What Amazon Prime Includes

Amazon Prime is a paid membership that bundles free shipping, streaming, and digital content services under one subscription. In the US, it costs $14.99 per month or $139 per year. A Prime Student plan is available for $7.49/month to college students with a verified .edu email address.

A standard Prime membership includes all of the following services:

• Free shipping: Same-day, one-day, and two-day delivery on millions of eligible items, depending on your location and the specific product.
• Prime Video: Unlimited streaming of movies, TV shows, and Amazon Originals. Optional paid channel add-ons (Prime Video Channels) are available separately.
• Prime Music: Ad-free streaming of over 100 million songs and podcasts on any device. Upgrading to Amazon Music Unlimited adds full on-demand playback of any specific track.
• Prime Gaming: Free PC games and in-game content every month, plus one free Twitch channel subscription per month.
• Prime Reading: Borrow up to 10 Kindle books, magazines, and comics at a time from a catalog of over 3,000 titles.
• Amazon Photos: Unlimited full-resolution photo storage in the cloud, plus 5 GB of video storage.
• Prime Early Access: 30-minute early entry to Lightning Deals and exclusive access during Prime Day sales events.
• Grubhub+ membership: A free Grubhub+ subscription (ordinarily $9.99/month) is currently bundled with Prime in the US, waiving delivery fees on Grubhub orders.

Each benefit uses the same Amazon account login. You do not need to pay extra to activate them — they are all included in your membership fee. However, you do need to launch each service individually the first time to link it to your account.

How to Set Up and Use Prime Video

Prime Video works on the web at primevideo.com, through the Prime Video app on iOS and Android, on Fire TV devices, and on most smart TVs via the built-in app store. Sign in with your existing Amazon email and password — no separate account is needed.

1. Create viewer profiles: After signing in, go to Account & Settings → Manage Profiles. You can create up to six profiles per account. Use a Kids profile to automatically restrict content to age-appropriate ratings and prevent purchases.
2. Download titles for offline viewing: In the mobile app, tap the download icon on any eligible movie or TV episode. Downloads remain available for up to 30 days, or for 48 hours after you begin watching — whichever comes first.
3. Adjust streaming quality: Go to Settings → Stream and Download. Select Best Quality for 4K HDR on supported televisions, or Good to reduce data usage on a mobile connection.
4. Set parental controls: In Account & Settings → Parental Controls, create a 5-digit PIN. This blocks purchases from the app and restricts playback to a maximum rating you choose (G, PG, PG-13, R, or unrated).
5. Add Prime Video Channels: Browse paid add-on channels such as Paramount+, Starz, and MGM+ under the Channels tab. Each channel has its own monthly fee and can be canceled independently without affecting your base Prime subscription.

Prime Video supports simultaneous streaming on up to three devices at once. If you share your account through Amazon Household, each adult member can stream on their own devices using their own profile at the same time.

Using Prime Music, Prime Gaming, and Prime Reading

Prime Music

Open the Amazon Music app (free on iOS, Android, Fire TV, and desktop) or visit music.amazon.com. Sign in with your Amazon account to start streaming. Prime Music provides shuffle-play access to over 100 million songs across all genres, along with ad-free podcast listening.

For full on-demand control — playing any specific song in any order, creating playlists, and accessing higher audio quality — upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited at $9.99/month (or $7.99/month on an annual plan). A family plan covering up to six accounts costs $14.99/month and is worth considering if multiple household members want on-demand access.

Prime Gaming

Prime Gaming provides free PC games and in-game loot for popular titles every month. Here is how to claim what is available:

1. Visit gaming.amazon.com and sign in with your Amazon account.
2. Click Claim Game next to any free title. Claimed games are added to your library permanently — they remain yours even if you later cancel Prime.
3. For in-game loot (available for games including Fortnite, League of Legends, and Apex Legends), click the loot offer, then follow the link to connect your game account to your Amazon account. You only need to do this connection once per game.
4. To use your free monthly Twitch subscription, link your Twitch and Amazon accounts under the Twitch tab at gaming.amazon.com. Each month you can give a free subscription to any streamer of your choice.

Prime Reading

Install the free Kindle app on iOS, Android, PC, or Mac — or use a Kindle e-reader. Inside the Kindle store, filter by Prime Reading to browse the available catalog. Tap Read for Free to borrow a title. You can hold a maximum of 10 Prime Reading titles at once. To borrow an 11th book, return one of your current borrows first from the Manage Your Content and Devices page on amazon.com.

How to Share Prime With Your Household

Amazon Household lets you extend your Prime membership to one other adult and up to four children without purchasing a second subscription. The second adult gets their own Prime-speed shipping on their own orders and their own Prime Video access — both completely independent from your account.

What is shared through Household:

• Free Prime shipping on each adult's orders
• Prime Video access (each adult streams on their own profile and device)
• Amazon Photos unlimited storage

What is not shared: Digital purchases, Kindle books, Prime Gaming library, Prime Reading borrows, and Prime Day deal access are tied to the individual account that uses them. Payment methods are pooled within the household, meaning Amazon can charge either adult's default payment card for household purchases — something both adults must agree to when setting up Household.

To set up Amazon Household:

1. Go to amazon.com/myh/manage and click Add Adult.
2. Enter the other adult's Amazon account email address. They receive an invitation email and must accept it to complete the setup.
3. Both adults must agree to share payment methods as part of the process. Review your shared payment settings afterward to ensure you are comfortable with the arrangement.
4. To add a child profile, click Add a Child and create or link their profile. Child accounts are managed through Amazon Parent Dashboard at amazon.com/parentdashboard, where you can set spending limits and content controls.

You can remove an adult from your household at any time from the same management page. Note that Amazon limits adult member changes to twice per year — if you remove the second adult, you cannot add a different one again for six months.

How to Find Prime Deals and Save More Money

Prime membership unlocks several deal-finding tools that are not accessible to non-members, beyond just free delivery.

Prime Day

Amazon holds Prime Day once per year, typically in July, with a second event sometimes in October or November. The event runs for 48 hours and offers deep discounts across electronics, home goods, clothing, and Amazon devices such as Echo and Kindle. To prepare before Prime Day begins:

• Add items to your Wish List in the weeks before the event. Amazon notifies you automatically when a Wish List item drops in price.
• Enable Deal Alerts in the Amazon mobile app by going to Account → Deal Alerts. This sends push notifications when a tracked item goes on sale.
• Visit the Prime Day preview page starting 1-2 weeks before the event to browse upcoming deal announcements and plan what to watch.

Lightning Deals

Lightning Deals are time-limited sales on specific items, usually running for 4 to 12 hours. Prime members get a 30-minute early access window before each deal opens to non-members. Find active and upcoming Lightning Deals under Today's Deals → Lightning Deals on the Amazon website or app. If a deal is already sold out when your window opens, add it to your cart during the prime access window to hold your place — Amazon allocates a limited number of cart holds.

Prime Exclusive Discounts and Subscribe & Save

On eligible product pages, look for the Prime Exclusive Price badge showing a discounted price that only applies at checkout for signed-in Prime members. These discounts are always available, not time-limited.

For household items you buy repeatedly — cleaning products, coffee, vitamins, snacks, or personal care items — Subscribe & Save saves Prime members an additional 5% per delivery (or 15% when you have five or more active subscriptions shipping in one delivery). Set your delivery frequency (every 2 weeks, monthly, every 3 months, etc.) and adjust or pause at any time from Account → Subscribe & Save with no cancellation penalty.

Managing Your Prime Membership and Billing

All membership settings live at amazon.com/mc. From this page you can view your renewal date, change your billing frequency, update payment methods, and cancel or pause your membership.

Switch From Monthly to Annual Billing

Switching from monthly ($14.99) to annual ($139) saves approximately $40 per year. To switch, go to amazon.com/mc → Manage Membership → Update payment & renewal settings and select Annual. The change applies at your next renewal date — you are not charged again immediately, and you keep full access until then.

How to Pause or Cancel Prime

1. Go to amazon.com/mc and click Manage Membership.
2. Click End Membership. Amazon displays a summary of your remaining benefits and renewal date before asking you to confirm.
3. If you have unused time remaining on an annual subscription and have made few digital purchases since renewing, Amazon may offer a prorated refund on the remaining months — click Continue to Cancel to receive it.
4. If you are unsure, choose Remind Me Later to delay the decision without losing access immediately.

After canceling, all Prime benefits remain active until the end of the current billing period. Any orders already placed with Prime shipping are processed normally and are not affected by the cancellation.

Update or Replace Your Payment Method

If Amazon cannot charge your card at renewal — for example, because it expired or was replaced — it retries the charge for up to seven days before downgrading your account to standard (non-Prime) status. To avoid any lapse in benefits, keep your payment method current. Go to Account & Lists → Account → Manage payment methods, select the card on file to update the expiry date and CVV, or add a new card and set it as your default Amazon payment method.