If you signed up for an Amazon Prime subscription, there’s a good chance that you did it for one of two reasons: 1) the fast and free shipping or 2) the video streaming. It’s OK. I’m “guilty” of it myself.
But unless you’re receiving at least a few deliveries and watching a few streams each month, you may not be using your Prime membership enough to justify its cost.
Just how many products do we need to order and/or movies do we need to watch to match the subscription cost of Amazon Prime? One tricky part of making such a calculation is that there are a lot of different Amazon Prime benefits (that you might not even know about). Let’s figure this out together.
How much does an Amazon Prime subscription cost?
A standard membership for Amazon Prime costs $15 per month or $139 per year. Amazon offers discounted prices to customers on government assistance and to income-verified customers through its Prime Access program, which costs $7 per month. It also offers a half-price service called Prime for Young Adults for college students and young adults ages 18 to 24. That costs $7.50 per month or $69 per year.
What do you get with Amazon Prime?
There’s more to Amazon Prime than fast and free shipping and video streaming. The numerous subscription perks include discounts on Whole Foods groceries, same-day shipping on Amazon Fresh, unlimited book borrowing, prescription drug discounts, Amazon Luna games, unlimited photo storage, Amazon Kids Plus discounts, gas savings — and that’s just a partial list of benefits.
How much do you need to use to make Amazon Prime worthwhile?
For non-discounted Prime memberships, you need to receive at least about $15 in value every month, or $12 per month if you’re paying yearly. Here’s the breakdown by perk:
Amazon Prime’s value for shipping
Shipping savings are difficult to calculate, because many businesses will also ship certain items free, including Best Buy, Target and Walmart. Delivery costs will also vary depending on the destination, the type of items and the speed of delivery.
Even without a Prime membership, you can usually get free Amazon delivery if your order is $35 or more, though it probably won’t be same-day or two-day shipping.
If you’re in a rush and you need same-day delivery, Amazon says it’s free with Prime (usually with a minimum purchase amount) but will cost up to $13 per order if you don’t have a Prime subscription.
So, two same-day deliveries in a month would more than offset the cost of Prime.
Amazon Prime’s value for streaming movies and shows
OK, you’re on the couch, and you want to check out a movie… let’s say the holiday flicks Red One or How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the Jim Carrey version). If you have Prime Video, those movies would be free (with ads). If you wanted to go ad-free, you would pay an extra $5 per month (which would bring your total Amazon Prime monthly subscription cost to $20).
If you didn’t have Prime, you could rent those movies on YouTube for $4 each.
So, if you watched four or five movies on Prime in a month, that would more than cover your subscription cost, depending on whether you’re paying monthly or yearly.
Amazon Prime’s value for gas discounts
Prime members can save 10 cents per gallon at approximately 7,500 BP, Amoco, AM/PM and Thorntons locations. US drivers average about 12,000 miles per year, or 1,000 miles a month, according to Kelley Blue Book. The average fuel efficiency for 2022-model-year light-duty vehicles was about 26.4 miles per gallon as of 2023, per the Department of Energy.
Based on those numbers, let’s do some math. If the average driver purchases 461 gallons of gas a year, or about 9 gallons per week, then an Amazon Prime membership would save those drivers about $50 per year, or a little over $4 per month.
Amazon Prime’s value for grocery savings
Prime members who scan their Whole Foods Market or Amazon app at checkout at Whole Foods get an extra 10% off on storewide sales marked with yellow signs and 50% off sales with blue signs.
According to the Krazy Koupon Lady, there are about 30 blue signs each week at your local Whole Foods. The store lists its weekly sales for Amazon Prime members on its website.
Let’s take a look at this week’s sales at the Whole Foods in Bellevue, Washington. If you bought a pound of Honeycrisp apples, a 10-pound frozen whole turkey, four avocados and a bottle of Sonoma Coast pinot noir, you would save nearly $12 with Prime. Buy even more sales items, and the savings go higher.
Amazon Prime’s value for photo and media storage
Prime memberships include unlimited photo storage and a 5 GB video storage limit. Compare that with the cost of storing media on Google, which charges $2 per month for 100 GB (photos and videos combined) and $10 per month for 2 TB. Apple’s costs are $1 per month for 50 GB, $3 per month for 200 GB, and $10 per month for 2 TB. If you’re storing 100GB to 200GB of photos on Amazon, it’s saving you about $2 or $3 per month.
Your Amazon Prime value mileage may vary
Depending on how you use Amazon Prime, your savings are likely to vary considerably. If you print often with Shutterfly or purchase discounted drugs through RxPass, you might save a lot more than other members. If you don’t drive an automobile, shop at Whole Foods or watch Prime shows and movies, you might want to reconsider the cost of your Prime subscription.
Luckily, Amazon makes it fairly easy to cancel your Prime membership, and the company will refund a prorated portion of your subscription fees. You can also pause your membership at any time and restart it when you’re ready to pay again to resume the benefits.
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