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There’s a good chance that you initially purchased your Amazon Prime membership to get free two-day shipping. But there are dozens of additional perks that can be tricky to find—and considering the cost of a yearly membership, you’re doing yourself a disservice if you aren’t taking advantage of all of them. I’m here to help you get your money’s worth—especially ahead of the fall Amazon Prime Day event, Big Deal Days, which will take place on October 7 and 8.
Below, we’ve listed the benefits you should be using as an Amazon Prime member. Arguably, these incentives alone aren’t worth the cost of a membership, but chances are at least one of them will come in handy.
Amazon has had more than its fair share of debacles. But there are still more than 200 million Prime members around the world, with more than 180 million members in the United States. Some sources report as many as 220 million members globally. If you’re one of the millions of folks with a Prime membership, these perks are worth checking out.
Table of Contents
Updated September 2025: We’ve ensured coverage is accurate ahead of Amazon Prime Big Deal Days.
What’s Amazon Prime, and How Much Does It Cost?
Amazon Prime is a premium membership to Amazon.com. If you’ve never had a membership before, you can try it free for 30 days. This trial automatically renews, so set a reminder on your phone to reassess and make sure you cancel if you don’t want to continue your membership.
Amazon Prime costs $139 per year. You can pay $15 per month instead, but that raises the cost of the membership to $180 annually. You’ll save more money by paying once. Eighteen- to 24-year-olds can get Prime for Young Adults (formerly called Prime Student), which is $69 annually or $7 per month, and there’s an extended six-month free trial before you have to start paying. Prime for Young Adults has an exclusive cash back program that lets members earn rewards on select purchases.
Finally, some customers are eligible for Prime Access, a discounted Prime membership that cuts the price by half. If you verify that you receive qualifying SNAP benefits or other government assistance, you can get Amazon Prime for $7 per month. Note that Prime Access members have to reverify eligibility once per year, and can only use Prime Access for four years before needing to choose a different membership.
Basic Amazon Prime Benefits
Prime members are eligible for free next-day shipping on millions of items and free two-day shipping on millions more. Depending on where you live, you may also be eligible for free same-day delivery or free Amazon Locker pickup. Other Amazon-owned stores also offer free and/or expedited shipping to Prime members, including ShopBop, Woot, and Zappos. Some merchants offer Buy with Prime at checkout, which lets you complete a purchase using your Amazon account instead of signing up for a new account entirely. It seems like more of a convenience than a benefit, but it may be appealing to some shoppers.
Prime members get free (and commercial-free) Amazon Music Prime, which pulls playlists and podcasts from a selection of 100 million songs and serves them ad-free. Members are also eligible for discounted subscriptions to Amazon Music Unlimited, a separate pick-and-play service like Apple Music or Spotify that offers on-demand access to 70 million songs. Normally it costs $12 monthly, but Prime members can get it for $11 per month.
Prime Video is also included with your membership. There are some killer originals, like Fallout and The Boys, in addition to other movies and shows. You can also stream sports on Prime Video, including NFL Thursday Night Football. Purchased as a stand-alone subscription, Prime Video costs $9 per month. Note that, sadly, these plans include commercials. If you’re a Prime member and you want to go ad-free, it’ll cost another $3 every month.
Prime Day
Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about Amazon’s members-only event, Prime Day. The semi-annual “holiday” has outperformed both Black Friday and Cyber Monday in years past, but not every Prime Day deal is actually a bargain. The WIRED Reviews team always covers the event to make good deals easier to find—our coverage is unique because we only write about deals on products we have personally tested and can verify are great buys rather than flooding our roundups with questionable third-party brands. This year, Prime Day happened on July 8-11, and a secondary sale—called Prime Big Deal Days, aka Prime Day 2— will arrive on October 7 and 8. We’ll be covering the best of the best deals throughout the event.
Exclusive Deals
Even outside of Prime Day, Amazon Prime members are eligible for special members-only discounts. You might be able to get a few bucks off your portable charger purchase, a 20 percent off coupon to use on household essentials, or lower prices on new Amazon devices. Individual discounts vary, but we see these sorts of promotions pretty frequently—and, as with Prime Day, not all of them are good.
Early-Access Lightning Deals
Both during and outside of special events like Prime Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, Prime members get early access to select Lightning Deals. You will be able to shop 30 minutes before other customers. Whether Lightning Deals are worth your money is another discussion entirely, but it’s a perk worth checking out.
Amazon Day Delivery
Overwhelmed by the sheer number of boxes at your door? (Honestly, as a product reviewer, I feel that.) Amazon Day delivery lets you schedule all of your deliveries to arrive on a certain day of the week. Rather than dealing with a box or two at a time on multiple days, you can get one package with all of your orders on whichever day you prefer. If you use Amazon Day delivery, you aren’t locked in. That means if you’re ordering something you need quickly, you can still opt for the fastest shipping method. Amazon Day delivery is a good way to cut back on all that extra cardboard (and your carbon footprint).
No-Rush Rewards
If you don’t need your order to arrive right away, sometimes at checkout you’ll see the option for free No-Rush Shipping. You might get a free digital credit to use on things like ebooks or digital games, or you might get an instant discount off your order. (You can’t choose which of the two you’ll get.) Be aware that sometimes rewards expire after a certain duration.
Alexa+
Prime members will get free access to Alexa+. Alexa+ is the new version of Amazon’s voice assistant. It uses generative AI and will cost $20 per month to non-Prime members when it leaves Early Access. Amazon says you’ll be able to talk naturally, phrase requests how you like, receive tailored recommendations based on your preferences, create bedtime stories, and more.
Grubhub+
Amazon Prime members get free access to Grubhub+, which includes free delivery on orders over $12, plus an assortment of Prime-exclusive discounts at a selection of restaurants throughout the year.
Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods, and Amazon Grocery
Amazon Fresh lets you order groceries via Amazon and get them delivered to your door. It’s not available in all areas, but it is a different way to shop if you’re trying to avoid in-person trips. You also get a selection of products from Whole Foods available through Amazon Fresh. Somewhat confusingly, there are similarly named physical Amazon Fresh grocery stores in some cities. If you’re shopping at Whole Foods in person, you can scan the smartphone app to get an extra 10 percent off storewide sales, and there are other member discounts available throughout the year.
There’s a separate Amazon Grocery subscription that costs $10 a month or $99 a year. If you have SNAP or EBT benefits, you can get 50 percent off. This subscription gets you unlimited free grocery delivery on orders over $35 or more from Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh, and local retailers.
Amazon Family
For families, Amazon Family is a great way to share benefits among multiple people. You can share membership perks with two adults, four teens (ages 13 to 17, who were added prior to April 2025), and four children. Parents can use Amazon Household to approve teens’ orders or set up parental controls on kids’ content. These benefits can only be shared with people who live at the same residence. (Previously, there was a program known as Prime Invitee that let you share your membership with folks outside of your household, but it’s been discontinued.)
Amazon First Reads
Each month, Prime members can benefit from Amazon First Reads. You’ll get at least one Kindle book from the selection for free. Nonmembers can get their two books for $2 apiece. As a reminder, you can read Kindle books even if you don’t have a Kindle device, thanks to the free app available for phones and computers. We also have a buying guide to help you pick the right Kindle.
Prime Reading
In addition to First Reads, Prime members get access to tons of Kindle books via Prime Reading. There are more than a thousand items to choose from. Aside from books, you can access audiobooks and magazines, plus comics via Comixology.
Prime Gaming
Every month, Prime members are eligible for various rewards via Prime Gaming (formerly known as Twitch Prime). This includes in-game loot in a variety of popular games, free game downloads, free downloadable content (DLC) and expansions, premium currency, and more. You also get a free Twitch subscription, which are subscriptions to individual Twitch streamers (normally these “Twitch subs” cost money). With the free subscription you get from Amazon Prime, you can support channels you enjoy—creators make some money off the subscription, but it won’t cost you anything extra.
$10 off Game Preorders
This discount used to be much better, but it’s still worth looking into if you are in the market for a new video game. Occasionally, Prime members can receive $10 off when they preorder a game. Eligible titles show up here when they’re available. Some video games also have free Release Date Delivery—just look for that shipping option when preordering a game.
Unlimited Online Photo Storage
Prime members get access to unlimited full-resolution photo storage, and 5 gigabytes of video storage as well. You can store, print, and share photos using the Amazon Photos app and back everything up to the cloud. (Printing is done through Shutterfly, where Prime members get a 45 percent discount.) If your account ever loses Prime status, you’ll need to pay at least $2 per month to keep storing your photos and videos, so this shouldn’t be your primary backup method. You might want to consider using one of these options too.
Discounted Amazon Kids+
Amazon Kids+ (formerly called FreeTime Unlimited) is Amazon’s content service for kids. The service is compatible with several iOS, Android, and Amazon devices like Fire tablets. It provides a bevy of parental controls while giving kiddos access to age-appropriate shows, books, games, and the like. Amazon Kids+ costs $8 per month, but Prime members can snag the subscription for $6 per month (or $79 and $48 per year, respectively).
Fuel Savings
By linking your Amazon Prime account to Earnify, a loyalty app owned by BP and Amoco, you can save at least 10 cents per gallon on fuel at over 7,500 participating gas stations locations.
Additional Perks for Specific Customers
Expecting a new addition to your family? Select Prime members can claim a free Baby Registry Welcome Box by creating a registry that has at least 10 unique items and $10 worth of purchases (by themselves or others). Learn more here.
Prime RX offers select customers discounts on prescription medications. It’s a prescription savings card that can be used at pharmacies nationwide, including Amazon Pharmacy. These savings programs are nothing new—one similar program is GoodRx—and one may argue that giving Amazon information about your medications adds another layer to privacy concerns. However, the benefit is free if you do decide to use it, and it may be worth checking out if you pay a lot out-of-pocket for prescription medications.
There’s another health benefit called OneMedical that offers on-demand care for things like common colds, allergies, yeast infections, or urinary tract infections. It costs $9 per month (plus an additional $6 per month for additional members of your family).
Amazon Key offers select Prime members in-garage delivery. If you live in an eligible area and you’re interested, you’ll need to purchase and install a smart garage kit. Amazon Key previously offered in-home delivery, but it’s currently on pause. (Of course, this also comes with a slew of privacy concerns.)
There are three different Amazon credit cards. These come in the form of rewards back for Prime members on select purchases or at select retailers. You don’t need to get an Amazon credit card; we encourage you to read through all of the available information and carefully consider it before deciding whether or not to get one.
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