TSA PreCheck vs. CLEAR: Which Is Actually Faster?

The Quick Verdict

Here’s the math before the marketing. TSA PreCheck costs $77.95 to $85 for five years. CLEAR+ costs $219 a year. That’s not a close call on price — PreCheck works out to about $16 a year; CLEAR is $219, every year, forever.

PreCheck also wins on reach. It works at more than 200 airports and with 90-plus airlines, according to NerdWallet. CLEAR+ sits at somewhere around 59 to 62 airports, per late-2025 reporting from Thrifty Traveler, and it’s still missing some major hubs.

CLEAR wins exactly one thing, and only sometimes: the ID-check line. Where it’s staffed well, it walks you past the boarding-pass podium to the front of screening. Where it isn’t, it’s a coin flip.

Stacked together, they’re the fastest realistic setup at a checkpoint — the combo travelers call the “gold standard,” per The Points Guy. But “fastest” and “worth it” are different questions, and for most people the honest answer is PreCheck alone. The rest of this is the proof, built on real airport reports instead of brochure numbers.

What TSA PreCheck and CLEAR Actually Do (They’re Not Competing for the Same Job)

The “PreCheck vs. CLEAR” framing is a little off, because the two solve different parts of the same checkpoint.

CLEAR is an identity shortcut. It uses biometrics — your eyes or fingerprints — to confirm who you are, then an agent walks you from the CLEAR podium to the front of the physical-screening line. It skips the step where a TSA officer checks your ID and boarding pass. It does not change how you get screened, as The Points Guy lays out.

TSA PreCheck is a screening shortcut. It’s a separate, lighter lane where you keep your shoes, belt and light jacket on and leave your laptop and compliant liquids in your bag. That’s the part that actually feels fast.

So CLEAR gets you to screening faster; PreCheck makes screening itself faster. They aren’t substitutes — that’s the quiet misconception the brochures encourage. Used together, CLEAR moves you to the front of the line and PreCheck hands you the easy screening once you’re there. That’s the “gold standard” stack.

Here’s the number that should anchor the whole decision: TSA’s own site says about 99% of PreCheck passengers already wait less than 10 minutes. So the thing CLEAR sells — skipping the ID wait — only has value when the PreCheck line itself is long. Hold that thought.

Price and Coverage, Side by Side

PreCheck is a five-year membership sold through three approved enrollment providers, and what you pay depends on which one you use:

Program	Price	Term	Enrollment footprint
IDEMIA (PreCheck)	$78	5 years	623 locations
Telos (PreCheck)	$85	5 years	161 locations
CLEAR (as PreCheck enroller)	$77.95	5 years	55 locations
CLEAR+ membership	$219	per year	~59–62 airports

Those figures come from TSA’s enrollment page and CLEAR’s own pricing page. Note the quirk in that last-but-one row: CLEAR itself became an approved place to enroll in PreCheck in April 2024, so you can now apply for both in a single online application and finish the in-person step at a CLEAR location, according to Matador Network. The programs are not merging, though — separate enrollment, separate fees.

On CLEAR+ pricing, the trajectory tells the story. CLEAR’s own site now lists $219 a year, up from the $209 it moved to on July 1, 2025 — only the third price change in the company’s 15-year history, per Upgraded Points, and it came after CLEAR grew its footprint by roughly 50% (45 new lanes, 19 new airports) over three years. You can add up to three family members or friends at $125 each, kids 17 and under are free, and military and government employees pay $125 a year, per CLEAR’s pricing page. American Express raised its cardholder statement credit to match.

But the number that matters most isn’t the sticker — it’s coverage. PreCheck: 200-plus airports, 90-plus airlines. CLEAR+: several dozen airports, still expanding into smaller regional cities while it’s absent from some big hubs, per NerdWallet and Thrifty Traveler. If you fly out of a mid-size or small airport, there’s a real chance CLEAR isn’t there at all. PreCheck almost certainly is.

The Free Alternative Nobody’s Advertising: TSA PreCheck Touchless ID

Here’s the part CLEAR’s marketing and the standard NerdWallet and Chase explainers skip entirely.

TSA built its own version of CLEAR’s core pitch, and it’s free. It’s called TSA PreCheck Touchless ID — a facial-comparison identity check inside the PreCheck lane that confirms who you are without an agent handling your ID. It costs nothing beyond the standard PreCheck or Global Entry fee you’ve already paid, per TSA.

By spring 2026 it had rolled out to more than 60 airports, including O’Hare, Charlotte, Boston Logan and Baltimore/Washington, according to TSA. And a Points Guy tester clocked it saving about 10 minutes versus a regular PreCheck lane — which is roughly the entire pitch CLEAR makes for $219 a year, as Newsweek reported.

That quietly rewrites the value equation. CLEAR’s paid speed at the ID step is exactly what Touchless ID now gives PreCheck members for free, at a growing list of the airports where you’d actually want it. You opt in through your airline. If your home airport has it, a large chunk of CLEAR’s argument disappears.

What CLEAR Is Actually Like at Real Airports Right Now

This is where brochure numbers and real life split apart, and it’s why I won’t tell you CLEAR is universally faster.

Traveler reports collected by Thrifty Traveler describe CLEAR being slower than — or a coin flip against — plain PreCheck at a long list of specific airports: Charlotte, Orlando, Newark, LAX, JFK’s Terminal 4, Denver and O’Hare.

The JFK Terminal 4 story is the one that sticks with me as a revenue-management person. A CLEAR agent was alternating one CLEAR customer, then one non-CLEAR customer, because CLEAR had hit its paid staffing capacity for that lane, per Thrifty Traveler. You paid to skip the line and got dropped into an every-other-person rotation. That’s the gap between the incentive CLEAR sells and the experience you get when a lane is under-resourced. CLEAR has more than 31 million members across its platform, according to The Points Guy — but scale isn’t the same as speed at your gate.

To be fair, CLEAR knows this and is spending to fix it. It’s rolling out automated “e-gates” that replace staffed kiosks, and had them at 37 airports as of February 2026, with a commitment to reach every CLEAR checkpoint by the end of 2026, per The Points Guy. E-gates take the human bottleneck out. If your airport already has them, CLEAR is a more consistent product than those reports suggest. If it doesn’t yet, you’re betting on staffing — and staffing is exactly where CLEAR wobbles.

Stacking Both: When CLEAR + PreCheck Together Is Worth the Extra Cost

The stack is real, and it genuinely is the fastest way through: CLEAR to the front of the ID line, PreCheck for the light screening once you’re there. The question is never whether it’s faster. It’s whether the extra $219 a year buys back enough minutes for you, specifically.

Run the math on your own flying. The stack earns its keep if you:

• fly most weeks, so you’re spreading $219 across dozens of trips;
• fly out of a CLEAR airport with e-gates or reliable staffing; and
• fly at peak times, when even the PreCheck line backs up.

Skip it if you fly a few times a year, if you’re based at a smaller or non-CLEAR airport, or if your home airport already has free Touchless ID. For that traveler, $219 a year buys minutes you were mostly getting anyway.

One more thing so you’re not caught off guard: CLEAR+ also sells paid, per-use add-ons — Concierge Express at $99 a use and a Concierge Gate Service at $179 a use — at a handful of airports including Atlanta, San Diego and Sacramento, per The Points Guy. Those are separate escorted-service products, not the core stack. Don’t let them muddy the “is CLEAR worth it” question.

Where Global Entry Fits In

If you fly internationally, this is the move that quietly beats both.

Global Entry costs $120 for five years and includes TSA PreCheck automatically, according to Capital One. So for $42 more than standalone PreCheck over five years, you also skip the customs and immigration line on the way home. TSA recommends Global Entry over standalone PreCheck for anyone who flies internationally four or more times a year.

For a lot of people weighing “PreCheck or CLEAR,” the real answer is “Global Entry first, then decide about CLEAR later.”

So Which One Should You Actually Get?

By traveler type:

• The once-or-twice-a-year leisure flyer: PreCheck, if anything. At $77.95–$85 for five years, it pays for itself the first time you keep your shoes on. Skip CLEAR.
• The connection-anxious flyer: PreCheck, plus a realistic arrival buffer — that pairing does far more for your stress level than CLEAR does. Build the buffer using how early you actually need to arrive.
• The frequent domestic business flyer: PreCheck for sure. Add CLEAR only if your home airport staffs it well or already has e-gates, and you fly at peak times.
• The frequent international flyer: Global Entry, which includes PreCheck for free. Add CLEAR only under the same conditions as the business flyer.

Whatever you land on, the pass is only half the equation — when you leave for the airport matters just as much. That’s the thread running through our full security tag hub, and if a long layover is part of the trip, here’s what’s actually allowed if you need to leave during a layover.

Quick Answers

Is CLEAR better than TSA PreCheck? They do different jobs. CLEAR skips the ID-check line; PreCheck gives you lighter, faster screening. PreCheck wins on price and airport coverage; CLEAR only helps at the ID step, and only where it’s staffed well.

Do I really need CLEAR if I have TSA PreCheck? Usually not. PreCheck already clears about 99% of passengers in under 10 minutes, per TSA, and where free Touchless ID exists it replicates CLEAR’s ID shortcut at no cost. CLEAR mainly earns its price if you fly often through a busy airport where the PreCheck line itself backs up.

Is CLEAR worth it anymore? For weekly flyers at well-staffed CLEAR airports, yes. For everyone else, the $219-a-year price, the uneven airport-by-airport performance, and TSA’s free Touchless ID make it a hard sell.

What are the downsides of TSA PreCheck? It doesn’t skip the ID-check line — only the screening — it isn’t offered by every airline, and enrollment requires an in-person appointment. But at roughly $16 a year over five years, it’s the best value in airport security.