The Ultimate 2021 Guide to Amazon Coupons, Promo Codes, and Hidden Deals

Finding out that you’re not using Amazon right is like realizing you've pronounced "triathlon" wrong your whole life. (I swore there was a second "a" in there.) 

But chances are you haven't been taking advantage of all the different ways to spot deals, grab promo codes, and save money on Amazon. It’s not your fault. Amazon is so big, so complex, and so overwhelming it’s nearly impossible to figure out all of the best ways to use it. I mean, we do this professionally and we’re still finding new Amazon secrets and tricks all the time. 

In this article, we’re going to cover 14 different strategies for how to save money on Amazon through coupons, promo codes, hidden deals, secret tips, and online tools. We’ll start with some of the more common and fundamental Amazon money-saving strategies, then get into the ones you may be hearing about for the first time. By the end of this article, you should be fully equipped to get the best possible deals on Amazon through coupon codes and beyond.

Most common ways how to save money on Amazon

Spend money on Amazon Prime, save in the long run

Amazon Prime costs $119 a year (or $12.99/mo) — which is not insignificant. But if you're a regular Amazon customer who buys more than one or two things a month, Amazon Prime is probably worth it. That's because standard (non-Prime) shipping rates tend to add up quickly.

Non-Prime shoppers get free shipping on orders over $25, but that shipping doesn't have the two-day guarantee of free Prime shipping; you may have to wait a week or more for your stuff to arrive. If you're an occasional Amazon customer or a very patient person, that might be okay. But people who don't use Amazon and/or have patience are a rarity these days, and if you're reading this article, it’s probably not you.

If you buy small things on Amazon whenever they pop into your head, the $12.99-a-month for Prime starts to look like a bargain pretty fast. This two-pack of USB-C cables from Anker comes with $6 standard shipping for non-Prime members, or $10 for two-day shipping. For Prime members, shipping is free.

Prime comes with other savings perks as well, even beyond the free shipping. There are exclusive Prime deals that aren’t available to other Amazon shoppers (check them out here). There are Amazon coupon codes for Prime members only (you can see them here). You can shop for deals on Amazon’s annual Prime Day — non-Prime members cannot. And Prime members get discounts at Amazon’s IRL locations too, including Whole Foods and Amazon’s physical stores (Amazon Books, Amazon 4-Star, etc.).

(This isn’t deal related, but Prime also comes with lots of other perks like Prime Video, which lets you stream thousands of movies and TV shows for free including Amazon Originals; unlimited photo storage; access to stream two million songs or a discount on a full Amazon Music subscription; free selected eBooks through Prime Reading; free gaming content and Twitch perks in Prime Gaming; and more.) 

How to save money on an Amazon Prime membership

It’s tricky to save money on Amazon Prime — it’s one of the linchpins to Amazon’s entire business so they protect it — but there are a few ways.

If you’re living with someone (a roommate, an in-law, a drifter you picked up who just kinda never left), you can split a membership cost and share the benefits via Amazon Household.

People on qualifying government assistance programs, including EBT and Medicaid, can get a discounted subscription for $5.99/mo.

With Prime Student, college students can also get 50% off their Prime membership. (If you’re really into the idea of this discount, even taking one class at a community college could help you qualify. If that class costs less than $60, you’ve successfully pulled off Prime membership arbitrage. Plus you’ll gain random knowledge about something like Microsoft Excel for Seniors or European History 1845-1890.)

And finally, you can pay for Amazon Prime with a gift card. So if you get a discounted Amazon gift card, that could be a de facto discount on a Prime membership.

Getting bonus perks for slow shipping

Amazon knows we all want our stuff fast (going back to that whole patience thing we talked about earlier). But if you can wait a little longer, you can get Amazon offers rewards for "No-Rush" shipping on many products.  So, if you're buying something but don't need it right away, you can earn perks by waiting a few extra days.

Unfortunately, there's not a great way to predict which products will come with No-Rush shipping, so you have to keep your eyes peeled at checkout.  

Under shipping options, look for a “No-Rush” option.  A $1 digital credit might not sound like much, but they're stackable. So if you pick No-Rush 10 times and get 10 $1 credits, that's $10 off you can use on a future purchase.

If you've grabbed No-Rush perks before, you might have some Amazon credit and not even realize it. You can check your balance anytime at Amazon.com/NoRushCredits.

Amazon coupons: Finding them, clipping them, and using them

No matter what you're buying on Amazon, pay attention to the section right below the price. If there's a "Coupon" flag, click that. It’s free money — sometimes 40% off or more. 

Amazon.com/Coupons lets you see (and search) for products with coupons currently available. You can search for products at the top, or browse categories like Home & Kitchen, Electronics, and Pet Supplies. You can even search coupons by brand. When you shop through Amazon’s Coupon page, clicking any product automatically “clips” the coupon for you.

Using Amazon’s “Today’s Deals” page to find products on sale

Amazon's Today's Deals page (formerly called Gold Box, if you’re an old school Amazon deal hunter) is a great way to start shopping for something when you know the type of product you want but not the exact model. If, say, you’re shopping for headphones, you can go to Today's Deals and click the box next to “Headphones” on the left under "Departments.”  You'll find hundreds of products with heavy discounts. 

But don't stop there: Scroll down and look for a header on the left that says “Discount.”  You can filter your results to only find products with 40%, 50%, or even 70% discounts or more. Or, try sorting your results by “Discount - High to Low” to see the products with the heaviest markdowns.  It’s not uncommon to find products with prices slashed by 70 to 80%.

Today’s Deals also allows you to filter by “Deal of the day” which features particularly notable discounts; and by “Best deal” (although the sort logic of Best deals isn’t immediately evident). 

Grab fleeting discounts with Amazon Lightning Deals 

Amazon’s Lightning Deals are a subset of the Today’s Deals page, but they operate by different rules. Not only are they on a timer — which might only last an hour or two — but there's also a limited number of each product available. Lightning Deals can be spotted all over Amazon, but you can browse through them all on the Today's Deals page. Just check the left side of the page and look for "Deal Type."  

Once the timer on a Lightning Deal runs out or the sale inventory is sold out, the deal is over. So act fast if you want in.

You can also browse “Upcoming” Lightning Deals deals or add things to your “Watchlist.”  Prime members get early access and can take advantage of Lightning Deals 30 minutes before everyone else.

Advanced ways to save money on Amazon

Get open box, pre-owned, and refurbished deals with Amazon Warehouse

Normally when you hear warehouse shopping, you think bulk items — the 20-gallon jug of mayonnaise at Costco comes to mind. Right? Just me? All right then, moving on.

Amazon Warehouse uses “warehouse” in a different way; it’s a lesser-known section of the website with open-box, pre-owned, and refurbished products. When Amazon customers order something and return it, this is where it ends up.  And you can score huge discounts because of it, almost always with free two-day shipping if you’re a Prime member.

Find overstock deals with Amazon Outlet

Amazon Outlet is where you can find overstock deals, although most of the products you'll see are off-brand.  For example, you won't find the newest Apple products, or even last year's model. Or even 10 years ago’s model — no iPad 2s for you. If, however, you're looking for something like a deep tissue massager at a fraction of the price of a Theragun, Amazon Outlet is a good place to be.

Note: Amazon Outlet does have a small section of “Premium Brands” covering the clothing space where you’ll find name brands items.

Amazon Outlet also has its own set of deals, separate from those on non-outlet (aka regular) Amazon. You can search the outlet deals by scrolling about halfway down the Amazon Outlet main page and searching by discount (anywhere from 10%+ off to 70%+ off). 

Subscribe and save (then cancel) 

Through its Subscribe & Save program, Amazon offers 5% to 15% off on certain products if you sign up for repeat deliveries. That means they'll automatically send you that product again anywhere from every two weeks to every six months.

But you can cancel a subscription at any point. Which means you could sign up for Subscribe & Save on a product to get the discount, then cancel your recurring deliveries. Yes, that’s a little bit shady, but it’s well within the rules. And Amazon is willing to bet most people won't use the loophole — plus with the zillions of dollars they rake in from re-orders, it seems they just don’t care. So feel free to take that extra 5% off and cancel without feeling too guilty.  

Better yet, get 15% off if you Subscribe & Save on at least five different products in the same shipment. A ton of household items like laundry detergent and paper towels have Subscribe & Save options, as well as food items, batteries, pet products, beauty items, and baby products.

But if you just want a one-time discount, make sure to cancel those subscriptions before your next auto-order goes through.

(One side note: If you’re a Prime member, you can sign up for Amazon Family to get an extra 15% off your Subscribe & Save diaper subscriptions. And that’s a subscription you’re probably not going to want to cancel for a while.)

Amazon Treasure Truck brings big daily savings to (or sort of near) you

Amazon Treasure Truck is a program available in the continental U.S. and in the U.K. where Amazon picks a product — usually a pretty popular one — and sells it on the go. If you sign up for the program, you’ll get a text message every morning about the product of the day on the Amazon Treasure Truck. The products are always discounted (unless they’re very rare, like the day when Amazon has sold PlayStation5s out of the Treasure Truck) — usually around 30% to 40% off.

If you see a deal you like, you can click through from the text message to purchase it. You’ll pick the nearest Treasure Truck location, pay for the item, and Amazon will tell you what time you can come to the truck to pick it up.

Amazon Business discounts helps you save in the professional world

Don’t own a business? These discounts probably won’t appeal to you. But if you have a business that often needs to order products in bulk, Amazon Business offers even more ways to save.

The main benefits of an Amazon Business account include bulk discounts, exclusive items, purchase tracking, price-comparison tools, corporate credit lines, additional customer support, and the freedom for multiple employees to order through one central account.    

Amazon Business also makes it easier for charities and nonprofits to make tax-exempt purchases through Amazon’s Tax Exemption Program.  And it’s free to sign up for Amazon Business, so there’s no harm in poking around.  

Business Prime offers more benefits, but at an additional cost that’s above and beyond a normal Prime subscription. Subscriptions are as low as $69/year if you’re tacking it onto an existing Prime membership, or over $10,000/year for large businesses that require ordering access for more than 100 employees.  

Expert tricks for saving money on Amazon

Trade in your used items for Amazon gift cards

If you’re like most people, you’ve got all sorts of old electronics lying around. It’s fine. Since we all do it there’s no shame in it. But Amazon will take those old electronics and give you gift cards in exchange for them — which, ultimately, is a much better idea than just keeping the stuff around your house.

Amazon’s trade-in program accepts things like Kindles, cell phones, gaming consoles and games, wireless routers, streaming sticks, tablets — basically most stuff in the electronics and video gaming categories. You’ll get a gift card based on the value of your item — a factor of both its age and its condition.

Now, there are other electronics trade-in programs there, and some might give you better offers than Amazon. But there’s a second perk here: On top of the gift card, Amazon will give you a discount on some of their home brands for your trade-in. If you trade in a Kindle, you’ll get 20% off a new Kindle. Same deal with a Fire tablet, a Fire TV device, a home security device like a Ring or Nest, and a wireless router. If you trade in an old Amazon Echo, you can get 25% off a new one. 

Get coupon codes from third-party Amazon sellers

Third-party sellers on Amazon can offer their own unique coupon codes. Is there a brand or product line you love?  Follow those sellers on social media, or sign up for their newsletter and email blasts.

After you make a purchase from a third-party seller on Amazon, keep an eye on your email, or even look at inserts in the package they send you. They’ll sometimes offer you a discount code for making another purchase or as a thank you for leaving an objective review.

Say the secret phrase to Alexa to get your special deals

Amazon wants you to ultimately build the habit of ordering things by talking to Alexa — and what better way than to incentivize you by offering exclusive deals? 

If you say, “Alexa, what are my deals?”, Alexa will start listing off deals for you, some of which are exclusive and you won’t find published anywhere online. And after Alexa tells you each deal, you’ll have the option to say “Yes, buy that” and make a purchase. 

(One note: Make sure you have Alexa Follow-up Mode enabled or you won’t be able to go through the deals sequentially. You can enable Follow-Up Mode in the Alexa app on your phone.)

Use Woot for big discounts on random products (with free Prime shipping)

When Woot launched in 2004, it featured one deal per day.  Even after Amazon acquired it six years later, that was the case for a while. Now there are multiple daily deals and short-term "flash" sales across several product categories with even deeper discounts than you'll find on Amazon.  Plus, free shipping for Prime members.

There’s also a daily "Bag o' Crap" deal.  For $10, you'll get a bunch of random junk you may or may not want (usually the latter). But occasionally you'll luck out. Hey, if there's even one thing in there you like, it's a deal, right? Got a White Elephant gift exchange coming up this Christmas?  A single Bag o’ Crap could cover you for the next decade.

Use CamelCamelCamel to find and track significant Amazon price drops 

CamelCamelCamel is an extremely powerful, totally free third-party website you can use to save money when you shop on Amazon. We’ll cover four of its best functions here.

Track historical Amazon prices

CamelCamelCamel tracks Amazon prices going back several years. You can search for any product on Amazon and see a graph with its historical price data. Learn how cheap it’s been, how expensive it’s been, how often the price fluctuates, and whether it’s cheaper through Amazon’s third party sellers.

This is a good place to start when you’re considering buying a product — should you jump on it now, or is it currently selling at a higher price that will probably drop sometime soon?

Get price drop alerts

Since CamelCamelCamel is constantly monitoring Amazon prices, they’re also monitoring Amazon price drops. You can set up email alerts to let you know when a certain product drops to a certain price, and when that day arrives, CamelCamelCamel will email you to let you know.

See top price drops across Amazon and by product category

On the CamelCamelCamel homepage, there’s an area featuring the big price drops for the day and week. You can see the top drops by total dollars off and by percentage off for today and the week. This is a great way to score stuff that’s significantly discounted on Amazon, and a much easier way to find those huge discounts than by trying to sift through deals on Amazon.com itself.

You can also filter that box by product category to just see today’s/this week’s big drops for, say, electronics or office products.

Get an RSS feed of price drops set to your specifications

Now we’ll cover the pro move of all pro moves — it’s complicated, but it’s the best way to get serious Amazon discounts delivered straight to you. On CamelCamelCamel’s Top Price Drops page, you can search price drops by category, by drop type (total discount, percentage off, or most recent price drop), and by time period (from one day to seven days). You can then save your search as a custom RSS feed. Add that feed to your RSS reader, and whenever there are new price drops that meet your criteria, those products will show up in the RSS feed.

For example, I ran a search on video games with the most recent price drops of at least 40% off.

I then clicked the button in the top right of the page that says “View the custom RSS feed for this list” and I got the RSS feed: https://simplycodes.com/analytics/2M8Xatop_drops/feed?bn=video-games&d=40.0&i=7&s=relative&t=recent&

I can now add that to my RSS reader (I use Feedly) so CamelCamelCamel will feed in any discounts that match my criteria going forward. (To do a pro move on top of this pro move, you could use a service like Zapier to automatically send you a text message with updates to that RSS feed.)

Conclusion

Amazon generally has pretty low prices — but there are almost always more discounts, promo codes, and deals to be had if you know where to look.

In addition to all the techniques we’ve discussed here, we’d be remiss not to mention our very own extension. We’re adding every Amazon coupon code we can find to SimplyCodes, so make sure to have the browser extension handy as you’re shopping on Amazon. Or, you know, the millions of other eCommerce sites in the world too, which, unlike Amazon, don’t warrant 3,000+ word encyclopedias on how to find promo codes.