Amex Business Platinum vs. Chase Ink Business Preferred: $895 vs. $95, and Who Each One Is Really For

One of these cards costs $895 a year and is dangling as much as 300,000 Membership Rewards points. The other costs $95 and is offering 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points. The $800 gap in annual fee is the headline every comparison leads with, and it is the least interesting number on the page. What actually decides this is whether your business spends on Google and Meta ads, and whether you were planning to use Chase points for Hyatt nights after October 1.

I have carried both. The Business Platinum earned its keep in the year I flew 30 segments and bought two laptops, and became an expensive piece of metal the year I did neither. The Ink has never once made me do math to justify $95. Below is the full head-to-head with current offers, real earn-rate examples, the credit arithmetic done honestly, and the one program change landing in nine days that changes the answer for Chase loyalists.

The Offers on the Table Right Now

American Express is running its strongest-ever offer on the Business Platinum. New applicants may be eligible for as high as 300,000 Membership Rewards points after $20,000 in eligible purchases in the first three months, per the card’s own terms. Read the phrasing carefully, because it matters: “as high as” means Amex personalizes this. Reported outcomes have landed at 250,000 and at 300,000, and some applicants see no offer at all. The annual fee is $895.

Chase is running a public 100,000-point offer on the Ink Business Preferred after $8,000 in three months, against a $95 annual fee. There is no personalization and no lottery. The standard offer on this card has historically sat at 80,000 or 90,000 points, so 100,000 is genuinely elevated rather than marketing gloss.

Run the efficiency and the gap narrows fast. The Amex offer pays 15 points per dollar of required spend. The Chase offer pays 12.5. That is a real edge for Amex, but it comes attached to $12,000 more in cash you need to push through the card inside 90 days, plus a fee eight times larger. If hitting $20,000 in a quarter means front-loading inventory purchases or floating a client’s expenses on a card with no preset spending limit, the bonus stops being free money and starts being a cash-flow decision.

Earn Rates: Where Each Card Actually Makes Points

This is the section most comparisons get lazy about, and it is where the two cards genuinely diverge.

Amex Business Platinum

You get 5x Membership Rewards on flights and prepaid hotels booked through AmexTravel.com, and 2x on U.S. construction materials and hardware suppliers, U.S. electronics retailers, U.S. software and cloud providers, U.S. shipping providers, and any single purchase of $5,000 or more, up to $2 million per calendar year. The 2x on key business categories was raised from 1.5x in the 2025 refresh, which was a real improvement.

The weak spot is glaring: there is no bonus on flights or hotels booked directly. Only prepaid Amex Travel bookings hit 5x. If you book airfare on the airline’s own site because you want the elite credit and the ability to change a ticket without calling a travel agency, you are earning 1x. I compare fares across booking channels before every business trip, and the 5x rarely survives the comparison once change fees and elite-qualifying dollars enter the picture.

Chase Ink Business Preferred

Three points per dollar on the first $150,000 in combined annual purchases across four categories: travel, shipping, internet/cable/phone, and advertising with search engines and social media. Everything else earns 1x. There is also 5x total on Lyft through September 30, 2027.

The advertising category is the whole ballgame. Say you run an agency or an e-commerce shop spending $8,000 a month on Google and Meta ads. That is $96,000 a year, earning 288,000 Ultimate Rewards points on the Ink. The same spend on the Business Platinum earns 96,000 Membership Rewards, because digital advertising is not a bonus category there. That single line item is a 192,000-point annual swing in favor of the $95 card. Max out the full $150,000 cap across all four categories and the Ink throws off 450,000 points a year.

The $895 Question: Counting the Credits Honestly

Amex’s pitch is that the credits swamp the fee. Here is the actual 2026 lineup, and then the part the marketing skips.

• Up to $600 on prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection bookings, issued as up to $300 semi-annually
• Up to $200 at Hilton properties, issued as up to $50 per quarter, Hilton for Business enrollment required
• Up to $200 in airline incidental fees with one selected airline
• Up to $219 for CLEAR+
• Up to $150 at Dell, plus an additional $1,000 after $5,000 in calendar-year Dell purchases
• $250 at Adobe after $600 in annual Adobe spend
• Up to $360 at Indeed, issued as up to $90 per quarter
• Up to $300 on ChatGPT Business subscriptions
• Up to $120 in wireless credits, issued as $10 per month
• $120 Global Entry or up to $85 TSA PreCheck, every four years

Add the recurring items and you land near $2,400 before the $1,000 Dell unlock. Spend $250,000 in a calendar year and you also unlock up to $1,200 in Amex Travel flight credits and up to $2,400 in One AP credits for the following year.

Now the honest part. That $2,400 assumes you were already buying Dell hardware, already paying for Adobe, already posting jobs on Indeed, already running ChatGPT Business, and already staying at Hiltons on cash. Every credit you would not otherwise have spent is not savings, it is a coupon for a purchase you invented. A six-person agency that buys laptops, pays for company phone lines, posts a couple of job listings and travels quarterly might realistically capture $1,200 or so, which clears the fee. A solo consultant who works from a laptop she already owns and flies twice a year captures maybe $270, and has paid $895 for it.

One trap worth naming: the Hilton credit only triggers on purchases made directly with a Hilton property. Book the same room through a third-party site and it does not count, so it is worth checking what the rate looks like elsewhere before deciding whether chasing the credit is even worth the rate difference.

The Ink’s answer to all of this is that it has no credits at all. What it has instead is insurance that actually pays out: cell phone protection up to $1,000 per claim with a $100 deductible and three claims per 12 months, primary rental car coverage on business rentals, trip cancellation and interruption coverage up to $5,000 per person and $10,000 per trip, purchase protection, and no foreign transaction fees. None of it requires enrollment, quarterly tracking, or redirecting your spending to a vendor you do not use.

Where the Points Go, and the Hyatt Cut Landing October 1

On airlines, these two currencies are closer than people admit. Both transfer 1:1 to Air Canada Aeroplan, British Airways Avios, Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic, Singapore KrisFlyer and Aer Lingus. A Star Alliance partner business class seat between the U.S. and Europe in the 4,001 to 6,000 mile band prices at 75,000 Aeroplan points one-way under the partner chart that took effect June 1, 2026, up from 70,000 before that date. That price is identical whether the points came from a Chase card or an Amex card, so the airline side is close to a wash. Amex pulls ahead on breadth with ANA, Delta and Qatar via Avios; Chase counters with United and Southwest, which Amex cannot reach at all.

Hotels are where they split, and where the timing gets urgent. Chase’s crown jewel has always been World of Hyatt at 1:1. Starting October 1, 2026, Ink Business Preferred points transfer to World of Hyatt at 4:3, confirmed on Chase’s own product page: 1,000 Ultimate Rewards points become 750 Hyatt points. That is a flat 25% haircut, and it stacks on top of Hyatt’s May 20, 2026 chart overhaul, which expanded each category from three pricing tiers to five. A Category 4 standard room now ranges from 12,000 to 25,000 Hyatt points, and Category 8 tops out at 75,000. A 20,000-point Category 4 night that used to cost 20,000 Ultimate Rewards points will cost 27,000 after October 1, since Chase transfers in 1,000-point increments. We laid out the pre-deadline math in our deal alert on the Chase-to-Hyatt cutoff, and the short version is to move only what you will book, not your whole balance.

Amex, for its part, has never transferred to Hyatt and still does not. Its hotel partners are Hilton at 1:2, Marriott Bonvoy at 1:1, and Choice, plus the Leading Hotels of the World partnership. Hilton at 1:2 sounds generous until you price a night. Both issuers run periodic transfer promotions that can reshape this math, and our live transfer bonus tracker is where we keep the current ratios.

One more correction to a number you will see repeated everywhere: the Ink Business Preferred’s flat 1.25 cents per point through Chase Travel is gone. It was replaced by Points Boost, where the baseline is 1 cent, select hotels and flights reach up to 1.5 cents, and select premium cabin tickets reach up to 1.75 cents. Anyone still quoting “100,000 points equals $1,250 in travel” is working from a 2024 script. The reliable value here is transfers, not the portal.

Whichever currency you build, availability is the part that actually stops bookings. When I am hunting a specific partner route I check flight award space on Seats.aero before I move a single point, because a transfer you cannot use is a transfer you cannot undo. And if the balance you actually have does not reach the trip you had in mind, Roame is the faster way to find out what it does reach across 25 programs at once.

Category	Amex Business Platinum	Ink Business Preferred
Annual fee	$895	$95
Welcome offer	As high as 300,000 points after $20,000 in 3 months	100,000 points after $8,000 in 3 months
Top earn rate	5x on Amex Travel flights and prepaid hotels	3x on travel, shipping, internet/phone, advertising
Bonus category cap	$2 million per year on 2x categories	$150,000 per anniversary year on 3x categories
Advertising spend	1x	3x
Lounge access	Centurion, Priority Pass Select, 10 Delta Sky Club visits	None
Recurring credits	Roughly $2,400 across 10 separate programs	None
Hyatt transfers	Not a partner	1:1 until Sept 30, 2026, then 4:3
Hilton transfers	1:2	Not a partner
Employee cards	$400 per authorized user	Free
Cell phone protection	Up to $800 per claim, 2 claims per year	Up to $1,000 per claim, 3 claims per year
Foreign transaction fee	None	None

The Approval Rules That May Decide This for You

Preference is one thing, eligibility is another, and the order you apply in matters more than most people realize.

Chase 5/24 gates the Ink. If you have opened five or more personal cards from any issuer in the past 24 months, you are unlikely to be approved. The useful quirk is that business cards from Chase generally do not add to your own 5/24 count once approved, which is why the Ink usually belongs early in an application plan rather than late. Our breakdown of what counts toward 5/24 walks through the sequencing, and if you are weighing the Ink against its siblings, the full Ink family comparison covers whether you want one card or three.

Amex applies once-per-lifetime language. If you have held a Business Platinum before, you are probably not eligible for the bonus again, and Amex will usually tell you with a pop-up during the application before any hard pull lands. Cancel at that screen and you walk away clean.

You do not need an LLC for either card. A sole proprietorship counts, and freelancers, consultants and side-hustle sellers apply under their own name with their Social Security number. Per the IRS guidance on employer identification numbers, a sole proprietor without employees generally is not required to obtain an EIN at all. We covered the full eligibility picture in our guide to qualifying for a business card without an LLC.

One cost that quietly favors Chase: employee cards on the Ink are free, with per-card spending limits. Authorized users on the Business Platinum run $400 each, and they receive the lounge access but not most of the statement credits. A three-person team turns an $895 card into a $1,695 card.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I get both cards?

Yes, and plenty of business owners do. The usual sequence is the Ink first while you are comfortably under Chase’s 5/24 threshold, then the Business Platinum once the Ink bonus has posted. Chase business cards generally do not add to your own 5/24 count, so taking the Ink first does not block anything later.

Will I actually get the 300,000-point Amex offer?

Maybe. The offer is written as “as high as 300,000 points,” which means Amex personalizes it to your profile, and reported outcomes have included 250,000 and lower. You can see your specific offer during the application, and Amex uses a soft pull at that stage, so checking costs you nothing if you stop before submitting.

What exactly changes with Chase and Hyatt on October 1, 2026?

Ink Business Preferred and Sapphire Preferred points move from a 1:1 to a 4:3 transfer ratio into World of Hyatt, so 1,000 Ultimate Rewards points become 750 Hyatt points. The Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve for Business are not affected and keep 1:1. If you hold a Reserve, you can pool points there and transfer at the better rate.

Should I dump my Chase points into Hyatt before the deadline?

Only against a stay you have actually priced out and intend to book. Transfers are one-way and Hyatt itself devalued its award chart in May 2026, so speculative transfers carry real risk of being stuck in a currency that gets more expensive. Move what you will use within the next year, and leave the rest flexible.

Do I need an LLC or an EIN to apply?

No to both, in most cases. Sole proprietors apply under their own legal name and Social Security number, and the IRS does not require an EIN for a sole proprietor with no employees, no excise tax filings and no qualified retirement plan. Freelancers, consultants and resellers are routinely approved for both cards.

Is the Business Platinum still worth $895 if I rarely fly?

Almost certainly not. Lounge access, Fine Hotels + Resorts, the airline incidental credit and CLEAR+ account for a large share of the value, and all four are worth zero to a business owner who flies twice a year. Without travel, you are left chasing vendor-specific credits, and that rarely clears the fee.

Which card earns better on advertising spend?

The Ink Business Preferred, by a wide margin. It earns 3x on search engine and social media advertising within the shared $150,000 annual cap, while the Business Platinum earns 1x on the same purchases. At $96,000 of annual ad spend, that is a 192,000-point difference in a single year.

Bottom Line

The Ink Business Preferred is the right answer for most businesses, and it is not particularly close. It earns 3x where real businesses actually spend, employee cards are free, and $95 does not require an annual justification exercise. The Business Platinum earns its fee only for a specific profile: frequent flyers whose vendor list already reads like Amex’s credit list, and who can absorb $20,000 in three months without thinking about it. If that describes you, the current offer is the best this card has ever shown and worth acting on. If it does not, take the Ink, take the 100,000 points, and move whatever Hyatt transfers you have planned before October 1.