2024 Prime Video Price Plans: A Clear & Simple Look

Hunting for straightforward info can be exhausting. So here’s all you need to know—clearly and simply—about Amazon Prime Video price plans as of January 2024.

How much does Prime Video cost?

$9/month.

Specifically, it’s $8.99/month for Prime Video as a standalone service.

The bad news is that back in September 2023 Amazon announced it was bringing commercials to the always commercial-free Prime Video. Yesterday (January 29, 2024), those changes took effect. Amazon introduced ads to Prime Video and with them—of course—it offered a new ad-free tier for an extra $2.99/month.

That leaves Apple TV+ as the last major on-demand streaming service to be completely ad-free. (MGM+ and STARZ also continue to resist forcing people to choose between ads or paying more.)

The good news (for some) is that Prime Video is still available at a variety of prices, depending on your situation. We’ll get to those in detail below.

When did Prime Video’s price go up?

Prime Video was added to Amazon Prime in February 2011, when the membership service cost just $79/year. Amazon Prime increased to $99/year in 2014 and Prime Video was still strictly available as part of the whole package.

Prime Video finally became available on its own in April 2016 for $8.99/month. It did not increase in price between that time and January 2024, a 7-year stretch that made it the most stable price among on-demand streaming services.

However, as noted in the above section, Amazon increased the price of Prime Video on January 29, 2024. The argument has been made that it’s technically not a total price increase, because you can still pay the same price as you did before. You’ll just have to watch ads.

But to continue watching the same service you did before, you need to pay an extra 3 bucks a month.

That’s a price increase.

Prime Video price plans

Amazon’s membership services operate differently depending on which country you’re in, which means Prime Video price plans are not always an available option.

For example, you can not get Prime Video as a standalone service in Canada. (However, a full Amazon Prime membership is only $9.99/month or $99/year in Canada—in Canadian dollars!)

As of January 30, 2024, the current Prime Video price plans in the US are as follows:

Prime Video (standalone): $8.99/month

• Unlimited access to Prime Video’s on-demand library
• Add 100+ premium channels à la carte
• Ads: Yes
• User profiles: 6
• Downloads: 15 to 25 downloads on 2 devices
• Simultaneous screens: 3
• Quality: Up to 4K
• Annual plan: None

Prime Video ad-free: $11.98/month

• Everything in Prime Video (standalone) without the ads

As part of Amazon Prime: $14.99/month

• Unlimited access to Prime’s ad-free, on-demand library
• Add 100+ premium channels à la carte
• User profiles: 6
• Downloads: 15 to 25 downloads on 2 devices
• Simultaneous screens: 3
• Quality: Up to 4K
• Annual plan: $139

Prime Student: $7.49/month

• Discounted plan for students enrolled in 2 or 4-year college programs
• Same benefits as a standard Amazon Prime membership
• Discounts on school essentials
• Perks from StudentUniverse, Calm, Course Hero
• Annual plan: $69

Prime Access: $6.99/month

• For people receiving SNAP, Medicaid, or other select assistance
• Same benefits as a standard Amazon Prime membership
• Pay with SNAP EBT on Amazon

Does Prime Video have an annual plan?

Amazon Prime Video as a standalone service does not offer an annual plan. That means at its current price of $8.99/month, a full year of Prime Video will set you back $107.88.

But that’s not all! If you subscribe to the ad-free plan of Prime Video, it will cost you $143.76 a year. That’s almost 5 bucks more than the annual price for the full Amazon Prime membership!

It’s quite clear what Amazon thinks of offering Prime Video as a standalone service. It wants you to get the full meal deal. And if you want to continue watching Prime Video as you’ve always watch it—without commercials—you’d be spending more to not have a full Prime membership.

If you use Amazon’s other services (which would be free shipping for most people) it’s worth it, but just for watching shows and movies, you’re better off with monthly Prime Video plan that now has ads.

Keep in mind, you can pause your Prime Video membership and restart it without losing your favorites, to-watch list, watch history, and other account info. And according to Amazon’s website and Amazon Customer Service, there is no time limit on how long you can pause your membership.

Is there a Prime Video free trial?

Yes!

Well, technically no—there isn’t a Prime Video free trial as a standalone service. But there is an Amazon Prime free trial, and that includes Prime Video.

It’s also the best free trial in the industry. Here’s how it stacks up against other free trials in the streaming space:

How does Prime Video’s price compare to other streaming services?

If you’re really looking to save, there are always free streaming services (called FASTs). And one of them—Freevee—is even owned and operated by Amazon. Obviously, paid streamers can’t compete with FASTs in terms of price.

Compared to paid on-demand streaming services, the introduction of ads saw Amazon Prime go from the best deal in the market for ad-free on-demand streaming to second-worst. Only HBO’s Max charges more for its ad-supported plan.

It fares better in terms of ad-free streaming. It’s in the less expensive range, 2 bucks more than Apple TV+ and the same price as Peacock and Paramount+.

You can see how Prime Video’s prices stack up against the 7 other major streaming services as of January 2024 in the table below.

Is Prime Video worth it?

If you’re a regular online shopper, an Amazon Prime membership is a no-brainer – which makes contemplating a Prime Video subscription a non-issue. You’re getting it anyway.

But is Prime Video worth it on its own?

If you’re a die-hard NFL fan, you’ll want to watch Thursday’s game. And Prime Video is the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football until 2032. (But there are still other ways to watch TNF. Check out this section on how to watch TNF live for more on that.)

There are plenty of Prime Video originals you can’t watch anywhere else, like The Boys, Hunters, and the most expensive TV show of all time, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. But there might not be enough original content for everyone to justify an entire year, so subscribing for 3 or 6 months at a time could be the way to go.