By Mike Szostech Last updated
For years, us Canadians have watched all of the Prime benefits that the Americans were getting. After years of more subscription benefits being added in Amazon Prime Canada, we can now enjoy many of the same Prime perks in Canada!
What is Amazon Prime Canada?
Amazon Prime Canada is a paid subscription service that includes all sorts of member-only benefits. As early as 2005, it was offered on Amazon.com but it took until 2013 for a similar program to be offered in Canada.
Even then, the Amazon Prime Canada benefits for were minimal. Minimum shipping amounts were $35 CAD (compared to $25 USD on Amazon.com), and the Prime video Canada selection was sparse to say the least.
In the past few years, Amazon Prime Canada benefits have been steadily increasing, to the point that in 2020 the program is very similar to Amazon.com.
Read on to find the answers to all the common questions like how much is Amazon Prime Canada, and what are the Amazon Prime Canada benefits?
Amazon Prime Canada Benefits
Shipping Benefits
For Amazon Canada shoppers who aren’t Prime members, free shipping is available on eligible items and orders over $35. Shipping times are typically 5-8 days. You can upgrade your shipping speed to 3-4 days for $5.00 or more (depending on the size and number of items), or two days for $9.00 or more.
With Amazon Prime Canada, two-day shipping is free with no minimum purchase amount.
In some areas, some items are free same-day and one-day delivery on qualifying orders over $25.
And, if you’re waiting for a soon-to-be released product, with Amazon Prime Canada you can pre-order items and get your package on release day.
Prime Member Perks – Exclusive Shopping Deals
Prime members get access to Lightning Deals on Amazon.ca 30 minutes before other customers – which means that you’re more likely to get the deal before it’s sold out.
If you have young children, you can also save 20% on diapers through subscribe & save.
Plus, once a year, for 2 days, Amazon holds an epic sale called Prime Day. And it’s only accessible to Amazon Prime members.
Amazon.ca Prime Canada Rewards Mastercard
Eligible Prime members (meaning you can be approved for a credit card) can earn 2.5% back at Amazon.ca when you use the Rewards MasterCard.
Non-prime members receive 1.5% cash back – so although you receive more rewards back, you would have to purchase $7900 or more in a year in order for the 1% back ($79.00) to pay for your Prime subscription. This means it’s not wise for most members to purchase a Prime subscription just to increase their credit card rewards.
Amazon Prime Canada Benefits: Video and Streaming Perks
As a Prime member, you get access to Amazon Prime Video. You can watch popular movies and TV shows at no extra cost, and you can stream them online or download them to a tablet or mobile device for offline watching. Plus, Amazon gives exclusive access of some of it’s TV shows (which they call Amazon Originals) only to Prime members.
In addition to Prime Video access, Prime members can also stream music for free. You can stream over 2 million songs ad-free and listen on any device, including Amazon Echo devices.
There are also Amazon Prime Canada benefits for gamers. There’s free “in-game loot every month” and there are exclusives, surprises, and a free Twitch Channel subscription every 30 days.
Kindle Reading Perks
Prime members can read as much as they want from a rotating selection of eBooks – including romances, thrillers, children’s books and more. Books can be read on any device using Amazon Kindle or Fire devices, or the free Kindle apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, PC and Mac.
This benefit was first added in 2019 (press release here), when Amazon Canada announced that Canadian Prime Members can enjoy unlimited reading from a rotating selection of books, comics, and more – at no additional cost.
Amazon Prime Canada Benefits – Free Photo Storage
This one might seem a little bit out of place, but remember that a huge portion of Amazon’s business is actually from it’s Amazon Web Services division. Because of that, they can add a Prime benefit like this at little to no extra cost to them.
As a Prime Canada member, enjoy unlimited free photo storage. By using a free app (available for Windows, Max, Android or iOS devices), add your photos to the app and see them on all your devices. Amazon Photos keeps your photos secure without lowering the resolution or the quality of them.
And by getting the photos off of your phone, you can save space on your device making this a nice addition to the Amazon Prime Canada benefits.
Is Amazon Prime Canada Worth It?
The reason we posted this in the Money section is because, while there are some nice benefits to this program, we only recommend it if you are already spending the money. At Canada Reviewed we never encourage spending money on something you don’t need, or something that will cause you to go into debt.
How much is Amazon Prime Canada?
For Canadians, the Amazon Prime Cost is $7.99 per month. How much is Amazon Prime Canada for a year? If you want to sign up for a year, you can save about 20%, and the total price is $79.00 per year (which works out to $6.58 per month). While the cost isn’t much, it’s still your hard earned money and you need to determine if Amazon Prime Canada is still worth it for you.
Here’s how we think you should determine if Amazon Prime Canada is right for you
We’ve created some questions for you to determine how much money you are spending, and if an Amazon Prime Canada membership will save you some cash.
- Do you often make small purchases that don’t meet the minimum $35.00 to get free shipping? If you spend money on shipping, or on fast shipping, at least once a month, then you will likely save money with the Prime membership.
Prime delivery is fast, with 2-day shipping on most items, and discounted same-day or one-day shipping available in certain areas. Plus, there is no minimum purchase amount for shipping benefits for Amazon Prime Canada members. - Do you pay for a Netflix or other streaming movie service? And if you do, would you cancel that and simply use Prime Video? If so, then you can cover the cost of your Amazon Prime subscription simply by doing that.
Or maybe you pay for a pay-per-view once or twice per month, and could save that money by viewing an Amazon Prime Canada video instead. - Do you have a Spotify or other music subscription? Amazon Prime is taking on all the media subscription services – and Amazon Music is part of your Amazon Prime Canada benefits.
- Are you a gamer? Check out Amazon Prime Canada Gaming – maybe there’s some ways to save money on other gaming services you’re a part of, which will help pay for your Amazon Prime membership in Canada.
- Do you make lots of credit card purchases? If so, you could make extra money as a Amazon Prime Canada member. You receive 1% of additional rewards as an Amazon Prime Canada benefits member on the Amazon Mastercard Canada. Spending $3950 in a year will reward you with half of your Prime membership fee. Spending $7000 on anything on your credit card in a year and you’ll pay for all of your Prime membership.
Amazon Prime Canada Membership
Why would I be charged $10.49 three times a month on my cc ?
What’s the charge show as? That doesn’t sound like a Prime subscription, perhaps a product ‘subscribe and save’ option from Amazon?
It is noted that I am charged 10.49 as a Prime member. I wish to cancel this membership.
I just want them to hand me my stuff instead of setting them on the ground of my door for others to steel or get weathered, and infested,,,, it’s hard to ask them to ring the doorbell or knock hard, don’t get me started on the world s harder times we now live in,,, .you know that —-BLACK arrow pointy smile on all shipping packing ( label )—– it would be nice to see a 2 box option for drivers to see box 1 would say——- hand Deliver, ring doorbell knock hard after 1 minit leave on doorstep. filled in with an X or box 2 do not ring bell do not Disturb option —X as a part of the packaging stamp under——- the BLACK arrow pointy smile on all shipping packing ( label )——-
let’s be fair we do get an email we likely will see sometime after they are gone with a pic of our door and the nice way they set out our packages for some linked to their work cellphone and home computer to read up to 2 weeks later ,,,,is helpful only to let you know they’re gone without giving you a chance to stop thieves ( porch pirates ) from grabbing your stuff or to run home or down the steps and tripping falling in the rush that aside it’s a cool extra helping driver and head office showing most times the package was delivered to the right Door, and some times are computers/cellphone apps will do the job of letting us know as well (just like a doorbell ) rang once or a light knock not heard, I was hoping Prime was the answer to this as well.
as a pizza delivery person, and Air Canada shipping Driver I did knock and called and hand to hand everything, all free of charge and got little tips if at all, so trying to label packing with options like ring door or do not disturb option boxes marked with an—- X— for drivers to be reached of customers needs/request is soo cool too
Are the Prime books only free on Kindle?
Hello, when I first found prime it was right after discovering wish. I thought prime was great. Then money was taken out of my account without my consent nor permission, I was lied to about free reading. It’s only free if kindle unlimited is paid their share. So pay twice to read free, not being informed that there’s other sellers who don’t have anything to do with prime, so extra time and money. Free prime tv is only good if you watch their allotted channels and if you don’t read it they won’t tell you, and that’s more money that’s tried to sneak into a customer’s bill. But the one thing that makes me the maddest is the customer service. They absolutely don’t care about the customer and they lie. They try every excuse in the book why your orders are late…. Again. Then promise it won’t happen again. Plus to say sorry they offer the grand prize of 5$. I spent 110$ a year for prime, I’ve recently bought at least 800$ worth of late items. And to make it up to me…. 5$. That’s straight up insulting, I’ve told them this and the “leadership team” representative said she’ll take my 5$ away if I’m not happy with that. Because that’s all she can do. I asked to speak with a supervisor they have any. I asked to talk to corporate, I was given a snail mail address. When inquired about how she gets a hold of corporate does she have to write a letter too. She ended the chat. Not past it on. Not send me to do the little survey. Nope she ended the chat. I asked where can I make a complaint. They say they already did that on my behalf. Wanted to know when I’ll hear a reply. Answer to that one is never. Sorry if they could be honest and respectful. I wouldn’t be this frustrated. I’ve already ended my prime membership.
Wow sorry to hear about that! Our Amazon Prime Canada membership is billed yearly at $79. The fast free shipping is worth it to us, and we use the Prime Video service. I agree that the music is a little overrated as it still plays a lot of ads and the song selection is mediocre. I haven’t tried the reading service.
Why do u take my payment twice when I have called to many times
Why am I paying you twice on my credit card. I have called 3 times to fix and I keep getting screwed..
Hi Peggy, we aren’t affiliated with Amazon, so you’ll need to contact them directly. If you log into your Amazon Prime Canada account, you should be able to go to your profile and look at your billing information. Is it possible that you have 2 different Amazon accounts (connected to different email addresses), and that’s why you are being billed twice?
Well just got off a 2 hour phone call with Amazon Prime customer service , and nothing resolved. Andrea at the call center in Costa Rica was absolutely no help and stonewalled me all the way when I tried to return something. The first agent told me that I couldn’t return a defective product so I asked him for a supervisor , Andrea made it so complicated and involved that I now don’t want to jump through hoops and drive miles to do it. Unbelievably bad customer service
That doesn’t sound fun! How come you didn’t use the online return tool? Did that give you grief too?
Can you download music and play it offline?
Yes you can, you need to use the Prime Music app in order to download the music.
i have amazon app to shop and prime video how can i put this together to get amazon prime/
If you have Amazon Prime Video, then you have Amazon Prime. You’ll have to make sure to log in with the same username on your Amazon App
Please advise how to cancel amazon prime
Hi Jill, to cancel your Amazon Prime Canada subscription, follow these steps:
And that’s it – your Amazon Prime Canada membership will be cancelled.
We usually winter in Arizona is our membership still good when we are in the states
Your Amazon Prime Canada benefits will stay active in Canada, but they do not transfer over to Amazon.com. Amazon Canada gives you the option to browse products based on shipping destination. In the upper left, simply click on ‘Deliver to Canada’ and choose the ‘Outside of Canada’ option and select the United States. You’ll notice that shipping times and product availability will change drastically.
To enjoy all the benefits of Amazon Prime, I’d recommend paying monthly for Amazon Prime Canada while you are up here, and then paying the monthly Prime fee for Amazon.com while you are in Arizona.
Possibly, Prime Video may also give you errors or issues while trying to play videos from outside of Canada.