Compare
Prime Visa vs Amazon Visa
These are the same card with one difference: 5% with a paid Prime membership, or 3% without one. The rest is arithmetic.
The short answer
Prime Visa or Amazon Visa?
Same card, two rates, one membership. Both are Chase Visas with $0 annual fee earning at the same Amazon merchants. The Prime Visa pays 5% with an eligible Prime membership; the Amazon Visa pays 3% with none. If you already pay for Prime, take the 5%. If you would be buying Prime for it, you need about $6,950 a year at Amazon to justify it.
#ad Sign-up offers are for new cardmembers only and approval is Chase's decision, not ours. We earn a flat fee if you sign up through this link, at no cost to you. How we’re paid.
Side by side
Three rows do all the work
| Prime Visa | Amazon Visa | |
|---|---|---|
| Rate at Amazon and Whole Foods | 5% back | 3% back |
| Condition on that rate | An eligible Prime membership | None |
| Where the top rate applies | Amazon.com, Audible.com, Whole Foods Market and Chase Travel, with an eligible Prime membership | Amazon.com, Audible.com, Whole Foods Market and Chase Travel |
| Mid-tier rate | 2% back | 2% back |
| Everything else | 1% back | 1% back |
| Annual fee | $0 | $0 |
| Purchase APR | 18.74%–29.99% variable | 18.74%–29.99% variable |
| Welcome offer | a $150 Amazon Gift Card loaded into your Amazon Gift Card balance on approval | a $50 Amazon Gift Card loaded into your Amazon Gift Card balance on approval |
| Issuer and network | Chase — Visa, works everywhere | Chase — Visa, works everywhere |
Sources: Chase — Prime Visa · Chase — Amazon Visa · verified 2026-08-11
Rows four and five are identical, and that is the most useful thing on the table. Both cards earn the same on gas, restaurants, transit and everything else — so all non-Amazon spending cancels out and the entire comparison reduces to what happens at Amazon.
That is unusual and it makes this an unusually clean decision. There is no “depends on your lifestyle”. There is one variable: how much you spend at Amazon, and whether you are already paying for Prime.
The math
Where two points beats a membership
There are two versions of this question and only one of them requires arithmetic.
If you already pay for Prime
Take the Prime Visa. The membership is a sunk cost you are paying regardless, both cards have $0 annual fee, and 5% beats 3% on every Amazon dollar. There is no threshold and nothing to calculate. The only reason to hold the Amazon Visa in this situation would be if you expected to drop Prime.
If you would buy Prime specifically for the 5%
Now the membership is a real cost of the card, and it has to be earned back by two extra percentage points.
The math
- Prime Visa rate at Amazon
- 5%
- Amazon Visa rate at Amazon
- 3%
- Extra return the membership buys
- 2 percentage points
- Annual Prime membership
- $139
- Extra earnings = annual Amazon spend x 0.02
- Break even when extra earnings = $139
- $139 / 0.02 = $6,950 a year
Below about $6,950 a year at Amazon, Whole Foods and Chase Travel, the Amazon Visa is the better card. Above it, the Prime Visa is.
$6,950 is roughly $580 a month at Amazon. That is a genuinely high figure — higher than most households spend there — which is why the Amazon Visa deserves far more attention than it gets.
One thing this arithmetic deliberately ignores: whether Prime is worth having for its own sake. If you would use the delivery, the video or the grocery benefits, the membership is not a cost the card has to justify alone, and that is a separate calculation. Do that one first, then come back.
| Annual Amazon spend | Prime Visa at 5% | Amazon Visa at 3% | Difference | After the $139 membership |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $2,000 | $100 | $60 | +$40 | -$99 |
| $4,000 | $200 | $120 | +$80 | -$59 |
| $6,950 | $347.50 | $208.50 | +$139 | $0 — break-even |
| $10,000 | $500 | $300 | +$200 | +$61 |
| $15,000 | $750 | $450 | +$300 | +$161 |
Sources: Chase — Prime Visa · Chase — Amazon Visa · About Amazon — Prime free trial · verified 2026-08-11
The other differences
Two things that are not the rate
The welcome offer is three times larger on one of them
Chase advertises a $150 Amazon Gift Card loaded into your Amazon Gift Card balance on approval (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-11) on the Prime Visa and a $50 Amazon Gift Card loaded into your Amazon Gift Card balance on approval (Chase — Amazon Visa, verified 2026-08-11) on the Amazon Visa. A $100 difference, once.
It is worth exactly $100 in year one and nothing in year two, while the membership costs $139 per year every year. A one-time payment should not decide a recurring question, and we make that argument at length on the welcome offer page.
The Prime Visa fails soft, not hard
If you hold the Prime Visa and your membership lapses, Chase states the rate becomes 3% back at Amazon.com, Whole Foods Market and the participating Amazon stores and sites without an eligible Prime membership (Chase — Prime Visa, verified 2026-08-12). In other words, a Prime Visa without Prime behaves like an Amazon Visa on the Amazon category.
That materially reduces the risk of choosing the Prime version. You are not choosing between 5% and nothing; you are choosing between 5% and the other card’s rate, with the membership as the switch. The detail is on the Prime Visa without a Prime membership.
Sources: Chase — Prime Visa · Chase — Amazon Visa · verified 2026-08-11
The verdict
A winner per reader
You already pay for Prime. Prime Visa, without hesitation. Two free percentage points on a card with no annual fee.
You spend heavily at Amazon and are considering Prime. Prime Visa, if your Amazon spending is comfortably above $6,950 a year. Below that, run the membership arithmetic before deciding.
You do not want Prime. Amazon Visa. 3% at the same merchants, no membership, no annual fee, same protections. This is the card most people in this situation should hold and most of them have never heard of it.
You are on the fence about Prime. Amazon Visa now. If you later commit to the membership, ask Chase about a product change rather than opening a second account — the reasoning is on the cancellation page.
You are choosing between an Amazon card and a store card instead. That is a different comparison entirely, and it is on Prime Visa vs Amazon Store Card and Store Card vs Amazon Visa.
#ad New cardmembers only. Chase decides approval on both cards, the Prime Visa's 5% requires an eligible Prime membership, and terms can change at any time. We earn a flat fee if you sign up through this link, at no cost to you. How we’re paid.
Common questions
Common questions
- What is the difference between the Prime Visa and the Amazon Visa?
- Two percentage points and a membership. Both are Chase Visas with a $0 annual fee earning at the same Amazon merchants. The Prime Visa pays 5% with an eligible Prime membership; the Amazon Visa pays 3% with no membership needed.
- Which Amazon Chase card is better?
- The Prime Visa if you already pay for Prime, because the extra two points are free to you. The Amazon Visa if you do not want Prime, because paying $139 to unlock two extra points needs about $6,950 of annual Amazon spending to break even.
- Can you switch from the Prime Visa to the Amazon Visa?
- Ask Chase about a product change rather than closing and reapplying. A product change generally preserves the account's age on your credit file, where a closure does not.
- Do both cards have the same welcome offer?
- No. Chase advertises a $150 Amazon Gift Card on approval for the Prime Visa and a $50 Amazon Gift Card on approval for the Amazon Visa.
- Do both cards earn the same outside Amazon?
- Both earn 2% on a short list of everyday categories and 1% on everything else, so non-Amazon spending is effectively a tie and cancels out of the comparison.
Related
Read next
- The Prime Visa without a Prime membership — what happens to the card you already hold if the membership lapses
- The difference between every Amazon card — all four products, defined, if these two are not the pair you meant
- Is Amazon Prime worth it? — the membership is the whole difference, so price it on its own merits
- Is the Prime Visa worth it for the gift card? — one of these cards offers three times the other, and it still should not decide it
Written by Stephen V. — An enthusiast who's genuinely into this. I read the terms, compile the published rates, and do the math. No lab coat, no credentials, no test lab.
About this site · How we research · How we’re paid
Last verified: 2026-08-12