Amazon is replacing its longstanding Prime Invitee program with a new Amazon Family program, which limits benefit sharing to household members only, including up to one other adult, four teens, and four children.

The company is ending its previous Prime benefit sharing policy that allowed members to share free shipping with people outside their household, effective October 1, 2025.

All users sharing benefits must now have the same primary address, defined as where they spend most of their time, and Amazon has not yet detailed how it will enforce these new restrictions.

Despite record signups during the recent four-day Prime Day, Amazon’s overall Prime membership growth fell short of internal targets, prompting a strategic shift.

This change appears to be part of Amazon’s efforts to boost new Prime subscriptions, similar to recent streaming services cracking down on password sharing, which has successfully increased subscriber numbers.

Under the new policy, invitees outside the household who lose their benefits are encouraged to subscribe to their own Prime membership at a discounted rate of $14.99 annually or monthly.

To transition to Amazon Family, users need to visit the Amazon Family page and accept invitations, with adult invitees possibly needing their own Prime memberships.

Affected users will be notified by Amazon by September 5, 2025, and can sign up for Prime at the current rate, with subsequent renewals at $14.99 per month.

This policy shift coincides with Amazon’s broader strategy to expand its delivery network into smaller cities, towns, and rural areas across the U.S., aiming to reach 1,000 such communities by the end of 2025.

The expansion aims to provide faster delivery options in less densely populated areas, aligning with Amazon’s goal to serve more diverse regions.

Amazon has not yet announced specific measures for enforcing the new sharing restrictions beyond limiting deliveries to a single address.

The move to restrict sharing is motivated by a desire to increase Prime subscriptions after missing growth targets, with parallels drawn to recent password sharing crackdowns by other streaming services like Netflix.

This policy change marks a significant shift from the original Prime Invitee program, which was established in 2008 and allowed sharing benefits across different addresses, but has been phased out as new signups have been closed for years.