How to Sign Up for Amazon Prime: The Complete 2023 Guide
Amazon Prime is an extremely popular membership program from the online retail giant that offers members special perks like free fast shipping, streaming access, and exclusive deals. With over 200 million members globally, it‘s clear why so many Amazon shoppers opt for Prime.
But if you aren‘t yet an Amazon Prime member, you may be wondering: how do I sign up? The process is quick and simple, especially if you already have an Amazon account.
This comprehensive guide will walk you through everything you need to know to become an Amazon Prime member.
What is Amazon Prime?
Amazon Prime is a membership program that gives its members exclusive access to a variety of Amazon perks and services. For an annual membership fee of $139 or a monthly fee of $14.99, Prime members receive an array of benefits including:
Free Two-Day Shipping: Get your orders delivered for free in 2 business days on over 100 million eligible items. No order minimums.
Free Same-Day Delivery: Available on over 3 million items for Prime members in qualifying areas.
Free Release-Date Delivery: Choose to receive eligible pre-order items on their official release date with no additional shipping fees.
Prime Video: Unlimited instant streaming of thousands of popular movies and TV shows. Includes award-winning Amazon Originals.
Prime Music: Extensive ad-free access to 2 million songs and thousands of playlists at no additional cost.
Prime Reading: Read for free from a rotating selection of over a thousand popular Kindle ebooks, magazines, comics, books with Audible narration, and more.
Prime Gaming: Free PC games, in-game items, full games to keep forever, and a Twitch channel subscription every month.
Prime Photos: Unlimited full-resolution photo storage and 5 GB of video storage in Amazon Cloud Drive.
Exclusive Deals: Access to discounted Prime-only Lightning Deals and Prime Day deals.
With all of these savings and perks, a Prime membership can easily pay for itself each year for frequent Amazon shoppers. Next let‘s cover what you need to do to become a Prime member.
Step 1: Create an Amazon Account
In order to sign up for Prime, you need to first have an Amazon customer account. Here‘s how to create one if you don‘t already have an account with Amazon:
Go to Amazon.com
In the upper right corner, click Account & Lists
Under "Sign in" click Create your Amazon account
Enter your name, email address, password, and phone number
Click Create your Amazon account
And you‘re all set! With your new Amazon account created, you can now sign up to become a Prime member.
Step 2: Start Your Amazon Prime Free Trial or Membership
Now that you have an Amazon customer account, you can sign up for a free 30-day Amazon Prime trial or paid membership by following these instructions:
Visit the Amazon Prime signup page.
Select Try Prime FREE for 30 days to start your 1 month trial membership.
You won‘t be charged during this period and you can cancel anytime if you change your mind.
Alternatively, click Join Prime to become a paid member immediately.
You can choose a monthly recurring membership for $14.99/month or an annual membership for $139/year. Students can get Prime for just $7.49/month!
Enter your payment method to complete the signup process.
Start enjoying your Prime benefits like free shipping and Prime Video access right away!
Tips to Use Your Free Trial
When you sign up for that initial 30-day free trial period, it‘s smart to take full advantage by:
Placing multiple orders with 2-day shipping at no cost to get familiar with Amazon fast delivery.
Streaming movies and TV shows on Prime Video to experience the selection of free titles.
Exploring Prime Reading, Music, and Photos to try out everything included.
Saving items to wish lists and carts to buy later and still get release-date or Prime Day deals.
The goal is to evaluate if you would utilize the Prime benefits frequently enough to justify the $139 annual fee after your trial ends. If so, Prime earns its value quickly with the shipping and entertainment perks.
If you happen to forget and your trial unintentionally converts to a paid membership, you can still receive a full refund if you cancel within 30 days of the initial signup date.
More Amazon Prime Membership Options
Aside from month-to-month or standard annual Prime memberships, Amazon does offer some alternatives tailor-made for specific groups:
Prime Student
If you‘re a college student, you can join Prime Student for an extended 6-month free trial followed by a discounted rate of just $7.49/month after. This gets you access to all the same Prime benefits.
You do need an .edu email address to verify your student status and eligibility initially. Prime Student members can also share select benefits with up to 3 other family members.
Monthly Prime Membership
Rather than paying the $139 fee upfront for a year of membership, you can alternately go month-to-month. This more flexible Monthly Prime option works perfectly if:
- You only need Prime temporarily for certain months of high order volume.
- You want to test it out before fully committing.
- You prefer spreading out the payments over time.
With monthly memberships, make sure to double check that your credit card will continue being charged the $14.99 per month unless canceled since it automatically renews each month.
Additional Amazon Prime Benefits
We‘ve already touched on some of the major advantages to Prime like free shipping, streaming, and discounts. But your membership also includes a few other nice perks:
Prime Gaming
Every month, Prime members can claim an assortment of free PC games along with in-game content and loot to enhance popular titles. There are new offers introduced regularly.
You also get a free monthly Twitch channel subscription to use on your favorite streamer.
Prime Reading
For bookworms, Prime Reading grants unlimited access to over a thousand popular Kindle titles spanning bestsellers, magazines, comics, books with Audible narration and more.
You can conveniently read them on any device with the free Kindle reading app. New selections are added regularly to keep your digital reading pile stocked.
Amazon Photos
With Prime, you get unlimited full-resolution photo storage plus 5 GB of video storage free with Amazon Photos. You can access your images anywhere with the cloud drive and share with up to 5 others.
Alexa Voice Deals
If you own an Alexa device, Prime membership lets you take advantage of exclusive member-only deals and discounts simply using your voice. Just say "Alexa, what are my deals?" to instantly save.
As you can see, Prime gets you far more than just quick shipping. The combination of all the included entertainment, storage, and shopping perks provide immense overall value that would be hard to beat anywhere else.
Just How Much Could You Save with Prime?
Here is a realistic example of how much a moderate Amazon shopper could save in the first year with Prime:
Shipping: With an average of 5 Prime-eligible orders per month, you would spend $120+ annually on standard 4-5 day shipping without Prime.
Instant Video: Getting only Netflix ($15.49/month) and Hulu ($7.99 with ads) averages $276 per year while Prime Video is included free.
Music Streaming: Spotify Premium runs $9.99 per month totaling $120 yearly – both streaming libraries are comparable in size.
Kindle Books: Buying just 5 best-selling ebooks at around $10 each adds up to $50+ over a year. Prime Reading gives you unlimited access to over a thousand titles at no extra cost.
Photo Storage: Storing 50 GB worth of photos on Google Drive would run you $19.99 per year normally. Amazon Photos offers unlimited full-resolution photo storage with Prime.
Added together from just those few categories, you are looking at over $585 per year in potential savings with a Prime membership.
And that‘s not even factoring in the value of free release-date delivery, exclusive member deals, or any physical items you would buy on Amazon with the 2-day free shipping perk.
Suffice to say, Prime really does pay for itself extremely quickly even if you take advantage of just a fraction of what is included. Between each consecutive order arriving faster and saving on entertainment costs alone, you end up ahead.
Signing Up is Quick & Easy
As this guide has outlined in-depth, getting signed up with Amazon Prime is an uncomplicated process that takes only minutes once you have an Amazon customer account ready to go.
The service keeps getting bigger and better over time too. So you‘ll continually unlock additional Prime benefits on top of what you get today.
With free shipping, entertainment perks, exclusive deals, and much more included for just $14.99 a month, Amazon Prime provides unmatched all-around value.
The savings easily offset the membership cost for most shoppers after placing just a couple eligible orders. Plus you can try it risk-free for 30 days first thanks to the free trial period.
To recap the signup process:
Create an Amazon customer account if you haven‘t already
Begin a 30-day Prime free trial or paid $14.99 monthly membership
Place Prime-eligible orders for free 2-day shipping
Stream movies on Prime Video and explore other included perks
Continue your membership to keep enjoying the benefits
Cancel anytime within 30 days for a full refund if not satisfied
So give Amazon Prime a shot today and unlock the full suite of features that millions of members benefit from every single day!
