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Amazon claims it will make its upgraded Alexa+ voice assistant free for Prime members, but how long can that last?
The cost of a Prime membership has been the same since 2022: $139 a year or $14.99 a month. Here we are three years later, with inflation in full swing and Amazon's commitment to spend $100 billion on AI in 2025, according to Fortune. We know Alexa+ won't be cheap to run, and someone has to foot the bill.
Complicating matters, Amazon will also offer a $19.99 monthly standalone subscription to Alexa+. That's about the going rate for AI assistants, such as ChatGPT Plus and Microsoft Copilot+. But it adds up to $240 per year—even more expensive than a $139 yearly Prime subscription, and without the free shipping, Prime Video, and other perks.
Something isn't adding up, which leads me to believe it's too good to be true.
For argument's sake, let's say Amazon doesn't increase Prime prices. Why would someone pay more to subscribe to Alexa+ instead of just getting a Prime membership? I suspect Amazon plans to make the standalone Alexa+ subscription more advanced, with more features and a nicer interface than you get with the "free" version on Prime. That's what ChatGPT does with its Plus subscription (also $19.99 a month). Subscribers also get the best and newest features, while free users miss out.
Amazon briefly mentioned at the event that Alexa is getting a web interface, Alexa.com. Perhaps it plans to develop Alexa+ as a separate entity on that platform, and the free version on Prime will be an appetizer to convince us to buy the full meal.
The new Alexa seems impressive, assuming it can deliver on what we saw at the launch event. Amazon execs took the stage to ask it questions, and it kept up a surprisingly humanlike conversation. It was much more fluid than the stiff commands I bark at the Alexa device in my living room, which the virtual assistant still often misunderstands. What we saw on stage would revolutionize Alexa compared with what it is today.
Alexa+ can also take actions on your behalf, which might be its most helpful, promising capability. You can command it to "text mom I'm on the way" or "call a repair man to fix the oven immediately." This is what makes Alexa+ a true assistant, and it goes beyond the basics we know today (such as "set timer" and "play music"). Amazon says you'll also be able to command it to pull up a specific scene in a movie.
"She's smarter than she's ever been before, but she's also approachable, which is so important," said Panos Panay, head of Amazon devices and services. "She's useful. She can plan a date, book the restaurant, and text the sitter."
Amazon also has a lot to prove, having ceded ground over the past few years to competitors in the AI assistant space. That's probably why CEO Andy Jassy attended the Alexa+ reveal, signaling its importance to the company.
Alexa+ will compete with OpenAI's Voice Mode, which is already available for subscribers, though free ChatGPT users can try it for free for 10 minutes. (That's another model Amazon may explore for the Prime version.) A new version of Apple's Siri is also on the way, coming in 2026. But Alexa's biggest competition may come from Google, especially if it adds its AI voice assistant, Gemini Live, to Google Home.
As for whether Prime will get a price hike soon, we'll have to wait and see. But if you want access to Alexa+, now is a good time to sign up for a year while a subscription definitely still costs $139.