Key Takeaway
PreCheck costs $78. Global Entry costs $120 and includes PreCheck. If you ever leave the country, even once, the cheaper option is the more expensive one. And that $209/year service promising to skip the entire line? It's getting worse.
The airport security speed-pass market has gotten weirdly complicated. Three programs, three price points, three different promises about how much time they'll save you, and a surprising number of people paying for the wrong one. Here's the breakdown in one paragraph: Global Entry ($120 for five years) includes everything TSA PreCheck offers plus expedited customs when you return from international travel. TSA PreCheck ($78 for five years) only covers domestic security screening. CLEAR ($209 per year) is a private service that lets you skip to the front of the security line but doesn't replace the screening itself. For most travelers, Global Entry is the only one worth buying. PreCheck is a subset of it, and CLEAR is overpriced for what it delivers. Let me explain why, starting with the program most people should stop buying separately.
TSA PreCheck: the product that Global Entry makes obsolete
TSA PreCheck gives you access to a dedicated security lane at over 200 US airports. In the PreCheck lane, you keep your shoes on, your belt on, your laptop in your bag, and your liquids packed. You walk through a standard metal detector instead of a full-body scanner. The TSA reports that 99% of PreCheck passengers wait less than 10 minutes.
The application costs $76-85 depending on which enrollment provider you use (IDEMIA is the cheapest), covers five years, and requires an in-person visit to an enrollment center for fingerprinting and document verification. Most applicants are approved within five days. No passport required.
For someone who only flies domestically and never plans to leave the country, PreCheck is perfectly fine. The problem is the math. PreCheck costs roughly $15-17 per year. Global Entry costs roughly $24 per year and includes every PreCheck benefit automatically. The difference is $7-9 per year, or roughly the price of an airport coffee. For that coffee's worth of annual savings, standalone PreCheck buyers give up expedited customs processing on every international return trip for the next five years.
If you travel internationally even once during your five-year membership, the 45-90 minutes you save skipping the customs line on a single re-entry trip more than justifies the $35-44 difference. If you never travel internationally and have zero plans to, PreCheck alone is fine. But "never" is a strong commitment for a five-year window.
Global Entry: the one to get
Global Entry ($120 for five years) is the better product in almost every scenario because it's two programs in one. You get TSA PreCheck for domestic departures and expedited customs processing when you arrive in the US from an international flight. At Global Entry kiosks, you scan your passport, provide fingerprints, answer a few customs declaration questions on the screen, and walk past the line of 200 people waiting to talk to a CBP officer. The time savings on a busy re-entry day (think JFK on a Sunday evening in July) can exceed an hour.
The application process is more involved than PreCheck. You need a valid passport. You fill out an application through the Trusted Traveler Programs (TTP) portal, wait for conditional approval (about 80% of applicants are approved within two weeks, though it can take months for some), and then complete an in-person interview at a Global Entry enrollment center. These centers are located in major airports, and appointment availability can be limited, especially at popular locations.
One useful workaround: Global Entry offers "Enrollment on Arrival," which lets conditionally approved applicants complete their interview at an eligible airport when they return from an international trip. Instead of scheduling a separate appointment and driving to an airport on a non-travel day, you do the interview at the CBP facility as you arrive home. This makes the process significantly more convenient if you have upcoming international travel.
Children: Kids 12 and under can use TSA PreCheck lanes with an enrolled parent without their own membership. Children 13-17 need the PreCheck indicator on their boarding pass. For Global Entry's customs benefits, each family member needs their own enrollment, but minors (17 and under) are free when a parent or legal guardian is a member or concurrently applying.
The credit card trick that makes Global Entry effectively free: Most premium travel credit cards (Chase Sapphire Reserve, Capital One Venture X, AmEx Platinum, and others) reimburse the Global Entry application fee as a statement credit, typically up to $100-120 every four or five years. If you carry any of these cards, your Global Entry membership costs you nothing out of pocket. Even mid-tier cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Capital One Venture offer this benefit. Check your card's perks before paying; roughly one in four Americans with a travel credit card has this benefit and doesn't use it.
The 2026 disruption to know about: In February 2026, a partial DHS government shutdown led to temporary suspension of Global Entry kiosks at some airports. TSA PreCheck continued operating normally throughout. As of the latest reports, Global Entry service has been inconsistent at certain locations, with CBP offering priority lanes as a workaround. This disruption is tied to the government funding impasse and is expected to resolve when funding is restored. It does not affect whether you should apply; your five-year membership clock doesn't start until you're approved, and the program will return to normal operation.
CLEAR: the $209/year service that's losing its edge
CLEAR ($209/year, or $189 with some discounts) is a private biometric identity verification service. When you arrive at a TSA security checkpoint, you go to a CLEAR kiosk, scan your eyes or fingerprints, and a CLEAR employee escorts you directly to the front of the security line, bypassing both the regular line and the PreCheck line. You still go through the normal screening process (shoes off, laptop out, unless you also have PreCheck).
The pitch is speed: skip the line entirely and go straight to the screening equipment. At its best, CLEAR saves you 10-30 minutes at airports with long security queues. At its worst, which is increasingly common, the CLEAR line itself has gotten long enough that the time savings are negligible.
This is the core problem with CLEAR in 2026. As more people sign up, the line to use CLEAR gets longer, which erodes the very benefit people signed up for. Kiplinger's travel editor noted that at some airports, the CLEAR line is now longer than the PreCheck line. Anecdotally, travelers report that at major hubs like JFK, LAX, and DFW, the CLEAR advantage has diminished significantly as enrollment has grown.
The math is also unfavorable. CLEAR costs $209/year, while Global Entry (which includes PreCheck) costs $120 for five years. Over five years, CLEAR costs $1,045 compared to Global Entry's $120. That's a $925 difference. Unless you fly frequently enough that the per-trip time savings justify essentially $1,000 more over five years, CLEAR is a hard sell. For very frequent travelers (20+ flights per year) at airports with efficient CLEAR operations, it can make sense. For everyone else, PreCheck alone (which you get free with Global Entry) handles the security line just fine at a fraction of the cost.
CLEAR also doesn't help with customs at all. It's a domestic security product. If you land from an international flight, CLEAR does nothing for you at the customs line. Global Entry does.
The free option nobody mentions
Mobile Passport Control is a free app from CBP that lets US and Canadian passport holders submit their customs declaration electronically before reaching the CBP officer. When you land from an international flight, you fill out the declaration on your phone, receive a QR code, and use a dedicated "Mobile Passport" lane at eligible airports. The lane is typically shorter than the standard customs line, though not as fast as Global Entry's automated kiosks.
Mobile Passport Control doesn't require any application, background check, or fee. You download the app, create a profile, and use it on your next international return. It won't save as much time as Global Entry (you still talk to a CBP officer, just in a shorter line), but for someone who travels internationally once or twice a year and doesn't want to deal with the Global Entry application process, it's a perfectly good free alternative.
The decision framework (this is simpler than everyone makes it)
One more option worth knowing about: NEXUS is a Trusted Traveler Program that costs $120 for five years (the same as Global Entry) and includes Global Entry benefits, TSA PreCheck benefits, and expedited entry into Canada. The catch is that the required in-person interview must take place at a US-Canada land border crossing or specific enrollment center near the border. If you live near the Canadian border or travel to Canada regularly, NEXUS is strictly better than Global Entry at the same price. If you live in Texas or Florida, the interview logistics make it impractical.
Practical application tips that save you headaches:
First, don't apply for PreCheck and then upgrade to Global Entry later. If you already have PreCheck and get approved for Global Entry, your PreCheck membership is canceled without a refund. Better to wait and apply for Global Entry from the start.
Second, check appointment availability at multiple enrollment centers before applying. Major airports in big cities (JFK, LAX, ORD) often have weeks-long waits for interview slots. Smaller airports and enrollment centers in suburban locations frequently have appointments available within days.
Third, if you're conditionally approved for Global Entry and have an international trip coming up, use the Enrollment on Arrival option. It eliminates the need for a separate appointment trip entirely.
You only fly domestically: Get TSA PreCheck ($78/5 years). It does exactly what you need. No passport required. Approved in days.
You fly internationally at all, even once in five years: Get Global Entry ($120/5 years). It includes PreCheck plus customs benefits. The $35-44 premium over standalone PreCheck is justified by a single international trip. If you have a premium travel credit card, it's probably reimbursed entirely.
You fly 20+ times per year and your home airport has efficient CLEAR operations: Consider adding CLEAR ($209/year) on top of Global Entry. This is the only scenario where the cost is defensible. You need both: CLEAR for the security line skip, and Global Entry/PreCheck for the screening benefits and customs processing.
You fly internationally occasionally but don't want the Global Entry hassle: Get PreCheck and use the free Mobile Passport Control app for customs. This covers both sides of the trip at a fraction of Global Entry's effort, though with slightly less time savings on the customs end.
You have a premium travel credit card and haven't checked its benefits: Stop reading and go check. Chase Sapphire Reserve, Capital One Venture X, AmEx Platinum, Citi Strata Premier, and several others reimburse the full Global Entry or PreCheck application fee. If your card covers it, there is zero financial reason not to apply for Global Entry today.
The bottom line on each program
TSA PreCheck is a good product sold at the wrong price point. For $78, it gives you faster domestic security screening, and that's genuinely valuable. But for $120, Global Entry gives you everything PreCheck does plus customs processing, making standalone PreCheck the worse deal for anyone with a passport.
Global Entry is the correct choice for most travelers. The application process is more involved (passport required, interview needed, wait times can be long), but the five-year membership includes both domestic security benefits and international customs processing for $24 per year. With credit card reimbursement, it's frequently free.
CLEAR is a premium product with a diminishing moat. The value proposition depends entirely on the length of the line at your airport, and as enrollment grows, that line gets longer. At $209/year with no customs benefit, it's the hardest of the three to justify unless you're a road warrior who flies constantly and values 10 minutes of line-skipping at $20+ per occurrence.
Get Global Entry. Use your credit card to pay for it. Add your Known Traveler Number to every airline reservation going forward. Enjoy keeping your shoes on for the next five years. That's the entire strategy, and it costs less than dinner for two.
