Should I Cancel Amazon Prime? Here Are 12 Good Reasons

This was a tumultuous year for Amazon.com, and, for better and for worse, its millions of Amazon Prime subscribers got to come along for the bumpy ride. 2022 saw major acquisitions for Amazon, corporate layoffs, cut in member perks, and perhaps most significantly, a price increase.

Is it time to re-evaluate? After all, you’re likely up to your neck in other subscription services, too: cable TV, streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+ and Spotify, maybe meal-prep services, gift boxes… gift boxes for your dog. It all adds up. And then Amazon went and raised its yearly subscription fee by 17% earlier in 2022, from $119 to $139. If you pay monthly, that clip went from $12.99 to $14.99 a month, or $180 a year.

That’s your first reason to reconsider, even if Amazon Prime Day, that annual summer blockbuster sale with its 48-hour marathon of deals, deals, deals, remains a temptation. And this year, there were two big Prime “days,” with Amazon doing a bonus discount Prime Early Access Sale in October, two days that ended up kicking off the 2022 holiday shopping season. Amazon having judged this a second event a success, look for a repeat in 2023.

But as Amazon made deep cuts to its leadership team with a layoff of around 10,000 positions late this year, experts are predicting that could be a major disruption for Amazon, possibly leading to customer service issues. To make matters worse, part of those layoffs are affecting Amazon’s Alexa division, a tool many Amazon Prime members use to place orders. 

So do you still need Amazon Prime? After years of membership, people often forget: You can buy from Amazon without being a Prime member. You’re just not going to get the other perks – not all of which you might need, use or want. To that end, we’ve listed a range of 12 good reasons you might want to cancel your Amazon Prime membership.