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Amazon Prime benefits – here’s everything you get with Prime

Prime is for more than just free 2-day shipping.

Amazon logo and echo device
Image: KnowTechie

Amazon Prime is stuffed with features and benefits, but it can be tough keeping up with all of the best ones available.

Prime is a staple in many houses around the US, but many use it for the basics – quick, free shipping. But you’re doing yourself a disservice by not utilizing other free perks.

Prime continues to add new features that are available to members. Some of these are well-known, like Prime Video. But we’ll catch you up to speed on a ton of lesser-known benefits.

We’ve compiled a list of everything you can do with your Prime account. From baby registries and free ebooks to charity donations, there’s a lot of ground to cover. Let’s dive in.

Short on time? Jump ahead

Amazon Prime Early Access

Amazon lightning deals
Image: KnowTechie

First, did you even know about Amazon’s Lightning Deals page? It gives members all sorts of deals. Those could be on Amazon’s own devices. Or maybe timely sales, like the current Back to School one.

The catch? Products are only available for a limited time and in limited quantities. On hot items, you’ll need to be ready to snag them as soon as they become available.

With your Amazon Prime account, however, you get first access to Lightning Deals Click the Prime Early Access deals checkbox on the left, and you’ll see them.

As a Prime member, you’ll see these 30 minutes before anyone casually browsing Amazon.

Free ebooks for Prime members

Amazon free ebooks screen
Image: KnowTechie

Sadly, there isn’t an option for free physical copies of books. That would be an amazing perk, but this is nearly as good.

Prime members do get access to many ebooks for the amazing cost of free. This lesser-known feature is called Prime Reading.

There are over 1,000 books available for Prime members to download. These include many classic fiction titles, autobiographies, and non-fiction titles available for your reading pleasure.

Oh, and you also get tons of audiobooks, magazines, and even comics via Comixology.

Kindle owners, you also need to check out the First Reads program. This gives you one or two free books every month. Non-Prime users have to pay $1.99 if they want to choose a book.

Same-day, one-day, and 2-hour shipping options

Amazon garage deliveries
Image: KnowTechie

We all know about Prime’s free, 2-day shipping benefits, but did you know that an ever-growing number of products are available for even quicker shipping?

There are some stipulations, however. For Same-Day shipping, your order must be over $25. You can still get Same-Day if your order is smaller, but you’ll get charged $3, so it’s worth making the minimum.

Additionally, all items must be available for Same-Day. You must order before the cut-off time (usually around lunch), and be in one of the eligible zip codes.

Non-Prime members must pay $9.99 per Same-Day delivery, so you’re getting a huge deal here.

Amazon One-Day shipping doesn’t have a minimum order amount. It’s available coast-to-coast, and the promise is that you’ll get it by 9 PM the next day.

The cutoff time for your zip code might be early though, in which case you’ll get it the day after.

Finally, you can also use your Prime Shipping benefits on Shopbop and Woot!.

Grocery delivery

Whole foods amazon prime
Image: Whole Foods

Now that Amazon owns Whole Foods, you can get two-hour grocery delivery or one-hour pickup.

This is available in over 2,000 US cities and towns, and it’s a great benefit. You don’t pay for the delivery or service fees, but it’s still nice to tip your delivery person.

The best part? Whole Foods bags your groceries up in sealed, strong paper bags. No chance of losing items in delivery, and no plastic bags – just recycle those paper ones afterward.

Some areas also get Amazon Fresh, where Amazon can directly deliver groceries to you.

Free GrubHub Plus

Screenshot of free grubhub plus offer for amazon prime members
Image: Amazon

Prime members get free GrubHub+ for a year. That means no delivery fees on unlimited delivery from local restaurants. What a deal.

Seriously, this almost refunds your entire Prime subscription fee, assuming you live in an area with enough GrubHub-using restaurants.

Amazon Day

Amazon delivery boxes stacked on a porch
Image: Joe Rice-Jones / KnowTechie

Don’t want your porch looking like this? Prefer to be more environmentally conscious, before you get your stuff? Group all your Amazon purchases together with Amazon Day delivery.

It lets you schedule all your weekly purchases to turn up on the same day and often in the same box. That cuts down on packaging materials and the carbon emissions the delivery drivers make.

Shop with your Echo for Prime-exclusive deals

Echo dot fifth gen
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Echo owners get another way to shop on Amazon. Simply ask Alexa to tell you about the Prime-exclusive deals available.

You can then listen through the different deals and directly add things to your cart. It’s a small feature, but still something many people don’t know about.

No-rush delivery credits

If you don’t need your purchase immediately, Amazon gives you credits for choosing a slower delivery date. No-Rush Shipping gives you rewards and discounts, which means you kind of get paid to shop.

This is usually $1 that can be applied to ebooks, digital music, videos, or even app purchases. It’s only for digital products currently. But Amazon does offer cash balance credits occasionally.

I use this all the time for things I don’t urgently need and use the credits to rent or buy movies that I know aren’t going to be streaming for a while.

Key by Amazon

Amazon deliveryperson using amazon key to put package into the customer's garage
Image: Amazon

Nobody wants their packages or groceries to sit out on the stoop. That’s just asking for trouble, so Amazon figured out how to deliver into your garage.

It’s called Key, and thanks to smart home partnerships, you can have packages delivered in your garage. Or even your front door, if you have a smart lock there.

Now, even if you’re not home or if it’s raining, your packages will be protected.

Hand off returns to Kohl’s

Amazon returns at kohl's stores
Image: Kohl’s

Okay, this isn’t strictly a Prime benefit, but it is an often-overlooked Amazon one. You can handle all your returns at Kohl’s, which is often easier to find than your nearest UPS Store.

The best part? You don’t even need to box things up. Select Kohl’s Dropoff when arranging the return, and you’ll get a QR code that you’ll need in-store.

Show that code to the associate at Kohl’s, and they’ll package everything up for you.

$10 off video game preorders

Amazon Prime members also get occasional $10 discounts when they preorder video games. There aren’t any eligible games right now, but I’ve used this multiple times in the past.

The best thing here isn’t just the discount, but also getting the physical game on release day. Few online vendors manage to do that.

Give to charity with every order

Amazon smile service
Image: KnowTechie

Feel better about your Amazon order history and give a little back every time you buy something. AmazonSmile gives 0.5% of every eligible purchase to the charity of your choice.

And we really mean ‘your choice.’ There are over a million 501(c)(3) organizations to choose from. Pick one, then order from smile.amazon.com, and everything is handled.

Also, if you use the Amazon Shopping app, Amazon treats every visit as if you’ve gone to the Smile website.

Amazon Prime Day

Amazon prime day

Starting back in 2015 to lackluster reviews, Prime Day is basically an exclusive Black Friday-style deals day for Prime members.

Throughout the years, the deals have gotten better, and Prime Day has become a huge deal for people looking for discounts.

Now, it’s really two days of deals, although it’s still called Prime Day.

Amazon Prime Try Before You Buy

Amazon try before you buy
Image: Amazon

Think of this as an in-store fitting room but in the comfort of your own home.

Order up to six items at once and keep them for seven days to try on. Send back what you don’t want, and you’ll be charged for what you keep.

You can also do Personal Shopper, which costs $4.99 per styling. With this, you take a quiz to help Amazon’s stylists, and you can choose new looks monthly, bi-monthly, or every three months.

They’ll do the hard work, pick out up to 16 items, and you can choose up to eight to be delivered to your home. Again, like Try Before You Buy, you have seven days to decide what you’re keeping.

Unlimited Amazon Prime Photo storage

Amazon photos logo
Image: KnowTechie

Here’s a handy fix for how quickly digital photo saving eats up your storage on other services. Prime members get unlimited, full-resolution photo storage in Amazon Photos.

That storage is only available for as long as you have a Prime membership, however. So keep that in mind.

Amazon also used to offer free video storage but that is no longer the case. Now, you must pay extra for video storage capacity, but it’s still fairly priced compared to other cloud providers.

Amazon Kids+ at a discount

Amazon fire 7 kids edition tablet on a purple background
Image: KnowTechie

Amazon Kids+ is packed full of educational content for your kids, all curated by Amazon. You get a year when you buy one of the Kid’s versions of a Fire tablet, or it’s $7.99 a month normally.

Prime members save $3 a month, so all those apps, games, books, and videos will cost $4.99. You also get comprehensive parental controls, and age-appropriate options for what content is shown.

Amazon Prime RxPass for prescriptions

Amazon rxpass subscription
Image: KnowTechie

Ok, so this is technically an additional $5 a month, but it could be a great benefit for people using common prescription medications.

With RxPass, Prime members can get a variety of free medications delivered to their houses for free. We break down all of the RxPass benefits here.

Saving on wireless plans

Amazon wireless carriers
Image: KnowTechie

Prime members can save major cash from some of the nation’s wireless carriers. All plans are compatible with most unlocked devices, or you can buy an unlocked phone from the carrier.

Amazon Prime members also get 10% back in credit every month.

Amazon private labels

You probably know that Amazon has its own devices and white-label brands. Most of these can be bought by anyone, but did you know some are limited to Prime members?

Amazon Elements is one, which has vitamins, nutritional supplements, and things like baby wipes. The cool thing about this private label?

Take the Amazon Shopping app, scan a code on the product’s packaging, and Amazon will show you where every single ingredient was sourced.

Yes, that means the water in the baby wipes is traced back to the source.

Baby Registry Box

Amazon baby registery system
Image: KnowTechie

You can claim a free baby registry box by creating a registry on Amazon with at least $10 of things on it.

KnowTechie staff has used this before, along with multiple other baby registry boxes. The Amazon one had some of the better things, like a swaddle cloth and some trial-size baby care products.

Amazon Prime gives you more

If you do any online buying, you probably end up on Amazon more times than not, so for that reason alone, Prime is worth the fee.

But just because you’re getting your money’s worth with free shipping, don’t let that stop you from taking advantage of many of the other features Prime has to offer.

The ones listed above are lesser-known but great. Also make sure to check out Prime Video for some great original shows and movies and Prime Gaming, intended for gamers.

If you’re an Amazon Prime member and are looking to try it out, Amazon will give you 30-day free trial. That’s not a bad deal. Give it a look to see if it’s right for you. If worse comes to worst, you can always get your money back.

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Former KnowTechie editor.

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