Which Amazon business credit card should you get?

If you have been searching for the Amazon business credit card and finding American Express pages that no longer work, this is why. American Express's U.S. Small Business co-brand card relationship with Amazon is ending, and the Amazon Business Card or Amazon Business Prime Card is replaced with an Amazon co-branded credit card issued by U.S. Bank (American Express — Amazon program update, verified 2026-08-21). The replacement date was August 14th, 2026 (American Express — Amazon program update, verified 2026-08-21).

The new cards are the Prime Business World Elite Mastercard (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21) and the Amazon Business World Elite Mastercard (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21), issued by U.S. Bank on the Mastercard network, and Amazon says both cards are now available to new applicants (Amazon newsroom — new business cards, verified 2026-08-21). Amazon publishes the application address as Amazon.com/businesscard-apply (Amazon newsroom — new business cards, verified 2026-08-21).

Two things worth saying plainly before any of the numbers. First, this site earns nothing on either card. We are an Amazon Associate paid a flat fee on Amazon’s consumer card and Prime signups, and there is no arrangement with U.S. Bank at all — so the business cards are covered here the way a competing card is covered, on their own terms and with nothing riding on the answer. Second, every figure below was read from U.S. Bank’s own product page and its Truth-in-Lending disclosure, from American Express’s own wind-down notice, or from Amazon’s newsroom, on the date printed beside it.

A business card is not judged the way a personal card is. The rate matters less than it looks, because business spending is lumpier, the balances are larger and the terms behind the rate do more damage when something goes wrong. So the table below is built on five things, in this order:

• What a dollar at Amazon returns, and where the rate stops. Both of these cards have a cap, which the personal Amazon cards do not.
• What the card does off Amazon, because that is where most businesses spend most of their money.
• What it costs to hold — annual fee, foreign transaction fee, and the APR that arrives the moment a balance is carried.
• Who is liable, and whose credit file the application touches. On a business card this is not a footnote.
• Whether you qualify at all, and what an application actually requires.

The Prime Visa sits in the last column throughout, because for a large share of the people searching for an Amazon business card — sole traders, single-person consultancies, side businesses — the honest comparison is not between the two business cards. It is between a business card and the personal card they may already be carrying.

The two business cards are the same product with one variable. U.S. Bank’s own wording is that the amount of rewards awarded varies depending on whether the Business Owner has an Amazon Prime membership (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21).

With a membership, the Prime Business Card earns 5% on the first $150,000 of net purchases at Amazon-covered sites each calendar year, then 1% (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21). Without one, the Amazon Business Card earns 3% on the first $150,000 of net purchases at Amazon-covered sites each calendar year, then 1% (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21). Everything else — the off-Amazon structure, the fees, the APR band, the liability — is identical.

Anyone who has read our Prime Visa vs Amazon Visa comparison will recognize the shape of this. It is the same 5%-or-3% membership gate Chase runs on the personal side, with the same consequence: the two extra points are rented, not owned.

The definition of “at Amazon” is narrower than it sounds. U.S. Bank defines the covered sites as Amazon.com, Amazon Business, Whole Foods Market and Amazon Web Services — purchases at Amazon sites operating outside the United States are not covered sites (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21). That last clause catches people. A U.S. business buying from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.de is not spending at a covered site and earns the base rate on it — the same exclusion Chase applies on the personal cards, and one of several worth knowing before you plan around a rate.

One more thing to note if your membership situation is in flux: if you sign up for or cancel your Amazon Prime membership after the account was opened, the card reward program will change (U.S. Bank — Amazon business cards, verified 2026-08-21). You are not locked into the rate you were approved at, in either direction.

The genuinely new thing on these cards is the off-Amazon structure, and it is worth reading carefully because it does not work the way a normal bonus category works.

Both cards earn 2% on the first $150,000 spent each calendar year in your top 3 categories outside Amazon-covered sites, then 1% (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21), and 1% on all other net purchases (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21) on everything else. The eligible categories U.S. Bank lists include advertising and direct marketing, computer and software services, accounting and tax services, cell phone service providers, drug stores and pharmacies, and postal and shipping services (U.S. Bank — Amazon business cards, verified 2026-08-21).

The mechanism is the part to understand: top categories are determined by merchant category code each billing cycle, based on the combined spend of all Cardmembers on the account (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21). You do not nominate the categories, and you cannot see them in advance — they are worked out after the fact from where the card was actually used, by merchant category code, on the combined spending of everyone carrying a card on the account.

That is a real benefit for a business whose costs land in those categories anyway: an e-commerce seller paying for advertising, shipping labels and software is going to hit three of them without trying. It is worth nothing at all to a business whose off-Amazon money goes on fuel, materials, subcontractors, rent or restaurant bills, none of which appear on U.S. Bank’s published list.

The Prime Visa takes the opposite approach and pays 2% back (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11) on gas stations, restaurants, and local transit and commuting (including rideshare) (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11). Those are fixed, named and knowable in advance. Neither approach is better in the abstract. They simply reward different businesses, which is why the arithmetic below is the only thing that settles it.

Here is the comparison nobody runs, because the headline rates look identical and people stop there. At Amazon, the Prime Business Card and the Prime Visa both pay 5%. So the business card’s entire earning advantage lives in one place: the 2% on three categories off Amazon, against the Prime Visa’s 1% base on the same spending.

The figures below are an example, not a claim about your business. Substitute your own and the working still holds.

The $150,000 annual cap is worth a sentence of its own, because the personal Amazon cards do not have one. Below $150,000 of Amazon spending a year it changes nothing. Above it, the business card drops to 1% and the uncapped Prime Visa keeps paying 5% — an outcome that sounds theoretical until you remember that Amazon Web Services bills through the same covered-sites bucket as a box of printer paper.

The feature Amazon led its announcement with is the installment option: fixed monthly payments at 0% APR for up to 12 months on eligible Amazon purchases (Amazon newsroom — new business cards, verified 2026-08-21). It is a genuinely useful cash-flow tool, and it comes with a condition that the announcement does not put in the headline.

From U.S. Bank’s own terms: at checkout on eligible Amazon properties you may either earn rewards on the purchase or create an interest-free ExtendPay plan for it — choosing the plan means you do not earn rewards on that purchase (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21).

So the 5% is not free money layered on top of 0% financing. It is one or the other, chosen at the checkout, purchase by purchase. On a $3,000 equipment order that is a real decision: take the plan and give up $150 of rewards, or take the $150 and pay the balance in full. The plan is worth more than $150 only if the alternative was carrying that $3,000 at the card’s purchase APR — which, at the top of the published band, would cost far more than the rewards you gave up.

The timing detail matters too: no ExtendPay fee when the plan is created at checkout; a plan created later carries a monthly fee of up to 1.6% of the original principal (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21). Deciding at the checkout is free. Deciding a month later is not, and a monthly fee of up to 1.6% of the original amount is not a small number over a twelve-month plan.

If it is the monthly-payment mechanics you came for rather than the card, the consumer-side equivalents are compared on how to pay for an Amazon purchase monthly.

Both cards charge None (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21) as an annual fee and None (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21) in foreign transaction fees, which is a straightforwardly good pair of numbers for a card aimed at businesses buying from overseas suppliers.

The numbers underneath are the ones to read before applying. The purchase APR is 17.74% to 29.74% variable, based on your creditworthiness when you open the account (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21). Cash advances run at 29.99% (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21). The penalty APR is 29.99%, which can apply after two payments one or more days late in a 12-month period, one payment five or more days late, or a returned payment (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21), and the penalty fees are $40 late payment, $40 returned payment, and no overlimit fee (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21). A balance transfer costs 4% of each transfer or $5, whichever is greater (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21).

Put that beside the earning side honestly. Five percent of $18,000 of Amazon spending is $900 a year. Hold a $5,000 balance flat for that same year and the interest is roughly $890 at the bottom of the purchase APR band and roughly $1,490 at the top — the whole year’s Amazon rewards, or more. Every rate on this page is a rounding error next to interest, which is the single most important sentence in any card comparison and the one most often left out.

Two structural facts that do not appear on the marketing page at all. First, the Business Owner authorizes U.S. Bank to obtain both a consumer credit report and a business credit report to assess personal creditworthiness (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21) — a business card application is not invisible to your personal credit file. Second, the Business Owner and the Business are jointly and severally liable for all charges on the account (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21), so incorporating does not put the balance behind the company. If you want to understand what an application does to a credit file before you submit one, that is worked through on what credit score you need for an Amazon card.

Finally, on the rewards themselves: rewards do not expire while the account is open and in good standing, but a closed account loses all unredeemed rewards (U.S. Bank — Amazon business cards, verified 2026-08-21). Closing the account is what costs you the balance, which is worth knowing before you close a card in a tidy-up.

Two answers here surprise people, and both come from U.S. Bank’s own FAQ rather than from anyone’s assumption about how business cards work.

you can apply using your Social Security Number if you are a sole proprietor without an Employer Identification Number (U.S. Bank — Amazon business cards, verified 2026-08-21). You do not need a limited company, and you do not need to have registered anything, to be considered for a business card as a sole proprietor.

And an Amazon Business account is not required in order to apply (U.S. Bank — Amazon business cards, verified 2026-08-21) — the Amazon Business side of it is a set of purchasing and reporting tools the card is designed to work with, not a gate in front of the application.

The condition that does bind is the purpose test: all applicants must be at least 18 years old and agree that accounts will be used primarily for business purposes, and not personal, family or household purposes (U.S. Bank — Amazon business card terms, verified 2026-08-21). A card taken out to buy household goods on a business application is not a loophole; it is a term of the agreement you signed.

U.S. Bank advertises a decision in as little as 30 seconds (U.S. Bank — Amazon business cards, verified 2026-08-21) and, at the time of checking, a welcome offer of a $100 or greater Amazon gift card or statement credit (U.S. Bank — Amazon business cards, verified 2026-08-21) on approval. As with every sign-up offer on this site, treat that as what was published on the date beside it and check the current terms on the application itself before you count on it.

A large share of the people searching for this card are not shopping at all — they are holders of the American Express version trying to work out what just happened to their account. Here is what the two banks published, without commentary.

Earning and redeeming on the Amex card. points are earned on eligible purchases posted to the American Express card up until August 13th, 2026 (American Express — Amazon program update, verified 2026-08-21), and points can be redeemed at amazon.com and amazon.com/Business, or towards charges on your statement, up until August 12th, 2026 (American Express — Amazon program update, verified 2026-08-21).

What happened to the points. unredeemed points on transferred accounts are made available to the eligible U.S. Bank replacement card account on a one-to-one basis (American Express — Amazon program update, verified 2026-08-21). U.S. Bank states that all unused rewards transfer to U.S. Bank and are accessible to redeem starting August 20, 2026 (U.S. Bank — Amazon card transition, verified 2026-08-21).

Your credit file. U.S. Bank says there is no impact on your personal credit score, and U.S. Bank makes no queries to personal or business credit bureaus as part of the transition (U.S. Bank — Amazon card transition, verified 2026-08-21). It does note that a small number of customers may see a minor and temporary effect on their business credit score while reporting obligations move between the two banks.

The admin that catches people. the replacement card carries a new account number, so recurring payments, bill pay and automatic billing have to be updated (U.S. Bank — Amazon card transition, verified 2026-08-21), and automatic payments scheduled with American Express do not transfer, and have to be set up again with U.S. Bank (U.S. Bank — Amazon card transition, verified 2026-08-21). There is one exception in your favor: a card already saved in your amazon.com or amazon.com/business account is updated to the replacement card automatically after the replacement date (American Express — Amazon program update, verified 2026-08-21). Also note that you no longer have access to the card account at americanexpress.com or through the American Express app once the account has been transferred (American Express — Amazon program update, verified 2026-08-21), so statements and the cardmember agreement are worth downloading rather than assuming they will still be there.

The old plastic. plastic Amazon Business Cards should be destroyed, while metal Prime Cards can be returned to American Express in a prepaid envelope requested by phone (American Express — Amazon program update, verified 2026-08-21). And if you closed the Amex account before the switch, an account canceled before the replacement date is not transferred, and any U.S. Bank card received for it will not activate and should be destroyed (U.S. Bank — Amazon card transition, verified 2026-08-21).

For a one-person business without heavy advertising or shipping spending, the card worth pricing first is the personal one. The Prime Visa earns 5% back (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11) at Amazon.com, Audible.com, Whole Foods Market and Chase Travel, with an eligible Prime membership (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11), with $0 (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11) annual fee, no foreign transaction fees (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11), and no cap we could find on the Amazon rate. Its 5% carries the same membership condition the business card does, against a membership costing $139 per year (About Amazon — Prime free trial, verified 2026-08-11).

Without a Prime membership, the equivalent is the Amazon Visa at 3% back (Chase — Amazon Visa, verified 2026-08-11), which is the same 3% the Amazon Business Card pays and needs no business at all. That comparison is worked through on Prime Visa vs Amazon Visa, and every Amazon-branded consumer card is laid out on every Amazon card explained.

None of that makes the business cards a bad product. They are a strong no-fee card for a business with the right shape of spending, and the spend controls, virtual cards and itemized Amazon reporting are things no personal card offers. But “business” in the name is not a reason on its own, and the extra $240 in our example is not worth a second credit application if your money does not land where the bonus does.