Shopping on Amazon can be convenient. You can get anything from frozen pizza to light bulbs delivered to your door at the click of a button.
An Amazon Prime membership makes it even more convenient. Perks include not just faster shipping but also access to free e-books, music, file storage, and exclusive sales like Prime Day in June and Prime Big Deal Days in October — just to name a few.
But the cost of membership — at $139 a year or $14.99 a month — may give you pause. If you want to pay less but still enjoy all the advantages of Amazon Prime, there are a few ways to get a free or discounted membership.
1. Get a free trial
If you want to try Amazon Prime to see if it’s worth paying for a membership, sign up for a free 30-day trial.
This is an option for people who are new to Prime, as well as people who were Prime members in the past but have not been members in the past 12 months. Just remember to cancel before the 30-day trial is up if you decide you don’t want to pay for a membership.
Keep in mind that you can’t use a checking account or prepaid credit card to sign up for your trial: Your Amazon account must have a valid, current credit card.
However, you can use different email addresses to get multiple free trials, at least according to a 2018 Vice report. Again, remember to cancel each trial before it ends to avoid being charged for membership.
More on how you can get a longer free trial if you’re between the ages of 18 and 24 in a bit.
2. Use free Amazon gift cards
If you keep your Amazon membership after the free trial ends, consider paying for it with Amazon gift cards. There are various ways to get them for free. Check out the options in “12 Ways to Get Amazon Gift Cards for Free.”
3. Use credit card rewards
If you have a cash-back credit card, you could use your accumulated cash back to pay for a Prime membership — which kind of feels like you are getting Prime for free.
If you sign up for the Prime Visa card, you can earn up to 5% cash back on eligible purchases at Amazon and Whole Foods Market, and 1% or 2% cash back on other purchases.
If you spend $2,800 in a year at the 5% rate, you will earn $140 cash back — enough to cover the cost of a one-year membership.
4. Share an account using Amazon Family
If someone in your household has an Amazon Prime membership, you can ask them to share it with you via a feature called Amazon Family (formerly Amazon Household).
Each of you keeps your own Amazon account, but the two accounts are linked, giving you access to select Prime benefits. They include:
- Prime Delivery
- Prime Video
- A selection of Prime Reading
- Other discounts and exclusives
Keep in mind that using the Amazon Family feature means sharing payment methods.
5. Pay less with Prime for Young Adults
There’s also Prime for Young Adults, which, as the name implies, is available to anyone ages 18 to 24. A free trial of Prime for Young Adults lasts six months.
It’s half the price of a standard Prime membership if you decide to continue after your trial ends, at $7.49 a month.
6. Pay less with Prime Access
One more option for those who are eligible is to sign up for Prime Access. This program lets income-verified customers or people receiving government assistance pay a discounted price for all the same benefits of Prime — $6.99 per month instead of $14.99.
Signing up requires providing proof of your eligibility or enrollment in one of these programs:
- Medicaid
- SNAP (food stamps)
- SSI (Supplemental Security Income)
- Direct Express Debit Card
- TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families)
- TTANF (Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families)
- National School Lunch Program
- Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program
- WIC (Women, Infants, and Children program)
- Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance Program
Note that you can take advantage of the normal free trial offer before signing up, too. Prime Access members can also share their benefits with members of their Amazon Family.
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