Students can get 50% off Amazon Prime and a 6-month free trial

University life isn’t just about lectures, essays and societies. You can also take advantage of the Amazon Prime Student scheme to get the subscription service at a hefty discount and use it for shopping, streaming and more.

Here’s everything you need to know – you can also check out all the best deals and buying advice in our curated Prime Day hub.

What is Amazon Prime Student?

As the name suggests, this is a version of Amazon Prime aimed specifically at those in full-time higher education, or those of university age. So, for a reduced monthly fee of £4.49/$7.49 per month or £47.49/$69 per year, students will have access to the Prime Video, Prime Music and Prime Reading services. They also benefit from free and fast delivery on items in the Amazon store marked with Prime, 10% off textbooks, plus photo storage on Amazon Drive and early access to lightning deals.

Students in the USA have even further enticements, such as Grubhub+ food delivery, a free Twitch subscription, free Prime Gaming membership, discounted textbooks and other offers.

Amazon Prime Student includes free one-day or fast delivery on millions of items. Members also get exclusive discounts and access to premium content such as music, movies and TV shows.

Am I eligible for Amazon Prime Student?

To benefit from Amazon Prime Student, you either need to be a student or be 18-22 years old (in the UK), or 18-24 (in the US). You’ll need to provide proof of your age or that you’re a student. Plus, signing up for Amazon Prime Student requires you to have an Amazon account (obviously), or create one.

As you have to be 18 or older, sixth-form college students won’t be able to apply, but we’re guessing that the calculation is that they will still live at home and benefit from their parents’ Amazon Prime account.

The sign-up process will ask for a valid university email address (ends with “ac.uk” in the UK, or “.edu” in the US) which will be verified. The sign-up process will also request your expected graduation year and a method of payment (credit or debit).

To prove that you’re a current student, you’ll need your academic email address and be able to verify your status such as sending a photo of your student ID card. If you haven’t been issued an email address, you can still apply by sending other proof of enrolment to amazon-student-verification@amazon.co.uk.

These include scans of NUS Extra or NUS Apprentice Extra cards, a copy of the letter of enrolment from the university or academic body, a bill for tuition costs or other correspondence from the college or university confirming your student status.

For additional details about the sign-up process if you’re a student in the UK, Amazon has a dedicated page you can access here. US students can find the equivalent page here.

How to sign up to Amazon Prime Student

Click here for the Amazon Prime Student UK sign up page. US students can sign up here.

Log into your account when prompted. Then search for Prime Student. On the page there should be an option to Try Prime Student. Select this option, enter your academic email address and specify the year when you are due to graduate. The latter is so that Amazon can transfer your Prime Student account to a standard Prime one when you finish your studies.

How can you get Amazon Prime Student for free?

You should now see a Start Trial button. Microsoft has sponsored new student accounts so that they wouldn’t have to pay for the first six months of membership.

By comparison, a regular Prime membership only allows up to 30 days of a free trial.

After six months, if you choose to keep your Prime Student membership, you only pay £4.49/$7.49 per month or £47.49/$69 per year, which is half, or less than half, of the regular Prime subscription cost in the UK (£8.99 per month/£99 per year) in the US ($14.99 per month/$139 per year).

Sign up for Amazon Prime Student UK here or here if you’re in the US.

Can you cancel after the 6-month free trial?

Of course, being a student means you’re on a tight budget. If that £4.49/$7.49 per month is eating into your funds, you can cancel anytime.

What do you get with Amazon Prime Student?

Amazon Prime isn’t just a way to get major discounts but also a way to get exclusive and unlimited access to books, magazines, music, movies, shows and unlimited cloud storage for photos.

Amazon Prime Video – movies and TV shows on-demand

Amazon Prime Student includes Prime Video, the premium content subscription service which you can access via a Fire TV Stick or any smart device.

If you want to know what’s on, see our round up of the best movies available on Prime Video this month.

Prime Reading – unlimited access to books, comics, and magazines

Amazon Prime Student membership also gets you unlimited access to thousands of books, current magazines, comic books, Kindle Singles and plenty of other content via Prime Reading. The access is unlimited and you don’t need a separate Kindle e-reader to view the content – only the free Kindle app. Of course, the app comes pre-installed on all Amazon Fire tablets.

Through First Reads, Prime members also get an advanced sneak peek at select books chosen by Amazon editors before the book is officially released.

Learn more about Prime Reading here.

Amazon Music Prime – ad-free, curated music

An Amazon Prime Student account also includes access to Amazon Music Prime, which gives you access to 100 million songs and top podcasts, ad-free. You can listen on-demand and download songs and albums to listen offline as well.

Lightning Deals – exclusive Prime early access to limited-time offers

Of course, one of the main benefits of having an Amazon Prime Student account is access to exclusive deals and discounts. Amazon’s Lightning Deals are temporary flash sales that happen once a day. The deals are often timed or last until there is still stock available.

The advantage of a Prime membership is that you have access to Lightning Deals 30 minutes ahead of anyone else, which means you can avoid the rat race of getting those headphones or gaming keyboards before they’re all out.

Sign up for Amazon Prime Student here or here if you’re in the US.

Prime Photos – secure, unlimited photo storage

As a student, running out of photo storage space on your phone becomes inevitable. With an Amazon Prime Student account, you also get Prime Photos, which gives you unlimited storage space. You can keep all your pictures in one place and you don’t have to downsize them to a lower resolution. 

Prime Photo lets you access your photos from anywhere and from any device (your desktop, iOS or Android devices), and share your photos as well. Click here to get the Prime Photos app for Windows, Mac, Android or iOS.

Amazon Prime Student vs Amazon Prime

With an Amazon Prime Student account, you essentially get all the perks of a regular Prime account, but at half the cost of a regular membership. Additionally, you get a 6-month free trial instead of a 30-day trial.

How much does Amazon Prime Student cost?

You can subscribe to Amazon Prime Student on a monthly or annual basis. A monthly subscription costs £4.49/$7.49 per month, whereas an annual subscription costs £47.49/$69 per year. The annual rate works out at £3.96/$5.75 per month, so you would in fact be saving with an annual rate even if you pay more upfront.

Sign up for the UK Amazon Prime Student here or here if you’re in the US.