Costs & Pricing

Metric	Engine X	Capital One Venture Business
Annual fee	$0	$95 (no first-year waiver on Venture Business). Legacy Spark Miles was $0 intro year 1, then $95 — do not use that waiver in a 2026 new-applicant calculator.
Employee card fee	$0; unlimited physical and virtual cards	$0
Purchase APR	N/A — charge card. No purchase interest if paid by due date. No published purchase APR range. Marketing “0%” means no annual fee plus charge-card float until the due date, not an intro APR.	24.49% variable (marketing page shows a single rate, not a range). Review-captured terms: Prime + 17.74%; updates quarterly. Confirm whether 24.49% is universal or representative.
Intro APR (purchases)	Not offered (not a revolving product)	Not offered
Foreign transaction fee	$0 (International Transaction Fee: $0 / None). Ordinary Visa FX conversion still applies (rate not separately itemized).	$0
Late payment fee	$40 per late payment	Up to $39 (captured Capital One account-terms / review Schumer boxes)

Rewards & Value

Metric	Engine X	Capital One Venture Business
Base earn rate	1.5% back in Engine points on Qualifying Card Purchases (everyday / off-Engine spend, including flights even if booked on Engine)	Unlimited 2 miles per $1 on every purchase. No category tracking, no published annual cap. Same earn structure on legacy Spark Miles and live Venture Business.
Welcome bonus	20,000 Engine points after the company activates an Engine X card and completes $2,000 in Qualifying Off-Platform Purchases within 30 days of first Card activation. Off-platform = card spend not booked through Engine.com. Engine travel bookings do not count. Employee/additional-card off-platform spend does count (company-level). First-time Engine X customer; one bonus per company. Offer ends 11:59 p.m. ET, 31 December 2026 (incentive terms updated 1 Jun 2026).	Live Venture Business (Sept. 3, 2026): 100,000 miles after $10,000 in first 3 months. Product-page footnote: may not be available for existing or previous Capital One Business card holders. Offer expiration date not dated on the live product page.
Redemption value	Official cents-per-point not disclosed. Points have no cash value and are redeemable only through the program. Checkout shows a point-to-dollar value before confirm. Secondary (TPG, 20 Aug 2026): statement credit described at ~50% of booking value — unofficial; do not hard-code 1¢ or 0.5¢ as issuer fact. Disclose user-selectable factor: 1.0× if redeemed for Engine bookings; 0.5× if using TPG’s statement-credit haircut.	Issuer marketing treats miles as 1¢ each for Capital One Business Travel and cover-travel redemptions (request within 90 days). Cash/gift-card value is lower and varies / subject to change (business FAQ). Do not assume 1¢ for cash. Transfers not assumed unless the user picks a partner.
Transfer partners	Not offered (no Chase/Amex/airline transfers)	Official partner article (Jan. 29, 2026) — 1:1 airlines: Aeromexico Rewards, Air Canada Aeroplan, Avianca LifeMiles, British Airways Club, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Etihad Guest, Finnair Plus, Flying Blue (Air France-KLM), Qantas Frequent Flyer, Qatar Privilege Club, Singapore KrisFlyer, TAP Miles&Go, Turkish Miles&Smiles, Virgin Red. 2:1.5: Emirates Skywards, EVA Air, Japan Airlines Mileage Bank. 5:3: JetBlue. Hotels: Choice Privileges 1:1, Wyndham Rewards 1:1, I Prefer 1:2, Accor Live Limitless 2:1. Miles do not expire while the account is open; may be lost if closed. Minimum transfer not disclosed on that article (third parties often cite 1,000-mile increments).

Credit & Eligibility

Metric	Engine X	Capital One Venture Business
Personal guarantee	Official apply page: “We also do not require personal guarantees.” Program terms: company is the liable party. Owner KYC still collected. Confirm no hidden guaranty in the Issuing Bank Terms accepted at offer.	Required in ordinary Capital One small-business underwriting. Card-specific agreement sentence not disclosed in a public PDF located this run. Application collects SSNs of all business owners.
Credit check	Official: no hard pull, will not impact personal credit score. Soft-pull vs none-at-all on a bureau file is not separately named. Last-4 SSN is for identity verification (CIP), not described as a full credit pull.	Hard pull on apply is the industry-standard Capital One path; pre-approval tool is marketed as no impact on personal score. Whose credit: owners whose SSNs are submitted.
Employee cards	Unlimited physical + instant virtual, including 1099 / temporary workers. Spend controls by employee, project, expense type, category, merchant, transaction. Physical cards ~8 business days. Company remains liable.	Free; individual limits; receipts/notes in Expense Management; same 2X earn per marketing.
Product type	Business charge card + spend-management card (pay-in-full each cycle; assigned line of credit; no revolving APR). Not a consumer credit card. Sibling: Direct Bill (credit line limited to Engine hotel/flight/car bookings — not this card).	Revolving business credit card with a fixed credit line (not NPSL; not a charge card). Capital One contrasts this with Venture X Business and Spark Cash Plus (pay-in-full / NPSL).

Pros & Cons

Engine X

Pros

• $0 annual fee and $0 employee/virtual-card fees
• 6% (scaling to 10%) Engine points on Engine hotel and rental-car bookings — unusual on-platform travel earn at $0 fee
• No personal guarantee and no hard personal credit pull (official apply language)
• Charge card + Autopay + spend controls + unlimited cards for employees and 1099s; travel booking, policy, and folios in one dashboard
• $0 foreign-transaction fee in the fee table

Cons

• Elevated earn does not apply to flights or off-Engine hotels; marketing “up to 10% on travel” is broader than the legal category
• Pay-in-full charge card; $40 late / $40 returned-payment fees; no revolver
• Points have no cash value; official ¢/point not published; statement-credit value may haircut vs booking (secondary)
• Sole proprietors ineligible; U.S. entity + EIN required
• No published lounge, TSA/Global Entry, or card-insurance benefits guide; product is new (Mar 2026) so limit ranges and servicing quality are thinly documented

Capital One Venture Business

Pros

• Unlimited 2X miles with no category caps, plus 5X on Capital One Business Travel hotels/cars and 15+ transfer partners
• $0 FTF and free employee cards
• $50 travel + $50 ads/software credits can offset the $95 fee if used
• Global Entry/TSA PreCheck up to $120 every 4 years
• Live 100,000 / $10,000 / 3-month bonus is richer than the last Spark Miles 50k / $4,500 offer

Cons

• $95 fee with no year-1 waiver on the live SKU
• No 0% intro APR; BTs not available; purchase APR 24.49% variable
• No lounge access; 5X travel is portal hotels/cars only — not flights, not direct bookings
• Ads/software credit is MCC-fragile
• Spark Miles closed; existing holders must re-apply (no product change) to get new credits and may lose the bonus

Verdict

Engine X

Engine X is a TMC + charge card, not Direct Bill and not Ramp/Brex. Most SMBs stay Silver (6% / 1.5%). Skip it if travel will not move onto Engine, if you need revolving credit or transferable miles, or if you are a sole prop. Confirm the live 20,000-point offer (through 31 Dec 2026) requires $2,000 off-Engine spend within 30 days of first card activation.

Capital One Venture Business

New applicants see Venture Business, not Spark Miles. Existing Spark Miles accounts stay on the old product ($0 year-1 then $95; GE/PreCheck only among this pair’s credits; no $50 travel or ads/software unless they separately apply). Do not mix with VentureOne (1.5X, $0) or Venture X Business ($395, NPSL, lounges). Skip it for 0% float, no-PG underwriting, or anyone who will revolve at 24.49%.