Can you believe that the holiday season is already creeping up on us? I can’t. But at least that means we can begin looking forward to all the deals we’re likely to see during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the bulk of which will drop on November 28th. Everything from gaming gear and headphones to the latest smart home tech — well, almost everything — will be on sale, including plenty of Verge favorites.
But be aware: some of the best deals will only be available for Amazon Prime subscribers. Fortunately, if you’re interested in all of Amazon’s discounted goodies but haven’t signed up for Prime, don’t worry — Amazon makes it very easy to lock in a premium account.
If you’re attracted by the goodies being offered but haven’t signed up for Prime, Amazon makes it very easy
Besides giving access to Prime Day bargains, Amazon includes a bunch of features to entice people to sign up for its Prime service. These include access to its streaming video service, Prime Video, which sadly is no longer ad-free, though you can pay extra for that; free and faster shipping on purchases (with two-day or one-day delivery for many items and even same-day delivery for some); discounts on a selection of Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods groceries along with a free GrubHub Plus membership; Amazon Music ad-free audio streaming (not to be confused with the more extensive Amazon Music Unlimited, which is an additional $10.99 per month for Prime members and $11.99 per month for non-members); free access to Amazon Luna gaming; unlimited photo storage (along with 5GB of video storage); and Prime Reading, which gives you access to a rotating library of comics, books, and magazines as well as early access to a curated selection of new books. Amazon also added discounts at BP and Amaco gas stations last year.
You can share your Prime account with one other adult, up to four children, and up to four teens (as long as they were added before April 7th, 2025) using the Amazon Family program. Shared benefits include fast delivery, Prime streaming access, purchased ebooks and other media, and early access to lightning deals. (Some features, such as Music Prime, are not shared.)
Here’s how to sign up.
Choose a plan
- Go to https://www.amazon.com/amazonprime and scroll down to where it says Choose your plan. You can immediately click on the button that says Start your free 30-day trial if you want, but don’t you want to see what your options are first?
- Choose which plan you want. The basic plan lets you sign up for the service for $14.99 per month or $139 per year, which comes out to a little over $12 a month.
- Prime for Young Adults is for anyone who is between the ages of 18 and 24 or can verify that they are an enrolled student. You’ll get a free six-month trial subscription (if you’re a new member), and after that, you’ll only have to pay $7.49 a month or $69 a year.
- If you’re on any of a variety of government assistance programs, like SNAP and Medicaid, you can also join for less with Prime Access: $6.99 a month with a free 30-day trial.
- Is it your birthday soon? If you have a generous friend or relative, they can gift you a Prime membership using one of Amazon’s gift cards.
Create an account
- Once you’ve decided which plan you’re going to go with, you’ll need an Amazon account. If you don’t already have one, you’ll need to sign up. Click on Start your free 30-day trial and then Create your Amazon account to set one up with your name, email, and password. We strongly recommend setting up two-factor authentication for your account as well.
- On the next page, Amazon will verify your account by sending what it calls an OTP (one-time password) to your email. Go to your email, copy the OTP, paste it into the Amazon page, and click Verify.
- You’ll then be asked to enter your credit or debit card information.
- And you’re done!
We should probably mention the obvious: you can sign up for a Prime membership, take advantage of the free 30-day trial, and then cancel it after Black Friday and Cyber Monday have ended. But you can only do that once, so you won’t be able to use that trick next year when Prime Day or Black Friday comes around.
Update, October 27th: This article was first published on June 9th, 2021, and has been updated to reflect new information regarding Amazon’s forthcoming Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale.