We prove a general version of the amenability conjecture in the unified setting of a Gromov hyperbolic group $G$ acting properly cocompactly either on its Cayley graph, or on a CAT(-1)-space. Namely, for any subgroup $H$ of $G$, we show that $H$ is co-amenable in $G$ if and only if their exponential growth rates (with respect to the prescribed action) coincide. For this, we prove a quantified, representation-theoretical version of Stadlbauer’s amenability criterion for group extensions of a topologically transitive subshift of finite type, in terms of the spectral radii of the classical Ruelle transfer operator and its corresponding extension. As a consequence, we are able to show that, in our enlarged context, there is a gap between the exponential growth rate of a group with Kazhdan’s property (T) and the ones of its infinite index subgroups. This also generalizes a well-known theorem of Corlette for lattices of the quaternionic hyperbolic space or the Cayley hyperbolic plane.