Is Amazon Asking Too Much for Alexa+? The $20 Monthly Fee Sparks Consumer Outrage

The one unexpected element in Amazon’s unveiling of Alexa+ this week was its cost. With inflation soaring and various other prominent subscription services available, a monthly fee of $20 seems exceptionally high for an AI chatbot that has yet to prove its value.

Keep in mind that Alexa has traditionally been free as long as you have the necessary hardware to operate it. The same applies to Google Assistant (and currently the basic version of Gemini) along with Apple’s Siri. These have always served to augment hardware rather than being the primary offering.

What’s even more peculiar is that the $20 monthly fee, which I must stress is outrageous, is effectively a façade — akin to a puffed-up suggested retail price. The reason I can assert this is that a full subscription to Prime costs $5 less per month, which also includes Alexa+. You can interpret this in two ways: either Amazon believes Alexa+ holds more value on its own than the entire Prime package, or this outrageous pricing is a manipulative tactic to funnel customers into Amazon’s ecosystem while simultaneously persuading them to purchase some Echo devices. Unbelievably, a company facing allegations in the United States and Europe for misleading customers hasn’t resorted to this tactic yet.

In isolation, the $20 price for Alexa+ does align with several other high-end AI offerings — both OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus and the Google One Gemini Advanced plan are priced similarly. Furthermore, Amazon is attempting something at least somewhat distinct by deploying a generative AI voice assistant in your smart home, just as it did with the original Alexa. I also find the idea of creating a repository of uploaded documents in Alexa+’s memory quite appealing, even though I would prefer any entity other than Amazon to manage that data. However, despite some promising features, recommending an investment of that magnitude in Alexa+ at this time is tough, particularly since Amazon somewhat predictably stumbled during certain demonstrations in its presentation and limited journalists’ opportunities to try it out thoroughly.

I doubt Amazon anticipates a large number of subscriptions at this $20 monthly rate. Apart from nudging more individuals to join Prime, this outrageous pricing for Alexa+ hints at a plan to increase the cost of Prime in the near future. It’s been a little over two years since Amazon raised Prime’s pricing, so we are certainly due for another increase.

Naturally, the company will cite the “enhanced value” of Prime during this period, and truthfully, you do get a decent amount for your money — provided you’re willing to keep spending more with Amazon. Furthermore, Alexa+, with its capacity to create shopping lists and facilitate orders through Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods, fits well into that scheme. Vanilla Alexa’s tendency to order standard, non-perishable items from Amazon — sometimes without user consent — will undoubtedly continue.

What’s my suggestion? Given the current economic climate, it’s best to steer clear of this altogether. Numerous other services offer greater entertainment or utility for your investment. Google’s Gemini Advanced plan, for instance, comes with 2TB of Drive storage along with various other benefits. Alternatively, you could subscribe to Xbox Game Pass. Or, spend your funds on a couple of streaming services and enjoy the #content as we drift into uncertainty. At least these alternatives won’t mean funneling more of your hard-earned income to Amazon.