We calculated how much 2-day shipping costs without Amazon Prime, and it proves why the $139 fee is worth it (2024)

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• Amazon Prime includes free 2-day shipping for members, who pay $139 per year.
• While there are many perks of a Prime membership, free two-day shipping is one of the best.
• For non-members, shipping is free with purchases over $25, but not guaranteed within 2 days.

An Amazon Prime subscription offers its members many benefits (more than 25, in fact), but one of the best and most popular perks is free two-day shipping. The convenience of purchases delivered straight to your door, sometimes only within hours of ordering, is well worth the annual cost of Prime alone.

Non-Prime members have to order at least $25 of eligible items to get free shipping, and orders aren't guaranteed to arrive within two days. If you order less than $25, you'll be charged a shipping fee, which varies on the shipment weight and selected shipping speed.

We calculated how much these shipping fees come out to and whether it makes more sense to just sign up for Amazon Prime and get free shipping.

How much is 2-day shipping on Amazon without Prime?

For example, ordering an Anker Powerline+ II USB-C Cable, our pick for the best smartphone charging cable, would typically cost $22 with free two-day shipping for Amazon Prime members.

Since the order amount is less than $25, non-Prime members would have to pay $6 extra for standard shipping and $10 for two-day shipping. Of course, that cost may vary depending on location, shipment weight, and Amazon seller.

Assuming $10 is the average cost of two-day shipping, if you opt for two-day shipping on two under-$25 orders per month, an annual subscription to Amazon Prime would still be cheaper ($139 vs. $144 per year).

This doesn't even account for all of the perks and benefits included with Prime, like access to Prime Video and deals during the upcoming sales event, Amazon Prime Day.

Amazon Prime shipping options

If you're in the Contiguous US and willing to pay the yearly fee, you'll have a handful of different shipping options at your disposal, year-round:

• One-Day Shipping: free
• Two-Day Shipping: free
• Same-Day Delivery: free on orders over $35 or $3 per order
• Prime Now: free 2-hour delivery in eligible zip codes
• Amazon Day Delivery: free weekly delivery on a day you choose
• No-Rush Shipping: free
• Standard Shipping: free shipping within 4 to 5 business days
• Release-Date Delivery: free on qualifying pre-order items

No matter how many benefits Prime membership offers, it's inevitably up to you to determine if it's worth the cost to join.

Whether it's because you're not much of an online shopper or you just don't feel like the $139 membership is for you, you can still qualify for free shipping that's fast enough if you're able to spend over $25 per order.