If you’re using a friend or family member’s free Prime shipping and you don’t live in the same house, you might need to pay another monthly cost. According to an updated customer service page first reported by The Verge, Amazon is ending its Prime Invitee benefit sharing program on Oct. 1.

The program is being replaced by Amazon Family, which includes many of the same benefits as Prime Invitee. But Amazon Family only works for up to two adults and four children living in the same “primary residential address” — a shared home. That means no more free shipping to other addresses.

Read more: More Than Just Free Shipping: Here Are 19 Underrated Amazon Prime Perks

If you’re the beneficiary of someone else’s Prime Invitee benefits, you have one more month to take advantage of the current program before the changes take effect.

Starting in October, you’ll have to get your own Amazon Prime subscription in order to benefit from the company’s free shipping program. First-time subscribers get a year of Prime membership for $15, but you’ll be stuck shelling out $15 a month to maintain your subscription thereafter.

Prime signups are slowing down

This move follows shortly after Reuters reported that Amazon’s Prime account signups slowed down recently despite an extended July Prime Day event. While the company reported blowout sales numbers, new Prime subscriptions didn’t meet internal expectations. In the US, they fell short of last year’s signup metrics. 

According to Reuters, Amazon registered 5.4 million US signups over the 21-day run-up to the Prime Day event, around 116,000 fewer than during the same period in 2024, and 106,000 below the company’s own goal, a roughly 2% decline in both metrics.

By forcing separate households to have their own subscriptions, Amazon could be looking to bring in more Prime accounts after having previously missed the mark. 

Amazon isn’t the first company to prevent password sharing between family and friends. The e-commerce giant is just the latest to follow Netflix’s account-sharing crackdown. While it’s unclear whether this change will work for Amazon, Netflix gained over 200,000 subscribers following its policy change.

The new Amazon Family program (previously known as Amazon Household) offers Prime benefits to up to two adults and four children in a single home, including free shipping, Prime Video, Prime Reading, Amazon Music and more. The subscription also includes benefits for certain third-party companies such as GrubHub.