How To Get Amazon Prime for Free: 6 Easy Ways

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If you are considering joining Amazon Prime with features such as free one- to two-day shipping on millions of items, plus access to Prime Video, Prime Reading, photo storage and Amazon Music, it would be ideal to do a free trial first.

There’s no reason to pay the full membership price out of your own pocket, though. Keep reading to learn how to get free access to Amazon Prime.

6 Ways To Get an Amazon Prime Free Trial

New members can sign up for Amazon Prime and get a free 30-day trial. If you are already a member, worry not, as there are other workarounds to getting a Prime free trial. Not all of these options will be available to everyone, but some should be accessible to most. These ideas won’t necessarily provide infinite access to Prime for free, but they can help cover monthly or annual membership fees for a certain amount of time.

1. New member free 30-day trial membership
2. Earn cash back with an Amazon credit card
3. Reward points from non-Amazon credit cards
4. Switch your mobile carrier
5. Use free Amazon gift cards
6. Share Prime membership benefits via Amazon Household

1. Free 30-Day Trial for New Members

Anyone who has not had an Amazon Prime membership during the previous 12 months can sign up for a free 30-day trial membership. Amazon does require credit card information to start the free trial. If it’s not canceled within 30 days, the card on file will be charged for the monthly or annual membership, depending on which was selected during the sign-up process.

Students are eligible for a six-month trial Prime membership, courtesy of Sprint. After the six-month trial, students receive a Prime membership for half off. They can get the $7.49-per-month rate for four years or until graduation, whichever comes first.

2. Earn Cash Back With an Amazon Credit Card

Amazon currently offers three cards that earn cash back on Amazon purchases. Cash-back rewards coupled with a sign-up bonus in the form of an Amazon gift card should more than cover an annual Prime membership.

3. Reward Points From Non-Amazon Credit Cards

Several credit card issuers now allow cardholders to use rewards points to shop on Amazon, including American Express, Capital One and Discover. 

Also, cardholders of the Discover it Cash Back and Discover it Student Cash Back cards can earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in Amazon purchases during the specific rotating quarter.

Depending on how many reward points are earned and used on Amazon purchases, cardholders just might offset the cost of their Prime membership.

4. Switch Your Mobile Carrier

Anyone who signs up for a $60-per-month unlimited prepaid phone plan from Metro by T-Mobile gets a free Prime membership. A little math will determine whether switching makes sense, but Metro’s website states that the Prime membership is free as long as the $60-per-month prepaid plan is active.

5. Use Free Amazon Gift Cards

Collect Amazon gift cards to cover the cost of a Prime membership. Cash-back shopping sites and survey sites like Swagbucks sometimes allow users to earn free Amazon gift cards.

The Amazon Trade-In program also pays for used electronics, video games and more in the form of Amazon gift cards.

6. Share Prime Benefits via Amazon Household

Amazon Household lets users share certain Prime membership benefits with one other adult and up to four teens between the ages of 13 and 17. Splitting the membership cost makes it much more affordable, but everyone must share payment methods for Amazon purchases.

Takeaway

The only way to get a free Amazon Prime membership is by signing up for a plan with Metro by T-Mobile or a trial Prime membership. If you are a student, you can get a six-month Prime free trial, followed by a discounted rate. But these other tricks can easily cover the cost of a membership, so it is like getting Amazon Prime for free.

If one of these ideas alone won’t cover the membership cost, using a combination should. You can use your cash-back rewards to pay for half and earn enough free Amazon gift cards to cover the other half. Or you can use Amazon Household to split the membership cost with someone else and have your cash-back rewards or gift cards easily cover the rest.

Caitlyn Moorhead contributed to the reporting for this article.

Information is accurate as of Jan 4, 2023. 

Editorial Note: This content is not provided by any entity covered in this article. Any opinions, analyses, reviews, ratings or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author alone and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any entity named in this article.

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