Walmart Plus vs Amazon Prime: Which Membership Actually Saves You More Money?

Last updated: October 14, 2026

Here at Deal Drop Today, one question shows up in our inbox more than almost any other: is Walmart Plus worth it, or should you stick with Amazon Prime? Both memberships promise free shipping, perks and savings. They cost different amounts, though, and they reward very different shopping habits. If you pay for the wrong one, or pay for both and barely use them, you could be losing $100 to $240 a year without noticing.

We looked at current pricing, real usage data and the fine print to work out which membership actually saves you more money. Below you’ll find a side-by-side breakdown, four shopper profiles with real math, and practical tips to pay less no matter which one you choose.

Walmart Plus vs Amazon Prime: The 2026 Price Check

Let’s start with the number everyone cares about. As of October 2026, Walmart Plus costs $98 a year or $12.95 a month, according to Clark.com and The Hollywood Reporter. Amazon Prime in the US still costs $139 a year or $14.99 a month, the same price it has charged since its last US increase in 2022.

On annual plans, that’s a $41 difference. On monthly billing, a full year of Walmart’s plan comes to $155.40 and a full year of Prime comes to $179.88. The gap shrinks to about $24, but you pay more overall. Monthly billing costs roughly $41 to $57 more per year than paying upfront.

• Walmart’s membership: $98 per year or $12.95 per month
• Amazon Prime: $139 per year or $14.99 per month
• Both together: $237 per year on annual plans

New members can try Walmart’s service for 30 days before committing. Dealnews listed the trial at $1 in June 2026, while other sources describe it as free, so check the current offer when you sign up. Some shoppers may also qualify for discounted pricing, which we cover in the tips section below.

What You Actually Get With Walmart Plus

Delivery is the core of Walmart Plus. Members get free next-day and two-day shipping on items shipped from Walmart.com, with no order minimum. That takes care of a common online shopping annoyance: adding extra items to your cart just to reach a free shipping threshold.

For most families, the bigger perk is free same-day grocery delivery from a local store on orders over $35. If you already buy groceries at Walmart, a weekly errand turns into something that shows up at your door. Whether this membership is worth it for you mostly depends on how often you use this feature.

Then there’s gas. Members save 10 cents per gallon at Walmart, Exxon, Mobil and Murphy stations. Amazon Prime has no fuel benefit, so this is a real difference between the two memberships, not just a marketing extra.

Finally, streaming. Members can choose Paramount+ Essential or Peacock Premium at no extra cost and can switch between them every 90 days. The Peacock option launched on September 15, 2025, according to The Points Guy and Upgraded Points. The older Pluto TV perk has been dropped, so ignore any outdated lists that still mention it.

• Free next-day and two-day shipping with no order minimum
• Free same-day grocery delivery on orders of $35 or more
• 10 cents off per gallon at participating gas stations
• Paramount+ Essential or Peacock Premium, swappable every 90 days

What Amazon Prime Brings to the Table

Prime’s biggest strength is breadth. Amazon’s catalog is enormous, and Prime members get fast, free shipping on a huge share of it. If you regularly buy things Walmart doesn’t carry, such as niche hobby supplies, specific replacement parts or smaller third-party brands, Prime is hard to beat.

Prime also includes Prime Video, music and reading perks, plus member-only deals like the Prime Day sales events. For households that watch a lot of Prime Video, the entertainment alone can justify a big part of the fee. Keep in mind that Prime Video now shows ads unless you pay extra to remove them.

The numbers show how many people stick with Prime. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) estimates about 198 million US Prime users as of the June 2025 quarter, compared with about 25 million Walmart+ users for the July 2025 quarter. A March 2026 CIRP report says Prime reaches about 75% of Amazon’s US shoppers. These figures count people who use a membership, not paid accounts.

Popularity doesn’t mean savings, though. A membership only pays off if you use the benefits you’re paying for, and that’s where the comparison gets interesting.

The Real Math: 4 Shopper Profiles

Instead of comparing feature lists, let’s look at how each membership works out for four common types of shoppers. All of these examples use annual pricing.

1. The weekly grocery shopper. Clark.com and ShopBack both note that Walmart Plus usually pays for itself if you order grocery delivery from a local Walmart at least twice a month. A family that orders every week gets about 52 deliveries a year with no delivery fees, plus gas savings. For this shopper, Walmart’s membership is the clear winner.

2. The commuter with a big tank. Say you fill a 15-gallon tank once a week at a participating station. At 10 cents off per gallon, you save $1.50 per fill-up, or about $78 a year. That covers roughly 80% of the $98 annual fee before you’ve ordered a single item. If you fill up every other week, you still save about $39.

3. The everything-online shopper. If you buy electronics, home goods, gifts and specialty items online several times a month, Prime’s selection usually matters more than Walmart’s perks. Add regular Prime Video watching and the $139 fee is easier to justify.

4. The occasional shopper. If you only order online a few times a year and mostly use free curbside pickup, neither membership is likely to be worth it. Clark.com points out that pickup users get little extra from Walmart Plus because pickup is already free for everyone. Skip both and pay for shipping when you need it.

Where Walmart Plus Clearly Wins

Groceries. This is Walmart’s home turf. eMarketer reports that Prime still leads overall, but Walmart Plus is gaining ground with lower-income shoppers. Grocery Dive has also reported that many Prime members buy their groceries on Walmart.com anyway. In other words, plenty of people pay Amazon for shipping and still go to Walmart for food.

Price. Because it costs $41 less per year, the cheaper membership gives you more room for error. If you’re on the fence, the lower price means you need fewer orders to break even.

Gas savings. Prime has nothing like it. For people who drive a lot, this perk alone can cover most of the fee.

No order minimum on shipped items. Need one tube of toothpaste? It ships free. That small detail saves you from adding things you don’t need just to qualify for free shipping.

Streaming flexibility. Switching between Peacock and Paramount+ every 90 days lets you follow the shows and sports you care about without paying for several subscriptions.

Where Amazon Prime Still Comes Out Ahead

Selection. If what you need isn’t in Walmart’s catalog, a cheaper membership doesn’t help you. Prime covers far more product categories and sellers.

Entertainment value. With Prime Video, music and reading perks, Prime offers a wider entertainment bundle, even though Walmart’s streaming choice is a strong one.

Sales events. Prime Day and other member-only events can bring big discounts on electronics and household staples. If you time large purchases around these sales, your savings can easily be more than the membership costs.

Habit and convenience. About three-quarters of Amazon’s US shoppers already have Prime, and many households have their routines, saved addresses and Subscribe and Save orders set up around it. Switching can save money, but it also takes time and effort.

Should You Pay for Both Memberships?

More and more households are doing exactly that. A PYMNTS survey of 2,007 US consumers, published in February 2025, found that the share of households paying for both memberships nearly doubled, from 12.4% in December 2021 to 23.9%. Prime-only households made up 43.3%, while Walmart Plus-only households were just 3.7%.

CIRP’s data points the same way. Among Walmart.com customers, 43% have both Walmart+ and Prime. Many shoppers seem to use Walmart for groceries and gas and Amazon for everything else.

Paying for both costs $237 a year on annual plans, so it only makes sense if you’re getting real value from each one. A quick test: if you can’t name at least two benefits from each membership that you use every month, you’re probably paying for one you don’t need.

What the Amazon FTC Settlement Means for Members

Before you sign up for anything, it helps to know how membership sign-ups can go wrong. In September 2025, Amazon agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle Federal Trade Commission claims that it enrolled customers in Prime without clear consent and made it hard to cancel, as reported by the Associated Press via ABC7.

The total included a record $1 billion civil penalty plus $1.5 billion in customer refunds. Some people who signed up through Amazon’s “Single Page Checkout” between June 2019 and June 2025 qualified for automatic refunds of up to $51. Amazon says it has always followed the law.

The lesson applies to more than Amazon. Read every checkout screen carefully, watch for pre-checked boxes that start a membership, and know exactly how to cancel before you sign up for any subscription, including Walmart Plus.

Will Amazon Prime Prices Go Up in the US?

So far, Amazon hasn’t announced a US price increase for 2026. However, J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth has said an increase in 2026 was possible, and Amazon’s recent moves abroad add to the speculation.

In Mexico, Amazon raised the monthly Prime fee from 99 to 129 pesos starting September 21, 2026, according to Xataka Mexico and El CEO. That’s about a 30% jump and the first increase there since 2016. In the US, Prime last went up in 2022, when the annual fee rose from $119 to $139.

If Prime’s US price goes up, its gap with Walmart Plus will get even wider. That’s one more reason to lock in annual pricing if you’re committed, and to review your memberships whenever prices change.

7 Smart Ways to Save on Walmart Plus or Prime

1. Start with the trial. Use the 30-day trial and set a phone reminder a few days before it ends. If you haven’t used it much, cancel.
2. Check for half-price plans. Several sources, including Clark.com and Gerald, report a $49-a-year Walmart Plus option for college students and people on SNAP, Medicaid, SSI or WIC. Confirm current eligibility on Walmart’s site before you sign up. Amazon also offers reduced-price Prime for students and for people who receive qualifying government assistance.
3. Look at your credit card perks. Amex Platinum cardholders can get Walmart+ covered through a monthly statement credit, according to Frequent Miler and The Points Guy. A card perk like this can make a membership effectively free.
4. Pay annually if you’re sure. Annual plans save you roughly $41 to $57 a year compared with monthly billing.
5. Audit your streaming. If your membership includes Peacock or Paramount+, cancel any standalone subscription to the same service.
6. Track your real spending. Look at three months of delivery orders, gas fill-ups and streaming use before you decide. Real numbers beat guesses.
7. Rotate instead of stacking. Some shoppers keep one membership year-round and only turn on the other for big sales or busy seasons like the holidays.

The Verdict: Is Walmart Plus or Prime the Better Deal?

For pure savings, Walmart Plus wins for most everyday households. It costs $41 less, includes gas discounts Prime can’t match, and pays for itself with as few as two grocery deliveries a month. If groceries and fuel are your biggest regular expenses, it’s the smarter buy.

Amazon Prime wins if you shop across many categories online, depend on fast delivery for non-grocery items, or get real use out of Prime Video and Prime Day deals. Its value comes more from convenience and selection than from direct dollar savings.

If you use both heavily, paying for both can make sense, and nearly a quarter of households already do. Just make sure each one is earning its keep. If the numbers don’t add up, Walmart Plus is usually the easier one to justify on a tight budget.

Here at Deal Drop Today, our rule is simple: a membership should save you more than it costs, every year. Run your own numbers, start with a trial, and look for card perks or discounts before paying full price. Benefits change, so confirm the latest terms on Walmart’s and Amazon’s official membership pages before you sign up. For more ways to stretch your budget, keep checking Deal Drop Today for the latest deals and money-saving tips.

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