Why You Can Trust CNET How to Sign Up for a Prime Membership Ahead of Amazon Prime Day 2024
Amazon's biggest sales event is next week, but it's exclusively for Prime members.
Amazon's Prime Day for 2024 is happening July 16 and 17.
Amazon's Prime Day is only a week away. The two-day event will feature its biggest sales on July 16 and 17, giving you plenty of time to grab products from your wishlist or randomly browse Amazon for any and all deals.
The thing is, you'll need to be a Prime member to take advantage of these offers. If you're not a member and want to take advantage of big discounts, now is the time to sign up.
Signing up for Amazon Prime is super easy, and you can get a 30-day free trial to test it out. That means you can take advantage of all the sales from Prime Day and cancel it before it's set to renew.
Below, we'll show you how to both sign up and cancel your Prime membership so you're ready to click or tap your way into major savings on Prime Day.
For more summer sales, here's what you need to know about Amazon Prime Day 2024 and 30 early Amazon Prime Day deals you can shop right now.
Prime Day requires an Amazon Prime membership, though you don't have to be a paying member to get in on the savings. Start your 30-day Prime free trial now and you'll be able to shop the best deals without paying for a subscription -- just remember to cancel before it renews.
Amazon Prime plans
Amazon offers four ways to subscribe to Prime, but two of those come with qualifications. Here's the breakdown.
- Prime monthly: $15 a month -- 30-day free trial
- Prime annual: $139 a year -- 30-day free trial
- Prime Access: $7 a month -- 30-day free trial
- Prime Student: $7.49 a month -- first six months free
The most important thing to note is that Amazon does offer a 30-day free trial for any new members. You can cancel your membership without being charged, as long as you close your membership before your first payment. If you've previously been an Amazon Prime member, you won't be able to get a free trial with that same account.
Prime Access and Prime Student are discounted plans, and you need to qualify to participate. Those who qualify for certain government assistance programs can sign up for Prime Access, and only students, to no one's surprise, can sign up for Prime Student.
With the standard Prime plans, you have the choice to go monthly or annually, with the latter allowing you to save slightly over $40 over a year vs. the monthly plan.
If you're on qualifying government assistance, you can save money on your Prime membership.
How to sign up for Amazon Prime
To take advantage of Prime deals, you'll want to be a Prime member. To sign up, all you'll need to do is:
1. Navigate to www.amazon.com/amazonprime.
2. Tap the rectangular orange box that says Start Your 30-Day Trial.
3. If you already have an Amazon account, sign in. If you don't have an Amazon account, tap Create Account.
4. You will be prompted to enter your name, email address and password. Amazon will require you to verify your email address with a one-time password.
5. Select your payment method -- which can be a credit card, debit card, gift card or whatever other payment method you choose -- and add that information. Then click Continue.
That's it. You're now a Prime subscriber.
Cancel Amazon Prime before it renews
If you decide a Prime membership is no longer right for you, or if you want to end your free trial, it's pretty easy to cancel.
1. Sign into your Amazon account, and tap the Account & Lists dropdown menu.
2. Then select Prime Membership in the Your Account column.
3. Next, under the Manage membership heading, tap Update, cancel and more.
4. Then, simply select End Membership.
If you don't want to follow these steps, you can also go to this support page and jump directly to the End Membership button. Either way, after selecting End Membership you will no longer be subscribed to Amazon Prime.
For on Amazon, be sure to check out how to return your Amazon products for free and 16 Amazon Prime perks you might not know you have.