How to Shop Like a Pro During Amazon Prime Day (2026)

Fear not! I've been covering deals for over a decade and am here to help. WIRED’s Reviews team is familiar with common shopping pitfalls, and we closely track the best Prime Day deals. What time do sales start and end? How do you tell whether a deal is actually a deal? We pooled our collective expertise to get you prepared for the latest Amazon Prime Day, which will be from June 23 to June 26 this year.

Amazon Prime Day has a main sale in the summer and a secondary sale—previously called Prime Big Deal Days—in the autumn. This year Prime Day will run June 23 to June 26.

The event always kicks off at 3 am Eastern time (midnight Pacific). WIRED will cover the best Prime Day deals from both Amazon and retailers that have competing sales.

Officially, yes. You need to be an Amazon Prime member to shop Amazon Prime Day deals. There is a free 30-day trial available for new accounts. (Prime membership comes with a lot of perks, and we've rounded up all of them here.) The trial will let you get in on the sale—just remember to cancel your membership to avoid any subsequent $15 monthly renewal charges.

It depends. For some items, Prime-exclusive event prices tend to be among the lowest we see all year. That's especially true for Amazon hardware, like Kindles, Fire tablets, Fire TV sticks, and Echo devices. The kicker is that prices on nearly everything fluctuate throughout the year, and some products are discounted on a frequent basis. Even if the price is good, a deal on a product that goes on sale all the time diminishes the overall quality of that offer.

The sheer volume of deals promoted by Amazon during sales like Prime Day is a blessing and a curse. The truly standout discounts can be difficult to pinpoint—there's so much stuff on sale that just browsing the site can feel overwhelming. But if you're in the market for something specific, there's a good chance the item you want will be discounted. We've seen some fantastic Prime-exclusive discounts in the past, ranging from dirt-cheap Kindles and video doorbells to elusive price drops on gaming consoles and office furniture. The tricky part is finding the diamonds in the rough.

WIRED covers legitimately good deals all year long, including during Prime Day. Our policy is to only cover deals on products someone from our team has personally used, to avoid promoting cheap junk. Maybe it'll be a product we've reviewed or an item we use in our day-to-day lives. We also only cover actual deals—if the price isn't lower than it normally is, we don't include it. We aim to provide pricing context as well. Our tips b