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Your Amazon Prime Video shows will soon feature ads – unless you pay up

Here’s how much you’ll have to pay to avoid seeing ads on Prime Video.

Written by Maria Diaz, Staff Writer on

Fire TV and Fire TV Soundbar at Amazon's Devices and Services event in 2023 — Maria Diaz/ZDNET

Imagine you’re binge-watching The Boys on Prime Video. Beginning in early 2024, your sessions will likely be interrupted by ads — unless you pay an extra $2.99 per month. The cost will be in addition to your Amazon Prime subscription and will give you access to binge-watching sessions that are ad-free.

Amazon announced that Prime Video is getting “limited ads” in shows and movies early next year. The company hopes the change will provide an additional revenue stream and offset the investment into high-quality, “compelling content.”

Also: Amazon is refreshing its Fire TV products with generative AI features. Here’s what’s new

The company also announced it will not make changes to the Prime membership pricing in 2024, which currently costs $15 per month or $139 per year.

Prime members will start seeing what Amazon is calling “meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV services” early next year in the US, UK, Germany, and Canada. But each Prime membership will have the option to add a new ad-free tier to its subscription for an extra $2.99 monthly.

The ads will roll out gradually to Prime members in France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia later in 2024.

Also: The best live TV streaming services

The news comes after Amazon made a series of announcements and product launches during its Devices & Services event this week, including two new Fire TV Sticks, the TV 4K and 4K Max, and a Fire TV Soundbar, as well as a series of Fire TV updates that include the integration of generative AI.

Amazon’s Prime Video is a streaming service available through the Prime subscription, which also gives users free same-day, one-day, and two-day delivery, exclusive Prime deals and access to Prime Day discounts, Amazon Pharmacy, Fresh grocery delivery, Amazon Music, and more.