If you joined Amazon Prime for the free shipping, you may have only a hazy idea of its other perks. With plenty of competitors offering free shipping now, it’s important to know what else comes with your Amazon Prime membership so you can calculate whether it is still worthwhile for you.
Bottom Line Personal asked Kevin Brasler, executive editor at the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Consumers’ Checkbook, to walk through Prime’s lesser-known perks.
How much is Amazon Prime?
Standard membership currently costs $14.99 per month, or $139 a year. Students and government assistance recipients pay roughly half that amount. The main Amazon Prime membership benefit is free two-day shipping and free next-day shipping on select items. Important: Even without a Prime membership, you usually can get free shipping on orders of $35 or more for items sold and shipped by Amazon. Other perks to consider…
Prime Video
If you’re not using Amazon’s streaming service, you should probably drop Prime. The a la carte value is $8.99 per month, more than half of your membership fee. Also keep in mind: To watch ad-free, even Prime members pay another $3 per month.
Music
Amazon Prime membership includes Prime Music Streaming, a radio-style service that should not be confused with Amazon Music Unlimited, an enormous catalog of downloadable and on-demand songs that costs Prime members another $10.99 per month.
Deals
Amazon holds a members-only Black Friday–style event called Prime Day each year in July, as well as exclusive Prime deals every day. These generally aren’t worth joining for.
Delivery and returns
Prime offers you Amazon Day, where all your deliveries arrive on one day…as well as Amazon Key, where drivers leave packages inside your garage. You can receive digital credit—$1 toward the rental or purchase of a movie from its streaming side—for accepting a slower delivery time.
Food services
For GrubHub subscribers, Amazon Prime waives delivery fees, which can be valuable for frequent users. And Prime membership secures discounts and perks at Amazon Fresh on the Amazon and Whole Foods websites, as well as in Whole Foods stores.
Reading
Joining Prime makes you a member of Amazon First Reads, through which you receive one to two free Kindle books each month. You also get Prime Reading, free access to more than 1,000 eBooks, although they won’t be the hottest best-sellers. A better option is the free app Libby, which you get with your public library card.
Gaming
Prime Gaming gives you one free subscription to one Twitch channel each month—a value of about $5 or $6. You also get to download some free mobile games, although these aren’t exactly new blockbuster console games.
Cloud storage
Prime provides unlimited photo storage backup on Amazon’s cloud, as well as 5 gigabytes of video storage. If you’re paying for cloud storage, this could represent substantial savings.
Medical
Prime members can sign up for RxPass and get more than 50 eligible medications for only $5 per month. Members also may join One Medical, Amazon-owned concierge medical practices, for only $99 per year instead of the usual $199 that nonmembers would pay. That $100 savings alone is worth more than 70% of your Prime fee.
