How to score Amazon Big Spring Sale deals without paying full price for Prime

It seems somehow unfair. Some of Amazon’s very best deals of the year are available during its annual Prime Day and the Spring Sale events, but access to those deals requires paying $139 for a year’s membership.

Also: Amazon Big Spring Sale 2025: Here’s everything you need to know before the sale starts

But does it? Thankfully, there are ways around paying for a full year of Prime while still enjoying the best Amazon deals available. We’ll show you how to avoid that $139 fee and get full and complete access to all the Amazon Prime Day deals and discounts just in time for the Big Spring Sale’s official kick-off on Tuesday.

Free 30-day trial

If you haven’t been an Amazon Prime member in the past 12 months, you qualify for a free 30-day trial. Look for the big yellow “Start your 30-day free trial” button on the Amazon Prime page.

Also: The 13+ best early Amazon Spring Sale phone deals

If you don’t qualify for the free trial, you can buy a Prime membership for just one month. After all, if you really just want access for a few days, a month’s membership should be enough. A month’s membership will set you back $14.99; that’s low enough that it will pay for itself if you just get free shipping on a few products.

But you can do better.

Qualify for a student discount and free trial

If you’re a student and a new member, you can sign up for a Prime Student membership (here’s how). Prime Student gets you a six-month free trial and then you pay $7.49 per month if you decide to keep the service or $69 per year compared to $139 for a regular membership. (And you wonder why adults are always saying, “Stay in school.”)

Also: The 13 best early Amazon Spring Sale robot vacuum deals of 2025

Like the regular Amazon Prime service, a student membership includes free same-day, one-day, and two-day delivery and Grubhub+ benefits. You’ll also get access to Prime Video, Amazon Music Prime, Prime Gaming, Prime Reading, and, of course, all Prime-exclusive deals during the Amazon Big Spring Sale and Prime Day events.

Discount for government assistance recipients

If you’re on one of the qualifying government assistance programs, including SNAP, WIC, Medicaid, and TANF, you can get a Prime membership for over half off, called Prime Access. That brings the cost down to $6.99 per month. That might still be a lot to bite off, but at least it’s over half of the regular cost of Prime.

Also: The 21+ best early Amazon Spring Sale headphone deals

To qualify for Prime Access, Amazon must verify your income, which you can do by uploading a document confirming your eligibility to a selected government assistance program. 

Don’t forget

If you don’t want to become a member, just remember to cancel any free trial before your 30 days are up. Otherwise, you will be helping to pay for Bezos’ rocket fuel.

So there you go. There are a few different ways to save money on Prime and be ready to score the best deals from the Amazon Big Spring Sale.

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