Earlier, the annual subscription price of Amazon Prime got a hike of nearly 50% and rose to ₹1499/year, while the monthly subscription price rose to ₹179. Now, the company is working on a new – and cheaper – subscription service for users in India and has quietly begun its pilot test.
Known as Amazon Prime Lite, the new tier is being tested with a handful of Prime members in the country. It comes at a discounted price of ₹999/year – or $12 per year – as an alternative to the regular Prime membership, which costs an additional ₹500 ($6) annually, or $2.20 (₹179) per month. It is not known when Amazon will push the service out of beta and roll it out to more users in the country. When tried, we were able to subscribe to the service as well.
While the Prime Lite membership will give subscribers access to a wide range of benefits – such as free two-day delivery and ad-supported Prime Video in standard definition – it will not contain every feature that regular Prime members can currently enjoy.
For one, subscribers to the Prime Lite tier will not have access to Amazon Prime Music – for that, they need to subscribe to the regular Prime tier for ₹179 per month. Furthermore, they will not have access to free delivery within one day and the same day and miss out on streaming ad-free, HD content.
To add to this, Prime Lite subscribers will not have access to free e-books, as well as free games and in-game content on popular games. This means that they will be unable to enjoy the benefits of Prime Gaming, Amazon’s gaming service, which the company quietly launched in India at the fag end of the previous year. And last but not least, Prime Lite subscribers will also miss out on access to no-cost EMI.
Subscribers will have the option to stream content on Prime on two devices – TV and mobile – and will be able to watch live sports content as well.
Now that we have covered what Prime Lite subscribers will miss out on, let us see what they will get if they subscribe to the new tier. For one, they will have the option to stream unlimited content on Prime on two devices – TV and mobile – which is a downgrade from the three devices (mobile, TV, and laptop) where Prime members can stream their content.
Nonetheless, Prime Lite members will be able to stream and watch live sports content on their devices as well. Furthermore, they will have access to exclusive and early access to deals alongside an unlimited cashback of 5% on Amazon Pay ICICI credit card – digital and Gift Card purchases are exempt from this because they earn 2% back. The free two-day and standard delivery of goods and items will be made available to Prime Lite subscribers, along with free No-Rush Shipping to eligible addresses and a cashback of ₹25. No minimum order value is required for standard delivery at no extra cost.
