5 Ways to Get Your Money's Worth Out of Amazon Prime Video (2024)

Amazon Prime Video has a lot of titles to choose from. Like, a lot. According to JustWatch, Amazon Prime Video currently has more than 19,000 movie titles and about 3,400 series in its catalog. If you buy the service alone, it will run you just under $9 per month, but there are ways to maximize your service to save even more.

1 Get the Full Prime Membership

Amazon Prime Video is $8.99 per month when purchased as a standalone service. This is soon becoming one of the most affordable streamers in the game. Even Netflix runs you almost $16 per month if you don't want ads. But you can get more out of your service if you pay for the full Prime membership.

The full Amazon Prime membership is just $6 more per month at $14.99 and offers a slew of other benefits. By adding a full membership, you unlock free shipping on most Amazon deliveries, free delivery from GrubHub food service, free shipping on Amazon Fresh delivery service, Amazon Music, Prime Gaming, and other discounts.

Students may qualify to get an Amazon Prime membership for just $7.49 per month.

2 Try New Channels During Amazon Prime Days or Black Friday

Amazon Prime Video lets you add channels to your service to get even more titles. For instance, you can get British programming with channels like BritBox and Acorn TV. Or, you can sign up for premium networks like Max and STARZ.

If there's a good time to try new channel subscriptions, it's during Amazon Prime Days (typically in mid-July) or on Black Friday. During these sales, you can sometimes get the first three months of a channel for just $0.99 per month. Other channels are discounted by 50 percent during these time periods.

Unlike many other services (we're looking at you, Netflix and Hulu), Amazon still lets you share your account with other people. The official way to do this is to create an Amazon Household and send an email invite to a friend or family member and invite them to join. The person must be in the same country as you.

When you share an Amazon Household, all users will be able to access Amazon Prime Video. You could share an account with someone and split the monthly membership cost to bring down costs for both parties. Or, you could find a nice friend who lets you use their account for free.

If you trust someone enough, you can also just send them your account name and password and let them sign in on their own device. Obviously, you should use this method with extreme caution.

4 Keep Your Eyes Peeled for Rental Deals

Each week, Amazon discounts new titles. Some movies that used to be available for rental only become free to view. Other movies are available for as little as $4.99 to purchase.

To find these discounts, click on the icon with nine dots in the top right corner of your Prime Video screen. This will open up the "Featured Collections" window. Click on "Deals" to find these titles.

5 Sign up Soon to Get the Month-Long Free Trial

At the time of writing, Amazon has a 30-day free trial for Amazon Prime memberships. Trial periods can always change, so this is a good time to try for free and see if you like it. You'll get Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Music, and all other benefits with your trial. If you make a movie purchase or rental, you'll still need to pay.

If you've recently canceled an Amazon membership, you won't be offered another free trial until a year after the date of cancelation.