- Amazon has announced the pricing for its new Alexa Plus assistant
- It'll cost $19.99 per month or will be free to Amazon Prime subscribers
- There's no news yet on international availability or pricing
Amazon has just announced its new AI-powered Alexa Plus assistant – and we now know the most important detail, its pricing.
Alexa Plus will cost $19.99 per month and will initially only roll out in the US over the "next few weeks". But the good news for Prime members is that it'll be free if you already have the subscription, which currently costs $14.99 a month (or $139 annually).
In other words, Alexa Plus is going to be another key way to lure you towards a Prime subscription, alongside Amazon Music, Prime Gaming and those incredibly reliable next-day deliveries.
After its initial rollout, Amazon says the assistant will roll out "subsequently in waves in the coming months" to owners of the Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21. If you don't have one of those smart speakers, Amazon says you'll get early access to Alexa Plus if you buy one of them today.
Unfortunately, we don't yet know anything about international availability, but we're at the Alexa event now and will be doing our best to find out more information soon.
Analysis: Prime could now be a no-brainer
The early Alexa Plus rumors suggested it might cost in the region of $5-$10 a month (around £5-£10 / AU$8-AU$16). But while this official pricing is higher than expected, it's now clear that Alexa Plus is clearly a way to push more people towards Amazon Prime. In fact, it's currently cheaper to simply get Amazon Prime.
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While there are impressive free, AI-powered voice assistants – not least ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode, which recently came to its free tier – none are as tightly integrated with smart speakers as Alexa Plus, and that's where Amazon's new assistant could carve out an audience.
We'll have to see how well it works in practice, but the demos showed it to be impressively versatile – offering powerful smart home integration, an ability to order products or groceries, book tickets or restaurant reservations and much more.
Amazon says that Alexa Plus will work on almost every Alexa device it's released, though the early access will start on the Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21 – so those are the ones to have if you want to try it first.
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