Amazon Prime Australia: Everything you need to know

In Australia Amazon Prime costs $9.99 per month, of $79 for the year if you pay upfront. If you’re willing to commit to the full year you’ll ultimately get 2 months free, and pay just $6.50 per month instead- whichever way you want to girl math it.

New members can still nab an Amazon Prime free trial in Australia for a full 30 days. During this time you’ll get all the benefits of Prime membership so you can truly put it to the test. After the 30 days is up, the card you input during signup will automatically be deducted either the one month or the one year fee depending on which membership you selected.

There are a tonne of inclusions with Amazon Prime which we’ll get into in more detail, but here is the TLDR:

• Free expedited delivery on eligible domestic orders 
• Free international shipping on orders over $49 on purchases made from the global store
• Access to Prime Video, Prime Reading, and Prime Gaming
• A Twitch Channel monthly subscription
• Early access to exclusive shopping deals (like on Prime Day for example)

A key perk of Amazon Prime, and the reason a lot of people opt in is the shipping benefits. The Amazon marketplace is known for fast delivery, dubbed ‘Expedited Delivery’ which can be as fast as the same day.

Same day delivery in Australia is limited to a range of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth postcodes. Some in Sydney and Melbourne are eligible for free same-day with a Prime account while others across these, Brisbane and Perth can only access it for an extra fee. Same day delivery is also only available to residential addresses or specified Amazon Locker Pick Up locations.

More broadly Prime members can also get delivery in one or two days on select orders. These need to be sold or shipped by Amazon Australia and you’ll need to be in one of 51 metro areas for two day shipping, and within a broad postcode range as specified by Amazon for one-day delivery. These aren’t your usual CBD locations however, while the big lads like Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane are all featured, users in Forster, Bowral, Port Macquarie, Armidale, and Dubbo can also get speedy shipping. The full list of eligible suburbs and postcodes are available on Amazon’s website.

Shipping to Australia tends to be pretty pricey, but Prime members can get free international shipping through the Amazon Global Store. The minimum spend is $49 to get Expedited shipping, and it can come in as fast as 7-10 business days to the same eligible suburbs mentioned above. Standard delivery is free without a minimum spend from eligible senders, but naturally can take longer to arrive.

Prime members get access to a library of streaming and entertainment through movies, shows, gaming and books.

Prime Video is likely the one you’ve heard of already- the streaming platform hosts a bunch of original and classic content available free to Prime subscribers. Apart from the usual streaming service schtick Prime Video also has ‘Channels’ like Paramount+, Hayu, and BritBox. For an additional $5-10 per month per channel, you’ll be able to access these platforms’ catalogues directly through Prime Video.

For gamers, Prime Gaming can offer some fun perks. The offering includes a handful of free (mostly) PC games each month, a Twitch channel subscription, and free in-game content.

Each month Prime Gaming releases free full games, and exclusive in-game content. The scope of the games differs, but at the time of writing you could pick up Fallout in its entirety, additional TIer Skips in Overwatch 2, an AR Pack for Apex Legends, and a bunch of PUBG add-ons included with your subscription. These rotate in and out, but if you claim it then you’ll keep it even if you get rid of your Prime membership. 

You’ll also get one free Twitch subscription each month across a range of streamers. Ultimately Amazon will sponsor a tip for one streamer, per Prime account, per month. This won’t roll over month-to-month so you’ll need to renew your Twitch sub once per month, but hey at least its free.

Prime reading isn’t the same as Kindle Unlimited but you can get access to a good chunk of reading material through the service. According to Amazon, with Prime Reading you’ll get access to over a thousand books, comics, short works, and more which you can read on a Kindle device or the Kindle app.

With your Prime memberhsip you'll get access to over 100 million songs and a range of ad-free podcasts on Amazon Music Prime. 

Music Prime is somewhat limited however. While you can listen ad-free, you'll only be able to listen by shuffling an artist, album or playlist. Its kind of like the free version of Spotify.

If you want the best possible listening experience through Amazon Music you're better off paying for Amazon Music Unlimited. For $12.99/mth you'll be able to pick and play any song, download audio to listen to offline, and skip as many songs as you want. Unlimited also offers Spatial Audio in Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio- note that you'll need the right headphones to experience this properly. The audio is also streamed in HD and Ultra HD (aka lossless audio) which is perfect for audiophiles out there. 

Subscribers to Amazon Prime gain early and exclusive access to deals across the Amazon marketplace. The most significant shopping event for Prime members is Amazon Prime Day, which seems to be getting inexplicably longer every year. Shhh, no one tell Bezos how many hours are in a day. Prime Day comes with a bunch of discounts across every category in the marketplace (even bins) and is only available to Prime members.

If you think you’d use any of Amazon’s included benefits in the Prime service then it is well worth the cost. For reference shipping costs without Prime start from $7.99 per delivery, so after buying one thing you would have spent more in a month than if you opted for the yearly membership. Similarly, if you wanted to buy Fallout to play on PC you’d be looking at $9.99USD which is around $15 Australian dollars, or two months worth of Prime.