How to Share Your Amazon Prime Account

UPD: 31 July 2024 at 11:04

Founded almost 30 years ago as a retail marketplace specializing in selling books, Amazon has grown into one of the major e-commerce behemoths whose net revenue reached close to $575 billion last year.

Amazon is one of the major e-commerce behemoths

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The launch of Amazon Prime service entitled its subscribers to numerous benefits and perks they can enjoy for a monthly or yearly fee. However moderate this sum may be ($139 annually or $14.99 monthly), many people still wonder if shared Amazon Prime accounts are available to further cut down the subscription cost. This article will help you learn how to share your Amazon Prime account with family members, friends, or colleagues and thus save money.

Amazon Prime Explained

Amazon Prime is simultaneously a subscription membership to Amazon and a paid loyalty rewards program since people who enter it are likely to make the lion’s share of their purchases through the site. First, you need to understand how much is Amazon Prime and how to use it. Currently, there are over 200 million subscribers hailing from 25 countries worldwide (3/4 of them reside in the USA) who generate more than $35 billion yearly. This membership guarantees the following boons:

Unlimited access to Prime Video streaming service with its vast roster of movies and TV shows.
Free access to Twitch Prime with various discounts and free in-game content.
Availability of Amazon Drive, where subscribers can store their files.
Free e-book collection via Prime Reading on Amazon Kindle tablets.
Free two-day shipping — the main reason why 90% of people join the program.

As you see, the assets Amazon Prime offers are quite considerable, but they come at a price, too. If you don’t want to pay for some features you won’t use, you can order individual services (like Prime Video) and pay only for them without a full membership. A viable alternative and a cost-efficient decision is to share an Amazon account.

Our separate article on our website will help you choose the best credit card for Amazon.

The function of account sharing is enabled by creating a virtual group of people (Amazon Household) who will enjoy the benefits of a single Amazon Prime account without paying money for it. The maximum size of the group is six members. Up to two can be adults (persons of 18 or more) and four teens (between 13 and 17) or children (under 13). Alongside the core Amazon Prime benefits, Household members can share apps, audiobooks and e-books, photos, and other content of their Family Library.

Understanding Amazon Prime Account Sharing

As for adults, they may not entirely share an Amazon Prime account. They can still have their separate accounts and even different addresses, but share perks attached to the Prime membership. Teens and children are added to the Household by an adult. The difference in their status allows the former to purchase or stream content (paying for it with their own or an adult's gift card) while the latter can't do that. In both cases, adults can review the items that teens or kids get access to. Moreover, children's experiences can be personalized by managing parental control options, choosing the content they are allowed to see, and setting time limits for watching.

You may also be wondering how to delete my Prime video account if you use this feature.

As a client-oriented brand, Amazon has made account sharing a foolproof and intuitive procedure that takes eight easy steps to complete.

You start by opening the Amazon website and signing in. From the options you are offered, you should choose “Accounts & Lists” and then “Prime.”

2. Creating a household

When directed to the Household page, you will see a menu where you choose the topmost option (“Manage membership”), where you click “Update, manage and more,” and then go to “Manage your household.”

3. Adding adult members

The next screen allows you to add either an adult or a child. If you already have an adult member in your Household, the first option is grayed out, and you can only remove this person and wait for 180 to add someone else. If an adult position in your Household is vacant, you click on it, select from a drop-down list the country of your residence, and press the button “Set the country.”

4. Settling financial matters

On the next screen, you will agree to share the wallet with the adult you add. Then, you choose your billing address and payment method for the shared account. The address and method are set by default to match the current ones in your Prime account, but you may add new ones, too.

You can leave everything unchanged on the Family Library screen unless you don’t want Household members to access some content type. In this case, you should uncheck the box (apps/games or eBooks or both) you would like to exempt from sharing, and click “Continue.”

6. Onboarding a member

Now, you should enter the name and address of the person you allow to share your Prime account and press the “Send Invite” button. It should be an address they use for the existing Amazon account; otherwise, they have to create such an account. The prospective member receives an email that informs them about getting an invite from a certain individual. After opening it, they have two weeks to agree to share the account by clicking the “Get Prime Benefits” button before the invitation expires.

7. Setting up your family library

All that is left to do is decide whether you want to share e-books and other digital content you have. If you do, in the Amazon Household settings, open "Manage Your Family Library" and choose "Share your content." After that, all your content will be shared with other Household members.

If you don't know how to Amazon Prime make account yet, we recommend reading our article on the subject.

Well, sharing your Amazon Prime account is fine and dandy, but when you decide to create a Household, you should be aware of some fine points:

An Amazon Household was designed initially for family members only, and therefore, if you want to share Prime with your friends or roommates, you violate the terms of service, which can lead to the termination of your account.
Giving a new adult member a billing address is necessary only if they want to enjoy the Prime Video subscription service.
When you onboard a teen or a child, you should input their name and birth date and affirm that you are their parent or guardian.
Listening to Amazon Music and accessing Prime Gaming offers isn’t possible via the shared account.
In case you want to add another adult to your household or join another one yourself, a person must be removed from the group to which they previously belonged.
Remember that when you share access to Amazon Prime, you also share your shipping address and billing data. This means you should add to your Household only people you can trust.