Amazon is shutting down the Prime Invitee program on Oct. 1, cutting off the ability for subscribers to share Prime shipping perks with people outside their household. As The Verge noticed, if you’re currently riding on someone else’s Prime membership from a different address, you’ll lose access to free two-day shipping and other useful benefits unless you pony up for your own subscription.

Free stuff rarely lasts forever

Amazon Prime delivery

Source: Jules Wang / AP

The move follows a trend of subscription services cracking down on password sharing. Amazon is now following suit. Prime Invitee, which let members share shipping benefits with friends or relatives who didn’t live under the same roof, is being sunset in favor of Amazon Family, a more restrictive system that keeps benefits within a single household.

Amazon Family (previously Amazon Household) isn’t new, but it’s becoming the only way to share Prime going forward. The setup lets you add one other adult in your household, up to four teens (provided they were on the account before April 7, 2025), and up to four child profiles. Everyone has to live at the same “primary residential address,” as Amazon’s relevant help page defines it — the place you consider home and spend most of your time.

The good news, if you can call it that, is that Amazon Family members don’t just get free shipping, they also gain access to Prime Video (with ads), Prime Reading, third-party perks like Grubhub+, and shared digital content such as e-books and games. Two adults on the account can also share Amazon Music Prime for ad-free shuffle listening.

For invitees left hanging, Amazon is dangling a small carrot: a discounted rate of $14.99 for one full year of a new Prime membership before they’re bumped up to the standard $14.99 per month. This incentive mirrors what streaming companies have done to convert freeloaders into paying customers.

Amazon hasn’t said outright that the Invitee shutdown is about subscriber growth, but the writing’s on the wall. Reuters recently reported that the company fell short of US Prime signup targets during its extended July Prime Day event. Ending Invitee could help Amazon nudge more people into paid subscriptions as competition in e-commerce and streaming heats up.