Amex Statement Analyzer — American Express PDF Analysis

Upload your American Express statement PDF and get AI-categorized spending insights in seconds. Works with Amex Gold, Platinum, Blue Cash, Delta, Hilton, and all other Amex card products.

Why Amex Cardholders Need a Statement Analyzer

American Express is unlike any other card issuer. While most credit cards are commodities issued by banks, Amex is both the card network and the issuer for most of its products. This creates a unique statement format that differs substantially from Visa and Mastercard statements issued by traditional banks. Amex statements include membership rewards summaries, annual fee charges, pay-over-time interest breakdowns, and Amex Offer credits that other analyzers often misparse or ignore entirely.

Amex cardholders tend to be higher spenders. The average Amex transaction value is significantly higher than Visa or Mastercard. Gold cardholders optimize for dining and grocery rewards. Platinum members chase travel and airline credits. Blue Cash holders maximize everyday cashback categories. Understanding exactly where your money goes is not just about budgeting — it is about making sure you are earning the right rewards on the right purchases.

While Amex does offer a built-in spending summary within its app and website, these categories are broad and often inaccurate. A charge at a grocery store that also sells wine might be classified as "Merchandise" instead of "Groceries," costing you 4x points on your Gold card. A PDF-based analyzer with custom categories lets you see your actual spending patterns with the precision you need.

How to Download Your Amex Statement PDF

American Express makes it straightforward to download your statement PDFs. Here is how to get them from the website and the mobile app.

From the Amex Website

1. Log in to your account at americanexpress.com with your user ID and password.
2. Click on Statements & Activity in the top navigation menu. If you have multiple cards, make sure you have selected the correct card first.
3. Under the Statements tab, you will see a list of available billing periods going back several years.
4. Click Download PDF next to the statement period you want to analyze. The PDF will download immediately.
5. Repeat for any additional billing periods you want to analyze. Amex typically retains statements going back 7 or more years.

From the Amex Mobile App

1. Open the American Express app and log in using your fingerprint, Face ID, or password.
2. Navigate to the Account tab at the bottom of the screen.
3. Tap Statements. You will see a list of available statement periods.
4. Tap on the desired period, then tap View PDF or Download.
5. Save the PDF to your device or share it via email or cloud storage for upload from your computer.

Supported Amex Card Products

Spend & Invest supports every American Express card product that generates a PDF statement. This includes the full range of consumer and small business cards:

• Amex Gold Card — The popular rewards card with 4x points at restaurants and U.S. supermarkets. The analyzer categorizes dining and grocery transactions separately so you can verify you are maximizing your 4x earning categories.
• Amex Platinum Card — The premium travel card with 5x on flights and prepaid hotels. The analyzer identifies travel purchases, airline fee credits, Uber credits, and other Platinum-specific spending.
• Blue Cash Preferred / Blue Cash Everyday — Cashback cards optimized for everyday spending. The analyzer tracks your 6% grocery, 6% streaming, and 3% transit spending to help you verify cashback earnings.
• Amex Green Card — The travel-focused card with 3x on transit, dining, and travel. The analyzer separates these categories to show your earning breakdown.
• Delta SkyMiles Cards — Delta Gold, Platinum, and Reserve cards. The analyzer identifies Delta and airline purchases separately from general travel spending.
• Hilton Honors Cards — Hilton Honors, Surpass, and Aspire cards. Hotel purchases and Hilton-specific credits are categorized accordingly.
• Amex Business Gold / Platinum — Business card statements with vendor payments, subscriptions, and business travel. The analyzer handles the additional line items and employee card breakdowns found on business statements.
• Amex EveryDay / EveryDay Preferred — Points-based everyday cards. Transaction categorization helps you see if you are hitting the monthly transaction bonus thresholds.

How AI Handles Amex-Specific Transaction Formats

American Express statements have several formatting quirks that distinguish them from standard bank statements. The AI is built to handle all of them:

1. Amex Offer credits and statement credits. Amex frequently applies statement credits from Amex Offers, annual fee credits (like the Platinum airline credit or Uber credit), and promotional credits. The AI recognizes these as credits rather than charges and categorizes them separately so they do not distort your spending totals.
2. Membership rewards points summary. Amex statements often include a rewards points section at the top or bottom of the statement. The AI skips this summary section and focuses on actual transaction lines, preventing rewards data from being misinterpreted as transactions.
3. Pay Over Time interest. Amex charge cards with Pay Over Time enabled include interest charges and plan payment details. The analyzer categorizes these as "Interest & Fees" and separates them from your actual purchases.
4. Foreign transaction formatting. When you use your Amex card abroad, the statement shows the original currency amount and the USD equivalent on separate lines. The AI correctly pairs these and uses the USD amount (or your account currency) for categorization and totals.
5. Additional card member charges. If you have authorized users on your Amex account, their charges appear in a separate section of the statement. The AI parses these sections correctly and includes all charges in the analysis.

Manual Tracking vs Spend & Invest for Amex Statements

Privacy and Security for Amex Cardholders

American Express cardholders are particularly sensitive about data privacy — and for good reason. Amex cards are used for high-value purchases, business expenses, and premium lifestyle spending. Sharing your Amex login credentials with a third-party app creates a significant security risk.

With Spend & Invest, your Amex login credentials are never shared with anyone. You download your statement PDF directly from the Amex website or app, then upload that PDF to the analyzer. There is no API connection to your Amex account, no screen scraping, and no persistent link between the analyzer and your card.

This is especially important because Amex is not just a credit card — it is often a charge card with no preset spending limit. A compromised Plaid connection to an Amex account could expose transaction data on potentially unlimited spending. PDF upload eliminates this risk entirely. The statement is a static, read-only document that cannot be used to access your account, view your rewards balance, or make purchases.

Additionally, Amex has historically had a more adversarial relationship with Plaid and third-party data aggregators than traditional banks. Amex connections through Plaid can break frequently, requiring re-authentication. PDF upload avoids this instability entirely — your statement works every time, regardless of API disputes between Amex and aggregation services.

Rewards Optimization with Spending Analysis

One of the biggest advantages of analyzing your Amex statements is understanding whether you are on the right card for your spending patterns. Here are examples of how statement analysis helps optimize rewards:

• Gold Card holders: If your dining and grocery spending totals less than $25,000 per year, you might earn more with a different card. The analyzer shows your exact spending in these bonus categories.
• Platinum Card holders: If you are not spending at least $5,000 on flights booked directly with airlines, you may not be maximizing the 5x earning rate that justifies the annual fee.
• Blue Cash Preferred holders: The 6% grocery rate caps at $6,000 per year. The analyzer shows exactly how much grocery spending you have done and whether you have hit the cap.
• Multi-card strategies: If you carry multiple Amex cards, uploading all your statements shows which card you are using for which categories and whether you could optimize by shifting spending between cards.

Getting Started with Your Amex Statement

Ready to analyze your American Express statement? The process takes less than a minute:

1. Download your latest Amex statement PDF from americanexpress.com or the Amex mobile app.
2. Create a free account at Spend & Invest.
3. Upload your PDF and let the AI categorize your transactions. Amex Offer credits and interest charges are automatically separated from your purchases.
4. Review any flagged items, correct categories if needed, and finalize.
5. Explore your spending dashboard with category breakdowns, trends, and month-over-month comparisons.

The more statements you upload, the smarter the system gets. It learns your vendor preferences and applies them automatically to future uploads, making each statement faster to process than the last.

Try It Free Today

Spend & Invest is free to use during early access. Upload your Amex statement and see your spending patterns in under a minute. No bank login, no Plaid, no spreadsheets. Just upload your PDF and go.

Want to learn more? Read our guide on AI-powered bank statement analysis, find out why you do not need a bank login to budget, or explore spending tracking without Plaid.