Amazon's flagship Prime Day sale may not be as singular as it once was, but the members-only savings event remains a huge draw for inflation-weary shoppers hunting for summer deals.
Here's what you need to know about Amazon Prime Day 2023.
When is Prime Day 2023?
Amazon announced in a press release Wednesday that Prime Day will run from Tuesday, July 11 through Wednesday, July 12 in 2023. This lines up with its historical preference for early-week slots in mid-July, so it comes as little surprise. (For reference, 2022's dates were Tuesday, July 12, and Wednesday, July 13.)
What is Prime Day?
Prime Day is an annual sitewide sale that Amazon puts on for members of its Prime subscription service. First held in 2015 in honor of Amazon's 20th anniversary (with mixed success), it was originally plugged 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.
Wait, didn't Amazon just host a Prime shopping event?
The last Prime-exclusive sale isn't all that far in our rearview mirror. The inaugural Prime Early Access Sale (an unofficial "Prime Day 2") ushered in exclusive discounts across the site last Oct. 11 through 12, kicking off the holidays extra-early and marking the first time Amazon has hosted two such events in the same calendar year.
No word yet on whether we'll get another Prime Early Access Sale in 2023, but the first iteration's relative success points to a likely "yes."
Can you shop on Prime Day without being a Prime member?
You can snag Prime Day deals without committing to a paid Prime membership by scheduling a 30-day free trial around the event. Just remember to cancel it as soon as the sale is over to avoid getting charged.
What will be the best Prime Day deals?
Prime Day is Amazon's favorite excuse to discount its own devices, so expect to see a ton of deals on Echo smart speakers and displays, Fire tablets, Kindles, and Blink-branded security equipment. Older gadgets are expected to fall to their year-round cheapest, while everything from Amazon's latest product launch will probably get some new all-time low pricing — that includes the cute Echo Pop, the next-generation Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 5 Kids, and the pared-down Echo Buds. If past years are any indication, Prime Day will also be your chance to score discounted rates on in-house services like Prime Video, Amazon Music Unlimited, and Audible.
Other usual Prime Day suspects include 4K OLED TVs, robot vacuums, headphones, video games and gaming consoles, and basically every Apple product under the Sun. (Amazon has been holding the second-gen AirPods Pro at $200 and wasted no time in putting the new 15-inch MacBook on sale, so the pressure's on for some extra-good Prime Day offers.)
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:
Visit amazon.com/prime.
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 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
A free three-month trial of Calm Premium, which renews at a discounted rate of $8.99/year (normally $69.99/year)
Up to 10% off flights and hotels via StudentUniverse
EBT and Medicaid cardholders also qualify for a discounted monthly rate 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 of a recession can make that cost hard to swallow right now — especially when Walmart and Best Buy'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 Prime includes; free two-day (or faster) shipping on millions of items is just the tip of the iceberg. Subscribers get complete on-demand access to the Prime Video library, which has the biggest movie collection 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, Prime Gaming, and Prime Reading libraries, in case you somehow run out of things to watch.
Amazon sweetens things even further with unlimited photo storage via Amazon Photos, plus a free year's worth of Grubhub+ that's valued at about $120 itself. All things considered, Prime easily pays for itself if you use it to its full extent.
