10 Amazon Prime Perks You’re Paying For But Probably Not Using
A $139 Amazon Prime membership covers far more than fast shipping. Beyond deliveries, Prime includes built-in perks for streaming, shopping discounts, storage, groceries, and even fuel savings. Many subscribers already pay for these benefits without realizing they exist or how to use them. Before your next renewal, it’s worth knowing what your membership actually includes.
Prime Early Access To Lightning Deals
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Those Lightning Deals vanish fast, and Prime gives a head start. Prime members have early access to select Lightning Deals 30 minutes before everyone else, which is priceless during Prime Day and other major sales events. If an item is in limited stock, that half hour can be the difference between saving $80 and joining Amazon’s waitlist forever.
Alexa+ Included With Prime
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Prime is also paying for your future AI sidekick. Amazon’s new Alexa+ is expected to be a next-generation, more conversational version of Alexa, and Amazon says it’ll be free for Prime members when early access ends. Non-Prime customers should pay $19.99 per month.
Amazon Day Consolidated Deliveries
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Amazon Day is for anyone whose front door looks like a mini warehouse. Instead of deliveries trickling in all week, this service allows members to choose a designated day and have eligible orders arrive together. It reduces packaging and cuts down on the constant doorbell shuffle. The best part is it’s flexible. If something is urgent, regular fast shipping is available, while Amazon Day helps keep routine orders organized.
Free Grubhub+ Membership
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Prime has gone from bringing packages only to delivering even pad thai. Amazon Prime includes a Grubhub+ membership, which comes with $0 delivery fees on eligible orders (commonly over $12), plus lower service fees and member offers. Grubhub promotes the perk as ongoing for Prime members, and Amazon highlights it as included access.
Prime Gaming Freebies And Twitch Perks
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Prime Gaming is basically a secret handshake for gamers. Members can claim rotating free games, in-game loot, and one free monthly Twitch channel subscription. The Twitch perk is important because it allows people to support a streamer without incurring additional costs.
Unlimited Full-Resolution Photo Storage
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Phone storage fills up fast, especially when every meal gets a photo shoot. Amazon Photos offers unlimited full-resolution photo storage for Prime members, which is wild considering most cloud services charge you once you hit a specific limit. You also get 5GB for videos, plus the whole thing backs up automatically if you want it to. This works across all your devices, so that random photo from 2019 you took on your old phone can still be accessible.
First Reads Monthly Kindle Book
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First Reads allows Prime users to download one or more free eBooks each month before they officially launch to the public. Amazon editors pick a rotating selection of upcoming titles, usually around five or six options, and you grab whichever one sounds interesting. You don’t even need a Kindle device since the free app works on your phone or laptop.
Digital Credits for Choosing Slower Shipping
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At checkout, Prime members sometimes see an option to skip the fast shipping and take “No-Rush Shipping” instead. In exchange, Amazon tosses you a small digital credit you can use on Kindle books, music, video rentals, or other digital content. The credit amount varies, and the offer doesn’t appear every single time. However, when it does, you’re basically getting paid to wait a few extra days for something you probably didn’t need immediately anyway.
Fuel Discounts at Thousands of Gas Stations
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Linking your Prime membership to the Earnify app gets you at least ten cents off per gallon at BP and Amoco stations nationwide. There’s no separate subscription required, and the discount activates before you start pumping. For anyone who fills up weekly, that’s real money saved every month just for connecting two accounts. The app also tracks your savings over time, which adds up faster than most people expect when they first start using it.
Prime Reading Rotating Library
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Prime Reading is like a small Netflix shelf, but for books and magazines. Members can borrow from a rotating selection of eBooks, magazines, and comics at no extra cost. It’s not the entire Kindle store, sadly, but the perk features content perfect for casual reading, travel downtime, or anyone who claims they don’t have hobbies.