Amazon's Alexa+ Goes Free for Prime Members: A Battle with ChatGPT?
Amazon just made its AI-powered Alexa+ free for Prime members, directly challenging ChatGPT Plus with a $19.99/month paid tier for non-Prime users. The move positions Alexa+ as both a customer service tool and a competitive AI offering, but real-world limitations persist for small business owners relying on voice automation.
Daniel Rausch, VP of Alexa and Echo, said:
"We have tens of millions of customers using Alexa+ now, and now we’re going to make it available to all Prime members…Prime members enjoy unlimited access — it’s basically a paid-tier level of access that we’re including in Prime now."
Alexa+ combines Amazon’s foundation models with third-party AI to handle complex tasks like itinerary planning and calendar updates.
Beta testing showed 25% higher music streams and 5x growth in recipe feature usage, but task completion rates remain inconsistent compared to Google Assistant’s contextual memory or Apple Siri’s voice recognition accuracy.
Non-Prime users face "generous but unspecified" usage limits on web/mobile, while all users benefit from fixes like reduced interruptions ("Is that for me?") and voice customization options.
