Amazon's Alexa+ Now Free for All U.S. Prime Members, Beating Apple's Smarter Siri to Market

[MacRumors]

Amazon's Alexa+ AI assistant is rolling out to all U.S. Amazon Prime subscribers beginning today, with the service available at no additional cost.

Amazon says that Prime subscribers can access Alexa+ with the Alexa app, Alexa-enabled devices, or the Alexa.com website. Prime members can access Alexa+ by saying "Alexa, upgrade to Alexa+," or by logging into their Amazon account on the Alexa website.

Alexa+ has been in testing since February 2025, offering a smarter, more personalized, and more proactive assistant experience. Amazon says Alexa+ is much more capable than the prior version of Alexa thanks to its updated architecture that uses large language models from Amazon Nova and Anthropic.

Alexa is able to do things like order takeout, make restaurant reservations, book rides, and schedule home repairs, plus it can control smart home products and answer questions like any other chatbot. It integrates with Amazon services, and can integrate with hardware like Ring cameras.

Amazon Prime in the U.S. is priced at $14.99 per month or $139 per year, and Alexa+ is considered one of the Prime benefits. Customers without Prime can try Alexa+ through a limited, free chat experience on Alexa.com and in the Alexa app. Subscribing solely to Alexa+ costs $19.99 per month, which makes no sense for anyone since Prime is cheaper.

Amazon's revamped Alexa+ experience is seeing a wide rollout a couple months ahead of when Apple is expected to debut a more powerful, personalized version of Siri. Siri is going to get an update in spring 2026, likely in iOS 26.4.

Alexa and Siri were two of the original large-scale voice assistants, so it will be interesting to see how Alexa+ compares to the revamped version of Siri when Siri launches.

Article Link: Amazon's Alexa+ Now Free for All U.S. Prime Members, Beating Apple's Smarter Siri to Market

 

[jz0309]

Well, I have Prime. I will NOT use Alexa period.
Thank you very much, but no, thanks

 

[jdavid_rp]

Free as long as you consider that your personal data has no value, but Amazon would think otherwise

 

[usersince86]

Prime: still use it... at least for now.
Alexa: never use it... and don't plan to.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

Well, I have Prime. I will NOT use Alexa period.
Thank you very much, but no, thanks

No problem, Amazon has every last drop of your data anyway

 

[tyranne201]

HomePod and siri are dead.

good luck iOS 26.4

 

[tyranne201]

No problem, Amazon has every last drop of your data anyway

and you think apple really cares? they open up to China.

 

[nutmac]

So... is it going to bombard me to watch Melania?

 

[Think|Different]

It’s not beating anything. This isn’t native on any of my dozens of devices that use Siri.

 

[N47H]

It’s not beating anything. This isn’t native on any of my dozens of devices that use Siri.

A non-existent Alexa is still hands down more useful than a native/integrated Siri.

Apple really dropped the ball on the AI voice assistant front given Siri was the first mainstream one and was in so many people’s hands day in day out.

 

[cjboffoli97]

"Now Free for All U.S. Prime Members"

In fact, the cost is having the Amazon surveillance machine deep inside of your life and domicile. Yeah, no thanks. Hard pass.

 

[stocklen]

Since when is Apple often 'first' for things like this.

they arent but its coming soon. I just hope that whatever Siri 2.0 is about to become it is a decent polished product with actual use cases not asking the weather in 100 different ways.

 

[vjl323]

I got a free Echo long ago and use it mostly as an alarm, as Siri will not integrate into Spotify or SiriusXM, so I can wake up to a playlist on Spotify or a channel on SXM with the echo. A few weeks ago I was, without my permission, "upgraded" to Alexa+. Gone was my British accented, calm voiced digital assistant and instead replaced with a bratty teenage sounding voice. And an iPad app that took all the useful features and buried them in menus. Thankfully you can "bookmark" features one used to use, on the main page of the app and I was able to downgrade to normal Alexa.

I only hope the downgrade is still possible.

BTW, comparing Siri to Alexa and the response times - for me, Siri beats Alexa by a mile. I have very, very slow internet [ever since Hurricane Helene hit; they are rolling out fiber to replace the damaged DSL since it costs the ISP less to do so, but they have not yet turned fiber on]. Many times Alexa just won't reply due to the slow internet or takes at least 20 seconds. Siri seems to run on device and replies immediately to my requests, though results can be slow or, as typical with Siri, completely wrong. But I can at least use Siri when my internet is out or running slower than slow. Alexa requires an always on, very fast internet connection.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

"schedule home repairs"

Not sure how I feel about that. Actually, I am sure.

 

[nadador]

No thank you!
Weren't they trying to get people to pay for this last year? I guess no one was biting, so now it's shoved out to everyone "for free."

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

and you think apple really cares? they open up to China.

Very true.

They certainly have less data if you don't use Alexa

I mean .. not much

 

[DocMultimedia]

I downloaded the app and there was no way to skip the "add all contacts" screen (at least that I could find). I deleted it. No need to reinstall it in the future.

 

[N47H]

Since when is Apple often 'first' for things like this.

they arent but its coming soon. I just hope that whatever Siri 2.0 is about to become it is a decent polished product with actual use cases not asking the weather in 100 different ways.

Since… Siri? They launched first and evolved, developed and improved it last.

 

[sw1tcher]

Well, I have Prime. I will NOT use Alexa period.

Ok. But will you use Alexa plus?

 

[Dan From Canada]

If I were American... hard pass on both.

 

[vjl323]

I downloaded the app and there was no way to skip the "add all contacts" screen (at least that I could find). I deleted it. No need to reinstall it in the future.

I have the app and when I did an update a few weeks ago, it too prompted me for that, but I just denied it on the system level. The app is still usable [but not nearly as functional as the version that it replaced - they pulled a Sonos].

It is hyper rare I ever let any app access to my contacts, so it is something not out of the ordinary for me to deny access. All apps, I believe, are required to still function without that privilege enabled, unless it's a 3rd party contacts/addressbook app.

 

[vjl323]

Since… Siri? They launched first and evolved, developed and improved it last.

11 years ago they launched a smart watch, but there were others on the market. But, like the iPod and iPhone, and iPad, they quickly captured market share for making a quality product [there were smart phones and MP3 plays and tablets on the market before those 3 Apple devices too].

 

[thebart]

Siri I don't trust because it's dumb. Alexa because it's Amazon

 

[Rychiar]

do people still use Alexa?

 

[decypher44]

I downloaded the app and there was no way to skip the "add all contacts" screen (at least that I could find). I deleted it. No need to reinstall it in the future.

I force closed it at that point and reopened. Started at the basic screen, didn’t add contacts. I probably won’t use the app, but fun to play around with.