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The e-commerce giant is ending a program that let Prime members share free shipping with a family member who lives somewhere else. Here’s what to know.
By Karen Weise
Karen Weise has covered Amazon since 2018.
Sept. 3, 2025Updated 3:00 p.m. ET
If sharing is caring, Amazon Prime is getting a little less nice.
Amazon notified customers this week that it planned to end a longstanding way that members of its Prime membership program have shared free, fast shipping with a friend or family member who did not live with them. The change takes effect on Oct. 1, before the holiday shopping season begins.
Here’s what to know.
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What is Amazon changing?
Amazon is ending a program that let Prime members give someone who does not live with them a stripped-down version of Prime that provided free shipping. The program, Prime Invitee, enrolled new members from 2009 to 2015. People who were added to a paid account back then have had free, fast shipping ever since.
At the time, Prime Invitee was a way for Prime members to share what is widely considered the most valuable benefit of Prime — free, fast shipping — and for Amazon to gain more e-commerce customers as it expanded.
This is not the same as password sharing. A friend or family member could get his or her own pared-back version of Prime that did not include benefits like streaming videos but did provide free shipping.
The Prime Invitee program goes away on Oct. 1. Prime members can still use free shipping to send items to a friend or family member who lives somewhere else, but those friends or family members can no longer get free, fast shipping on their own account without their own Prime membership.
