Is Amazon Photos Only for Prime Members?

Amazon photos is one of the tech giant’s lesser-known but highly valued services. But is Amazon Photos only for Prime members? The answer is no. There’s both a free and paid version, but they differ significantly.

In this article, we review the cloud-based photo storage service and compare the free and paid versions.

The Two Tiers of Amazon Photo Membership

Amazon Photos offers different levels of service to Prime and non-Prime members. If you’re are an Amazon Prime member, you get unlimited, full-resolution photo storage as part of your membership. You can store as many high-quality photos as you want without worrying about running out of space. Additionally, Prime members also receive 5GB of storage for videos and other files.

If you’re not a Prime member, you can still use Amazon Photos but with limitations. Non-Prime members receive 5GB of storage for photos, videos, and other files. Once you reach this limit, you’ll need to purchase additional storage.

In addition to the storage benefits, Amazon Photos also offers other features that make it a compelling choice for photo storage. The service includes intelligent search features, which allow you to find photos by people, places, or things. For example, you can search for “beach” and find all your beach photos, even if you didn’t tag them.

Editing Suite Included

Amazon also offers quite an extensive photo editing suite that includes over 70 filters as well as several tools including image cropping, rotation, and changing image sizes and ratios. Users can adjust exposure, brightness, saturation, contrast, gamma, clarity, and highlights.

Recognizes Faces and Places

Amazon Photos uses facial recognition that allows you to identify people in your photos automatically. A place recognition function recognizes locations and tags them as well. However, you must manually enter this information on initial photos so the program can “learn” to recognize faces and places in the future.

Remembers Important Dates

The Family Vault feature allows you to program wedding and anniversary reminders into Amazon Prime Photos, so that you can easily choose a photo to send to a loved one on a special day. Amazon Prime Photos will send you a notification of birthdays, and suggest photos from your archives to send.

Offers Printing Services

Amazon offers print-on-demand services on a wide variety of products including mugs, cards, ornaments, art prints, canvases, aluminum, and canvases. You can also print your images on clothing, accessories, blankets, and shower curtains. Plus, you can create your own photo albums and books.

Amazon Integrates with Alexa

Amazon Photos also integrates with Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant. This means you can use voice commands to display your photos on Echo Show or Fire TV. You can even ask Alexa to show your photos from a specific time or place, and have them appear, exactly as you asked, onscreen.

Paid Version Pros

• Apps are compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones
• Smartphone photos can be fully backed up
• Full photo editing suite included
• Unlimited, high resolution photo storage
• Pay for more storage space if needed up to 30 TB
• Additional storage space for videos available
• Offers photo editing functions
• Offers facial and place recognition
• Keeps personal photos in a Family Vault
• Notifies you of family birthdays
• “On this Day” Feature
• Offers a full range of printing services
• Integrates with Alexa

Paid Version Cons

• Facial recognition must be manually set up
• Facial and place recognition can get it wrong

Free Membership Pros and Cons

The Amazon Photos free service doesn’t have any of the features of the Prime membership. The Amazon Terms of Service specifically states that the free service may not be used by a professional photography service. Users may save, share, and access their photos and videos across desktop, mobile and tablets.

Free Version Pros

• Free 5 GB of space
• Photos are downloadable to signed-in-devices
• Simple-to-use

Free Version Cons

• 5GB only holds 200 HD photos
• Only allows one user
• For personal, not professional use.

How to Download Amazon Photos

To download either version of Amazon Photos, go to the photos page on Amazon and look at the top menu bar on the website. There you’ll = see four options: Download on Desktop, Download on the App Store, Get It on Google Play, and Available on Fire TV.

Click on the option that you prefer and follow the prompts to choose your photo storage plan and set up Amazon Photos storage on your preferred device. The Desktop download works with desktop and laptops and the Fire TV download allows you to watch slides on your television or monitor. The App Store and Google Play downloads are meant to be downloaded on smartphones.

FAQs

Is there a photo storage service comparable to Amazon Photos?

While Amazon Photos offers a lot of benefits, it’s not the only photo storage service out there. Other services like Google Photos, Apple’s iCloud, and Dropbox also offer photo storage, each with their own set of features and benefits. As always, it is best to compare services and choose the one that best fits your needs.

How many photos does 5 GB of free storage hold?

The answer to this question depends on the format you’re uploading to Photos and the file size. For photos with an image resolution between 5.5 MP to 18MP, Amazon’s free 5GB memory might hold between 580 and 192 photos.

What happens if I cancel Amazon Prime Photos?

If you cancel the paid version, Amazon Prime photos will designate your storage to be “over quota,” which means that you’re over-the-limit with the free 5 GB they offer everyone. After 180 days, Amazon Prime will then start deleting your files. To avoid losing your photos, download them onto your computer before the three-month grace period is over.

Amazon Photos Are Not Exclusive to Prime Members

Although Amazon Photos isn’t exclusively for Prime members, there are significant benefits to using the Prime version. Unlimited storage allows Prime members to store all their photos in one place, without the need to delete old photos to make room for new ones. This is a significant advantage for those who take a lot of photos and want to keep them all. Users of the free version have minimal storage with no perks, whereas Amazon Prime members enjoy ample space, an editing suite, location tagging, face recognition, and integration with Alexa. However, both versions allow you to upgrade or add more memory and offer users the option of using Amazon’s print-on-demand service

Have you used Amazon Prime Photos as a cloud storage solution? If so, did you use the free or the paid version? Let us know in the comments section below.