers as "as high as" a stated number, so yours may be lower. Check the application page before applying.
The Green has no welcome offer, because it is closed to new applicants.
Membership Rewards: Same Currency, Same Transfer Partners
This is the tie that binds. Both cards earn into the same Membership Rewards balance, and that balance transfers to the same airline and hotel partners at the same ratios. Whichever card you hold, the points themselves behave identically.
The transfer roster includes 18-plus airline partners (Delta SkyMiles, JetBlue TrueBlue, British Airways Avios, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Singapore KrisFlyer, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, ANA Mileage Club, and more) at 1:1 ratios, plus Marriott Bonvoy at 1:1, Hilton Honors at 1:2, and Choice Privileges at 1:1. The sweet-spot redemptions are familiar to MR holders: Flying Blue Promo Awards to Europe, Virgin Atlantic for ANA business class to Tokyo (when bookable), British Airways Avios for short-haul U.S. partner flights on AA, and Air Canada Aeroplan for partner business class throughout the Star Alliance.
If you want a deeper walk through how to actually use the points, our American Express transfer partners overview covers the program in detail. The point here is that the Green-versus-Gold question is about earning, not redemption: once the points hit your account, the redemption side is identical.
Decision Framework
If you are applying, the Gold is the only one of the two you can get, so these questions are for a Green holder weighing a renewal or a product change.
1. Do you spend more than $400 a month on dining and U.S. supermarkets combined? If yes, the Gold earns more on points, and a product change is worth asking about. The 4x earning on those categories outpaces 3x by enough to cover the fee difference and then some. The CLEAR credit is what can still tip it back the other way, so weigh question 5 against this one.
2. Where do you buy groceries? If primarily at Costco, Walmart, or Target, the Gold's 4x supermarket rate doesn't apply, and 1x on groceries is the same on both cards. That is the strongest argument for keeping a Green. If primarily at Kroger, Publix, Whole Foods, Safeway, Trader Joe's, or similar, the Gold's 4x is real.
3. Will you actually use the Gold's monthly credits? The dining credit, Dunkin' credit, Uber Cash, and Resy credit each require active capture. If you set monthly reminders or use the Amex app's credit tracker, full or near-full capture is realistic. If credits typically expire on you, the Green's two flat credits are easier to use, and that is a reason to stay put.
4. How concentrated is your travel spend? If you book most travel through airlines directly, the Gold's 3x flights category beats 3x travel for flights specifically. If you book through Booking.com, Expedia, or Hotels.com regularly, the Green's 3x travel rate covers a wider range than the Gold's flight-only and Amex-Travel-only rates. Note: neither card pays a bonus on third-party sites that aren't Amex Travel.
5. Do you use CLEAR Plus? This is the single biggest factor, and the one that decides the close cases. If you pay for CLEAR anyway, the Green's credit covers a membership you were buying regardless, and that alone can justify keeping the card even where the Gold earns more points. If you don't, that credit is a number on paper.
The Wallet-Strategy Angle: Pairing With What You Have
Neither card is a one-card wallet. Both pair well with other cards depending on your existing setup.
If you carry a Chase Sapphire Preferred ($95 fee, 5x portal travel, 3x dining, 3x online groceries, 3x select streaming): a Green you already hold pairs well by adding 3x transit, which the CSP doesn't cover. The Gold pairs well if your dining is heavy enough to justify the 4x rate over the CSP's 3x dining.
If you carry a Capital One Venture X ($395 fee, 2x everywhere, 5x portal flights, 10x portal hotels): a Green you already hold adds dedicated dining, transit, and travel multipliers above 2x. The Gold layers in 4x dining and groceries that the Venture X doesn't bonus.
If you carry the Amex Platinum ($895 fee, 5x flights, 5x prepaid hotels via Amex Travel): the Gold pairs naturally as the everyday-spend complement, since the Platinum's earning rates are concentrated in travel. A Green is largely redundant with the Platinum on travel and transit, so most Platinum holders are better served by the Gold as the second card.
If you carry no other rewards card: the Gold can stand alone, rewarding you most at U.S. supermarkets and dining specifically.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
A few patterns trip up readers comparing these two cards.
- Treating the credit values as guaranteed. The Gold's "$524 in credits" is a ceiling, not a floor. Calculate what you'll actually capture based on your habits, and use that figure when comparing fees.
- Counting the welcome bonus toward year-one value but ignoring year two. Welcome bonuses are one-time. The earning structure and credits repeat every year. Decide based on the steady-state value, not the first-year boost.
- Forgetting that warehouse clubs and big-box stores don't code as supermarkets. Costco and Walmart code as their own categories on Amex's merchant codes, not supermarkets. If your grocery shopping is concentrated there, the Gold's 4x supermarket category is moot.
- Comparing 3x to 4x without accounting for caps. The Gold's caps are generous for most readers ($25K supermarket, $50K dining), but if you're a small-business owner running grocery purchases through your personal card, you can hit them. The Green's uncapped 3x didn't have that ceiling.
- Assuming you can still pick up the Green. You cannot. If an older comparison sent you here looking for the lower-fee entry into Membership Rewards, that door is shut, and the Gold is now the cheapest consumer Amex card that earns Membership Rewards.
Conclusion: The Specific Reader Each Card Fits
The Amex Gold is the pick for anyone choosing today, and it is the right card on its merits for readers who spend $400 a month or more on dining and groceries combined, shop at Amex-supermarket-coded stores rather than Costco or Walmart, and will discipline themselves to capture the monthly credits. For that reader the 4x earning rates and the credit stack are worth several hundred dollars a year over a 3x structure.
Keeping an Amex Green you already hold makes sense if you buy groceries at Costco or Walmart where neither card bonuses, if your spend leans toward travel and transit rather than supermarkets, and above all if you use CLEAR Plus and its credit covers a membership you were paying for anyway.
Run your own numbers against the three scenarios above. Scenario B is the clear case for a product change: the Gold wins on points by a wide margin and no credit closes that gap. Scenario C is the clear case for keeping the Green, which leads on points before its credits are even counted. Scenario A sits between them, with the Gold ahead on points and the CLEAR credit deciding it either way, which is why question 5 above matters more than any of the others. You can start your Amex Gold application directly with Amex. Whichever card you hold, the points land in the same Membership Rewards bucket and transfer to the same partners; the earning side is the only thing that changes.
Updated October 5, 2026: Amex Green closed to new applicants.
