Amazon brings generative AI-powered Alexa+ to all U.S. Prime members

Amazon has expanded its generative AI-powered Alexa+ assistant to all U.S. customers as of Wednesday. The company is offering unlimited access to the upgraded assistant for free to Prime members across devices, including Echo products, Fire TV, and mobile apps. Daniel Rausch, VP of Alexa and Echo at Amazon, stated: “We have tens of millions of customers using Alexa+ now, and now we’re going to make it available to all Prime members…Prime members enjoy unlimited access — it’s basically a paid-tier level of access that we’re including in Prime now”. Non-Prime users can also access Alexa+ for free with some limitations via the Alexa website or mobile app.

The upgraded assistant is model agnostic, meaning it runs on a combination of Amazon’s own foundation models and those from other companies to select the best technology for each task. It is also designed to be agentic—acting autonomously to complete complex tasks—by integrating with external services. These integration partners include:

• Uber
• Ticketmaster
• OpenTable
• Thumbtack
• Angi
• Expedia
• Square
• Yelp
• Fodor’s
• Suno

The assistant is also available on hardware from partners such as Samsung and Bose.

During its beta testing phase, Amazon tracked positive engagement trends among the tens of millions of customers using Alexa+. Music streams increased by 25% after customers upgraded to Alexa+, while recipe interaction experienced a 5x growth. Overall, customers are having two to three times more conversations with Alexa+ compared to the original version of the assistant. Despite some initial user feedback regarding the assistant’s voice and conversational frequency, the percentage of customers opting out of Alexa+ and reverting to the older version remains in the low single digits.

While the service is currently free for Prime members, non-Prime customers in the U.S. could pay $19.99/month for standalone access. Amazon is likely seeking more time to improve the AI experience before making the upgrade a requirement for all users. The company has already adjusted features based on beta feedback, such as reducing unwanted interruptions and allowing users to switch back to a version of the original Alexa voice. When asked about future customization options, such as changing the assistant’s personality, Rausch suggested that customers stay tuned.

Why it matters

Amazon is leveraging its massive installed base to compete in the generative AI assistant market, using Prime as a distribution channel to normalize agentic AI in the home.