The Amazon Prime Price Increase Has Officially Gone Up By $20
Amazon just increase its annual Prime Membership price to $139 — here’s what to know…
Oh, Amazon – say it ain’t so! 😭
The price to purchase a new Amazon Prime Yearly Membership has officially been increased from $119 to $139 per year. Existing members will see the increase reflected in their renewal price starting March 25th.
HIP TIP – Read more about the Amazon Prime price changes on Amazon’s customer service page.
Apparently, the trend has been for the rates to increase every four years as we saw the last $20 increase – from $99 to $119 – back in 2018, and prior to that, the price for an Amazon Prime membership jumped from $79 to $99 back in 2014.
Monthly memberships have also been affected with a $2 increase in price from $12.99 to $14.99. There was also a jump in the discounted Amazon Prime membership programs for Students (now $7.49 from $6.49). Recipients of EBT benefits or government assistance had a small increase as well to the new discounted monthly price of $6.99.
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Unfortunately, this isn’t the first price increase that’s happened recently (and sadly probably won’t be the last). Starbucks, IKEA, and even Dollar Tree have all announced that they are raising prices – but the price increase for an Amazon Prime membership is the one we think we’ll notice the most.
Considering breaking up with Prime over the latest price increase? Don’t forget about all these great benefits!
What are some Amazon perks that justify this price?
The biggest thing we’ve always loved about Prime is its convenience. They offer FREE two-day shipping, and in many cases one-day shipping, on millions of items. You also get no-rush shipping credits, and sometimes, they even offer credit on certain items you purchase.
There’s also the entertainment portion we know and love. You get thousands of shows and movies with Prime Video, and you have access to millions of songs with Prime Music. For bookworms, Amazon also gives access to thousands of FREE Kindle eBooks. Even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can still access these perks through the Kindle app.
Did you know Amazon also gives you free unlimited cloud photo storage? That’s something we all could use more of!
Amazon Pharmacy has been another underrated lifesaver Amazon gives its Prime members. In addition to having the option to directly mail your prescriptions to your house at your convenience, the Prime Rx Card is the real kicker! If you don’t have insurance, show this to your pharmacist and you can get up to 80% off your medication.
Even if you do have insurance like myself, I’ve seen better rates with an Rx Card than I have with my own insurance! We have a full product review on this if you want to dive deeper.
Still not feeling it? Check out these competitors to consider replacing Amazon Prime.
At only $12.95/month or $98/year, Walmart+ is a service that has been directly compared to Prime. On top of getting free grocery delivery, you’ll get early access to special promotions and events before the general public, which includes Black Friday deals and product releases. You also get free shipping on every order with no minimum requirement, save 5¢ per gallon on gas, and even offer a prescription service that can save you up to 85%. Take advantage of the 30-day free trial now!
Another service to consider is Shipt. Shipt is owned by Target, and it’s the service Target uses to guarantee you same-day delivery, in sometimes as little as an hour, for all major city metropolitan areas in the US. From food to electronics, you’ll be able to choose whatever you need, and a reliable Shipt shopper will deliver it directly to your door.
Shipt is $9.99 per order, or you can get a $8.25/month or $99/year membership. Orders under $35 and alcohol both include an additional $7 fee.
We want to hear from you! Will you still be keeping your membership?
What’s the easiest way to earn a FREE $10 Amazon gift card? Share your frugal story as a part of our Happy Friday series!
Once I started comparison shopping everything I buy on Amazon, I realized that most of the time, items on Amazon are marked up to cover the supposedly “free” Prime shipping. Most things I buy are almost always cheaper on WM or Target’s websites, and pantry items I get at a better price from Vitacost. Once Amazon took away “free” WF same-day delivery and imposed a delivery charge, I got a half-price membership with Shipt, and I love having someone who’s careful and conscientious shop at Target for me for the cost of a tip. I’m struggling to find enough value to justify keeping Prime.
We will be keeping our Membership. We ship stuff to several different homes in the US over the course of the year. The price increase is not ideal, but the convenience of shopping online and not having to package, take to post office, etc. is worth it to me.
My current membership doesn’t expire until Dec 2022. If I buy a gift membership, I will be charged for the $119 now even if I chose to get it delivered in Dec. That’s a lot of money to pay upfront to save $20….
I won’t buy it just to save $20. Anything can happen between now and Dec 2022. Amazon can change it’s terms such as the membership purchased can only be applied months from now at it’s face value, you may forget about it, your account may be suspended for some unjustified reason (it happens) and a lot of other stuff. If you are to use it within 2 mos, it may be worth it, but Dec 2022 is not worth it.
They charged me 10.00 for tax 🙁 Grand Total: $129.00
Thanks for sharing, Amber! Good to know.💞 It seems that may vary.
The tax is because of your state. Some states tax the membership, some don’t. Amazon actually lost a court battle several years ago and is forced to collect state sales taxes for anything the state you live in taxes.
Same here.
$9.82
I went back and chose to renew automatically. $20 extra per year isn’t bad with savings with “subscribe and save “ and how much we utilize Amazon 🙂
You can you use subscribe and save without prime….I think
I canceled my prime membership a year ago and still use subscribe & save!!
Can you buy multiple to cover the next few years?
I was wondering the same thing.
He’s already a Billionaire over and over
How Damm much do you need !!!!!!!!!!!
Even with the gift membership, you don’t think Amazon will make you pay the difference once they increase the annual price?
That is exactly what I was thinking!
I’m not sure that you’re actually turning off your auto-renewal by choosing “Keep your membership” after choosing “End your membership”. It still shows my renewal date at the top of the screen so I don’t believe it actually did anything. If I chose to “End my membership” (clicking twice) it will probably work but I don’t want to lose the rest of my Prime month that I already paid for. Ideas?
SO sorry for the confusion, Kiki27. I’ve updated the wording above on how this should work. You can also check out the details on adjusting your subscription settings here. Hoping that might help! 🥰
I don’t see how the “Keep my membership” turns off auto renewal. I still have a renewal date. And nowhere does it have an option to turn off auto renewal.
Sorry for any confusion, Christy. We’ve updated the wording above to be more clear. You can also visit this page here for additonal details on how to adjust your subscription settings. Hope this is more helpful!
I wonder if you can share between households??
It seems you can share within your household – “A Household allows you to connect and share Amazon benefits with the whole family. Two adults and up to four teens and four child profiles may link in a Household.’ Hope this helps!
Time is money. An extra $20 a year isn’t enough for me to cancel my membership. However, the price increase is disappointing for sure :/
Honestly delivery is always late. they don’t check there vendors so many fake products. perfect reason to let it go. walmart + is not so great either
Ann, look into Shipt with Target for same-day delivery from your local Target store, if you have a “good” Target in your area. I find it better than WM+. Shipt has the BEST shoppers (picking great produce, texting with questions as they shop, etc.). They frequently have half-off annual deals.
It also says gift memberships aren’t eligible for promotional offers. 🤔
How is buying a gift membership at the current price a “promotional offer”? Maybe I’m missing something…
Just an fyi, the cloud photo storage is not unlimited. I received a notification that my cloud storage was full and I would have to pay for more storage. I called and asked them how I can be full if it’s unlimited and I was told that it is unlimited up to a certain amount of storage.
Unlimited with a limit?? That’s a bait and switch!!!
There is a cap on video storage – only 5 GB. Photo storage IS unlimited however.
No, photo storage is limited. That’s what I was storing on their cloud.
We waste more than $20 a year on silly stuff, the increase isn’t even $2 a month if paid yearly. I’d think most of us on deal sites are capable of budgeting well enough to offset that cost. Definitely keeping Prime. We have grand babies out of state and it is so nice to send them little things without paying shipping.
Don’t you think the membership is like you are still paying shipping? Suppose you send 10 gifts per year, then it’s like you paid $12 to ship each thing. If the gift is over a certain amount, many places will give you free shipping anyway.
Honestly, this is too much effort to keep track of doing to save $20. I’ve already considered it a win for the year that I FINALLY got DH to turn off his auto-renew so we can both use the same membership. We’ve been paying for two memberships in our house for the past few years because he didn’t realize we could both use one when he signed up for his. I suppose that’s a good reminder for everyone–you can share your Prime membership with your household, so your spouse and kids (who live at home) don’t all need their own.
yep that is one of the nice perks
Does anyone else feel the “free” 2 day prime shipping is no longer a thing? I feel like everything I’ve ordered since October even with my prime shipping is AT LEAST a 5 day shipping when it’s always been next day or 2 day max!
Very rarely, unless it’s something they 3rd party out locally – but sometimes the price is not always the best.
Yup it takes my prime delivery 7-10 days to arrive & sometimes arrive with just empty packages
I think it depends on the products you are purchasing and where you live. I’m in NJ and have been fortunate to have extremely timely service the majority of the time. HOWEVER, I wonder sometimes if disgruntled employees intentionally drop-kick my packages as they are often crushed and sometimes damaged inside. They WILL replace them for no charge, but that kind of defeats the timeliness🤔
I think it depends on where you are and what you’re ordering. We get most things next-day or 2 day. I live near a “mega warehouse” and several distribution centers. Even paying $2.99 for same day is worth it sometimes. I too think they could skip the increase but the convenience just continues to be worth it for me. I guess there’s a price increase out there where I would have to jump ship. Hopefully we get another 4 or 5 years without one.
This could be the “break up” point for me. In my area, it’s often 7-10 days. I live in SW Washington, about 1 hr from Portland and 2 hrs from Seattle, so I’m in the zone and minutes from the main interstate. We do like Prime for TV watching, but seems there is a lot more YouTubing going on these days. Mine expires in April. I’ll have to ponder what to do. I even chatted a few times and finally talked to someone on the phone. At Christmas it was up to 2 weeks for “prime”. Unacceptable and they people I spoke with never really cared and said it’s only 2 days from when we ship. Total “customer no service” at it’s finest. But how many will just keep paying and not cancel? At $20 per membership, what is their break even point. I find that Target & Walmart ship faster for me, but Amazon has a bigger variety. Decisions, decisions….
Yeah, I live in Amazon Warehouse Land so I often get things the very next day. I’m sure it all depends on where you live.
I’ve been wondering the same thing. We order at least twice a week from Amazon and I haven’t seen two-day shipping in many months. It took me awhile to catch on. I thought maybe I missed something, but some of the items we order are the same things we’ve ordered for years. We live near a large distribution hub, as well.
Definitely Keeping It. I’m Satisfy W Service. 👍💝
My instant reaction was frustration and the thought that I would cancel my membership. But I then evaluated how much benefit we get from Amazon and decided to keep it. I love my ebooks, we watch the movies, we return things for no charge at Kohls, and we buy many items monthly from them. So, even though I’m not happy about the price increase, we’ll be keeping our Prime account.
You can get free returns to Kohls without prime.
I save my family a ton of money with the Subscribe and Save every month! Amazon is like any other store have to watch for the deals to save the most money. Also haven’t see any place beat Amazon of deals for diapers and baby stuff. I also went and got Walmart+ and their shipping times are awful, I haven’t had a any issues with returns for Amazon. I love the fact that I can just stop into Kohls and they take care of my Amazon return, easy peasy as 123. I will continue to be a Prime member as long as it benefits my household…..
I don’t even get free 2 day delivery anymore where I live. They stopped the 2 day delivery for my city sometime before Christmas (Nov I think). Everything goes thru our post office now. Has this happened to anyone anywhere else?
Yes, our delivery used to be 1-2 days and now it is 3+. Some of it comes USPS and takes a long time. I’m thinking we will probably dump prime. It isn’t worth it anymore. Plus I don’t have time to babysit my subscribe and save orders. I ordered several boxes of diapers through subscribe and save one month and they increased the price of each box from what I subscribed for by about $10 each. When I contacted them they said that the prices can change and that you need to cancel it before they ship it if you don’t like the price.
I will keep it. Amazon is the best deal there is when you consider that it includes free delivery, free Prime movie channel, occasionally free books, access to hundreds (sometimes thousands) of consumer reviews, and a very liberal return policy. Sorry to hear that the price is going up but I will be keeping it.
P.S. Thanks Hip2Save for the summary of price inquiries over the years.
You’re SO very welcome! 💞
I think it’s disgusting that there were record profits and they are supposedly passing along the costs to subscribers because they needed to pay their workers more. It’s a greedy billionaire taking more money from the people that made him rich and blaming his workers. I am not renewing. It’s not worth it to me. I have many subscription services to watch TV and I already pay to listen to Amazon music on a family account. I think we need to go back to supporting local small businesses and stop supporting billionaires.
that was so much work and time to figure out becuase i didnt follow the directions. idk if it was worth it but i have it delivering in december – so guess i saved 20 – going to have to pay tax no matter what time we renew
I just want to say Thank You Hipsters for ALWAYS trying to find the best deals and sharing ways for us to save money!! I think this is genius! 😉
You’re so welcome! Glad this is helpful! 🤗
Amazon said i was not able to purchase the gift membership because i was already a Prime member!
Oh darn! SO sorry for any issues, Nanci. 💞We were just able to purchase it with a Prime membership. Maybe wait a moment and check back again. Hoping it works for you soon!🤗
I tried the steps listed and got the same response. Can’t purchase because already a member. Very frustrating.
I’m so sorry for the trouble and confusion, Nancy. 💖We just spoke with customer service and tested this and it did work for us. We are adding additional details to the post above that should be more helpful. You can always reach out and chat with customer service for further assistance. They have been able to confirm the details above for us. 🙌🤗
TIme for me to let this one go. Not enough to watch for free on Prime, shipping isn’t a benefit since it takes 7-10 days or sometimes more where we live.
Does this work if you get the discounted membership rate due to using your LINK card?
I agree with what some of you have said. Their prices ( like everyone elses) have gone up & now this. I want to lead the charge for a one day black out of amazon. They are a multi billion dollar profit business that treats it’s employees awful & are beyond greedy.
I must be one of the last hold outs as I don’t have prime! If I order from Amazon, most of the time I just have to have $25 worth of products to get free shipping so I usually have stuff sitting in my cart. I have a couple of auto deliveries set up too. If there is something I need sooner or only has free shipping if a member, I have my sister order it for me.
I do the same exact thing. I can’t justify paying that for all of the prime stuff I don’t use. Plus they usually give free shipping for 24 hours after you order, so if something cheap pops up on Hip2save just after I get the shipping added for free.
Same! I have thought about getting Prime many times, but I can’t figure out the benefit. It’s easy to get $25 in my cart, and I always make sure I have at least 5 items in my subscribe & save so I get the highest discount.
You can shop Amazon Fresh if you have a SNAP card, which includes the best prices and free quick shipping.
We already have Netflix and HBO Max, and use the ebooks from the public library…
Sadly, they could probably still keep raising this Prime price and it’d be a “good” deal for me. We live in Hawaii, so to have access to regular prices (from the continent) and free delivery is huge. We don’t get 2-day shipping, but it’s fast enough. As much as I try to shop locally, goods are easily 20-50% more here. It’s frustrating that Amazon keeps raising prices just because they *can*, though.
I’m keeping mine! I love it and I’ve been a member so long I was grandfathered in with having the 4 person membership instead of 2 when they changed it years ago. I can’t mess that up – lol
I’ve been a member so long my password is all lowercase letters 😳
We have an Amazon credit card, and it is possible this way of doing the gift membership would mess up our credit card account too. So this would not work for us.
PS Our credit card saves us 5% too.
Thank you for posting! Buying the gift membership was super simple. There was no tax charged, so $119 even. I had to buy it on my laptop because they said I couldn’t buy it on my phone. 🤷♀️AND…I had a $15 off $35 at Amazon Fresh coupon!! I get a lot of use from my Prime membership. I like the add-on streaming channel deals for $0.99 a month for 2-6 months. I buy groceries and prepared meals from Amazon Fresh. I can usually get my order the next day, so the $119 is worth the conveniences.
I’m so glad you find it so valuable and were able to buy the gift membership. 🙌Thanks for telling us about your experiences with Prime, Teresa!
I just got charged tax?
It depends on your state. Some states require Amazon to collect tax for them including on memberships.
Wondering if can buy several yearly membership gift cards and keep applying them every year for a few years?
I was wondering the same thing.
for people saying they haven’t been getting their Prime stuff within 2-day free shipping, this isn’t new or just since the pandemic. here are links to the actual policy, and it says it is based on the address, and the type of item, among other factors. Amazon Prime doesn’t necessarily mean you are paying a membership for “2-day free shipping.” i think that was the idea at first, but as they get slower, the company’s Prime definition has, uh, evolved.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202075470
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GRPQFCNVUDYCBG24
i’m not defending them, i certainly think their definition of what Prime entitles a person to has been getting slower.
While I was texting with Collin about this, I was on talking on the phone with Amazon U.S. Rep, Madison, who said I would NOT be able to do that, and if I coukd manage somehow to do it, my previous order history & my Subscribe & Save would not be saved. Guess it really depends on who you speak to. How do you know who you are speaking to in a Chat? The 2 other CSR’s overseas didn’t understand what I was asking. I don’t want to lose my order history & my S&S, but I also don’t want to get stuck with 2 Memberships. Maybe I’ll just let it run out, and see what Walmart has yo offer. (The 2-day shipping on Amazon us now 4-5 days…)
It’s 5.99 a month if you have an ebt card. There’s also a student rate.
That will possibly be going to as much as $9.99 a month as well.
The terms for a Gift Membership includes the following verbiage: “If the recipient is already a Prime member, the gift can be exchanged for an Amazon.com Gift Card in the value of the original gift purchase price plus any applicable sales taxes paid.” So i read that as, you have to cancel or let your membership lapse (and lose your purchase history and save for later list) and redeem the Gift membership as a new account, or use the Value of the Gift membership to buy a renewal at whatever price a Membership currently is at the time you renew.
So i ordered and paid for the ll9.00 membership. My prime currently is good until august 13, 2022. Will this be saved until then? I didn’t see a place with a date for it to “kick in”! A little worried now!
Make sure you turn off your auto-renewal so it doesn’t renew in August. Once it’s expired, you can find it in your order history to apply the offer.
I wonder if they’ll increase the rate for college students.
My knee-jerk reaction was, “I’m canceling!” but who am I kidding? 😉 I save a lot of money with S&S and free shipping. Thanks to Hip2Save for all that you do for us. And just a PSA for those not in the Logistics industry – please be extra kind to truckers & delivery drivers. Covid precautions are time consuming & the labor shortage is very real! Happy Friday! 😁
You can use S&S even if you are not a Prime member, and get free shipping on orders $25 or more (and free shipping is good for 24 hours after you place the order).
I’m like you, Cstal. I totally use Amazon Prime for so many things. My Netflix is going up to $19.99 and I don’t get free shipping from them. The new Amazon rate for me puts it at $11.58 a month (if you divide it up) which is cheaper than Netflix and I can stream channels. I’m more likely to cancel Netflix before Amazon.
Okay just spent almost half an hour on a live chat with Amazon. They are refunding my $119 because it does not roll over when your membership that you currently have is over. So be very careful if you are trying to save 20 bucks as it does not will over at 1:19 as a promise, it will just be applied to the new charges of 139. I had them refund my money and I will decide if I’m going to reinstate my membership next August.
We are cancelling Amazon. I am not going to help put more money into JB pockets!!
Oh and I will probably stop following here as well. They rely too heavily on Amazon posts.
Hi, Cathy! We hate to see you leave. Did you know we post for over 57 different stores, not just Amazon? You can always see the other stores if you click here.
Jennifer, I will continue shopping with Hip2save. Ya’ll have helped me spend less and find unique items. Thanks!
Awww, thanks so much Faye!😍🤗
You guys have saved me hundred of dollars, we aren’t going anywhere!!
How do you get free music? I pay$7.99 a month and that’s only for one device.
Somehow I got a subscription for music, which I still don’t know how that happened. I already have prime and music is included. I cancelled the music subscription.
I looked at my subscription and it states on sept 2022 I will be charged 119. Is that
because they haven’t updated their system?
Since it’s going into effect for existing members as of March 25th, I think it will be updated at that time.
I’m sure this question has been asked but I’m struggling to find it so I’m just asking. Will you lose all of your order history when you cancel your auto renew and use the gift?
I don’t have a clear answer for you. I do know that you can still use and have an Amazon account even without Prime so I’m not sure why order history would disappear. For example, if you own movies on Amazon, you do NOT lose them if you stop Prime. They are still yours on your account. People order w/o Prime and still have order histories, so I’m just not sure Amazon would erase that. It seems like it would be a bad business decision for Amazon to erase order history since many of us (including me) use it to reorder items. You can also still use Subscribe & Save w/o Prime.
I canceled mine months ago and can still see my order history back several years
I can see why on A business standpoint why Amazon did this. Fuel and wages have increased so it has to be paid out of somewhere. However I’ve noticed that a lot of brands I can go directly to their webpage and pay anywhere from like $2 to $10 less and still get free shipping or pay $1-$3 more and pick it up in 2 hours at a store. I’m not quite sure the membership is worth it anymore, since most deliveries are now taking more than two days and I already pay for Disney+.
R U able to buy multiple then keep using them when renewal comes?
If u get “help” you can pay like $6 a month. I have terminal cancer. I’ve been waiting fur help but have yet to get it…after 3.5 years (they blame Covid…ya.) Anyhow…the ssa sent me a debit card for my disability. I get nothing…but Amazon let me use the card (photo) to get the deal.