Big blow to US shoppers as Amazon cracks down on Prime perk sharing benefits beyond households

From October 1, your Amazon Prime membership no longer includes the ability to invite people who live at a different address to share the free shipping benefit. Amazon's free shipping perk will be restricted to household members only starting next month as the shopping juggernaut phases out the "Prime Invitee program."

According to the company's website, the program, which permitted Amazon Prime members to share their shipping benefits with people outside their household that didn't have a membership, will end on October 1.

Amazon's free shipping perk to end?

In an update to the customer service section of its website, the online behemoth said it is encouraging users outside the household of the account holder to sign up for their own Prime subscription, reports news agency Associated Press. The tech giant wants that users who don’t live with the account holder to subscribe to their own membership at a discounted rate of $14.99 for one year.


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After that, it’s $14.99 per month or $139 annually. The offer starts this Friday and is valid until December 31, 2025. The change comes as reports suggest that Amazon’s Prime signups in the U.S. in the run-up to this year’s Prime Day fell short of last year’s total and its own targets.

Amazon is phasing out its Prime Invitee program and rolling out Amazon Family, a new way for members to share benefits. Under this plan, account holders can extend free two-day shipping along with perks like exclusive deals and streaming movies to just one other adult in their household, plus up to four teen accounts (if added before April 7) and four child profiles, according to Amazon’s website. The second adult doesn’t have to be a spouse—it could also be a family member or even a roommate.

These benefits include fast and free delivery on Prime eligible items, access to exclusive Prime events and deals, Prime Video, Prime Reading and access to third-party benefits like Grubhub. Amazon didn’t disclose specific figures for its Prime membership in its latest earnings call. However, they described the last Prime Day sale, which kicked off in July, as its "biggest Prime Day shopping event yet."

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"This year’s Prime Day event was bigger than any previous four-day period that included a Prime Day event, with record sales and more items sold during the four days," Amazon posted in a July blog following the two-day shopping bonanza. The company also said independent sellers, most of which are small and medium-sized businesses, also achieved record sales and a record number of items sold.

An Amazon spokesperson told FOX Business that it is ending the Invitee program, which launched in 2009, and focusing its advertising on its Amazon Family program, which includes allowing members to share several membership benefits with one other adult in their household, up to four teens added before April 7, 2025, and up to four profiles for children.

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The news comes as the Seattle-based company is making big investments in expanding its network to bring faster delivery to customers in less densely populated areas across the U.S. The service is available in 1,000 of the more than 4,000 smaller cities, towns and rural communities targeted by year-end, the company said in late July.

In the US, Amazon charges an annual fee of $139 for its Prime membership since 2022, which is an increase from its previous cost of about $119 a year. However, J.P.Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth said in a research note that the bank thinks the Seattle-based e-commerce giant could raise the price of its popular Amazon Prime membership in 2026.

(With inputs from AP)