What Is Amazon Household In 2023? Your Complete Guide to Sharing Amazon Prime Benefits with Family

Hey there! As an experienced Amazon seller, I often get questions about Amazon Household from fellow sellers and savvy shoppers alike.

In short, Amazon Household is a free program that lets you share your Amazon Prime membership benefits with one other adult and up to four teens and four kids in your home. It‘s a great way for families to get more value from Prime!

I‘ll explain more about how Amazon Household works below. But first, let‘s look at some of the most popular questions I hear about this program:

As an Amazon seller and Prime member myself, I think Amazon Household is a great perk for families who frequently shop on Amazon.

In this guide, I‘ll explain more about how Household works, who you can add, what benefits you can share, and some pros and cons to consider.

Let‘s dive in!

A Helpful Overview of Amazon Household

First, let‘s quickly recap what we mean when we talk about “Amazon Household.”

Amazon Household is a program that Prime members can use to share their membership benefits with other family members in their household.

It allows you to add and manage up to:

• 1 other adult
• 4 teenagers (ages 13-17)
• 4 children (12 and under)

Amazon Household gives each family member their own login so they can access Prime benefits like:

• Fast, free Prime shipping
• Streaming movies, TV, and music
• Kindle ebooks
• Amazon Photos storage
• Early access to deals and more

As the Household manager, you can control what benefits are shared and monitor family activities like purchases and content viewing.

Now let‘s look at how to set up Household and manage your family profiles.

Creating an Amazon Household is Quick and Easy

Fortunately, getting started with Amazon Household is super simple for existing Prime members:

1. Login to your Amazon account and go to “Accounts & Lists”
2. Select “Amazon Household”
3. Click “Add Adult,” “Add Teen,” or “Add Child” to create profiles
4. Enter requested info like name, email, birthdate
5. Choose benefits to share and payment settings
6. Click “Finish” to complete setup

You can also add a second adult during their own Amazon sign up by choosing “Sign Up Together On This Device.”

Here are the profile limits for Amazon Household:

• Up to 2 adults
• Up to 4 teens (ages 13-17)
• Up to 4 kids (12 and under)

Once your Household is created, you can easily manage profiles or add new ones by visiting Household settings.

Tip: You can also link your Household to Amazon Family to receive a free baby registry completion discount!

How Amazon Household Sharing Works

Now that you‘ve created your Household, let‘s look at how sharing and managing benefits actually works.

The key things to know are:

• Separate logins – Each family member gets their own Amazon username and password to access shared Prime benefits.

• Customizable profiles – Everyone can manage their own preferences like payment methods, shipping addresses, content settings, recommendations, and more.

• Parental controls – Household manager approves kids‘ purchases and controls what content they see. Teens shop unsupervised but parents are notified of orders.

• Shared benefits – Household manager selects which Prime benefits to share, like Prime Video, Amazon Music, Kindle Owners Lending Library, Amazon Photos, Alexa shopping, personalized deals and recommendations, etc.

• Activity monitoring – Account holder can monitor all Household shopping and content activity. Teens also get order notifications.

• Across Amazon – Household works seamlessly across Amazon‘s website, mobile apps, Alexa/Echo devices, and more.

• Amazon Family – Can link Household to Amazon Family for completion discounts on baby registries.

The shared payment methods setting simply allows other adults to use your stored payment info for convenience. All members can add their own payment methods as well.

Let‘s look closer at purchase approvals and family monitoring…

Keeping Tabs on Your Family’s Buying and Browsing

One of the most useful parts of Amazon Household is that it allows parents to monitor younger family members’ shopping and content activities.

Here‘s how it works:

For teens (ages 13-17):

• Teens can browse and shop freely using their profile.
• All teen purchases require approval by the Household manager before order completes.
• Manager can view order history, cancel orders, and enable/disable teen buying as desired.
• Teens receive order notifications and can track status in their account.

For kids (12 and under):

• Kids profiles can only view and access content that parents have pre-approved.
• Parents must approve every individual purchase made by kids.
• Only Household manager can place orders for kid profiles.
• Manager has full visibility into the child‘s browsing and order history.

For adults:

• Adult profiles shop independently without manager approval or monitoring.
• But the manager can view order history and shared payment activity if desired.

So with Amazon Household, parents have granular visibility and control over younger members’ Amazon usage. As kids grow older, profiles can be switched from child to teen and given more autonomy.

And speaking of growing families…

Expanding Your Amazon Household Over Time

One limitation of Amazon Household is that each membership can only include:

• 2 adult profiles
• 4 teen profiles
• 4 child profiles

Some families may outgrow those limits over time. Here are a few options if your Household expands:

• Upgrade to an Amazon Family subscription (starts at $119/year) for unlimited kid profiles.
• Remove unused profiles to free up slots for new additions.
• Start a second Prime Household membership.
• Share your login with extra family informally without separate profiles.

While Household caps member profiles, you can still add new adults, teens, and kids by removing unused profiles when needed.

How Much Does Amazon Household Cost?

The good news is Amazon Household is completely free for existing Prime members!

Since you need an active Prime subscription to use Household, there are no extra fees or charges to add family members to your account.

Here is what a Prime membership costs monthly or yearly:

• $14.99 per month
• $139 per year (saves about $40 vs. monthly pricing)
• $49 per year for college students

As long as you maintain your Prime membership, Amazon Household is included at no additional cost.

Non-Prime members cannot access Household sharing features, profiles, or benefits.

Tip: Try a 30 day free Prime trial to test out Household before paying!

Do Family Members Have to Live Together?

A common assumption is that Amazon Household is designed for families living together in one home.

But here‘s the reality – Household members do not need to share the same address.

That means you can add:

• Grown kids who‘ve moved away
• A spouse who travels frequently for work
• A teen at boarding school
• Elderly parents living independently

And anyone else you want to share Prime with!

The only real requirements are:

• Profiles must represent real people in your family or household
• Shipping addresses entered must be legitimate residential addresses (no P.O. boxes)

Amazon may monitor Household usage to prevent abuse of Prime benefits. But in general, Household is flexible about where your family lives.

The billing address attached to profiles may impact what content and shopping is available by location. But sharing is not limited to one house.

Weighing the Pros and Cons of Amazon Household

Based on my own experience, I think the benefits of using Amazon Household for families are:

More value from Prime: Get more benefit from a single Prime membership by sharing with other family.

Convenience: Share Prime shipping, video, music, books, and other perks across household.

Kid and teen monitoring: Manage and view kids’ profiles, purchases, browsing. Approve teen orders.

Personalization: Each family member gets customized recommendations, watch history, purchases, etc.

Simplicity: Consolidates family sharing instead of managing multiple separate accounts.

Control: Set preferences for what benefits individual profiles can access.

However, there are some downsides that shoppers should be aware of:

• Only two adult profiles allowed per Household

• Can‘t temporarily limit shopping or content access – only approve/deny purchases

• Household manager can see other members‘ orders unless turned off

• Doesn‘t integrate or share info with non-Amazon accounts or services

• Can be confusing for families used to sharing one main account login

• Doesn‘t offer robust parental controls like time limits or blocking categories

Overall though, most families find Amazon Household provides an easy and useful way to maximize Prime benefits across their household.

Tips for Managing a Smooth-Running Amazon Household

Here are some of my top tips for keeping your Amazon Household running smoothly:

• Add new members right away – Don’t wait to get kids and teens set up when they’re young to monitor purchasing sooner.

• Review order approvals frequently – Log in regularly to approve teen orders so they don’t wait indefinitely.

• Share your schedule – Let family know when you typically approve orders to set expectations.

• Turn on notifications – Get instant alerts for teen orders via the Household settings.

• Communicate guidelines – Explain your rules and policies around purchasing limits, acceptable content, etc.

• Start kids with only parent ordering – Don‘t allow young children under 12 to shop themselves initially.

• Check purchase history – Periodically review children’s order history and browsing activity.

Following this advice can help you manage a seamless and integrated Amazon Household!

Final Thoughts on Amazon Household

Hopefully this guide has helped explain how Amazon Household works and what it can offer your family!

The main takeaways are:

• It lets Prime members share benefits with household family
• Easy to set up adult, teen, and child profiles
• Gives kids and teens some autonomy while allowing parent monitoring
• No extra fees – included free with a Prime membership
• Useful for families who regularly shop Amazon together

As an experienced seller and satisfied Prime member myself, I definitely recommend Amazon Household for families looking to get the most out of their Prime subscription!

Let me know if you have any other questions. I‘m always happy to share insider tips to save money and maximize your Prime benefits.