American Express Business Gold Card
American Express, American Express, $375 annual fee. Earns Amex Membership Rewards, valued at 2.00¢ a point.
Rates checked against the issuer 2026-10. Foreign transaction fee: none.
The short version
- Best at: nothing in particular — no category puts it in the top three of the catalogue.
- A year's rewards: about $853, or $478 after the fee.
Is the annual fee worth it?
It earns about $853 a year on the illustrative household's spending, which is $478 once the fee is paid. The best card with no fee, American Express Blue Business Plus, nets $1,058 on the same spending — so this card is $580 a year behind. It pulls ahead of the free card once spending passes about $9,358 a month.
Priced on an illustrative household spending $2,205 a month on a card — the assumption, in full. Credits and perks are not priced: they are worth their face value only if you would have spent that money anyway.
What it earns, category by category
| Earns on | Rate | ConditionsWhat the issuer attaches to this rate: a spending cap, a category you have to switch on, or a booking you have to make through its travel portal. |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurants & Bars, Gas Stations, Public Transit, Rideshare & Taxis, Parking & Tolls, Phone & Internet | 4x | Only while you have this category switched on. Up to $150,000 per year, then the base rate. Your top two categories by spend each billing cycle, applied automatically — U.S. restaurants, U.S. gas, transit, and wireless phone service |
| Flights, Hotels | 3x | Only through the issuer's travel portal. Flights and prepaid hotels booked on AmexTravel.com |
| Everything else | 1x |
Where a year's rewards come from
| Spending on | Earns a yearWhat this card earns on each kind of spending over a year, for the illustrative household on the method page. Before the annual fee. |
|---|---|
| Restaurants & Bars | $288 |
| Gas Stations | $144 |
| Groceries | $120 |
| Everything Else | $120 |
| Online Shopping | $36 |
| Utilities | $36 |
Priced on an illustrative household spending $2,205 a month on a card — the assumption, in full. Credits and perks are not priced: they are worth their face value only if you would have spent that money anyway.
What the issuer lists besides rewards
- U.S. advertising in select media and U.S. electronics, software and cloud purchases are two of the six top-two categories
- From 17 February 2027 the advertising and wireless categories count at select merchants only
Similar cards
- Capital One Venture X — annual fee $395 a year
- American Express Gold Card — annual fee $325 a year
- Citi Strata Elite — annual fee $595 a year
- American Express Classic Green Card — annual fee $150 a year
- Every travel card, ranked
- When an annual fee pays for itself
- The best two- and three-card combinations
Point values: published industry valuations, read 2026-09. How every number here is worked out.