How to get Amazon Prime for free

Method 1: Standard 30-day free trial.

If you've never tried Amazon Prime before or it's been a while since you last tried it, you may be eligible for a free 30-day trial. After 30 days, Amazon will charge you for the membership—either $14.99 per month or $139 per year—so be sure to cancel your membership before the trial period ends. (Set a calendar reminder if necessary!)

Determining whether you are eligible is simple. Just log into your Amazon account and visit Prime membership landing page. If you see a button that says Start your free 30-day trialclick to register. If the button says Join Primethen you've been to the well too many times lately and you'll have to wait longer to become eligible again.

Method 2: Prime for Young Adults Free Trial

Amazon used to have a program called Prime Student, which was aimed at, you guessed it, students studying in higher education. This program was recently discontinued and replaced by Prime for Young Adults, a special version of Prime aimed at those ages 18 to 24.

Prime for Young Adults offers two big benefits over regular Prime: first, you get a 6-month free trial instead of the usual 30 days, and second, subscription prices are a whopping 50 percent off. You also get all the same perks as regular Prime.

Go to Prime page for youth and press Try Prime for Young People to start your 6 month free trial. After the trial ends, Prime for Young Adults will cost $7.49 per month or $69 per year. Be sure to cancel your subscription before it ends. (Your Prime benefits will remain until the end of your trial period, even if you cancel early.)

Other Ways to Get Free Amazon Prime

There are other ways to get Prime for free, but they aren't as easy. For example, you can open a new account with a different email address and then try Prime on that new account. However, keep in mind that this means you need to secure another account containing all of your payment information.

If someone in your house already subscribes to Prime, they can share it with your account. Amazon lets you share Prime membership with other members of your household, that is, one additional adult and up to four children. However, only an adult can participate in Prime-exclusive offers, and both adults in the household must agree to share payment methods, so this is a family (or trusted friends) only option.

You can also apply for Prime Visa credit cardwhich gets you 5 percent cash back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases with an active Prime membership. If you spend at least $2,400 a year at Amazon and Whole Foods, this is an easy way to use your credit card rewards to pay for your Prime membership.

How to Cancel Your Amazon Prime Free Trial

You might end up loving Prime (or Prime for young people) so much that you stick with it to take advantage of free shipping and other perks. But if you're an avid deal hunter and want to ditch Prime as soon as Black Friday or Prime Day ends, here's what to do.

The standard way to reset Prime is to hover over your account name in the top right corner of any Amazon page, then select Membership and Subscriptions from the drop-down menu. On the next page you can click the button Cancel subscription button next to Prime.

However, an easier way is to go straight to this Amazon help page and press Cancel your basic membership.

No matter how you start the cancellation process, the process itself is simple: you're free and clear once you're done.