Amex Business Platinum vs Chase Ink Business Preferred: Which Wins?

Research-based comparison: I haven’t personally held either card. This comparison is based on verified issuer data and research into real cardholder experiences. Verify all figures at the official issuer websites before applying.

The short answer is: Amex Business Platinum wins when your business runs big-ticket purchases or books flights through Amex’s own travel portal, and its much bigger bonus wins Year 1 in every profile I tested. Chase Ink Business Preferred wins for shipping, advertising, and directly booked travel from the second year on. Here’s why.

I ran the numbers for three different business spending shapes, category by category, using each card’s guaranteed point value, which is now 1 cent for both (Chase: “100 points are worth $1”), no aspirational transfer-partner math. One profile goes to Amex for any realistic hold period, with Chase pulling ahead only after about six and a half years. One profile goes to Amex in Year 1 and to Chase from about month 17 on. One profile Amex wins every year. The rest of this article shows the math so you can match your own spending against it.

At a Glance

At a glance, this is a $800-a-year fee gap for a much higher ceiling on Amex’s side, 5x uncapped flights, 2x on big-ticket purchases, and a bonus worth $1,750 more raw. Whether that ceiling is worth the fee depends entirely on whether your spend actually reaches it.

How the Rewards Work

Amex Business Platinum

Everything earns at least 1x, no cap. On top of that, two bonus mechanics do the real work.

The first is 5x points on flights and prepaid hotels booked through Amex Travel (AmexTravel.com), uncapped. Here’s the math: $2,000 a month booked through Amex’s own portal earns 10,000 points, worth $100 at 1.0 cent each, every month, no ceiling. The catch is the portal requirement. Book the same flight directly with the airline and it drops straight to 1x.

The second is 2x points on eligible purchases in four business categories, U.S. construction materials & hardware suppliers, U.S. electronic goods retailers, U.S. software & cloud system providers, and U.S. shipping providers, plus any single purchase of $5,000 or more regardless of category, combined up to $2 million of spend per calendar year before dropping to 1x. A business making one $8,000 equipment purchase a month earns 16,000 points on that purchase alone, worth $160, just for being over the $5,000 threshold.

One structural point matters before comparing APR ranges side by side. Amex Business Platinum is a charge card with No Preset Spending Limit, not a revolving credit line. Balances aren’t carried forward by default, you’re expected to pay in full each month. It comes with an auto-enrolled, opt-out Pay Over Time feature at 17.99%–28.74% variable if you choose to carry part of a balance instead.

Chase Ink Business Preferred

Chase’s structure is simpler and doesn’t depend on where or how you book. Everything earns at least 1x, uncapped.

The first bonus bucket is 3x points on travel, shipping, internet/cable/phone services, and social media & search-engine advertising, combined up to $150,000 per account anniversary year, then 1x after that. Here’s the math: $1,500 a month in shipping plus $1,200 in digital ads earns 8,100 points a month, worth $81 at the guaranteed 1 cent each, and neither category requires booking through a specific portal.

The second bucket is separate and doesn’t touch that $150,000 cap at all: 5x points on Lyft rides, uncapped, through 9/30/2027. A business that leans on Lyft for client meetings or airport runs earns Chase’s highest rate on every ride with no ceiling.

That’s also the structural difference worth naming here. Chase Ink Business Preferred is a standard revolving credit line at 17.99%–26.99% variable APR, a fundamentally different setup from Amex’s charge-card-plus-Pay-Over-Time model above. If your business needs to carry a balance month to month as a matter of course, that structural difference matters more than either card’s rewards rate.

The Math: 3 Spending Profiles

Profile 1: Consultant Booking Travel Through Amex Travel, Moderate Software Spend

A consultant spending $5,000 a month: flights and hotels booked through Amex Travel, software and cloud subscriptions, shipping, and everything else.

Amex’s 5x uncapped rate on the portal-booked travel dominates this profile: that single category alone earns $40 a month more on Amex than on Chase. Software and cloud subscriptions qualify for Amex’s 2x business-category rate but aren’t a Chase bonus category at all, so Chase falls back to 1x there.

Annual earnings:

• Amex Business Platinum: $1,692/year
• Chase Ink Business Preferred: $1,200/year

Year 1 (with sign-up bonus):

• Amex Business Platinum: $1,692 + $3,000 bonus = $4,692 ($3,797 after the $895 fee)
• Chase Ink Business Preferred: $1,200 + $1,000 bonus = $2,200 ($2,105 after the $95 fee)

Year 2+ (ongoing):

• Amex Business Platinum: $1,692/year ($797 after the $895 fee)
• Chase Ink Business Preferred: $1,200/year ($1,105 after the $95 fee)

Break-even: Amex leads by $1,692 net of fees at the end of Year 1. From Year 2 on, Chase earns $308 more per year net of fees ($1,105 vs. $797), so it takes about five and a half years past Year 1, roughly 78 months from account opening, for Chase to erase that lead.

Takeaway: Amex wins this profile for any realistic hold period. Its $895 fee eats much of the ongoing edge, but Chase’s yearly advantage at 1 cent a point is too small to repay Amex’s first-year lead before roughly month 78.

Profile 2: E-commerce/Ad-Heavy Business, Travel Booked Direct

An e-commerce business spending $4,000 a month on shipping, digital advertising, travel booked directly (not through Amex Travel), and everything else.

Two of this profile’s three biggest categories, advertising and direct-booked travel, don’t qualify for any Amex bonus at all. Advertising isn’t one of Amex’s four business categories, and travel only earns 5x when booked through AmexTravel.com specifically, direct bookings drop straight to 1x. Chase bonuses all three at 3x with no portal requirement.

Annual earnings:

• Amex Business Platinum: $660/year
• Chase Ink Business Preferred: $1,320/year

Year 1 (with sign-up bonus):

• Amex Business Platinum: $660 + $3,000 bonus = $3,660 ($2,765 after the $895 fee)
• Chase Ink Business Preferred: $1,320 + $1,000 bonus = $2,320 ($2,225 after the $95 fee)

Year 2+ (ongoing):

• Amex Business Platinum: $660/year (-$235 after the $895 fee)
• Chase Ink Business Preferred: $1,320/year ($1,225 after the $95 fee)

Break-even: Amex leads by $540 net of fees at the end of Year 1 ($2,765 vs. $2,225). From Year 2 on, Chase earns $1,460 more per year net of fees ($1,225 vs. -$235), so it erases that lead about 4–5 months into Year 2, roughly month 17 from account opening.

Takeaway: Chase wins this profile from about month 17 on. Amex’s much bigger bonus wins Year 1, but its ongoing rewards here don’t even cover its own annual fee, while Chase’s shipping and advertising bonuses net real value every year.

Profile 3: High-Volume Business, Frequent $5,000+ Purchases Plus Construction Materials

A high-volume business spending $11,000 a month: large single purchases of $5,000 or more, construction materials and hardware, and everything else.

Neither large single purchases nor construction materials are Chase bonus categories, both fall back to Chase’s flat 1x. Amex’s 2x business-category rate covers both directly, and this profile’s combined 2x-eligible spend ($108,000/year) stays well under Amex’s $2 million annual cap.

Annual earnings:

• Amex Business Platinum: $2,400/year
• Chase Ink Business Preferred: $1,320/year

Year 1 (with sign-up bonus):

• Amex Business Platinum: $2,400 + $3,000 bonus = $5,400 ($4,505 after the $895 fee)
• Chase Ink Business Preferred: $1,320 + $1,000 bonus = $2,320 ($2,225 after the $95 fee)

Year 2+ (ongoing):

• Amex Business Platinum: $2,400/year ($1,505 after the $895 fee)
• Chase Ink Business Preferred: $1,320/year ($1,225 after the $95 fee)

Break-even: Not applicable. Amex leads by $2,280 net of fees after Year 1 and keeps earning $280 more per year after that ($1,505 vs. $1,225). Call this a decisive Amex win, start to finish.

Takeaway: Amex wins this profile by a wide margin. Its 2x rate on big-ticket and construction spend, combined with the much larger bonus, outearns Chase every year, not just the first.

Two more things worth naming, since neither shows up in the math above. Amex Business Platinum’s statement-credit stack, travel, dining, wireless, Dell, Adobe, Indeed, CLEAR, Global Entry/TSA PreCheck, and more, is large on paper, but realized value depends entirely on whether the business will actually enroll in and use each credit. It’s not folded into the Year 1 and Year 2 figures above on purpose, since that realized value depends on habits the rewards-rate math can’t capture. Chase Ink Business Preferred comes with a complimentary DoorDash DashPass for a minimum of 12 months, $0 delivery fees plus up to $10 a month in credit on non-restaurant orders, a smaller perk but one with no enrollment friction.

Where Each Card Wins

The pattern across all three profiles above: Amex wins Year 1 everywhere on its bonus and keeps winning when spend concentrates in its 5x travel-portal category or its 2x big-ticket/business categories; Chase wins from the second year on when spend sits in shipping, advertising, or directly booked travel.

Who Should Choose Amex Business Platinum

✅ A business that books most of its travel through Amex Travel and can commit to the portal in exchange for an uncapped 5x rate.

✅ A business that regularly makes $5,000+ single purchases, equipment, wholesale inventory, capital expenses, where Amex’s 2x rate applies automatically with no separate category enrollment.

✅ A construction, electronics, software/cloud, or shipping-heavy business whose core spend lines up with Amex’s four dedicated 2x categories.

✅ An owner who wants the bigger first-year bonus and expects a strong opening year of spend regardless of which card wins long-term.

If this sounds like you, Amex Business Platinum is the right call.

Who Should Choose Chase Ink Business Preferred

✅ A shipping- or advertising-heavy business, since both earn 3x on Chase and neither is a bonus category on Amex at all.

✅ A business that books travel directly instead of through a card portal, since Chase’s 3x travel rate applies regardless of how or where you book.

✅ A business planning to hold the card 3+ years without spend concentrated in big-ticket purchases or portal-booked travel. Chase’s lower fee compounds every year once the bonus is behind you.

✅ An owner worried about Chase’s 5/24 rule who wants to lock in this card while they still qualify, since approval later isn’t guaranteed.

If this sounds like you, Chase Ink Business Preferred is the right call.

The Bottom Line

Here’s what I’d actually tell a friend who asked me this: don’t pick based on which bonus is bigger. Look at where your two or three biggest spending categories actually land. If they’re $5,000+ purchases, construction materials, or flights you’re willing to book through Amex’s own travel site, Amex Business Platinum wins, bonus and ongoing rewards both. If your spend leans toward shipping, advertising, or travel you book yourself, Chase Ink Business Preferred wins from roughly the second year on, once Amex’s bigger first-year bonus is behind you.

Neither card is the wrong pick, and the fee gap isn’t the whole story either. Amex’s $895 fee buys real ceiling if your spend actually reaches its 5x and 2x categories, plus a statement-credit stack that can close some of that gap further if you’ll use it. Chase’s $95 fee buys simplicity and a lower bar to clear, no portal requirements, no $5,000 purchase threshold to hit.

Start with whichever review matches your spend: the Amex Business Platinum review if big-ticket purchases or Amex-Travel-booked flights drive your numbers, or the Chase Ink Business Preferred review if shipping, ads, or direct-booked travel drive yours. Or see both cards ranked against the rest of the field in the complete best business credit cards list.