With 200 million members worldwide, there’s no doubt that Amazon's 'Prime' subscription service has been a huge success for the company. Since launching in Australia in 2018, the service has expanded to include free one-day delivery on a huge number of items, as well as a swathe of new and updated features, such as Prime Video, Prime Gaming, Prime Reading (for eBooks) and more. And that's not to mention the infamous Prime Day deals, which are only available to subscribers.
With so many features available as part of the one service, we break down exactly what you can expect from an Amazon Prime subscription in Australia. Check it out below!
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What’s included in Amazon Prime for Australia? How much does it cost?
Prime is Amazon’s all-in-one subscription service. It costs A$9.99 per month, or $79 per year, and comes with a free 30-day trial. Amazon Prime members in Australia get access to a number of features including:
- Free two day domestic deliveries from Amazon for eligible items
- Free international delivery from Amazon for orders over $49
- Free release-date delivery for pre-order items (games, movies etc.)
- Early access to deals on Amazon
- Prime Video – Amazon’s video streaming service
- Prime Music – Amazon’s music streaming service
- Prime Gaming – ad-free streaming, channel sub + bonus games and content
- Prime Reading – access to a library of e-books, magazines and comics
- Amazon Drive and Prime Photos – cloud storage space and photo backups
You can sign up to Amazon Prime's free trial here.
Read on for more detail about each of Amazon Prime’s features.
Amazon Prime Features
Shopping on Amazon Prime Australia
Prime is probably best known for its free same day delivery in the United States. The huge fulfilment centres and automated packaging robots – some of which pack 700 boxes per hour – have made headlines across the world. Meanwhile, in Australia, we get free one-day delivery to most places domestically (Amazon says this covers 90% of all Aussies), and free shipping for international orders over A$49.
Prime shipping benefits to metro areas:
Prime shipping benefits to non-metro areas:
Find out if your area gets two-day delivery here.
Prime members also get discounted priority delivery and free release-date delivery for select pre-ordered items such as games, music and movies. Sign up to become a member here.
Amazon Prime Day Australia
Amazon Prime Day 2024 has yet to be announced. In 2023 it took place from July 11-12. Read more here.
Prime Day is basically Amazon’s answer to Black Friday. It’s a day-and-a-half of crazy cheap deals across Amazon, and is available to all Prime members. Read more about Prime Day in Australia here.
On Prime Day itself, new deals pop up throughout the day. Amazon says it will feature over a million deals worldwide. Check out our guide to the best Prime Day deals here, or you can scroll through the deals for yourself on this Amazon page.
You need to be a Prime member to take part in Prime Day, and you can sign up here.
Amazon also has a bunch of other deals in addition to Prime Day. Prime members get a number of exclusive deals and also get early access to Amazon’s Lightning Deals, which are only available for a few hours.
Inside Amazon Prime Video Australia
Amazon Prime Video actually launched in Australia over a year before the rest of Amazon Prime. It originally cost AUD $2.99 a month, but now is only available to Prime members (at no additional cost). At AUD $9.99 a month, this makes Amazon Prime Video the cheapest streaming service in Australia, and slightly cheaper than rivals Netflix (starts at A$16.99 for ad-free), Stan ($12) and Binge ($18 for ad-free). Prime Video supports 4k streaming, offline viewing, and can be viewed on up to three devices at once.
The important question, however, is “What shows are on Prime Video?”. And the selection is actually pretty good. Prime rose to prominence when Amazon snapped up Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May – after they defected from Top Gear – for the original series The Grand Tour. And there’s now a range of popular other Amazon originals including:
- The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
- American Gods
- The Man In The High Castle
- Jack Ryan
- The Tick
- Goliath
See our top 11 Amazon Prime original shows here.
Aside from the originals, there is also a growing range of popular TV shows on Prime Video including Seinfeld, Downton Abbey and The Shield, not to mention a wide selection of films.
Like all streaming services, the catalogue is always changing. If you just want to check out Amazon Prime Video’s range, we recommend signing up for a 30-day free trial, which you can do here.
Inside Amazon Prime Music Australia
Amazon Prime Music was one of the later additions to Amazon Prime in Australia, and is not to be confused with Amazon’s premium music streaming service Amazon Music Unlimited. Prime Music is included in the A$9.99 Prime membership, while Amazon Music Unlimited costs A$12.99 a month.
Amazon Prime Music boasts over two million songs, and features ad-free streaming and offline listening. In comparison, Amazon Music Unlimited is said to feature over 50 million songs. Prime members can upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited here.
Read our review of Amazon Music Unlimited here.
Prime Music also includes over 200 locally-curated playlists, and is integrated with Alexa for hands-free listening. Sign up to Prime Music here.
Inside Prime Gaming Australia
Prime Gaming is Amazon’s premium experience on the Twitch platform. It gives Prime Members access to a free selection of games and in-game loot each month, as well as ad-free streaming on Twitch and a channel subscription every 30 days. Also included is a set of exclusive chat emotes and colours for Twitch.
Inside Amazon Prime Reading Australia
A Prime membership includes access to Prime Reading, which is a rotating selection of over a thousand e-books, comics and magazines. Like Prime Music is to Amazon Music Unlimited, Prime Reading is only a small taste of Kindle Unlimited – Amazon’s AUD $13.99/month service that features over a million books.
Prime Reading features both international best-sellers and local favourites, includes books with Audible Narration, and is available on all devices by downloading the Kindle app.
Read more details about Prime Reading here, or sign up for a 30-day free Prime trial here.
Amazon Drive and Prime Photos in Australia
Amazon Prime Members get access to Amazon Drive cloud storage space, and the Prime Photos app, which allows you to back up your smartphone’s photos to the cloud.
Final Verdict: Is Amazon Prime worth it in Australia?
Australia is one of the cheapest countries to get an Amazon Prime membership. Clearly Amazon wants to be the go-to subscription across the world, but in a new market like Australia, now is the time to be taking advantage of the exceptional value. The free two day delivery is worthwhile for anyone that buys anything at all on Amazon, while Prime Video alone is a formidable rival to other streaming services in the market. The price is likely to go up as more people join and more features get added. But for the time being, it feels like getting on the Prime bandwagon in Australia is a no-brainer.
Find out out for yourself and sign up to a free 30-day Prime trial here.