Technology
How to share Amazon Prime with family or friends
To get the most out of everything Amazon has to offer, you’ll need a Prime membership.
It offers free, fast delivery (often same or next day) on millions of items, plus access to all the great movies and TV shows on Prime Video.
However, there are many more benefits, including free access to many games, e-books and access to millions of songs and podcasts through Amazon Music Prime.
Another big one is exclusive access to deals, which usually happens as part of Amazon Prime Day. Despite the name, Prime Day will take place over two full days in 2024 – July 16 and 17.
If you’ve never signed up before, you can get a 30-day free trial, which means you get all the discounts without paying extra. After that it costs £8.99/$14.99 per month or £95/$139 per year.
Now is also a great time to share your Prime membership with other people in your household. Here’s how to do that, plus everything that can be shared.
How does Amazon know who is in my family?
That is not the case. You choose this yourself in the Amazon Household section of your Amazon account.
But that doesn’t mean you can easily share the cost of Prime with other households, because you’ll also need to share payment information. If you’re not at all confident that friends or members of your extended family will be able to buy things with your card, that’s not a good idea.
The only exception to this is purchasing physical products from Amazon; each person sharing a Prime subscription uses their own payment methods instead.
However, for things like rented or purchased videos on Amazon Prime Video and other digital goods, the single, shared payment method is used. Nevertheless, Prime Video still allows you to set separate viewing profiles (just like with Netflix).
Note that you cannot share the benefits if you are a Prime Student (or between 18 and 22 years old), a Prime Video-only user, or an invited guest of a Prime member (the member is the person who pays for Prime).
Share Prime with Amazon Household
The instructions here assume you’ve already signed up for Amazon Prime and you want to share that membership with another adult and up to four children. If not, register in the UK or US first.
Sign in and open Prime Settings
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
Go to the Amazon website in your country (such as the UK or US) and log in. Hover over ‘Account & Lists’ and click on ‘Your Prime Membership’. You can also click on ‘Account & Lists’ and then on ‘Prime’ (shown above).
Open the Amazon Household page
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
At the top of the page, under ‘Manage Membership’, click ‘Update, cancel & more’ followed by ‘Manage your household’.
Start creating Amazon Household
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
In the screen that appears, click ‘Add adult’.
If the option is grayed out, you have already set this up. If you decide to remove the adult, you must wait 180 days before you can add someone else.
Choose where you live
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
Use the drop-down list to find the country where you live, then click the ‘Set Country’ button.
Agree to share benefits
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
On the next screen, click ‘Agree and Continue’.
Choose your billing address
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
This is the one associated with the payment method you use for Prime. Select one of the existing addresses or add a new address, then click ‘Use this address’.
If you want, you can also click ‘Skip Prime Video Sharing’ here.
choose your method of payment
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
Select one of the existing payment methods or add a new one and then click ‘Continue’.
Decide if you want to share apps/games and eBooks
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
Uncheck the box next to either or both if you don’t want them to be shared, then click Continue.
Send invitation
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
Enter the name and email address of the person you want to share Prime with, then click “Send Invitation.”
Check email for invitation
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
The person receiving the invitation should now check their email. The subject should be along the lines of ‘*Name* invited you to share their Prime membership!’.
Open it and then click the ‘Get Prime Benefits’ button. You have 14 days to accept the invitation before it expires.
Confirm that you want to share the benefits
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
In the screen that appears, click ‘Continue’.
Sign in or create a new Amazon account
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
If you already have an account, enter the email address (followed by ‘Continue’) and then the password (followed by ‘Sign in’) associated with it.
But if you’re new to Amazon, click “Create Your Amazon Account” and follow the instructions.
Agree to share payment information with Prime subscribers
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
The person joining the household must repeat step 5 so that payment information can be shared with the person subscribing to Prime. Click ‘Agree and Continue’ to continue.
choose a billing address
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
Choose which existing billing address is associated with your main payment method, or add a new address. Once selected, click ‘Use this address’. This is only necessary if you want to access the Prime Video subscription service. If you’d rather not do this, simply click ‘Skip Prime Video Sharing’.
Decide if you want to share apps/games and eBooks
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
The person joining the household must repeat step 8 and uncheck the boxes if you prefer that apps, games and/or eBooks not be shared. When you are satisfied, click ‘Continue’.
Enjoy the benefits
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
That is it! You can now access many of Prime’s benefits at no additional cost.
From this screen you can see what’s available and change how much you share.
What Prime benefits can you share?
The second adult to use your Amazon Prime account will have access to many – but not all – of Amazon Prime’s benefits. Children don’t really get these benefits, except indirectly.
For example, they can watch Prime Video and have their own user profile, but they still have to log into the app with your Amazon account.
The other adult in your household will receive the following benefits:
Delivery
- First delivery
- Amazon verse
Digital
- Prime Video streaming
- First reading
- Family Library, where you can share digital content such as apps, eBooks, games and other media.
Discounts / Exclusive
- Access to Lightning Deals
- Try before you buy
- Prime exclusive items
- Discounts on Amazon Music, Kids+
- Additional offers and discounts, such as 20% discount on diapers and baby food
Invitees can’t share benefits like Amazon First Reads and Twitch Turbo, or invite more people to Prime.
Remark: You can’t share Amazon Prime Music or Amazon Video Channels. For example, if you want your partner to listen to Prime Music, he or she must log in with your account.
An easy way to share Prime Music is to use a smart speaker like an Amazon Echo. Anyone in your home can ask Alexa to play music. The only downside is that all recently played songs will appear in your Alexa app and you’ll end up getting recommendations for songs you personally don’t like. However, it is a small price to pay.
If you want individual accounts, you’ll have to pay separately for Amazon Music Unlimited or a competing streaming service that requires their Family plan.
Prime Music offers full access to all 100 million+ songs, but you’ll have to settle for shuffle play unless you pay for a full subscription.
