New and existing Amazon Prime members in the US will have to pay $20 more annually.
For the first time in four years, the retail giant is increasing the annual Prime membership cost for US customers. It was back in 2014 when it first raised the prices from $79 to $99.
Starting May 11, 2018, new Amazon Prime members will have to pay $199 annually. That’s 20% more than what they used to charge. Prime Student membership will be at $59 per year. Existing Prime members with annual memberships will renew at $199 as well starting June 16 this year.
Monthly Prime members and Monthly Student Prime members will continue to pay $12.99 and $6.49 per month respectively. The retail giant has already increased the price earlier this year from $10.99 for monthly subscribers.
The price increase was announced by Brian Olsavsky, Amazon’s CFO.
“The value of Prime to customers has never been greater,” Olsavsky said. “And the cost is also high, as we pointed out especially with shipping options and digital benefits, we continue to see rises in costs.”
Over the years, a lot of Amazon Prime features have actually been added for its members. This includes unlimited Prime Video streaming, free two-hour delivery in selected areas, ad-free Twitch viewing, and more.
Earlier this month, CEO Jeff Bezos announced that Amazon has reached 100 million Prime Subscribers. With the latest price increase however, we’ll see if the company is able to sustain that number.
