Time is a flat circle, and Amazon Prime Day 2023 will be here before we know it.
If it feels like the retail giant just hosted a massive savings event for members of its paid subscription service, it's because it sort of did. The inaugural Prime Early Access Sale (an unofficial "Prime Day 2") ushered in exclusive discounts across the site from Oct. 11 through 12, marking the first time Amazon has hosted two such events in the same calendar year.
Catch your breath. Below, we cover everything you need to know about this year's flagship Prime Day sale ahead of time — including some likely dates you can tentatively block out.
What is Prime Day?
Prime Day is an annual sitewide sale that Amazon puts on for its Prime members. First held in 2015 in honor of Amazon's 20th anniversary(opens in a new tab) (with mixed success), it was originally plugged(opens in a new tab) as a "one-day-only event filled with more deals than Black Friday." In the years since, it's morphed into a 48-hour affair that's preceded by a week of preview offers. "Prime Day" is a misnomer at this point.
When is Prime Day 2023?
Amazon hasn't announced this year's Prime Day dates yet, but historically, it's been partial to Monday/Tuesday and Tuesday/Wednesday slots in mid-July. (For reference, 2022's dates were Tuesday, July 12, and Wednesday, July 13.) With that in mind, we predict that Prime Day 2023 will run from either July 10 through 11 or July 11 through 12.
Stay tuned to see how that pans out; Amazon typically drops the news a few weeks ahead of time, and we'll update this post as soon as it breaks.
Can you shop on Prime Day without being a Prime member?
There is a way to snag Prime Day deals without committing to a paid Prime membership, and that's by scheduling your 30-day free trial(opens in a new tab) around the event. Just remember to cancel it as soon as the sale is over to avoid getting charged.
How to sign up for Amazon Prime
If you haven't been an Amazon Prime member within the past 12 months, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial by following these steps:
Click on the orange button that says "Start your free 30-day trial."
Sign in or create an Amazon account.
Add a payment method and a billing address. (Don't worry — you won't be charged upfront.)
Click the yellow button that says "Activate your free trial."
After your trial period ends, you'll automatically be upgraded to a paid membership plan for $14.99 per month or $139 per year. (The latter saves you just over $40 annually, FYI.)
Getting your degree? Anyone with a .edu email address can take advantage of a free six-month trial that converts to a $7.49-a-month paid tier under the Prime Student(opens in a new tab) program. (You can ride out that rate for four years or until graduation, whichever comes first.) As a member, you're entitled to several bonus offers on top of the standard Prime perks:
A month's worth of free 24/7 homework help from Course Hero(opens in a new tab)
A free three-month trial of Calm Premium(opens in a new tab), which renews at a discounted rate of $8.99/year (normally $69.99/year)
Up to 10% off flights and hotels via StudentUniverse(opens in a new tab)
EBT and Medicaid cardholders also qualify for a discounted monthly rate(opens in a new tab) of $6.99 — you just have to verify your eligibility every 12 months.
Is Amazon Prime worth it?
Prime's current annual rate is the result of a 17% price bump last spring (from $119 to $139), which wasn't totally unexpected: Amazon has increased its membership fees by $20 every four years since 2014. But the looming threat(opens in a new tab) of a recession can make that cost hard to swallow right now — especially when Walmart(opens in a new tab) and Best Buy(opens in a new tab)'s rivaling subscription services cost $98 and $49.99 per year, respectively.
That being said, $139 is still a stellar value when you factor in all the perks(opens in a new tab) Prime includes; free two-day (or faster) shipping on millions of items is just the tip of the iceberg. For starters, subscribers get complete on-demand access to the Prime Video(opens in a new tab) library, which has the biggest movie collection(opens in a new tab) of all the major U.S. streaming services. (A $139 annual Prime membership is almost $50 cheaper than a year's worth of a Standard Netflix plan.) You also have free rein of the Prime Music(opens in a new tab), Prime Gaming(opens in a new tab), and Prime Reading(opens in a new tab) libraries, in case you somehow run out of things to watch.
Amazon sweetens things even further with unlimited photo storage via Amazon Photos(opens in a new tab), plus a free year's worth of Grubhub+(opens in a new tab) that's valued at about $120 itself. All things considered, Prime easily pays for itself if you use it to its full extent.
