While most subscribers join Amazon Prime for faster shipping, the $139 annual membership includes dozens of money-saving features that remain largely undiscovered. Many members don’t realize their subscription extends beyond free delivery, offering financial advantages across shopping, entertainment, healthcare, and more. Though Amazon doesn’t offer an official amazon price match policy like some competitors, these hidden benefits often provide greater savings through exclusive discounts. Most members utilize less than 20% of available perks, leaving substantial value untapped. This guide reveals overlooked Prime benefits that can help recoup your membership fee several times over.

No-Rush Shipping Rewards: Free Credits for Patience

Selecting “no-rush shipping” at checkout unlocks immediate rewards while your package arrives just a few days later than standard Prime delivery. These digital incentives typically include:

• $1-2 credits for Prime Video rentals and digital purchases.
• $3-5 discounts on future household essentials.
• $10 credits toward specific product categories.
• $5-10 off Amazon Home Services bookings.

The credits usually appear immediately but expire within 30 days. To maximize value, check your credit balance in the “Your Account” section before making purchases. During major shopping events, strategically choosing no-rush shipping on non-urgent items can accumulate $20-30 in credits.

Prime-Exclusive Grocery Savings

Prime membership transforms everyday grocery shopping through multiple channels of savings. At Whole Foods, your membership delivers 10% off already-discounted yellow tag items, plus rotating weekly deals that reduce premium products by up to 20%. Simply scan the QR code in your Amazon app at checkout.

Amazon Fresh delivery now comes with no additional fees on orders over $35 in eligible areas, saving $9.99 per order compared to non-Prime customers. Members also receive exclusive pricing on select daily essentials, with rotating deals offering 20-30% discounts on produce, meat, and pantry staples.

For households that place just two grocery orders monthly, these benefits translate to approximately $240 in annual savings, not counting the item-specific discounts that typically reduce grocery bills by an additional $15-25 per order.

Entertainment Benefits Beyond Prime Video

Most members know about Prime Video but overlook additional entertainment value. Prime Gaming provides 3-5 free PC games monthly ($60-100 value) that remain in your library permanently. Recent offerings included major titles like Fallout 76 and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

The free Twitch channel subscription ($4.99 monthly value) allows you to support your favorite creator at no cost while removing ads from their stream. Prime Reading grants access to over 3,000 rotating books, magazines, and comics, with no monthly reading limits or special devices required.

Try Before You Buy and Returns Benefits

The Prime Try Before You Buy program eliminates uncertainty of online clothing purchases by allowing you to:

1. Order up to six eligible clothing items without payment.
2. Try everything at home for seven days.
3. Return unwanted items for free, paying only for what you keep.
4. Schedule free pickups from your doorstep.

This service applies to thousands of eligible items from both Amazon’s own fashion lines and major brands like Calvin Klein, Adidas, and Levi’s.

Amazon Day Delivery

The Amazon Day feature lets you designate a specific delivery day each week. All eligible orders placed throughout the week arrive together, reducing packaging waste by up to 30% and ensuring you’re home to receive deliveries.

In-Garage Delivery Protection

Amazon Key’s in-garage delivery service protects packages from theft without granting access to your living space. The system works with most major smart garage door openers including Chamberlain and myQ devices. After setup, delivery drivers receive temporary access to place packages inside your garage.

Reading and Photo Storage Benefits

Prime Reading offers unrestricted access to a rotating library of over 3,000 books, magazines, and comics. Amazon First Reads gives members one free pre-release book monthly from editor-selected titles.

The unlimited photo storage benefit preserves original-resolution images without compression, including RAW files from professional cameras. This service alone rivals dedicated photo storage platforms that typically charge $60-120 annually.

Health and Wellness Savings

Prime’s healthcare benefits deliver substantial savings through One Medical membership discounts that reduce the annual fee from $199 to $99. RxPass provides eligible members generic medications for over 80 common conditions at just $5 monthly, regardless of how many prescriptions you need.

Amazon Pharmacy’s Prime discount card provides up to 80% savings at over 60,000 participating pharmacies nationwide, including major chains like CVS and Walgreens.

Prime members save 10¢ per gallon at over 7,000 BP, Amoco, and AM/PM stations nationwide. For someone who drives 15,000 miles annually in a 25 MPG vehicle, this translates to approximately $60 yearly savings.

Membership Sharing Through Amazon Household

Amazon Household allows sharing select Prime benefits with up to two adults, four teens, and four children living under one roof. Shared benefits include:

• Free shipping on eligible items.
• Prime Video streaming access.
• Prime Reading and First Reads selections.
• Prime exclusive discounts and deals.

Each adult maintains separate accounts with private purchase histories and payment methods. By effectively dividing the $139 annual fee between two adults, Amazon Household reduces the per-person cost to less than $6 monthly while maintaining most key benefits.

Special Pricing for Students and Assistance Recipients

Qualifying customers receive substantial Prime membership discounts:

College students with valid .edu email addresses pay just $69 annually ($7.49 monthly) after a six-month free trial through Prime Student—half the standard membership cost.

Young adults aged 18-24 qualify for similar pricing without college enrollment requirements.

Recipients of government assistance programs like SNAP, Medicaid, or TANF can join Prime Access for $6.99 monthly, saving nearly 50% while receiving identical benefits.

The verification process takes minutes through Amazon’s secure portal and requires minimal documentation.

Conclusion: Maximizing Your Prime Membership Value

The combined value of these hidden Prime benefits easily exceeds $1,000 annually for members who strategically utilize them. Rather than viewing Prime as simply a shipping service, approach it as a comprehensive savings platform spanning retail, entertainment, healthcare, and essential services. Prioritize benefits that align with your existing spending patterns—grocery shoppers should emphasize Whole Foods and Fresh discounts, while families might focus on shared memberships and entertainment options. By accessing just three or four of these overlooked features, most members can recover their subscription cost within months while discovering genuinely useful services they’d otherwise pay for separately.

In March 2025, Ethereum surpassed Solana in monthly decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume for the first time since September 2024. According to data from DefiLlama, Ethereum-based DEXs recorded approximately $63 billion in trading volume, outpacing Solana’s $51 billion during the same period. This shift highlights Ethereum’s resurgence in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, driven largely by the performance of platforms like Uniswap, which alone accounted for over $30 billion in volume. Meanwhile, Solana’s activity appears to have cooled, particularly in the memecoin sector, which had previously fueled its dominance.

Ethereum topping Solana in monthly DEX trading volume for the first time since September carries several implications for the crypto ecosystem, particularly in the DeFi space. This resurgence underscores Ethereum’s enduring appeal as the foundational blockchain for DeFi. Despite competition from faster, cheaper alternatives like Solana, Ethereum’s deep liquidity, established infrastructure, and vast developer community continue to give it an edge. The high trading volume suggests users and liquidity providers still trust Ethereum’s ecosystem, even with its higher gas fees and slower transaction speeds compared to Solana.

Solana’s earlier dominance was partly driven by speculative memecoin trading and its scalability advantages. Ethereum reclaiming the lead might indicate a cooling of that hype or a return to fundamentals, with users prioritizing battle-tested protocols e.g., Uniswap, Curve over newer, riskier platforms. It could signal a maturing market where reliability trumps short-term cost efficiency. Ethereum’s volume boost may also reflect growing adoption of its Layer 2 (L2) scaling solutions like Arbitrum and Optimism, which reduce costs while leveraging Ethereum’s security. If L2s are driving this uptick, it strengthens the narrative that Ethereum’s multi-layered ecosystem can compete with monolithic high-throughput chains like Solana.

For Solana, this could be a temporary dip rather than a long-term decline. Its lower fees and high speed still make it attractive, especially for retail traders and niche DeFi applications. However, it might need to diversify beyond memecoin-driven activity to maintain consistent volume leadership, especially if Ethereum continues to improve scalability via upgrades like sharding in the future. This shift could influence investor perceptions and capital flows.

Solana’s network can process 65,000 transactions per second, making it one of the fastest blockchains available. Developer interest in Solana has more than doubled since last year, with over 1,000 projects building on the platform, including DeFi protocols, NFTs, and gaming applications. Solana projects have raised significant funding, with $173 million raised in Q3 2024 and $245 million in one quarter, demonstrating growing investor confidence. Collaborations with companies like Jump Crypto and Coinbase Ventures provide resources and support for Solana’s growth, while integrations with bridges like Wormhole expand its reach.

Major DeFi projects like Solend and Francium, and NFT collections like DeGods and SolPunks, are driving user adoption and investment. Solana’s GameShift initiative and enterprise solutions are further expanding its ecosystem. Solana’s community is active and engaged, with over 500,000 new wallets created monthly and $10 billion in quarterly transactions. Solana’s ecosystem is poised for continued growth, driven by its innovative technology, increasing user adoption, and strong developer activity. With its focus on scalability, speed, and usability, Solana is well-positioned to remain a key player in the blockchain space

Ethereum’s outperformance might bolster confidence in ETH as a store of value and utility token, potentially impacting its price relative to SOL. Developers and projects may also double down on Ethereum compatibility, reinforcing its dominance in smart contract platforms. In short, Ethereum’s edge here signals its staying power, but Solana’s still in the game—competition between the two is likely to heat up as both ecosystems evolve.