This story is part of Amazon Prime Day, CNET's guide to everything you need to know and how to find the best deals.
Amazon Prime Day 2023 is likely still a few months away, but you don't have long to wait until some of the best deals of the year begin appearing. No official date has been announced so far. The two-day event generally takes place in July, but it's varied a little since 2020. We'll bring you any concrete news on the event as soon as we can.
As for the Prime Day deals we're likely to see this year, it's hard to predict what will or won't go on sale but we'll go through some of the best deals from last year's event as a guide for those seeking out bargains this summer.
When is Amazon Prime Day 2023?
Amazon hasn't officially announced a Prime Day event for 2023 yet, but if we had to guess, we'd wager July 11 and 12 to be the most likely dates for it.
Historically, Amazon has held its Prime Day sales each July with just a couple of deviations from that regular schedule. Notably, in 2020, Amazon pushed its Prime Day sale to October due to the COVID-19 pandemic before returning it to the summer in 2021 in a slightly earlier June spot. Prime Day returned to its July spot for 2022, though Amazon did utilize that October slot once again for an additional Prime Early Access Sale event that acted as a kickoff to the holiday shopping season.
As a reference, here are the Prime Day dates from previous years:
- Prime Day 2015: July 15
- Prime Day 2016: July 12
- Prime Day 2017: July 11 to 12 (first to last longer than one day)
- Prime Day 2018: July 16 to 17
- Prime Day 2019: July 15 to 16
- Prime Day 2020: Oct. 13 to 14 (delayed by COVID-19 pandemic)
- Prime Day 2021: June 21 to 22 (the earliest to date)
- Prime Day 2022: July 12 to 13
- Prime Early Access Sale 2022: Oct. 11 to 12
It's possible that Amazon would want to bring Prime Day forward again to June should the retailer plan a repeat of last year's Prime Early Access Sale in the fall. While that would certainly put some additional space between the two events and allow shoppers' wallets to recover ahead of the holiday season, it's purely conjecture until we get official word from Amazon.
How long will the Prime Day sale last?
Similar to Prime Day in July 2022 and October 2022's Prime Early Access Sale, we expect that Prime Day 2023 will run for two days. Previous events have started at midnight Pacific and run continuously for 48 hours, so we anticipate much the same this year. Many deals launched at that opening time are set to last throughout the event, supplies permitting, with other, more limited-time Lightning deals launching and expiring during the two-day period.
Will there be a second Amazon Prime Day event this year?
It remains to be seen if Amazon will hold a second Prime Day-like event in 2023 (and we haven't even got word about the first one yet). If it views last year's Prime Early Access Sale as a success, it may wish to repeat it for 2023, though the event didn't appear to make as big of a splash as Prime Day usually does. That being said, an October event does give Amazon the opportunity to get out ahead of the competition before the Black Friday sales kick off in November.
What countries can participate in Prime Day?
Nothing is for certain until Amazon says so, but we can look at regions in which Prime Day ran last year for an insight on how this year's sale might look. In 2022, Prime Day ran in the following countries:
- Austria
- Australia
- Belgium
- Brazil
- Canada
- China
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- Japan
- Luxembourg
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- Portugal
- Singapore
- Spain
- Poland
- Sweden
- United Kingdom
- United States
How does Prime Day work?
The idea behind Prime Day is a simple one: Subscribers to Amazon's Prime service can get exclusive discounts on thousands of products and services across the site during a limited period of time. The products, while still available to non-Prime members, will have extra savings for members, dropping many of their prices down to new all-time lows.
When you're logged in to your Prime account and looking at a product landing page, you'll see the discounted price if it's on sale. You don't need any special coupon codes, nor is there a need to use a specific payment method in order to get the discounts.
Do you need to be a Prime Member to shop the Prime Day sale?
Yes, Amazon Prime Day requires a Prime subscription if you want to nab any of the Prime-exclusive deals. You don't have to be a paying subscriber, though, as long as the event falls within your Prime trial period. That means you can start your month-long trial just before the event and get in on the savings for free. For more info on that, check out our guide to shopping Prime Day sales without paying for Prime.
Amazon last year raised prices on Prime membership. It's now $15 a month ($139 a year).
Best Prime Day 2023 deals
We'll be here to gather up all of the best Amazon Prime Day 2023 deals as soon as they are available. While it's hard to predict what those will be, we can look at some of the most popular deals from Prime Day 2022 and the Prime Early Access Sale to try and glean more about what's to come. Here are some of the top deals from last year's events:
- Amazon Echo Dot (3rd gen): $18 (save $22)
- Amazon Fire 7 tablet: $45 (save $15)
- Apple Watch Series 8: $349 (save $50)
- Google Pixel 6A: $329 (save $120)
- Apple AirPods 2: $90 (save $69)
- Chamberlain MyQ Smart Garage Door Opener: $17 (save $13)
- LG 65-inch C2 Series OLED Evo 4K Smart TV: $1,797 (save $200)
- Instant Dual Pod Plus coffee maker: $160 (save $70)
Outside of this selection, there were a bunch of other popular deals in tech and home categories, as well as health and fitness, fashion and beauty, toys and more. As is customary, we anticipate Prime Day 2023 will bring best-ever pricing on a variety of Amazon's own-brand tech with other standout deals from third-party brands likely to prove popular too.
Will other retailers participate in Prime Day?
Each year, we see retailers like eBay, Best Buy and Walmart kick off July sales in order to try and compete with Amazon Prime Day and 2022 was no different. For Prime Day 2023, expect Amazon's biggest competitors once again launch their own sales that overlap the same dates and try to poach eager shoppers' dollars.
Why did Prime Day start?
Amazon has been hosting its annual Prime Day sale since 2015. Originally, it was a 24-hour sales event to celebrate Amazon's 20th birthday. The "Prime" in the name refers to Amazon's subscription service, which offers free delivery on many products in as little as one to two days, and which has now expanded to encompass the Netflix-style Prime Video service and various other Amazon-related perks.
Prime Day soon became a version of "Black Friday in July" for Amazon, allowing the retailer to have a branded 48-hour shopping extravaganza in an otherwise sleepy retail season. Unlike Black Friday, however, the Prime Day branding lets Amazon differentiate its summer sale from competitors while selling Prime memberships and Amazon-branded hardware such as Echo speakers and Fire tablets, which encourage customers to stay in the Amazon ecosystem. The fact that the sale also allows Amazon and its partners to clear out inventory and warehouse space ahead of the holiday shopping season doesn't hurt, either.
Where can you find deals right now?
The CNET Deals team covers all of the best price drops, discounts and deals daily from all the top retailers. Whether it's a one-day sale at Woot, a weeklong offer at Best Buy or a coupon code for a product at Amazon, if it's a great deal, we'll be covering it. Be sure to check out all of the great deals each day at CNET.com/deals and sign up for our CNET Deals newsletter for a daily digest of deals delivered to your inbox.
You can also check out our new CNET Shopping browser extension. This will help ensure that every purchase you make for the rest of the year will be at the lowest price available.
