Amazon Prime is a paid membership, not a points program. In the US, members pay $14.99 a month or $139 a year for fast, free delivery, Prime Video, exclusive deals and a bundle of extras, and nothing is earned or redeemed. Two lower-priced plans cost $7.49 a month for 18 to 24 year olds and students, and $6.99 a month for people on eligible government assistance or lower incomes, and new members get a 30 day free trial. The only points-like layer is a limited-time 5% cash back on the Young Adults plan.
Last checked against Amazon's Prime sign-up page, its membership fee page, the Prime Terms and Conditions (last updated 14 August 2026) and the Prime for Young Adults cash back terms, for the US store in US dollars, all as of 24 October 2026.
This guide is written by Graeme, co-founder of Mage, a loyalty and customer accounts platform for Shopify.
Amazon Prime at a glance
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Cost | $14.99 a month or $139 a year (plus tax where it applies) |
| Free trial | 30 days for new members; the membership then renews automatically |
| Other plans | Prime for Young Adults ($7.49 a month or $69 a year), Prime Access ($6.99 a month), Prime Video only ($8.99 a month) |
| Who can join | Anyone with an Amazon account; Young Adults is for ages 18 to 24 or college students, Prime Access for eligible government assistance or income |
| Points | None |
| Cash back | 5% on eligible items for Prime for Young Adults members only, for a limited time |
| Sharing | Selected benefits with one other adult, plus children and teens, in an Amazon Family at the same address |
| Cancelling | Any time; refunds depend on timing and use (see below) |
How to join Amazon Prime
You join at amazon.com/prime by choosing a plan and selecting Join Prime or Start your free 30-day trial. A free trial needs an account with a valid credit card; checking accounts, pre-paid cards and corporate credit lines can't be used. Trial members get the same delivery, shopping and streaming benefits as paid members, and they are upgraded to a paid plan automatically when the trial ends unless they cancel first.
Plans and what they cost
| Plan | Price | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Prime Monthly | $14.99 a month | Anyone |
| Prime Annual | $139 a year | Anyone |
| Prime for Young Adults | $7.49 a month or $69 a year | Ages 18 to 24, or college-enrolled students who verify eligibility |
| Prime Access | $6.99 a month | People on SNAP, Medicaid, SSI, WIC and other eligible assistance programs, or with household income at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Guideline |
| Prime Video only | $8.99 a month | People who want streaming without the rest |
Prime for Young Adults and Prime Access both advertise the full Prime benefits. Prime for Young Adults does not include Household sharing, and its page advertises a six month trial at $0 labelled as courtesy of Grubhub, where the other plans offer 30 days. Amazon also lists a Prime Shipping plan at $14.99 a month that is invitation only and has no digital benefits.
Some arithmetic of our own: twelve months of the monthly plan is $179.88, so the $139 annual plan saves $40.88, about 23%, and works out at $11.58 a month. On Young Adults, the $69 annual plan saves $20.88 against twelve months at $7.49.
What Amazon Prime includes
The sign-up page leads with three groups of benefits.
- Fast, free delivery: One-Day, Two-Day and Standard Delivery are free on eligible items, and Same-Day Delivery is free on qualifying orders in selected areas, with free Same-Day grocery delivery on orders of $25 or more. Standard delivery takes four to five business days.
- Streaming: Prime Video includes new releases, Originals and live sports. Titles included with Prime run with ads, and an optional subscription called Prime Video Ultra removes ads from most titles.
- Deals: Daily deals on thousands of items, members-only events such as Prime Day, and Lightning Deals 30 minutes early.
The wider bundle covers groceries (extra savings at Whole Foods Market, including 10% off sale items and deals every Tuesday and Friday), ad-free Amazon Music with top podcasts, unlimited full-resolution photo storage with 5GB for video, Grubhub+ with $0 delivery fees, 10 cents a gallon off fuel at over 7,500 participating sites, prescription savings at 60,000 pharmacies, one free Kindle book a month, a library of 50 or more games on Amazon Luna and the Alexa+ assistant.
Prime's delivery rules apply item by item. Only items marked as Prime eligible on the product page qualify, and an order with a mix of eligible and ineligible items pays shipping on the ineligible ones. Amazon's descriptions of the selection vary: the sign-up page says millions of items, the benefits page says 300 million and the annual report says tens of millions.
Cash back and card rewards
Prime itself earns nothing, but two money-back offers sit beside it.
Prime for Young Adults cash back. Members on this plan earn 5% cash back on eligible products, which are tagged with badges in search results and cover Beauty, Apparel, Electronics, Personal Care and Personal Computers. The terms describe it as a limited time offering that Amazon can change at any time without notice.
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| Rate | 5% of the final price after discounts, excluding shipping and tax |
| Caps | $500 per calendar year and $100 per purchase (a $10,000 yearly spend at 5%, our arithmetic) |
| Spending it | $5 minimum balance, applied at checkout before tax and shipping |
| Not redeemable on | Gift cards, digital content and Prime membership fees |
| Expiry | 180 days after it was earned |
| Returns | Cash back from returned or refunded orders is removed from the balance or deducted from the refund |
| Timing | Appears in the dashboard 24 to 48 hours after delivery |
Prime Visa. Amazon's benefits page lists a Prime Visa card that earns 5% back at Amazon.com, Whole Foods Market and more. The card has its own terms, and Prime's sign-up page and terms don't set out its earn rules.
Sharing Prime with your household
Prime members can share selected benefits through an Amazon Family. A family can include two adults with their own accounts, up to four teens and up to four children. The organizer has to share a payment method for household verification, and members must live at the same address. Shared benefits include delivery, Prime events and deals, Prime Video with ads, Photos, Music and digital content. Prime for Young Adults has no sharing.
Pausing, cancelling and refunds
You can cancel any time from Your Account before the renewal date. The refund rules come from two places, and they differ in detail. The sign-up page FAQ says paid members who haven't used their benefits can get up to a full refund of the current period. The terms add that a cancellation within 3 business days of signing up or converting from a free trial gets a full refund, but Amazon may withhold the value of benefits used in that window. At any other time, the full fee is refunded only if no eligible purchases were made and no benefits were used since the latest charge.
Monthly and annual members can also pause instead of cancelling. A pause starts after the current billing cycle, ends benefits while it lasts and resumes at the then-current price. Monthly members can pause for one month and auto-resume, and monthly or annual members can pause for up to a year and resume manually. A membership paused for more than 365 days is cancelled automatically. Free trials, discounted offers, Prime Video only and student plans can't be paused.
What Amazon doesn't publish
- How many members Prime has. Amazon's 2025 annual report, filed in February 2026, doesn't give a member count. It reports subscription services net sales of $49.6 billion for 2025, up from $44.4 billion in 2024, but that line includes Prime fees along with digital video, audiobook, music and e-book subscriptions.
- What Prime members save or spend, compared with non-members.
- Prime Visa earn rules on the Prime pages, and any cap on its 5%.
The fine print
- Amazon can add or remove benefits and change the terms, the plan eligibility or any aspect of Prime without notice, and continued membership counts as acceptance.
- Membership renews automatically, and Amazon notifies members of a fee increase before the renewal it applies to.
- Amazon can end a membership at its discretion, with a prorated refund unless the cause is misuse or a breach of the terms.
What stands out about Amazon Prime
Delivery is the anchor, and Amazon treats it as marketing. In its annual report Amazon says it views Prime benefits and other shipping offers as effective worldwide marketing tools, and that their costs aren't counted in sales and marketing expense. The fee buys a delivery promise, and streaming, music, photos and the rest are stacked on top, so no single extra has to justify the price.
One benefit set, several prices. Young Adults pays about half the price and Prime Access a little under half, while the annual plan takes roughly 23% off the monthly rate. The discounted plans differ in price, trial length and extras such as cash back and sharing, but each advertises the full Prime benefits. That lets Amazon open the membership to groups that might not pay $14.99 without building a different product.
Partners fill the bundle. Grubhub+, fuel savings, prescription savings, Zappos, Shopbop and Whole Foods offers are other companies' programs attached to the membership. They add visible value at little extra cost to the core product, and the Young Adults trial is labelled as courtesy of Grubhub.
What members should know going in:
- It renews automatically. The trial converts to a paid plan unless you cancel first.
- Terms can change at any time, including the benefits themselves.
- Streaming has ads unless you add Prime Video Ultra.
- Sharing has conditions: the same address, a shared payment method and one other adult.
- The Young Adults cash back expires after 180 days and is capped, and Amazon can change or end it.
Is Amazon Prime worth joining?
If you order from Amazon regularly, yes. One-Day and Two-Day Delivery are free on eligible items, so the $139 annual fee can pay for itself in shipping for a household that orders often, though how many orders that takes depends on what you buy and Amazon doesn't say. Streaming, music and photo storage come on top. The monthly plan costs $40.88 more over a year, so it suits people who aren't sure they will keep it. If you buy a few times a year, use the 30 day trial and cancel before it renews, since the terms refund the fee within 3 business days of conversion, less the value of any benefits used. Students and 18 to 24 year olds should look at Young Adults, which is half the price and carries the cash back while it lasts. Households that qualify for Prime Access get the same benefits for $6.99 a month.
What Shopify brands can learn from Amazon Prime
Prime is an enormous program, but several of its mechanics scale down to a Shopify brand running a paid membership.
- Price the annual plan against twelve months of the monthly one. Prime's annual plan is about 23% cheaper than twelve months monthly, which gives members a reason to commit and gives you cash up front. Offer both and show the saving.
- Use a trial, and say what the refund covers. A free first period lowers the risk of joining, and a stated refund rule (full refund early, conditional later) makes the commitment feel safe without refunding every unused month.
- Offer a pause before a cancel. Prime lets monthly and annual members pause for up to a year. For a brand, a pause step can keep a lapsing member on file instead of losing them.
- Make the bundle from perks that cost you little. Prime leads with delivery and fills the rest with partner offers and digital extras. A brand can anchor on free shipping and add early access, members-only pages and priority support.
- Cap and expire cash back. The Young Adults offer has a rate, a yearly cap, a per-purchase cap, a minimum balance to spend and a 180 day expiry, with returns clawed back. Those limits keep a generous rate affordable.
If you're building a paid membership program on Shopify, Mage's Memberships feature covers recurring billing monthly, quarterly or annual, a separate price for each tier, a trial or promotional rate before the standard price, automatic renewals, and self-service from the customer's account to view perks, update a payment method, switch billing cycle or cancel. Perks can include free shipping, a welcome discount, member-only codes, a first look at launches and sales, priority support, and members-only cashback. Cashback has an approval delay, credit expiry days and clawback on refunds.
The Shopify loyalty program growing brands trust
See how Mage helps Shopify brands lift repeat purchase rate with loyalty, referrals and store credit.
Book a demo“Cannot say enough good things about the team at Mage Loyalty, one of the absolute best organizations we have ever worked with, full stop! So glad we connected with them, completely redid our loyalty program, new concepts, use of loyalty, increasing user engagement, showing us where we were not valuing our best customers, just WOW, amazing team!”
Read the West Coast Goalkeeping case study →
Frequently asked questions
How much is Amazon Prime in the US? $14.99 a month or $139 a year, plus tax where it applies. Prime for Young Adults is $7.49 a month or $69 a year, and Prime Access is $6.99 a month.
Does Amazon Prime have a free trial? Yes, 30 days for new members, and the Young Adults plan advertises six months at $0. The membership converts to a paid plan automatically when the trial ends.
Does Amazon Prime have points? No. Prime is a flat fee for a bundle of benefits. The only cash back on the plans is 5% on eligible items for Prime for Young Adults members, capped and for a limited time.
How do I cancel Amazon Prime and get a refund? Cancel from Your Account before the renewal date. A full refund is given within 3 business days of signing up or converting from a trial, less the value of any benefits used, and later only if you haven't made eligible purchases or used benefits since the latest charge.
Is Prime Video included with Prime? Yes, with ads. Prime Video Ultra, an optional subscription, removes ads from most titles. Prime Video on its own costs $8.99 a month.
Graeme is the co-founder at Mage Loyalty. He heads product development, from complex loyalty migrations and large-scale data handling to building the features shaping the future of loyalty on Shopify.
