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The Benefits of Amazon Prime

Amazon frequently makes changes to its Prime membership program, so this post will attempt to keep up with all the major benefits available. There are a bunch of smaller benefits as well.

See the full list of Amazon Prime benefits and sign up for a 30-day free trial. >>

NOTE: Some of these benefits are currently limited to U.S. customers only.

Shopping Benefits

  • Free 2-day shipping on a large selection of products with no minimum order size and free 1-day (and sometimes same-day) shipping on certain products in certain markets. If you choose no-rush shipping you may receive a credit towards Amazon videos, songs, Kindle books, apps, Prime Pantry, etc. The value of the credit and what you can use it towards varies. See more shipping options. >>
  • Exclusive Deals of the Day and 30-minute early access to some Lightning Deals, which can make all the difference for whether you get the deal before it sells out.
  • Amazon Dash Buttons let you order popular brands of everyday necessities like laundry detergent, garbage bags, health and personal care items, pet supplies, etc. by pressing the button. See the full list of Dash products. >>
  • Purchase samples of select products in beauty, sports nutrition, and snack categories and receive credits towards full-sized items from the same brands.
  • Exclusive discounts on Amazon Prime Day and all-year round on certain products (e.g. unlocked smartphones, diaper subscriptions).
  • Purchase 5 items from a specific list of Prime Pantry products and Amazon will waive the $5.99 shipping cost.
  • Get 20% off select physical video games during the pre-order period until two weeks after release.

Media Benefits

  • Library of free streaming movies and TV shows, including their original content like Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle. (Note that Prime videos are a subset of their full video library.) Some Prime titles can also be downloaded for offline viewing.
  • Amazon Channels: Add-on subscriptions to dozens of streaming video services including SHOWTIME, STARZ, ACORN TV, Lifetime Movie Club, History Channel VAULT, and SEESO. While these subscriptions may not cost less than if you order them directly from the providers themselves, this benefit means you don’t have to have all those extra accounts set up individually as everything is managed through your existing Prime account.
  • Amazon Strike is a Channel that brings you some of the world’s most popular anime, with new episodes every week. The service has a 7-day free trial period then costs $4.99 a month.
  • Discount pricing ($7.99/month vs $9.99/month) for Amazon Music Unlimited, for streaming tens of millions of songs.
  • Library of over a million songs you can stream for free without ads.
  • Free access to Audible Channels, their audio podcast service (regular price is $60/year).
  • Unlimited photo storage on Amazon Drive, accessible from your computer or mobile device. You can now also share your free storage with up to 5 family members.
  • Choose one book from the six Editors’ Picks each month in advance of the official release date through the Kindle First program.
  • Borrow books from Amazon Prime Reading or the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (select titles only). With Prime Reading you can borrow a subset of the Kindle Unlimited catalog of books, magazines, and more and read them on non-Amazon devices with the free Kindle app. The Lending Library lets you borrow one title for free per month to read on a Kindle, Fire tablet, or Fire phone.
  • Access free content on Twitch, Amazon’s streaming video game service, and enjoy ad-free viewing, free channel subscriptions, exclusive discounts, and more.

How much does Amazon Prime cost?

Amazon has three Prime plans available now. You can get all the benefits listed above with the $99 Annual plan or $10.99 Monthly plan. There’s also a Prime Video-only plan for $8.99/month.

You can also buy an Amazon Prime gift membership for either the full annual plan or a 3-month plan for $33.

Note: The minimum order size for free 2-day shipping without a Prime account is $35.

See all Amazon Prime terms and conditions. >>

Sign up for your free trial of Amazon Prime now. >>

Elizabeth Kricfalusi

View Comments

  • Hi,
    I'm in Canada, Victoria, B.C. I subscribed to Amazon Prime, full service, at Christmas, and was told that it is available on Roku Canada.
    I cannot find it on my roku anywhere.
    What do I Do? It's frustrating as a Newbie!
    Please help?
    Thank You.

    • Hi Shirley.

      Unfortunately it looks like Prime Video is not yet available as a Roku channel in Canada. Here is the page that lists the devices that supports Prime Video outside the US and UK:

      https://www.primevideo.com/help?nodeId=202064920

      I'm not clear whether Roku or Amazon is the company that needs to make this happen.

      In the meantime, one possible option would be to use screen mirroring if your Roku model supports it. If your Roku doesn't support mirroring, and you don't have a TV with screen mirroring capabilities, you may need to get another device that does, e.g. Chromecast or a Miracast-enabled device. You can learn more about mirroring in this post:

      Mirroring Your Computer or Mobile Device Screen on Your TV

      I suspect that at some point it will be available on the Roku, but I have no idea how when.

      I hope that helps.

      - Elizabeth

      • Hi elizabeth,

        Thanks for that. I have some Info. for you that perhaps you should correct, RE: CBC All Streaming, etc...
        and The good fight.
        "W NETWORK" is showing the entire series.
        Just as ABC stepped away from "Nashville", and "W" picked that up,
        "W" has also picked up the Entire Series of "The Good Fight".
        I discovered these things, just by looking at my Guide on my Shaw Arris box.
        Took me 2 minutes, just by watching that Channel one night, to realize that they are, indeed, showing the entire Series.
        As well, Most of my Friends & Family have been watching the New Season of "Nashville" on "W".
        So perhaps you could somehow figure this out?

        Yes, You are most Welcome.
        I sometimes find, Elizabeth, that your energy spent on research and connecting with viable sources,
        to be a little "off".
        I'm a Newbie to most Tech, and I find that your Website is often slower on accurate Info., than others.
        NOT a Criticism, but a Critique, as it were.

        • Hi Shirley.

          Thanks for that information. I've added it to the post. Unfortunately, when it comes to TV shows, availability is different from country to country and I generally focus on the U.S. since the vast majority of T4L readers come from here. But I do try to add in Canada info if I can (since I'm originally from there myself), but I missed it this time.

          I really appreciate you taking the time to share that information and your feedback!

          - Elizabeth

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Elizabeth Kricfalusi

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