It is found in the western and central Amazon Basin in eastern Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, central Bolivia, and northwestern Brazil.

The green-and-gold tanager's range is almost all of the western Amazon Basin to the higher elevation mountain foothills of the eastern Andes.

The contiguous range has three extensions; a southerly extension from southern Peru into central Bolivia; it is about 2000 km long and 400 km wide, and in Bolivia covers the upper reaches of tributary rivers to the northeast flowing Madeira River.

A 1300 km range extension goes north to the southeastern Venezuela higher elevation border region, from the Rio Negro of the Amazon, beyond the upper reaches of Venezuela's Caribbean north-flowing Orinoco River.

The third easterly extension goes in the central Basin and ends at only the middle reaches of the northerly flowing Tapajós River, a stretch of 800 km of the 3000 km long river.