Amazon is shutting down the Prime Invitee program which allowed members to extend free shipping to people outside their household. An updated support page says sharing through Invitee will end on October 1 and that previously invited guests will be notified by September 5 of the changes.
The Verge is reporting that users who don't live with the primary account owner will be prompted to create their own Amazon Prime accounts and will be offered a discounted rate of $14.99 for the entire first year and then the standard rate of $14.99 per month thereafter. We reached out to Amazon to see what measures the company plans to take to prevent account sharing beyond limiting deliveries to one address, but the company didn't have any specifics to share.
The company is encouraging users to take advantage of Amazon Family, which allows the sharing of Prime benefits among multiple people under the same roof. This arrangement is limited to two adults including the primary account holder and up to four children. Up to four teens can also be included if they were added before April 7, 2025. Household members who participate in Amazon Family can access free shipping, Prime Video and more.
Many major subscription-based online services have been cracking down on sharing recently, especially streamers like HBO Max and Disney+. Reuters recently reported that despite a record four-day Prime Day this year, Amazon fell short of its goals for new Prime account sign-ups.
Update, September 2, 2025, 5:05PM ET: This story was updated to note that Amazon didn't have any specifics on what measures it'll take to limit account sharing under this new policy.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-ends-shared-prime-shipping-182513989.html?src=rss
