The 26 best Amazon Prime benefits: Is it worth the money in 2026?

I've had Amazon Prime for years, and while it's not as cheap as it once was, it's also got a lot more features than it used to. For homebodies who prefer online shopping, families with young kids, and e-book readers, the value of a subscription is immeasurable. If you're still unsure, I've broken down all of the best Amazon Prime benefits below.

One of the sweetest perks includes access to limited-time Prime Day deals. The twice-annual sale features thousands of noteworthy price drops across most categories, from stand mixers to camp chairs. With the fall Prime Big Deal Days just around the corner, signing up for a free trial now will cover you for the event.

What is Amazon Prime?

Amazon Prime is a membership subscription service for Amazon customers. While you don't have to be a member to buy on Amazon, Prime offers a wide range of benefits we'll unpack below, including same-day shipping and grocery delivery.

Prime membership also unlocks a suite of free and heavily discounted services, including music streaming, food delivery, and even healthcare. Of course, you'll also need to be a member to take advantage of exclusive discounts and early lightning deals during sale events like Amazon Prime Day, which takes place this year from June 23-26.

The best Amazon Prime shipping benefits

Amazon Prime's most famous perks make shipping cheaper and easier.

Free two-day shipping

Tens of thousands of items on Amazon display the Prime logo next to their prices, indicating you don't pay for shipping and that they'll reach your doorstep in 2 days or less.

This is the absolute best way to save money when shopping on Amazon — always look for that Prime logo.

Free one-day and same-day shipping

If you're ordering items from Amazon before noon, you might see an option for Prime Next-Day or Same-Day delivery. These options let you order and receive your items even faster than standard two-day shipping — either by 9 p.m. the next day or by 9 p.m. the same day.

Not all items qualify for faster shipping, and it's not always free. If your order is under $25, you'll have to pay a small fee, dependent on the specific product, for faster shipping. In most cases, if it's above $25, there's no charge.

Schedule multiple deliveries for Amazon Day

Are you going to be away from your home for a few days, and don't want Amazon packages piling up on your doorstep? That's where Amazon Day comes in.

When placing an order, you'll see an option to have your packages delivered on Amazon Day. This perk lets you choose a day of the week to receive all your orders at once. Nearly every Prime item is eligible for Amazon Day deliveries.

It's flexible, too. Even if you've already placed an order for Amazon Day, you're totally free to choose another shipping option for the rest of your orders. You're never locked into Amazon Day deliveries.

Earn rewards with No-Rush Shipping

Want to save even more on shipping? Try out the No-Rush option. This option delays your order by a few days, but once it arrives, you'll earn credit toward future Amazon purchases, free music downloads, and more.

Release date deliveries

Whether you're hyped for a new video game title release or device announcement, nothing dampens the excitement quite like waiting for your preorder to be fulfilled.

Amazon Prime customers can preorder certain items before they are released to the public. As soon as the product hits the market, Amazon will reserve and deliver it to you (sometimes on the same day).

Discounted or free grocery delivery and pickup

Amazon owns and operates two different grocery store brands: Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh. If you're a Prime customer, you can order groceries from either brand online and have them delivered to your doorstep in as little as 2 hours.

Delivery fees vary by store, order total, and other factors, but Prime members can add optional grocery subscriptions for an extra monthly or annual fee.

Grocery deliveries aren't available everywhere, and you'll have to meet a minimum order amount that varies by location. To check if Amazon offers grocery delivery in your area, head to this page and enter your zip code.

Amazon Key In-Garage deliveries

With specific smart garage door opener brands, you can sign up for Amazon Key In-Garage deliveries. This program allows Amazon drivers to open your garage door so they can safely leave packages inside. Amazon will verify the driver's identity and your package before the driver opens the door.

On delivery day, you'll get a notification in the morning with a four-hour delivery window for when the driver will arrive at your home. Right before the driver arrives, you'll receive an Arriving Now notification.

The best Amazon Prime shopping benefits

Not only does Prime make shipping cheaper, but it also gives you access to exclusive deals and products.

Amazon Prime Day

There's no better time to shop on Amazon than Prime Day, the twice-yearly event where thousands of popular items go on sale. Prime Day discounts are only available to Prime members and can save you more in a day than you pay for your yearly membership.

Despite the name, Prime Day sales events can last 2 to 4 days. In 2025, the summer event ran from July 8 to July 11. There was also another sales event, Prime Big Deal Days, running from October 8 to 9, marking the second Prime Day of 2024. This year, Amazon announced that the 2026 summer Prime Day will run from June 23 to 26.

Discounts at Whole Foods

As I mentioned earlier, Whole Foods is both an Amazon-owned grocery brand (Amazon Fresh used to be, but has since been reduced to only online orders). While anyone can shop at the brick-and-mortar store, Prime members get exclusive deals and the option to add on unlimited grocery delivery from Whole Foods Market and other local grocery retailers.

Amazon Pharmacy, RxPass, and Prime Rx

Amazon also runs its own suite of pharmacy services.

Amazon Pharmacy works like a traditional pharmacy, but lets you get your medications delivered to your door, just like all your other Amazon packages. Amazon Pharmacy accepts most insurance plans.

RxPass allows Prime members to get 50+ generic medications for just $5 a month. It's a great option if you don't have insurance or if you're paying more than $5 a month for commonly prescribed drugs like lisinopril or sertraline.

Prime Rx allows Amazon Prime subscribers to find medication discounts, compare prices, pick it up at their preferred pharmacy, or order it straight from Amazon Pharmacy for delivery. Just note that you can't combine any savings you get from Prime Rx with your insurance. You have to use one or the other.

Also, keep in mind that these perks are subject to regional and insurance limitations. California and Washington are currently unsupported, and neither Medicaid nor CHIP is accepted.

One Medical

Prime health benefits don't stop at prescriptions. For an extra $9 a month (or $99 a year), Prime members can get on-demand virtual and in-person medical care at One Medical. There are clinics in major cities throughout the US, and you can see a provider within minutes via the virtual Treat Me Now feature.

You can also add on additional family members or $6 a month — a nice feature for couples, parents, and other groups.

Prescription delivery and savings

Prime members can also get fast, free nationwide delivery on Amazon Pharmacy prescriptions, in addition to their medication discounts. Same-day refills are also an option for eligible medications and regions.

Buy with Prime

The free shipping benefits extend past Amazon.com.Log in to your Amazon account on these sites to get your shipping perks from Woot!, Zappos, and more.

A free subscription to Grubhub+

All Amazon Prime members can sign up for Grubhub+.This perk usually costs $9.99 a month and comes with zero delivery fees on eligible orders, lower service fees, plus occasional offers of free food or discounts.

This perk used to only be limited to one year, but now lasts as long as you're a Prime member.

Exclusive Prime Member deals

Just looking for discounts, no matter the item? Amazon has an entire page dedicated to storing every exclusive Prime Member deal currently available. Use the Filters or Department options to sort through the offers.

Amazon Prime Visa Card

This is a credit cardexclusive to Prime members. It'll get you:

• 5% back on all purchases from Amazon.com, Amazon Fresh, Chase Travel, and Whole Foods
• 2% back at restaurants, gas stations, and local transit and commuting
• 1% back on all other purchases

You can redeem your points for Amazon products or for cash back, gift cards, and travel discounts. You'll also earn an Amazon.com gift card upon approval.

Prime early-access opportunities

Amazon often gives Prime users early access to products or deals. There are exclusive members-only deals during Prime Day events, too, as seen during the summer Prime Day and the new Prime Big Deal Days in October.

The best Amazon Prime entertainment benefits

When Amazon's not shipping products quickly, it's running a juggernaut of an entertainment empire.

Prime Video

Prime Video lets you stream thousands of movies and TV shows, including original Amazon shows like "The Boys", 'Rings of Power", and "The Legend of Vox Machina." It also includes several titles that you can't stream, but can still buy and rent.

For an extra fee, Prime members can also subscribe to over 100 premium channels, including Max, Showtime, and Starz.

Amazon Music for Prime Members and Amazon Music Unlimited

Amazon Music is Amazon's music streaming service — think of it like the retailer's version of Spotify. With Amazon Music, you can stream millions of songs ad-free. The main caveat holding it back from being most users' main music player is that on-demand listening is limited to select playlists.

For an extra $11.99 a month, you can also subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited, which expands the library to even more songs and lets you download them for offline listening on any device.

Prime Reading

Amazon offers a handful of different perks for avid readers:

• Amazon First Reads: Provides early access to new books across genres; users can choose one free Kindle book each month to download and keep.
• Amazon Original Stories: These short reads are free for Prime members in eBook and audio formats.
• Additional reading benefits: All members can access a catalog of popular eBooks, audiobooks, comics, and manga.

Alexa Plus

Alexa now comes with generative AI-powered improvements. Amazon boasts its more capable, smarter assistant, now available to Prime members.

Amazon Luna

Luna is Amazon's cloud-gaming platform, in the vein of Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus. Prime members have access to a rotating selection of games, which you can play on PC, Mac, Fire TV, Chromebook, iPhone, iPad, and Android.

If you're playing a co-op game, you don't need to make your friends subscribe to Luna, too — as long as one person has a Luna account, both of you can play. It's also easy to stream your gameplay to Twitch.

Just note that although Luna is free, if you want to use the specialized Luna controller, you'll still need to buy it. Luna Premium also costs an extra $10 a month and unlocks more games.

Amazon Kids Plus

Formerly known as FreeTime Unlimited, Amazon Kids Plus is a subscription service that gives you and your kids access to child-friendly books, movies, TV shows, apps, and games.

Kids Plus offers three age groups, each with its own selection of apps and features: ages 3 to 5, 6 to 8, and 9 to 12. It also comes with parental controls you can manage on your phone to set screen time limits and filter content.

For Prime customers, Kids Plus costs $5 a month.

More great Amazon Prime services

These two benefits don't fit into the other categories, but are just as worthwhile.

Amazon Photos

All Amazon customers get 5 gigabytes of cloud storage for videos, but Prime members also get unlimited photo storage.

You can save and share as many photos as you'd like across your computers, mobile devices, and tablets, and share that unlimited photo storage with up to five people. Amazon Photos comes pre-installed on Amazon devices, so you can also view your photos from your Fire TV and Echo Show.

Amazon Family

Two adults in the same household and up to four teens and four child profiles can share a subscription, allowing everyone in the family to enjoy Prime benefits like free shipping, Prime Video, and Prime Photos, and share content like ebooks, audiobooks, apps, and games.

Another benefit of linking accounts is that adults can approve orders before they're placed (for teens) and set parental controls on digital content (for kids).

Amazon Prime Fuel Savings

That's right, Prime can even help save on gas. Members can save 10 cents a gallon at select BP, Amoco, and AMPM stations across the country.

Conveniently, in the face of hiking gas prices, Prime members can now save 20 cents per gallon on one fuel purchase every Friday through January 29.

How much does Amazon Prime cost?

For most people, an Amazon Prime subscription costs $139 a year or $14.99 a month, but some users can unlock discounted memberships.

If you're currently enrolled at an American college or are aged 18 to 24, you can sign up for Prime for young adults. This gives you all the benefits of Prime, including exclusive discounts, but costs only $7.49 a month. Best of all, the first six months are free. Yearly plans cost $69 a year.

And if you currently receive EBT, SNAP, or other government benefits, you might qualify for a 50% discount with Prime Access. This makes Prime cost $6.99 a month, and is also eligible to low-income verified users.

For full details on how to sign up for Amazon Prime, check out our detailed guide.

Is Amazon Prime worth it?

If you're using all the benefits that Amazon Prime unlocks, those perks more than make up for the steep cost. In 2018, the banking firm JPMorgan estimated that a Prime membership is worth $785 annually— and that value has only increased as new features and services have been added.

If you don't buy many items from Amazon, you might not save enough on free shipping to justify the $139 yearly fee. The same is true if you don't plan to use the entertainment services that Prime unlocks, such as Prime Video, Amazon Music, and Prime Reading.

Some of Prime's benefits are also pretty niche. Kids Plus won't mean much if you don't have children, and Prime Gaming perks are aimed at users who regularly watch Twitch streams and play games like League of Legends, which might not be you.

That said, even if you're not using every feature included with your Prime membership, Amazon Prime is an excellent way for most customers to save money over time. But for some households, a service like Walmart Plus might make more sense.

See more: Our latest Prime Day coverage | How to get a Prime free trial | How to find Lightning Deals | How to tell if a Prime Day deal is good

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