Amazon is Raising the Price of Prime

Amazon is Raising the Price of Prime

In a long-awaited—and, frankly, long-overdue—move, Amazon will raise the price of its Prime subscription from $99 to $119. Amazon revealed the price increase during a post-earnings conference call with investors last night.

The price change will take place over the next two months. Starting May 11, new Prime subscriptions will cost $119, while existing subscribers won’t see the increase until they renew on or after June 16.

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

According to Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky, the price increase was driven in part by the expense of certain Prime perks, including shipping and video streaming. On that latter point, the company has dramatically increased its spending on original video series for its Prime Video offering over the past year.

The price jump will, of course, rankle some. But Amazon doesn’t do this very often: It introduced Prime at an annual cost of $79, and only raised the price once, in 2014, since. It also offers monthly Prime subscriptions for those who find it easier to pay in installments.

Amazon revealed recently that it now has over 100 million Prime members.

You can find out more about Amazon Prime from the Amazon website.

 

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 25 comments

  • jaboonday

    Premium Member
    27 April, 2018 - 12:10 pm

    <p>I'm at the point where I'm fine with Amazon's services as they are. I don't watch Amazon's shows, and 2-day shipping is fine for me. If Amazon is raising prices so they can provide more original content, and faster shipping, why can't they just add tiers to the subscription and let those of us who don't find value in these additions keep our money?</p>

    • rlcronin

      27 April, 2018 - 12:12 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#266445"><em>In reply to jaboonday:</em></a></blockquote><p>Seconded.</p>

    • Daekar

      27 April, 2018 - 1:17 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#266445"><em>In reply to jaboonday:</em></a></blockquote><p>This. I couldn't care less about their TV or video service. Faster shipping would be nice but I'm not really feeling like paying more for it. </p>

    • Chris_Kez

      Premium Member
      27 April, 2018 - 1:17 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#266445"><em>In reply to jaboonday:</em></a></blockquote><p>Yep. I'd rather save that $20 and have them not spend $250M just to acquire the rights to a LOTR TV show. </p>

    • jwpear

      Premium Member
      27 April, 2018 - 2:36 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#266445"><em>In reply to jaboonday:</em></a></blockquote><p>My thoughts exactly. While $20 isn't a huge amount, it's creeping up to a point where I'll really have to evaluate the value. There are Prime services that I cannot take advantage of, like same day delivery and Whole Foods deals, and those that I simply don't care about, like Twitch and music streaming (I already pay for Spotify). We rarely watch Prime Videos as most of the content we want to see requires a rental fee (and we gladly pay).</p><p><br></p><p>They're adding value with those features/services if folks can and want to take advantage of them. Otherwise, it's just a price increase. They should think about offering packages/bundles. They already do this with Starz, etc. Why not just do it for the other services?</p>

    • slerched

      Premium Member
      27 April, 2018 - 4:19 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#266445"><em>In reply to jaboonday:</em></a></blockquote><p>Because they would argue that the price increase they push on everyone is how they can "only" add $20 to the subscription fee. If you, everyone that's replied here, and I all decided not to care about NFL and Amazon specific content, they'd have to charge those willing to pay for it $40 instead.</p><p><br></p><p>Or so the thinking would go I guess.</p><p><br></p><p>And no, I'm not happy about the increase and will discuss options with the wife. Which means, most likely, we'll just keep Prime and figure it out from there! LOL</p>

  • dnation70

    Premium Member
    27 April, 2018 - 12:14 pm

    <p>u think that is good news ????..lmao</p>

  • david.thunderbird

    27 April, 2018 - 12:20 pm

    <p>Sure just add more expenses then raise prices. I quit on the first increase and haven't seen a need to return.</p>

  • StevenLayton

    27 April, 2018 - 12:22 pm

    <p>I can’t now find the article to back this up, but I think the price rise is US only at the moment, with other markets likely to follow later in the year?</p>

  • Sarge

    27 April, 2018 - 1:17 pm

    <p>Well, it's only another $1,900,000,000 in revenue for Amazon</p><p><br></p><p>This trend will need to level off as it's going to be passing the "no-brainer" status for a number of people if it continues.</p>

  • yaddamaster

    27 April, 2018 - 1:49 pm

    <p>in the grand scheme of things, an extra $20 a year doesn't matter. However, in my yearly review of spending this will definitely get a close look.</p><p><br></p><p>For comparison, Office home 365 is $99. For five installations in my home. For products I use all the time. That's great value. Do I get the same type of value from paying Amazon $120 a year? Just to get two day delivery? Especially when you consider that products sold with Prime are essentially priced higher anyhow. Do I really need two-day delivery that badly? Maybe I'm simply spending too much? I don't watch prime videos or music……</p><p><br></p><p>This may be the year to drop Prime.</p>

  • dallasnorth40

    Premium Member
    27 April, 2018 - 1:56 pm

    <p>I'm OK with this. It's still an unbelievable value.</p>

  • Kudupa

    27 April, 2018 - 2:12 pm

    <p>IM not sure how much I'm willing to pay for this service. I have been a prime member but with amount of subscription services going on increasing price will hurt my wallet.</p><p>Is it just me or all these subscription services are becoming islands onto themselves and when we combine all these services, total cost is just bonkers.</p><p>Think about this,</p><p>Office 365+Netflix+Amazon+Sling+Apple Music+HBO = $80 right there. Plus Movie pass and CBS</p><p><br></p><p>i just realized that i have a problem and im gonna goto a corner and cry for a while…</p>

  • xperiencewindows

    27 April, 2018 - 2:39 pm

    <p>What happened to Paul crediting the source of the banner images?</p>

  • rameshthanikodi

    27 April, 2018 - 2:54 pm

    <p>How to win in the American economy:</p><p><br></p><p>1) sell good thing at reasonable price</p><p>2) scale up to improve your margins</p><p>2) make it impossible for small businesses to offer the same value at their scale, putting them out of business</p><p>4) raise prices</p><p><br></p><p>Bonus: blame it on China.</p>

  • Bats

    27 April, 2018 - 3:13 pm

    <p>Wait a minute. What do you mean, "<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In a long-awaited—and, frankly, long-overdue—move,…." ? </span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I am not waiting for this? I don't want this.</span></p>

  • RoHo

    Premium Member
    27 April, 2018 - 3:17 pm

    <p>Where else can you buy just about anything under the sun at a discounted price and have it arrive in 2 days at your door? Sometimes in I day. Best service available along with all the other benefits. </p>

    • navarac

      28 April, 2018 - 6:39 am

      <blockquote><a href="#266522"><em>In reply to RoHo:</em></a></blockquote><p>In the UK it is next day delivery, being a smaller place, of course.</p>

  • slerched

    Premium Member
    27 April, 2018 - 4:17 pm

    <p>Guess my only problem is they are adding NFL stuff to Prime as I understand it. I don't care about football. At all. Can I have a Prime account that is priced with that in consideration?</p><p><br></p><p>Probably not since Amazon has to pay the NFL the same amount no matter what and factoring my subscription into is how they came to the price point.</p><p><br></p><p>If they added the ability to allow families that share prime to also share the video service, in a way that allowed everyone to have a separate watch list, it would be appreciated. Now we all just cram everything into the master account and call it a day.</p><p><br></p>

    • the_real_entheos

      28 April, 2018 - 11:32 am

      <blockquote>I don't care much for just about any of their original series, but like football, so this is more arguing about cable channels, though not liking football is probably more righteous 😉 I agree about not sharing the video service, or even having an option to for more money like music. Though mostly driven by Hollywood Studios, not sharing video between a couple or a small family (with one 4 y.o. in my case) is silly. Please don't reward families with 14 natural children though.</blockquote><blockquote><a href="#266549"><em>In reply to slerched:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p>

  • red.radar

    Premium Member
    27 April, 2018 - 4:41 pm

    <p>I like the option to choose my perks and maybe negotiate back down the cost. </p><p><br></p><p>Otherwise maybe i be I can go back to waiting a few extra days for things to arrive. </p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

  • chrisrut

    Premium Member
    27 April, 2018 - 9:38 pm

    <p>At $79 I thought it was a loss leader… At $99I thought it was a bargain… at $119.. it's still a good value… But they got me to stop and think about it for a second; there <em>are </em>limits. </p>

  • zorb56

    Premium Member
    28 April, 2018 - 7:56 am

    <p>Am I the only one noticing that fewer and fewer items are being offered for Prime shipping, and they are pushing the deadlines for getting it in 3 days instead of 2 but still calling it 2 up by several hours? I can order something at noon on Monday and not get it until Thursday for some things and they still call that Prime… I don't know how they calculate it, but it's become frustrating for me. I don't need instant gratification, and no these aren't 'first world problems,' this is a service that I'm paying more for and the only benefit to that service I desire is getting worse.</p>

  • Username

    29 April, 2018 - 6:57 pm

    <p>Share subscription costs with neighbour – that’s 50% off – is that impractical (or, unamerican)?</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC