How Much You Really Need To Spend For Amazon Prime To Pay Off
Amazon Prime is a membership that needs no introduction. Just as Amazon itself has become one of the most prominent retail brands in the world, so too has its membership plan, which provides the bulk of the assorted perks that the platform is known for. With how ubiquitous Amazon and Prime have become, it's easy to forget that, as far as memberships go, Prime isn't exactly a drop in the bucket.
An individual Prime membership costs $14.99 monthly or $139 annually, which is about $40 cheaper than the monthly price in the long run. That's slightly more expensive than something like a Walmart+ membership, and if you're not actually shopping that much on Amazon, you might just be throwing money into a proverbial pit. The question, then, is how much Amazon shopping would you actually need to do in a given year in order to make that over-$100 investment worthwhile. The answer, broadly speaking, is that you'd need to place at least two Amazon orders a month, or at least 24 orders a year, for the math to add up.
The primary benefit of Prime is fast, free shipping
Briefly, let's go over what an Amazon Prime membership actually gets you, as well as the various offshoots of Prime plans that could shift the overall cost. The first and foremost benefit, and the main reason many people sign up to Prime in the first place, is expedited shipping. Prime members receive free same-day, one-day, and two-day shipping and delivery on the majority of products sold on Amazon. The perks of this are obvious: You get your stuff exceptionally quickly, and you don't have to pay extra for either regular shipping or expedited shipping.
Besides the shipping, Prime comes with a few other assorted benefits. For one, you get access to Prime Video and Amazon Music, along with discounts at Whole Foods and Grubhub. There are also some miscellaneous circumstantial perks like minor savings at gas stations or on certain prescription drugs. Additionally, only Prime members can purchase discounted products during Amazon Prime Day sales.
Another thing to consider is that Prime memberships can cost less than the standard monthly cost of $14.99 for some people. Those on government assistance like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), for example, can get Prime Access for $6.99 a month. Students and individuals between ages 18 and 24 can also get Prime Young Adult at the discounted rate of $7.49 a month.
Around 24 orders a year would cover the full cost of membership
Most individuals will probably get an individual Prime membership for the express shipping, so for the purposes of this discussion, let's put aside the various other tiers of Prime membership, as well as the ancillary benefits like Prime Video and Whole Foods. With that in mind, how many Amazon orders would you need to make in a year to cover that $139 price tag? According to an analysis performed by Meredith Dietz of Lifehacker, the majority of miscellaneous Amazon orders without a Prime membership would cost you approximately $6 for regular shipping. If you're paying for Prime annually, your monthly membership costs are slightly less than $12. Ergo, to make the math add up, you would need to make at least two Amazon purchases per month, or 24 purchases in a full year.
An important caveat to this analysis is that Prime isn't the only way you can get free shipping on Amazon. Depending on what you're purchasing, regular Amazon users can still get free shipping if you spend somewhere in the ballpark of $25 and $35, albeit without the express delivery speed. Additionally, as we mentioned, not all products sold on Amazon qualify for Prime shipping, as individual sellers may not offer the service. At the end of the day, if you're doing the majority of your shopping on Amazon and purchasing products on a regular basis, you will gradually save enough on shipping to make the investment worth it. If you're only shopping on Amazon once every couple of months, though, you might want to rebalance your books a bit.