Amazon’s October 1st Changes Now Impact Shipping Options

Love it or hate it, I think many of us have become reliant on the ease of shopping on Amazon. Forgot a gift for an upcoming event? Need a refill for something around the house? Gotta have those sneakers that popped up on your social media algorithm, chances are, you can place that order and it'll be on your doorstep in less than 48 hours.

An upcoming announced change for the insanely popular online shopping powerhouse has people talking. The change is aligned with many other online-based services that have also cracked down on account sharing (looking at you, Netflix).

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Amazon's October 1st Shipping Changes

Amazon has announced that beginning October 1st, they will no longer continue offering the 'Prime Invitee Program,' but instead introduce 'Amazon Family.' The new program will no longer allow free shipping to addresses outside of your home address, and puts some restrictions on the number of people on the account within the same home.

TLDR: you and someone outside your residence can no longer share an Amazon account.

As outlined on Amazon's site and app:

Amazon Family allows you to share Amazon benefits with another adult (aged 18 and over), up to four teens (who were added before April 7, 2025), and up to four children living at your primary residential address. This is the address you consider to be your home and where you spend the majority of your time.

The important thing to remember here is that all 'invitees' must live together at the same primary residential address, and there is a clause about sharing payment methods for 'household verification.'

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Why Didn't I Know About This Change?

Honestly, I was asking myself the same thing, but after a bit of research, it seems like only those who registered for the Prime Invitee Program between 2009 and 2015 (they stopped accepting new members at some point in 2015) received the notification.

Other concerns circulating social media include the ability to ship gifts to those outside the home with this new plan, thankfully it looks like gifting via Prime is still an option. Similarly, Prime customers who are traveling away from their primary residence and place an order for delivery are still able to do so.

The Prime Invitee Program had allowed registered Prime members to share with one other adult, no address restrictions, but it seems like that was financially impacting the company, resulting in this newly announced Family plan, this according to USA Today.