Amazon's made a lot of tweaks to its grocery delivery services over the years. They've offered a few different paid subscriptions, where you got free delivery by paying a monthly fee. In 2019, they even made grocery delivery a totally free Amazon Prime benefit before going back to delivery fees in 2023. Then, in 2024, they created yet another monthly subscription.
Feeling dizzy yet? As of August 2025, there's another change if you have Prime membership. Prime members can now order certain perishable food items for same-day delivery with NO delivery fees (on orders over $25).
This change is now live in more than 1,000 cities, according to Amazon's press release. We'll explain how it all works, which items are eligible (not all of them are), and also give you a side-by-side comparison between Amazon's grocery service and competing options for free grocery delivery.
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Amazon Prime's new grocery delivery benefit gives you free same-day delivery on some groceries, but not all of them.
Previously, Amazon customers had two options for grocery delivery: pay $9.99 monthly for a Grocery Delivery Membership or pay individual delivery fees on most orders. Now Amazon is offering a new benefit where Prime members can add selected perishable grocery items to any same-day order over $25 and receive free delivery on the entire order. Your whole order doesn't need to be groceries either. You can add groceries to any same-day delivery order of batteries, clothes, books, toys, and whatever else is in your cart; as long as your order is over $25 and you select same-day delivery, you'll pay no delivery fee.
So which items can be added? If you live in a city that this new benefit has rolled out in, these are some of the items you can have delivered for free:
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Fruit
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Meat
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Produce
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Milk
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Seafood
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Baked Goods
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Frozen Food
Not all brands of the above products are eligible. Most of the eligible products are from Amazon's Fresh line and from brands Whole Foods (which is owned by Amazon) sells, like Organic Valley. To see if an item is eligible for the free delivery, you'll need to look at the product page. You're looking for a label that says "FREE delivery on $25 of qualifying items."
There's no need to add a promo code to get the free delivery. Just put the perishable qualifying items in your cart, make sure your total is above $25, and select same-day delivery as your delivery method, and you'll see the delivery fee waived in the cart. For example, I got free delivery on cottage cheese and a shower caddy.
If you order perishables that aren't eligible for the free delivery benefit, you'll have to pay for delivery.
If the grocery items you want aren't eligible, you'll have to pay to have them delivered.
Regular Amazon grocery delivery allows those with an Amazon account (Prime or just a regular account) to shop for groceries from Amazon's warehouses, Amazon Fresh stores, and Whole Foods, and have them delivered straight to their home. The fee you'll pay depends on the size of your order and whether you have a Prime membership.
Grocery Delivery Fees for Prime Members:
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Orders over $100: No fee
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Orders $50 - $100: $6.95 fee
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Orders under $50: $9.95 fee
Grocery Delivery Fees for Non-Prime Members:
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All orders have a $4.95 - $13.95 delivery fee depending on order size and location.
Or you can get an Amazon Grocery Delivery subscription, which gets you free delivery on essentially all grocery orders over $35.
If you're finding that a lot of the perishables you want aren't eligible for the free same-day delivery benefit, Amazon offers Prime members the option to sign up its Amazon grocery subscription to get unlimited free delivery on grocery orders of $35 or more from Amazon Fresh (aka delivery from Amazon's own grocery warehouses), Whole Foods, and other local grocery stores. This includes its fastest delivery option (one hour).
Here Are the Costs of the Subscription:
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$9.99 monthly subscription
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$99.99 annual subscription ($20 discount over paying monthly)
Keep in mind, though, that you have to pay for Amazon Prime to get these subscriptions, and that alone costs $14.99 a month or $139 a year (sign up for a free 30-day trial). But this subscription unlocks a lot more groceries and brands that aren't eligible for the free same-day delivery benefit, including groceries from local grocery chains in some areas. To see if any local grocery stores near you are participating in Amazon's delivery network, enter your zip code on this page. When we typed in zip code 20002, for example, we found that Weis Markets participates.
Even with the new free same-day delivery, Amazon's not the cheapest option for online groceries.
Target's and Walmart's membership options also have a heavy focus on same-day free grocery delivery. Just as with Amazon's grocery subscription, you don't have to get Target Circle 360 or Walmart+ to get grocery delivery, but you have to have them to get free grocery delivery with no per-order fees.
Here's how they compare when it comes to grocery delivery:
| Service | Free grocery delivery on | Includes | Total Price (monthly) | Total Price (annually) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon free same-day delivery on select perishables | Orders over $25 | Certain perishables from Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods brands | $14.99 (the monthly cost of Prime) | $139 (annual Prime subscription) |
| Orders over $35 | A wide variety of groceries from Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods, local grocery stores | $24.98 (grocery subscription + Prime) | $238 (grocery subscription + Prime) | |
| Orders over $35 | Target, Shipt Marketplace | $10.99 | $99 | |
| Orders $35+ | Walmart stores | $12.95 | $98 |
Look at all the membership benefits to see which grocery delivery option is best for you.
Remember: free grocery delivery is just one of the benefits you get from paying any of these retailers a monthly or annual fee. You really have to compare the full suites of benefits of these services. Check out our guides to each one:
You'll have a lot of things to compare. For example: will you use Walmart's free Paramount+ benefit? Or is Amazon Prime Video streaming a more valuable benefit to you? Do you have the Target Circle credit card and want that 5% off?
In general, though, Amazon's new free delivery benefit on certain groceries has the edge if these two things are true for you:
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You're already a Prime member and plan to stay one. At that point, being able to order some perishables with free same-day delivery is icing on the cake.
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You like the Amazon Fresh grocery brands and Whole Foods. Most of the stuff that's eligible for same-day delivery is from Amazon Fresh and select Whole Foods brands.
How to Save on Your Amazon Grocery Order
Whether you have Prime, the grocery delivery add-on, or neither, you can save on Amazon groceries by using the following tips.
1. If you don't have an Amazon grocery subscription or Prime, be flexible to pay less for delivery.
If you're not a Prime member with a delivery subscription, you'll pay a fee on your Amazon grocery delivery no matter what. But how much that delivery fee is depends on basket size and your flexibility with timing. Your delivery fee could be as low as $4.95.
We tested a few grocery delivery orders on a non-Prime account and learned the following:
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Wait two hours or more. If you need your order within one hour, you'll pay up to $18.95 for delivery on orders under $50 and $15.95 on orders over $50. But if you're willing to wait two hours or more, you'll lower that cost by $5 automatically. So give yourself some breathing room to lower your delivery fee.
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Larger orders have lower delivery fees. In general, orders under $50 incur a $13.95 delivery fee, orders between $50 and $100 incur a $10.95 delivery fee, and orders over $100 incur a $4.95 delivery fee. So wait until you have a larger order to place in order to minimize the delivery fee.
KCL TIP: If you live near an Amazon Fresh store or a Fresh pickup location, you can opt to pick up your grocery order. No matter what your order total is, pickup is free .
2. Save up to 15% on Amazon grocery household items with Subscribe & Save.
Shopping through Amazon Subscribe & Save is an easy way to save up to 15% on groceries. Subscribe & Save is a free subscription service through Amazon that delivers products straight to your door on a schedule of your choosing. You can select weekly or monthly deliveries. When you have five or more items set up in your Amazon Subscribe & Save, you’ll save up to 15% on each product. Certain products have a reduced savings of 5%.
You can save on everything from toilet paper and feminine hygiene products to paper plates and laundry detergent. Plus, there are Amazon Subscribe & Save deals you can shop to save even more.
And don’t sweat it if you don’t like Subscribe & Save. Canceling your Subscribe & Save is super easy.
3. Clip Amazon’s virtual coupons to save more on groceries.
If you didn’t know already, you can coupon on Amazon. I’d even suggest you should avoid brand loyalty and buy whichever brand has a coupon. Amazon coupons range from $0.35 off up to $10 off, depending on the price of your item.
And of course, if we see a really good Amazon coupon, we’ll post about it on our Amazon Coupons page.
4. Shop Amazon grocery deals of the week.
Amazon frequently offers discounts on its Amazon Fresh brands. We've seen up to 30% off for non-Prime members. Prime members can save even more (we've spotted up to 50% off Amazon Fresh items). Check out Amazon's grocery deals page to see discounts for Prime and non-Prime shoppers alike.
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