Amazon Photos: Photo & Video

Amazon Photos Review: Unlimited Photos With Prime, Only 5 GB for Video

Unlimited photos, 5 GB of video: where the Prime deal stops

A Prime membership, $14.99 a month or $139 a year in the US, covers full-resolution photo storage with no cap in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan. Videos are treated differently: they count against a 5 GB allowance for everyone, Prime members included. Amazon's own estimate is about seven hours of 1080p video per 50 GB, so the free allowance holds roughly 40 minutes of HD footage. RAW files from Nikon, Canon, Sony and Olympus cameras upload, but Google and Samsung Motion Photos are listed as unsupported. Without Prime, an Alexa+ subscription at $19.99 a month unlocks the same unlimited photo storage. Everyone else gets 5 GB shared between photos and videos, and the terms limit the service to personal, non-commercial use, which rules out a photography business.

Family Vault: six accounts under one Prime membership

Family Vault lets the Prime account owner add up to five more people, and each of them gets a separate account with unlimited photo storage plus 5 GB for videos and other files. Family plan invitations run through Amazon Family: tapping Invite in the app opens the Amazon shopping app, and anyone without an Amazon account has to create one. Uploads stay private to whoever made them until someone adds pictures to the shared Vault. Paid plans bought by any member are pooled, so one 1 TB subscription can absorb the whole family's video. The terms carry a caveat worth knowing: any Vault member can re-share what you contribute, including with people outside the Vault. Wider circles go into Groups, up to 2,500 per account with 50 members each, and a Group can feed an Echo Show or Fire TV slideshow.

Plans from $0.99 a month, and what happens when Prime lapses

For video beyond 5 GB, or storage without Prime, US plans cost $0.99 a month for 50 GB, $1.99 for 100 GB, $6.99 for 1 TB and $11.99 for 2 TB; 100 GB is also sold at $19.99 a year. Prices are regional and may change. Cancelling Prime deletes nothing on the spot. The account falls back to 5 GB; if the library is larger, it goes over quota and Auto-Save pauses, while viewing and downloading keep working. After 180 days over quota, Amazon deletes files starting with the most recent uploads until the account fits. Accounts nobody signs in to for two years are wiped as well, after an email warning at 18 months. For comparison, Apple's iCloud+ charges the same $0.99 for 50 GB, and Google Photos starts with 15 GB shared with Gmail and Drive.

Tag Photos, People grouping and the shopping scan

Tag Photos labels pictures with objects, actions and scenes, and People grouping clusters similar faces so you can name relatives. Amazon says it stores records of individual faces and uses approximate age and gender to build memories. Both features are on by default except for Illinois residents; turning one off makes Amazon stop storing its tags and tagging new uploads. The same help page says photos may be scanned to show shopping recommendations, and a Lens icon sends recognized products to the Amazon store. Google Play's Data safety form lists device IDs and app interactions collected for advertising or marketing. The May redesign also has critics: 9 of 49 one- and two-star Play reviews from 2026, read in English, Spanish, German and Japanese, object to the memories carousel or a harder-to-reach On This Day.