Most plants sold as palms are safe for cats: the ASPCA lists areca, parlor, majesty, kentia, and ponytail palm as non-toxic — but the sago palm sold on the same shelf is not a palm at all, and it is life-threatening to cats (S4 Emergency).
"Palm" is a shop label, not a botanical group: the plants under it span several unrelated families, and one of them can kill a cat. Below: every palm-shelf plant we have verified against primary sources — full verdict pages for the common ones, quick verdicts for the rest, and the one that isn't a palm at all.
⚠ THE IMPOSTOR: SAGO PALM
The sago palm sold beside the safe palms is Cycas revoluta — a cycad, not a palm. Every part of it contains cycasin, the seeds most of all, and any amount can cause liver failure and death in cats. Signs include vomiting with blood, dark tarry stool, increased thirst, a stumbling gait, seizures, bruising, and jaundice — and they can be delayed for hours, so a cat that looks fine after chewing is not evidence of safety. If a sago palm is in the house and you have a cat, this is the one page on this guide to read in full.
Full verdict →No, they are three unrelated plants and only the names overlap. Bamboo palm is Chamaedorea elegans, the palm on this page, which the ASPCA lists as non-toxic to cats — it is the same plant as the parlor palm. Bamboo is Phyllostachys aurea, a true grass, which the ASPCA also lists as non-toxic to cats. Lucky bamboo is neither: it is Dracaena sanderiana, and the ASPCA lists Dracaena as toxic to cats. If your "bamboo" is a bare stalk standing in water or pebbles, it is the Dracaena — check our dracaena verdict, not this page.