How to Cancel Amazon Prime After the $2.5B FTC Settlement

Last verified  ·  8 min read  ·  How we verify

Quick answer

Sign in at amazon.com and follow the long-standing path: "Accounts & Lists," then "Memberships & Subscriptions," then the End Membership flow, and confirm your end date (current screen labels are being re-verified). A few minutes in a browser. Since September 2025, an FTC order requires Prime cancellation to be as easy as signing up. You keep benefits until the paid period ends; an end-now-with-refund choice appears when you qualify.

Amazon Prime at a glance

Prime price $14.99/mo or $139/yr as of September 2026, the same levels set in February 2022
Billed through Amazon directly; Prime is not sold through the App Store or Google Play
Refund stance Full refund within 3 business days of joining, or anytime unused (Prime Terms)
Pause option Yes: 1 month auto-resume (monthly plans) or up to a year manual, via Prime Central; eligibility limits apply
FTC settlement refunds Automatic payouts Nov-Dec 2025; claims closed July 27, 2026; claims payments expected late 2026
Last verified 2026-09-05

Prices are from Amazon's own Prime signup page, captured September 1, 2026. Discounted plans exist too: Prime for Young Adults at $7.49/mo after a 6-month trial, and Prime Access at $6.99/mo for eligible government-assistance or income-verified customers.

How do you cancel Amazon Prime on the web?

This is the path Amazon has used for years. The FTC order requires the flow to be easy, but the post-settlement cancellation screens were not captured at verification, so treat the labels as close, not gospel. Amazon's Prime terms describe the destination simply: cancel anytime by visiting Your Account and adjusting your membership settings; Prime Central is the membership hub those settings live in.

  1. Sign in at amazon.com.
  2. Open "Accounts & Lists."
  3. Choose "Memberships & Subscriptions" (or "Prime").
  4. Select "Manage Membership."
  5. Click "End Membership" and confirm.

The final screen has historically offered a choice: end on your renewal date, or end immediately with a refund when the account qualifies (rules below); the immediate option puts money back.

Can you cancel Prime in the Amazon app or on your iPhone?

In the Amazon shopping app, the reported path: menu, then "Account," then "Manage Prime Membership," then "Manage," then "End Membership." The wording shifts with app versions; if the app disagrees with these labels or lags, use the browser.

You will not find Prime in your iPhone's subscription list: Amazon bills it through your Amazon account, not Apple or Google Play. Our iPhone subscriptions guide covers what does live in Apple's list.

What did the $2.5 billion FTC settlement change?

In June 2023 the FTC sued Amazon for enrolling people in Prime without consent and sabotaging cancellation; the complaint described a multi-page flow Amazon code-named "Iliad." In September 2025 Amazon settled: a $1 billion civil penalty (the largest ever for a rule violation) plus $1.5 billion in refunds to roughly 35 million customers.

The order also rewrote the rules:

  • Cancellation must be "an easy way for consumers to cancel Prime, using the same method that consumers used to sign up," and "cannot be difficult, costly, or time-consuming."
  • Enrollment must carry "clear and conspicuous disclosures" of cost, charge dates, auto-renewal, and how to cancel.
  • Signup needs a clear decline button. In the FTC's words, "Amazon can no longer have a button that says, 'No, I don't want Free Shipping.'"

The order does not dictate click counts or labels, so save offers can still appear; the flow just cannot be a maze.

Can you cancel Prime by phone, or by deleting the app?

No documented path exists outside the account flow:

  • Signing out, deleting the Amazon app, or removing your payment method: none of these end Prime.
  • A Prime Video Channel cannot be canceled on the channel's own website; Amazon is the biller (next section).
  • Amazon's Prime terms point cancellation at Your Account settings, and no official page documents a phone or chat cancel path; treat support as a help channel, not the exit.

Does canceling Prime cancel your Prime Video Channels?

No, and this is the catch that keeps billing people. Prime Video Channels (Max, Paramount+, Starz, and the rest) are separate subscriptions billed by Amazon on top of Prime. Ending Prime does not end them; ending a Channel does not touch Prime.

Cancel each Channel separately, in the same "Memberships & Subscriptions" area or under Prime Video's channel settings (the labels shift between surfaces). The reverse trap is real: Amazon is the biller, so a Channel usually cannot be canceled on its own site (Paramount+ keeps a help article just for these).

Worth knowing

Prime Video Channels keep billing after Prime ends. If the point is stopping the spending, cancel each Channel separately too.

Can you get a refund when you cancel Prime?

Amazon's Prime terms carry two unusually generous refund rules.

  • Cancel within 3 business days of joining (or converting from a trial) and the full fee comes back, minus the value of any Prime benefits used in those days.
  • Cancel anytime after: if nobody on the account has made eligible purchases or used Prime benefits since the latest membership charge, that fee is refundable in full.

Annual members who used benefits historically got no mid-year proration; benefits run to the period end. Memberships redeemed through a gift or promotional code are not refundable.

Tip

The no-benefits-used rule is your safety net: under Amazon's Prime terms, if nobody on the account has used Prime benefits or made eligible purchases since the last charge, that fee is fully refundable. Take the immediate-end option when it appears.

Where do the FTC settlement refunds stand?

This money is separate from Amazon's own refund rules. As of September 2026: automatic payments (up to $51 per person, no action needed) went out November and December 2025, claims notices followed in January 2026, and claims payments are expected late 2026, no mailing date set, by check, PayPal, or Venmo via SubscriptionMembershipSettlement.com.

Press coverage pegged the claims deadline at July 27, 2026, so that window is closed. Eligibility required a US Prime membership, enrollment through a challenged signup flow (or a failed cancel attempt) between June 23, 2019 and June 23, 2025, and no more than 3 Prime benefits used in any 12-month period.

One caution, from the FTC: "The FTC will never demand money, make threats, tell you to transfer money, or promise you a prize." A fee to release settlement money is a scam. For other refund fights, the refund playbook has the sequence.

What retention offers will Amazon show you?

Historically the flow surfaced up to three detours: a switch from annual to monthly billing, a "remind me later" option pinging you 3 days before renewal, and occasionally a discount screen. That is pre-settlement reporting; the order bans a difficult process but does not explicitly ban save offers, and the current flow's exact offers were not captured at verification. If the annual renewal landed at a bad time, the monthly switch is real relief.

One documented change: Prime now has a real pause. Amazon's help pages describe pausing eligible memberships from the Membership Management section of Prime Central: one month with auto-resume on monthly plans, or up to a year with manual resume, and a membership paused past 365 days cancels itself. Billing stops, benefits stop with it, and subscriptions tied to Prime end while billing is paused. Third-party signups, Prime Video-only, Business, Student, trial, and discounted memberships are not eligible.

What happens after you cancel Amazon Prime?

  • Benefits run to the end of the paid period, unless you took the immediate-end refund.
  • Prime Video purchases and rentals stay watchable on your free account, and your watchlist survives; Prime-included titles drop out.
  • Anyone sharing your benefits through Amazon Household loses the shared Prime benefits once Prime ends.

What if Amazon still makes it hard?

A hard cancellation is now the exact thing the order prohibits. If the flow traps you, screenshot it, report it, and finish the job: how to cancel any subscription has escalation scripts, stopping automatic payments at the bank is the bank-side last resort, and the subscription audit guide widens the sweep.

Prime is the membership everyone remembers to question. The quieter leaks are the Channels and trials riding along. ReNood reads a screenshot of your statement and finds every recurring charge, no bank login, so ending Prime becomes the first cut of the audit, not the whole audit.

Get ReNood on the App Store

FAQ

Can I get a refund when I cancel Amazon Prime?

Sometimes, under Amazon's own terms. Cancel within 3 business days of joining and the full fee comes back, minus the value of any benefits used. Cancel later and the fee comes back only if nobody on the account has used Prime benefits or made eligible purchases since the last charge. Annual members who used benefits keep access to year-end instead of proration.

Does canceling Prime cancel my Prime Video Channels?

No. Channels like Max, Paramount+, and Starz are separate Amazon-billed subscriptions, and they keep charging after Prime ends. Cancel each one in "Memberships & Subscriptions" or through Prime Video's Channels settings. The reverse holds: canceling a Channel leaves Prime running, and a Channel usually cannot be canceled on its own website; Amazon is the biller.

What did the FTC settlement change?

A $2.5 billion payout in September 2025: a $1 billion penalty plus $1.5 billion in refunds to roughly 35 million customers. Cancellation must now be available "using the same method that consumers used to sign up," enrollment must disclose cost and auto-renewal clearly, and signup needs a plain decline button instead of "No, I don't want Free Shipping."

Is it easier to cancel Prime now?

It is required to be. The order bans a "difficult, costly, or time-consuming" process and requires cancellation by the same method you joined with. It does not dictate click counts, so retention offers may still appear. If the flow feels like the old maze, keep screenshots and report it.

This guide is educational, not financial or legal advice. Details change; check the linked sources for anything that matters to your situation.

References