How to cancel Amazon Prime (and when you can get a refund)

To cancel Amazon Prime, sign in to Amazon, open the Cancel Your Prime Membership page (linked from Amazon's help center and your Prime membership page), and follow the prompts until you see a confirmation. If you haven't used any Prime benefits since your last charge, Amazon says you're eligible for a full refund. Otherwise, canceling before your renewal date stops the next charge.

How to cancel Amazon Prime

1. Sign in to your Amazon account on amazon.com.
2. Go to the cancellation page. Amazon's "Cancel Your Amazon Prime Membership" help page links straight to it. You can also reach it from your Prime membership page in Your Account.
3. Follow the prompts. Amazon may show you what you'd lose or suggest alternatives, like switching plans or pausing. Read each screen and keep going until you reach the step that ends your membership.
4. Look for the confirmation. Make sure you see an on-screen confirmation, then check your email. Save it.

On your phone, you can open the same cancellation page in a mobile browser while signed in.

If you get stuck, Amazon's help page suggests going to the Customer Service homepage, choosing Something else, then I need help with something else.

If you signed up through someone else

Where you signed up decides where you cancel:

• Through Google Play on Android: Amazon says to cancel through your Google Play subscriptions, not on amazon.com.
• Through another company's service: if your Prime membership is tied to another company, Amazon says to contact that company to cancel. Their billing and refund policies apply.
• Prime Video channels: add-on subscriptions on Prime Video, like Paramount+, keep going after your Prime membership ends. Cancel those separately under Memberships and Subscriptions in your account.

When you can get a refund

This is where most people get confused, so here's what Amazon's Prime Terms and Conditions say:

• Within 3 business days of signing up, or of your free trial converting to paid: Amazon refunds your full membership fee, but it may charge you (or hold back from the refund) the value of Prime benefits you used during those 3 business days.
• Any other time: Amazon refunds your full membership fee only if you and your account haven't made any eligible purchases or used Prime benefits since your latest Prime charge.
• If you signed up through a third party: that company's refund policy applies.

Amazon's help page says it processes refunds for eligible members in three to five business days.

So if you were charged for a renewal you didn't want and you haven't touched Prime since, cancel right away. Every Prime order or video you stream after the charge can affect whether you qualify for a full refund.

Pause instead of cancel

If you'll be away from Prime for a while but plan to come back, Amazon lets some members pause from the Membership Management section of Prime Central:

• Monthly plans can pause for one month, then auto-resume.
• Monthly or annual plans can pause for up to one year and resume manually. After 365 straight days paused, the membership is automatically canceled.

The pause starts after your current billing cycle. You can't pause if you joined through a third party, are on a free trial or discounted offer, or have Student Prime, Prime Business, a Prime Video only subscription, or the Prime Shipping only plan.

Check whether you're owed money from the FTC settlement

In September 2025, Amazon agreed to a $2.5 billion settlement with the FTC over allegations that it enrolled people in Prime without their consent and made canceling difficult. As part of that settlement, Amazon must offer an easy way to cancel Prime using the same method you used to sign up.

According to the FTC, you may be eligible for a payment if all of these are true:

• You're an Amazon Prime customer in the United States.
• Between June 23, 2019 and June 23, 2025, you signed up through one of the enrollment flows the FTC challenged, or you tried to cancel online and couldn't.
• You used no more than 20 Prime benefits in any 12-month period.

You don't need to file a claim. The FTC says payments go out automatically by mailed check or by PayPal or Venmo, and eligible customers should be paid by April 2027. Payments expire 60 days after they're issued, so cash or accept yours promptly. The FTC is not contacting people about these refunds, so ignore anyone who asks you to pay a fee or share account details to get one.

Tips and gotchas

• Free trials turn into paid memberships. Amazon automatically upgrades you to a paid plan at the end of the trial. Cancel before the trial ends if you don't want to pay.
• Don't shop on Prime while deciding. Using Prime benefits after a charge can affect your refund.
• Cancel add-ons separately. Prime Video channels and other subscriptions in Memberships and Subscriptions may keep billing after Prime ends.
• Keep your confirmation. If you're charged again later, that email is your proof.

How Stu will help

Stu is in development, and memberships like Prime are exactly the kind of recurring charge it's being built to keep an eye on. Stu will help you notice when a renewal is coming up, show you whether you've actually been using it, and help you cancel or ask for a refund if it makes sense. It will always check with you before doing anything. You can join the waitlist to try it when it's ready.

Sources

• Amazon Customer Service: Cancel Your Amazon Prime Membership
• Amazon Customer Service: Amazon Prime Terms and Conditions
• Amazon Customer Service: Pause Your Amazon Prime Membership
• Amazon Customer Service: Sign Up for the Amazon Prime Free Trial
• FTC: Amazon Refunds
• FTC: FTC Secures Historic $2.5 Billion Settlement Against Amazon
• FTC: FTC Announces Additional Payments to Consumers Stemming from FTC's Amazon Prime Settlement