Amazon Ends Prime Invitee Program: What It Means for Shoppers
If you’ve been sharing an Amazon Prime membership with a friend or family member outside your household, get ready for a change. Starting October 1, 2025, Amazon will officially shut down its “Prime Invitee” program, which previously allowed members to extend free shipping benefits to people living elsewhere.
Prime Invitee Program Comes to an End
Launched in 2009, Prime Invitee gave members a way to share free shipping perks beyond their household. Although Amazon stopped accepting new sign-ups in 2015, hundreds of thousands of users – fewer than one million, according to the company – were still enjoying the benefit.
That ends this fall. Moving forward, anyone who wants free shipping will need to pay for their own Prime membership.
What Amazon Says About the Change
Amazon confirmed the news on its website and in a statement to CNN. The company encouraged impacted users to switch to Amazon Household (also known as Amazon Family), which still lets members share Prime benefits – but only with people living under the same roof.
According to Amazon, the phase-out will affect fewer than 1% of U.S. Prime members.
Why Now?
The timing comes just weeks after reports that Amazon struggled to hit sign-up goals during its extended Prime Day 2025 shopping event. A Reuters analysis showed 116,000 fewer people registered for Prime in the 21 days leading up to July 15 compared to last year.
Still, Amazon painted Prime Day as a success, calling it a record-breaking event with “more items sold than ever” during its four-day sale.
How Many Prime Members Are There?
Amazon doesn’t release official Prime subscriber numbers. However, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners estimates that as of March 2025, Amazon Prime has about 197 million members in the U.S.
Prime currently costs $14.99 per month or $139 per year, a price that last increased in 2022.
What This Means for You
For most Prime members, nothing will change. But if you’ve been relying on someone else’s membership through the Invitee program, you’ll soon have to decide whether to:
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Sign up for your own Prime account.
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Switch to Amazon Household (if you live with the Prime account holder).
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Skip Prime and pay standard shipping fees.