All the Amazon Prime Benefits You May Not Be Using

Amazon Prime costs $139 per year ($14.99/month), and most members use it primarily for free two-day shipping. But the membership includes a long list of other benefits that many Prime members don't know about — some worth significant money on their own.

Here's what's included: Prime Video (streaming movies and TV shows comparable in breadth to Netflix, including Amazon Original series), Prime Music (streaming music with a catalog of 100 million songs), Prime Reading (free access to rotating selection of Kindle books and magazines), Amazon Photos (unlimited photo storage and 5GB video storage, separate from iCloud or Google Photos), Prime Gaming (free games and in-game content each month), Amazon Fresh delivery (free grocery delivery in some areas), prescription discounts through Amazon Pharmacy, and Whole Foods discounts (extra 10% off sale items).

Many of these can replace other paid services. If you're paying separately for music streaming, Amazon Prime Music is included. If you store photos elsewhere for a fee, Amazon Photos includes unlimited photo backup. Prime Reading reduces the need to purchase Kindle books.

Amazon Family members can be added to most benefits: household sharing lets two adults and four children share most Prime benefits. This makes the per-person cost much more reasonable for families.

A few benefits have their own apps: Prime Video has its own app (Prime Video), Prime Music and Amazon Music share the Amazon Music app, Amazon Photos has its own app. You access most of them through the respective apps on your phone or smart TV, not through the main Amazon Shopping app.