To cancel Amazon Prime, sign in to your account, open your Prime membership settings under “Your Account,” select “End Your Prime Membership,” and confirm through the series of prompts Amazon shows you. The process takes a couple of minutes on either the website or the mobile app, and your benefits continue until the end of the billing period you already paid for. Whether you are on the $14.99 monthly plan or the $139 annual plan, the steps are the same.
The Cancellation Steps on Amazon
The fastest route is to go directly to the Prime cancellation page while logged in. Amazon’s help documentation points you to “Your Account,” then to your Prime membership settings, where you select “End Your Prime Membership.”1Amazon. Cancel Your Amazon Prime Membership Amazon then walks you through several screens showing what you are giving up, and you have to confirm your choice more than once before it goes through. The extra clicks are intentional. If you abandon the flow halfway, nothing changes and your membership stays active.
If the self-service flow gives you trouble, you can contact Amazon customer service directly. Choose “Help with something else,” then “Prime,” and a representative can process the cancellation for you. This is worth knowing because some members report the automated flow steering them toward retention offers or pause options that can be confusing when you just want out.
When Amazon Isn’t the One Billing You
Not everyone signed up through Amazon. If your membership is billed through Google Play, you have to cancel through Google’s subscription settings rather than Amazon’s website.1Amazon. Cancel Your Amazon Prime Membership The same applies if Prime came bundled with a wireless carrier or another company’s service. Contact whoever handles your billing in those cases, because Amazon’s cancellation page does not control the subscription on their end.
This catches people off guard, especially when Prime was part of a promotional bundle years ago. Check your bank or credit card statements to see who is actually charging you. If the charge comes from Google, Apple, or a carrier rather than from Amazon, that tells you where to cancel.
Refund Rules
Amazon’s refund policy has two tiers, and the dividing line is whether you have used any Prime benefits since your last charge.
If you cancel within three business days of signing up or converting from a free trial to a paid membership, you get a full refund of the membership fee. Amazon may deduct the value of any benefits you used during those three days, but the baseline is a full refund.2Amazon. Amazon Prime Terms and Conditions – Section: Membership Cancellation
After that three-day window, you only get a full refund if you and your account have made no eligible purchases and used no Prime benefits since the most recent charge.2Amazon. Amazon Prime Terms and Conditions – Section: Membership Cancellation One order placed with free Prime shipping after renewal is enough for the automated process to deny a refund. The published terms do not describe a prorated refund for customer-initiated cancellations. Some members report receiving partial refunds by contacting customer service and asking, but that is at Amazon’s discretion rather than something you are entitled to.
What Happens to Your Benefits After You Cancel
You do not lose access the moment you cancel. Prime benefits, including free shipping and streaming, continue through the end of the billing period you already paid for.2Amazon. Amazon Prime Terms and Conditions – Section: Membership Cancellation Your account dashboard shows the exact date everything shuts off, so you can keep using expedited shipping and Prime Video until then. Once that date passes, your account reverts to a standard Amazon account.
Content you bought outright, like purchased movies or Kindle books, stays in your account. Prime controls the free streaming and lending library, not your purchase history.
Things That Don’t End Automatically
Prime Video Add-On Channels
Subscriptions to channels you added through Prime Video, such as Paramount+ or Max, do not cancel when your Prime membership ends. They are billed as separate subscriptions, and each one has to be canceled individually through the “Manage Your Subscriptions” page.3Amazon. Cancel Your Prime Video Add-On Subscription Skip this step and the charges keep coming after your Prime is gone. For channels billed through Apple, cancel through Apple’s subscription settings at least 24 hours before the next renewal date.
Amazon Household and Business Prime Duo
If you share Prime through Amazon Household, canceling cuts off everyone else’s access too. Only the primary Prime member keeps benefits; anyone else in the household loses shared perks like free shipping and access to the Family Library.4Amazon. Leave an Amazon Family Give household members a heads-up so they can decide whether to start their own membership.
If you have a Business Prime Duo plan linked to your personal Prime account, canceling the personal membership triggers an automatic cancellation of the Business Prime Duo plan after 30 days.5Amazon. About Business Prime That is easy to miss if someone else in your organization depends on those business shipping benefits.
Amazon Photos
With Prime, you get unlimited photo storage. Without it, your account drops to 5 GB for photos and videos combined. If your stored files exceed that limit, your account goes into an over-quota state where you can still log in and download files but cannot upload or share anything new. Amazon gives you a 180-day grace period to either buy a storage plan or delete enough files to get under 5 GB. After those 180 days, Amazon begins deleting files starting with your most recent uploads until the account is back under the limit. If you have years of family photos stored there, download them before canceling or budget for a standalone storage plan.
Pausing Instead of Canceling
If you are canceling because you will not need Prime for a few months rather than wanting to leave permanently, pausing is an option. Monthly members can pause for one month with automatic resumption, and both monthly and annual members can pause for up to a year and resume manually when ready. The pause takes effect after your current billing cycle ends, so you do not lose paid time. You will not have Prime benefits while paused, and if you stay paused for more than 365 consecutive days, Amazon automatically cancels the membership. Pausing is not available for third-party billed memberships, Prime Video-only subscriptions, Business Prime accounts, Prime Student memberships, or free trials and discounted offers.6Amazon. Pause Your Amazon Prime Membership
Your Rights Under the FTC Click-to-Cancel Rule
The Federal Trade Commission finalized its “click-to-cancel” rule in October 2024, requiring sellers to make canceling a subscription as simple as signing up for one. The rule also requires companies to provide a straightforward cancellation mechanism that immediately stops charges, and it prohibits misrepresenting material facts during the cancellation process.7Federal Trade Commission. Federal Trade Commission Announces Final Click-to-Cancel Rule Making It Easier for Consumers to End Recurring Subscriptions If Amazon’s cancellation flow feels designed to keep you from leaving, through confusing retention screens or buried buttons, that is the kind of practice the rule targets, and you can file a complaint with the FTC.