TSA PreCheck vs Global Entry is a comparison most travelers answer wrong: they pick PreCheck because it is cheaper, and then pay for that decision the first time they wait 40 minutes in a customs line at 2 a.m. The 2026 fees are already updated – Global Entry rose to $120 – and the correct answer depends almost entirely on whether international travel is anywhere in your next five years. Here is the math.
TSA PreCheck vs Global Entry: The Short Answer
TSA PreCheck costs $76.75 to $85 for five years depending on your enrollment provider (IDEMIA $79.75, Telos $85, CLEAR $84.95) and gets you the domestic perk: dedicated security lanes, shoes on, liquids and laptops staying in your bag. Global Entry costs $120 for five years and includes everything PreCheck gives you, plus automated kiosks for customs when you return to the US – at 75-plus airports. The price delta for the customs benefit works out to roughly $7 to $9 per year. If you fly internationally even once a year, Global Entry is the buy. Pure domestic traveler for the next five years? PreCheck is fine.
The 2026 Fee Table in Full
- TSA PreCheck new enrollment: $76.75-$85 for five years ($15 to $17 per year).
- TSA PreCheck online renewal: starts at $58.75 (IDEMIA), up to about $79.95 in person; renewals open within six months of expiry.
- Global Entry: $120 for five years (raised from the long-standing $100); renewal is $120, open within one year of expiry, with up to 24 months of benefit grace while a filed renewal processes.
- Minors under 18: free when applying with a member parent – Global Entry and the current PreCheck family deal both.
- CLEAR, the private alternative: $209 per year, a completely different product (biometric ID-line skipping) – only consider combining with one of the two.
What Each One Actually Buys You
- PreCheck: separate security lanes at 200+ US airports, keep shoes and belt, liquids and laptop stay packed; the standard ride-through averages minutes, not a re-screening.
- Global Entry: all PreCheck privileges, plus CBP kiosk and fast-track lanes at 75+ US airports when you arrive internationally – the difference between 60 minutes of immigration queue and 10.
- Enrollment burden: PreCheck takes a 10-minute fingerprint appointment; Global Entry adds a CBP interview – appointment availability by airport is the friction point, though legitimate interview-on-arrival options exist at many entry airports.
The Per-Trip Math
At ten security trips a year, PreCheck costs about $1.60 per trip; at 20 trips, about $0.85 – essentially made back in the first saved shoes-and-laptops queue of the year. Global Entry is about $24 per year: worth it at two international arrivals per year, trivial at four. And the real override to all of it: several premium travel cards reimburse up to $120 in application fees – applied, that makes either program free. Check your card first before you decide on thrift.
Order of Operations Before the Holiday Season
Application process goes: online application to CBP, conditional approval, then the interview. PreCheck appointments turn over in days to a couple of weeks; Global Entry can stretch into months at busy markets, so if a December scene is the target, file now and take the PreCheck-only option temporarily wearing the same shoes. And one critical non-mix-up: these memberships are not what keeps you flying after May 2025 – that clock belongs to your ID; see who still needs a REAL ID in 2026. For holiday travel plans around those documents, see our Christmas flight window guide.
Bottom line: $120 for Global Entry versus $77-$85 for PreCheck is $35-$43 over five years – less than one checked-bag fee for a family of four. If any international trip is even half planned, take the customs kiosks. Pure domestic? PreCheck, and you will still be behind fewer people.