Amazon Prime Fees Are Rising. Here’s How to Cancel Your Amazon Prime Membership

If you know how to take full advantage, the perks of having an Amazon Prime membership are vast. They include free two-day (or less) shipping, unlimited music and video streaming, and unlimited photo storage. The benefits of Amazon Prime have attracted approximately 200 million members worldwide. But it’s not for everyone. Say you’re a current Prime member but don’t place enough orders to benefit from expedited shipping, thought Amazon Prime Day 2021 was a dud, or if you don’t regularly use the other exclusive perks, it may be time to cancel Amazon Prime – especially with the annual fee rising 17% to $139 yearly ($180 if you pay monthly) on March 25 for current subscribers; that rate is already in effect for new members.

If you’ve indeed been pondering canceling your Amazon Prime account, but are stumped on how to do it, we’ll walk you through the steps you need to take to cancel your Prime membership.

Step-by-Step Guide to Cancel Amazon Prime

Step 1. After logging in to Amazon, go to the "Accounts & Lists" drop-down in the upper right portion of the homepage and click on the "Your Prime Membership" tab. This will take you to the "Manage Your Prime Membership" page, which highlights the type of membership plan you have, your Prime account’s auto-renewal date, as well as your member benefits.

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Step 2. On the "Manage Your Prime Membership" page, you’ll need to scroll down and click on the "End Membership and Benefits" tab located in the lower left portion of the page.

Step 3. After clicking the "End Membership and Benefits" tab, you’ll get a prompt asking if you’re sure you want to proceed with canceling your Prime membership. If yes, continue by clicking the "End My Benefits" button.

Step 4. Amazon won’t let you go without a pitch, of course. You will be shown another prompt trying to entice you to downgrade your annual membership to a less expensive version. This includes the monthly Prime plan where you get access to all of Prime's perks for $14.99 per month.

Step 5. At this point, if you’re positive that you want to cancel your Prime account, click on the "Continue to Cancel" button. You'll then get taken to a page confirming the cancellation. However, you’ll need to confirm whether you want to end your membership at that exact moment or on the date when the annual membership expires. To end it immediately, click the "End Now" button.

Step 6. Now, go back to your account page. The changes to your account should be reflected and show that you are no longer a Prime member. You should also receive an e-mail notification alerting you of the changes.

Keep in mind that if you were a paid member (meaning you weren't using a free trial) and used any of the Prime benefits once or not at all before canceling your account, you're eligible to receive a full refund of the annual fee. You get a partial refund if you used Prime four or more times. You should see your refund credited back to the original form of payment used at registration within three to five business days.